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Witnessed

House Of Metal Festival 2014: Day 2

05/03/14 || cadenz

Who: Napalm Death, Hatebreed, Hypocrisy, Raubtier, Bombus, Civil War, Thyrfing, Belphegor, F.K.Ü, Enforcer, Skull Fist, Avatarium, Vanderbuyst and more.
Where: Umeå, Sweden.
When: February 28th to March 1st, 2014.

The second day (here’s the first day) of this year’s House of Metal started with a bang – one of the best meals I’ve had in ages at Lottas Pub & Krog. Fatányéros and a nice local pale ale (Beer Studio Demo 1) got my tanks filled for another evening of metal. Some shit band called Man.Machine.Industry played first so we skipped them and went to see Raubtier instead. This industrial/techno metal band with natural-romantic and politic/apocalyptic lyrics hail from the greatest town in the world, Haparanda. Yes, bitches, that’s where I live, right on the border between Finland and Sweden, the two most TRVE KVLT lands in the world. Norway? Don’t make me laugh, like I do when I hear them talk. There’s nothing funnier than a pissed-off Norwegian, as their swearing sounds like a toddler’s tantrum. Ah, well, as fun as it is to (somewhat incorrectly and very much incoherently) badmouth the Norse, let’s get back to the gig at hand. Raubtier played their harder-than-Rammstein metal with pop choruses and techno synths well, with nice tanks as stage props. The crowd was really into them, and they have clearly grown a lot during the five years since the release of their debut album “Det finns bara krig”, which is still my favorite in their discography. Not many outside Sweden might know about them, but they’ve really hit it big over here with their lyrics in Swedish and Pär Hulkoff’s characteristic snarling voice, intact with the Haparanda dialect. He’s a cool dude who lives by his word, and it’s nice to see that his vision and hard work has finally paid off. Raubtier put on an inspired and tightly executed show that only loses points for the dorky “everybody jump”-parts that I just can’t bring myself to like, and for not having more songs from the debut album in the set list. 7

Now to one of the gigs I looked forward to the most, Thyrfing on the second stage. I’ve always liked these viking/folk/death/black metallers, and when Jens Rydén (ex-Naglfar) joined the band in 2007, my interest piqued even more. I’ve always liked this kind of mix between melodies and brutality, and the folk element is a rad one, if done right. Sometimes Thyrfing miss the mark, and they cross the unfortunate bridge to Dorkfolkville, but for the most part they manage to bring increased majesticness to their already well-rolling tunes. This disparity was evident also at the gig tonight, although most seem to like the stompy stupid folk stuff that I find a bit embarrassing. Rydén sounded good, especially when he unleashed some of his trademark high-pitch screams, and lead his men into battle with the furor of a true heathen chief. He seemed to be really up-beat and filled to the brim with energy about being back in his hometown, this time with a new band. The whole band played well, no-frills, and the sound was good excepting the too loud synths and some problems with the lead vocal mic. If the songs had a little more finesse to them, I might even go higher than a 7.

Civil War did their best to interest me, but there was beer and Jäger to be had in the VIP bar. Guess who won. We emerged from this haze of intoxication just in time to witness the last part of F.K.Ü‘s set, and I’m glad we did see that much at least – this is how thrash is done. A miraculously tight rhythm section, a (guitarist’s) picking hand to die for, and a vocalist who both has the audience in his grip and delivers some rapid, spitting lines as well as impressive (and spot-on in key) falsetto howls. Circles were pitted, people were moshed, and 16th notes were clearly articulated in the speed of light. Freddie Krueger’s Ûnderwear, best thrash metal band today? 8

Last up on the big stage were Hypocrisy, and you know you can’t go wrong with their experience and back catalogue. With the two newest albums, “A Taste of Extreme Divinity” and “End of Disclosure”, both being high-quality efforts, and there being a myriad of classics in Hypo’s discography to choose from, it’s safe to assume that the whole set list will be pure gold. And so it was: “Fractured Millennium”, “The Eye”, “Killing Art”, “Valley of the Damned”, etc – I could recite the whole set list for you and you’d only find great songs on it. The playing was top-notch, and Tägtgren’s voice only seems to get better for each year that passes. No problem reaching those high notes, apparently! The veterans Napalm Death and Hypocrisy really showed that they still rule the scene. 8

The festival’s closing act was new doom metal outfit Avatarium on stage no. 2. Main creator Leif Edling (Candlemass, Krux) was apparently ill and was replaced on bass by Anders Iwers (Tiamat), but otherwise the line-up of Marcus Jidell (ex-Evergrey), Carl Westholm (Krux), Lars Sköld (Tiamat) and vocalist Jennie-Ann Smith was intact. This was the band’s first ever gig, and it showed. With only one album on their name, picking out the raisins from the cake is an impossible feat, and thus the quality was a bit up and down. Some songs, like “Moonhorse”, “Bird of Prey” and closer “Avatarium” were absolute monsters, whereas others were mostly filler material. Jidell is an absolutely fantastic guitarist, but maybe a little bit too much of the focus landed on him, especially now that the more laid-back Iwers took Edling’s place. The lengthy but awesome solos were so numerous they started to add up to a bit too much by the end of the gig. When it comes to doom gigs, there are three criteria that need to be filled for me to be content with the show: 1. the bass has to be loud in the mix (it was), 2. the drummer needs to hit fucking hard (he hit fucking hard), and 3. the vocalist needs to be awesome. She was, sometimes. Kinda like the songs, it was a bit up and down. Clearly Smith’s got a great voice, especially in her upper register when she unleashes those distorted and loud wails, but she needs to work on holding the same kind of intensity when the dynamics are lowered. That’s when you need to be even more intense, as you don’t get so much for free from the band. Her stage moves also seemed a little out of place on a metal stage, but that’s a small worry, she’ll grow into the role. The maracas maybe I would have left at home. Considering that this was their first ever gig I must say I’m impressed, and a 7 is in its place. It’s great to hear more doom excellence come out of Sweden/Edling.

Doom singer with maracas, clearly the end is here.

All in all this year’s edition of House of Metal was a very enjoyable one, with good gigs all around and Hatebreed being the only disappointment (I should’ve known better than to expect anything else). As always, of course, the gigs are only half of the experience and meeting with old and new acquaintances is a huge part of having fun, and there’s tons of stuff to do in and around the festival. A huge thanks to the arrangers who have worked their asses off for a year to make these two days special for us, we salute you! I can sincerely give my best recommendations to this festival, anyone interested in witnessing metal gigs, meeting metal people, looking at and buying metal stuff or just plain having a good time – see you next year?!

Witnessed