The FINNTROLL concert took place in moscow on 10 December 2005. Writing about such concerts is difficult, because the primary element here is not vocal mastery or instrumental harmony, but the atmosphere and drive that emerges from live performance. To begin with: for the first time since the KREATOR concert in March 2005, I observed — approaching the SDK MAI — a very long queue, despite only minutes remaining before the concert's official start time. Among the audience that had gathered, fans of black and pagan metal bands were the most noticeable. Inside the building something truly frenzied was occurring — two bars were working under extreme pressure, queues stretched back 15–20 metres, beer was being consumed in simply gigantic quantities. I don't know why, but at 20:02 I went up to the hall, having absolutely no expectation that the concert could begin very soon, since the start is usually delayed by an average of 30–40 minutes. The hall was already more than half full — the reaction of people at 20:04, when sounds rang out and someone began coming on stage, was initially fairly calm. But a minute later, suddenly everyone realised with enormous surprise that this was not just "someone" but the band FINNTROLL. 20:06 — around a hundred people still outside the club in the queue, another two hundred still downstairs — the concert began. For the next thirty minutes or so people kept arriving; in the end the hall proved to be almost completely filled with audience, and the balcony too did not stand empty that day.
One fact disappointed almost immediately — the sound. It was, as happens in 70% of cases at the SDK MAI, to put it mildly, not at its finest. True, midway through the concert it was levelled out, but initially the vocals were fairly unclear, and there was also some guitar mush.
What was happening on stage — on stage stood a band of very hairy people whose faces were very difficult to see, as the volume of vegetation on their heads was genuinely considerable, and moreover they were shaking that vegetation ferociously for most of the time.
The concert proceeded at a kind of reactive pace — one song replaced another, the audience was given practically no respite. The emphasis was immediately on three albums of the band's catalogue (given that there are four in total, one can say FINNTROLL played a good half of their entire body of work). As for the band's latest album Nattfodd, they performed it virtually in its entirety, not counting two compositions; the title track was performed twice — once during the main set and once during the encore. Of the 9 compositions on the first album Midnattens Widunder, 6 were performed; from the second album Jaktens Tid — 7 compositions; from the third album Visor Om Slutet only "Forsvinn Du Som Lyser" was performed, right at the concert's finale. One more song from a single — and there is the concert setlist: 24 compositions performed in just over an hour and a half. The band's encore essentially became the second part of the performance, as there was room for epic compositions in which the audience heard excellent clean vocals. And it lasted a very long time.
Incidentally, stage-divers were in abundance — but they did not interfere with the concert. Wilska is a vocalist who does not play an instrument, so he even had time to fraternise with those who jumped on stage. Security conducted itself in an extremely liberal manner that day. The crowd did not stop having a fantastic time for the full not-quite-100 minutes, and left the hall only to buy themselves more beer.
PS This was the most positively joyful concert. I write this postscript almost two months later, because one cannot fail to note a sad fact: we will not see a FINNTROLL concert like this again — the reason being that the colourful, portly Tapio Wilska was a kind of symbol of the band, but was recently let go.
Report by Alan
Photo report from the concert (photos by Gunslinger)
Special thanks for the accreditation provided.
Setlist: Bakom Varje Fura (intro) Blodnatt Manniskopesten Eliytres Svartberg Hemkomst Midnattens Widunder Krigsmjod Nattfodd Vatteanda Slaget Vid Blodsalv Fodosagan Trollhammaren Ursvamp Kitteldags Jaktens Tid Grottans Barn Det Iskalla Trollbodet
— encore — Fiskarens Fiende Skogens Hamnd Bastuvisan Forsvinn Du Som Lyser Nattfodd (2nd time) Segersang