This was going to be a fun one and it was nice to see that a few people were dressed for the occasion wearing lab coats and bee hats to add to the zaniness that the headlining trolls were going to bring. Unfortunately it is thin on the ground and just the side door of the venue that is open meaning that it’s not likely to be particularly busy here tonight. The good thing was that practically everyone seemed to be flocking to the merch stall and buying stuff from the bands. With the new Trollfest album Kaptein Kaos on an enhanced DVD package going for a tenner I was quick to say yoinks and join them.
First up band wise is Cryptic Forest who actually share a fair few members with second act Finsterforst making the Germans an ideal force to take on tour with you. At least I was prepared for some photographic déjà vu. I like the band name, it sounds like a clue on a difficult crossword and I spent far too long thinking about a possible answer. Luckily the music distracted as it took off with plenty of bravado at a neck cracking pace. Surging gallops and clashing cymbals got fists pumping up in the air straight away. ‘Crown Of Ice’ sounded suitably chilly and chain wearing singer Luk Hass roared away and was an imposing presence as he helped drive it along. ‘Call To War’ cleaved away and had us stomping and banging heads as did the band in a good display of synchronised hair twirling. It may not have been packed but the audience here reacted like warriors at a European festival, all of them totally into the music to such an extent that I was amazed to realise that there were not even any annoying mobiles being used to film things. It’s nice seeing people watching a band through their own eyes for a change. The Foresters played mightily and put a definite pagan vibe on things and a couple of folky nuances firing everyone up before finale ‘Creatures Of The Night’ brought things to a stormy conclusion. Jobs a good un!
I had heard some Finsterforst before and quite enjoyed it although I was concerned that with the two bands sharing so many members (4 I believe minus the singer) they might be a bit samey. The stirring blockbuster intro paved the way for a bit of a change of pace and it was quickly evident that the two bands were no carbon copies of each other. For a start this lot had an accordion player, they also had far too much chest hair on display, well that’s what I first thought before realising a lot of it was actually mud! Mucky buggers but I guess that what crawling out the forest is all about! These songs had a huge amount of depth and intricacy about them, they were long and quite mesmerising and you could easily have got hopelessly lost amongst the trees listening to them. The accordion made a real presence as they jovially went into first album song ‘Lauf der Welt’ upping the German folk metal stakes with aplomb. This had a trollish hurdy-gurdy fire at its heart although I was a bit baffled when the band decided to all sit down for a minute in front of the drum kit before getting up and going through a particularly manic phase. It was far from all hey-nonny-nonny sort of stuff though and there were some massive black swaggers and Viking sounding clean croons from the doubling up accordion player. The main vocalist Oliver Berlin (now that’s a German name and a half) gave plenty of meaty growls and roars too. If that was not enough they wanted the audience to join in something that everyone seemed more than keen to do, especially as the song was a bit like a mad sea shanty. The German song titles were a bit hard to decipher but we were warned that the last number was going to be more serious and indeed it added some gravity to proceedings making it an austere finale. That was just about to be ruined by the headliners though!
Genius move intro wise playing first few bars of Carmina Burana and then blending it into Trolltrap, the opening of new album. Trollfest are manic and barmy from the off, the stage had looked mental before they even filled it up with no less than three percussive set ups on it. They make an impression with their Hawkwind type white lab coats and there is so much to try and take in as I stand there and count out the fact there are no less than eight of them on the stage. Hold on make that nine, a lass with a violin just added to the frenzy! Musically they take us all over the world as they race beyond sounds from all over the place in a fashion that few can do (Equilibrium and Sigh being similarly worldly). You never know where you are going to find yourself pitched up. ‘Vulkan’ is like being drunk at a Jewish wedding and the audience react going mental with everyone lurching away to the frantic dervish. Taking us back in time a bit ‘Brakebein’ turns out to be a right old pit monster getting things even more fired up and it’s obvious that both band and audience are having a whale of a time. Could things get any sillier? Well of course especially when you come armed with a cover of Toxic, I wonder if Britney has heard this, if so she has to approve, we all did. Getting a bunch of metal heads to act like loons to a song like this is no easy task unless you are Trollfest who pull it off in style.
How to follow it up? Well ‘Die Grosse Echsen’ stomps along like a diplodocus and we were all having about as much fun as you possibly can wearing clothes (but let’s not go too deeply into that thought) and it was a hugely entertaining show. We get a drum solo, no shortage of them to choose from and are then whipped off somewhere South American for ‘Karve’ with horns blowing frantically adding some calypso grooves with a salsa side salad of spiciness for good measure. They took a commercial break but one of the band members kindly gave some of us a glug of red wine to pass the time, some of it went straight in my eye and then down my neck but it seemed like a cheeky little vintage. The break was explained as Trollmannen came back with some sort of contraption strapped to him for the next one. If I had realised the song was ‘JegerMeister’ I would have been quicker off the mark but on realising it sprayed spirited goodness straight down receiving mouths I dove straight in. Let me tell you a jet of Jeger straight up the nostril stings like a bitch; things I do in order to get these reviews done properly (hic). ‘Ave Maria’ strikes as a number Laibach missed doing and it has a feel of 80s nostalgia about it that is more than welcome. ‘Illsint’ is a song about a wasp or so we are told and the pit twitched about like a swarm of hornets had dropped in the middle of it. They played a song where lighters were encouraged but with the amount of fermented alcohol covering me I ran and hid at the back not wanting to combust! They got a wall of death, so I stayed hiding but enjoyed the song as it reminded of the muppets and caused carnage. They then played not one but two encores all dressed up in silly costumes obviously not wanting to leave the stage. What a night, the full Trollfest experience was such damn fun that if you missed it you should definitely kick yourself. I can’t wait to get the chance to see them again and hope the low attendance doesn’t put them off returning!
(Review and photos © Pete Woods)
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