Day 2
An early start on an Elder God blessed sunny Saturday. A little breakfast courtesy of Drax and a little fine coffee courtesy of Black Coffee Worship (Heavy Blend, a festival must) and my own good taste. Reflecting on the previous day it has to be noted that the audience were fantastic – enthusiastic and appreciative throughout and there to have a good time. So a round of applause for all the Warhorners. And not a duff band either.
The start to the day is, by now, almost traditional. There are also few things better than an early pint in hand, a sunny day and Elvendale. With their music from the mead hall celebrating Anglo-Saxon and Viking times on traditional instruments and with between song introductions of depth (and banter) from Hrafn they are simply a delight. Their ranks added a little by Runa on vocals/recorder they mesmerised the crowd with the clear plain sounds done with such deftness. The set included the gorgeous ‘A Song Of Blood And Mead’ and of course ‘Wayland’s Saga’. The perfect picking on the lyre, the fine steady drum beat like a call either to prayer or the mead hall depending on religion and the gorgeous lead vocals are irresistible. You just fall in love with them. There was a new song in ‘Moonlight, The Keep And The Northern Sea’ composed apparently with the aid of beer and a beautiful view, but I think pride of the set goes to ‘Stone Carved Runes’, a rendition that genuinely raised the hairs on my arms dedicated as it was to a fallen friend and infused with such love. Oh and they had some exceptional hand crafted merchandise. The crowd loved it, and the response was thoroughly deserved.
A little connection to the next act, Spirit Tree, was that the lone gent involved did the Elvendale banner. For a first gig he was incredibly confident; a clear, strong and very expressive voice, his (I am informed, so don’t blame me) ukulele a sharp bright carrier of the melody and he brought a spirited (sic) short set of gently lively songs. ‘Drifting’ was a lilting introduction with clear picked notes, but I have to say my favourite was ‘The Jackalope’ with its Levelllers-esque animated melody and fun tale of fruitless chases for treasure. Oh and the closing song, about the age old dilemma of waking with a hangover and trying to decide between beer and coffee should henceforth be played loudly over speakers on day two at 8.00am at every Warhorns. A lovely set and indeed a nice appreciative audience once more.
Things took a decided turn for the malevolent after the changeover. New-ish black metal band Imperial Demonic strode forth with such goddamned confidence. With excellent stage gear, corpse paint (with a big nod to Abbath from the singer) and a very professional look and sound they really ripped up the gentle beginning to the Saturday. This is death influenced black metal; a heavy dose of Dark Funeral and something of Dissection to the swirling guitars they are pretty darned fantastic from the off. Their presence is thunderous, their attitude suitably aloof and the songs great blasts of power and dark melody. ‘The Path Of The Night’ was like riding a storm and ‘Dawn Of The Infernal Age’ was like trying to stare down a tempest. For me this was immediate stuff; it grabbed me by the bloody neck and just didn’t let go. With lots of exhortation from the frontman the crowd surprised me by really getting into it (Warhorners do like their dose of the black stuff, mind). So did I. Best new black metal band I’ve seen at Warhorns since Master’s Call. Great set rewarded with a nice scrum around their merchandise stall.
So I was a little worried about how anyone could follow that assault. It fell to another new band to me, Vansind, but I was assured by the number of fans they had around already judging by t-shirts. The Danes packed the stage with live keyboards (also whistle and bagpipes) male and female vocals and guitars and from the moment they were out there they worked it. The male singer looks absolutely huge onstage and his aggressive, prowling bearded presence and excellent harsh vocals were perfectly counterpointed by the striking tattooed female singer and her glorious clean tones. Visually excellent across the board, the songs didn’t lag behind. This was absolutely top drawer Viking/pagan metal. The melody on the whistle on ‘Asgaards Kald’ is just brilliant, the riff utterly sinks its teeth in and the crowd were genuinely going a little nuts. The band were in their element and appreciating the reception with grins and just feeding off it. There is a serious weight to their riffing despite the huge melodic element, ‘Den Farefulde Faerd’ kind of like Amon Amarth covering Eluveitie just with something that is pure Vansid in the song-writing. By the time the closing song, ‘Habet Er Sort’ with the bagpipe intro comes on the entire room is living and breathing the band. Absolutely fantastic set.
We get Transylvanian Werewolves next in the form of another band unknown to me despite over a decade of existence Syn-Ze-Sase-Tri (I’ve not been well, proper homework wasn’t on the cards.) Again they have a great look and a cool stage setup. Despite having a difficult act to follow they really go for the throat. It’s kind of blackened, atmospheric and thrashy and with real sharp bite to the guitar runs and riffs and some of those breaks are glorious. They also have a lot of fans about so have no problem in finding a footing. The frontman is genuinely fierce. Scary even. The downsides fro me (and I suspect looking at the audience, me alone) are the amount of stuff that appears to be on backing tapes and the fact I do find it hard to get into on first listening. This is almost prog/power metal in its intricacy at times, and the assault defeats me in the end. But once more they go down a storm which is only right for such a hard worked set.
There’s a little break then, which gives us time to watch The Viking Society roast in the sun as they entertain us with some re-enactment which is great fun. It would also be remiss of me to mention that they ran away from Rex when he challenged them in the arena and were all beaten by a five year old lad with the brains to note he could hack at their ankles underneath the shields. A true Warhorner if ever there was one.
Back inside it’s time for Elliot Vernon &The Flame. Yes ok he is one of the organisers but… I defy you to find a better bunch of musicians including luminaries from Alestorm, Bootyard Bandits (I think) and Sellsword. But regardless of that it’s the songs and the performance that make this band special. The best place to start as they take the stage is maybe Amorphis; this is aching melodic choruses rising from gruff vocals and great hook riddled but genuinely gnarly riffs. Elliot himself has a passionate voice and this is just amplified by the heart tugging melodies here like on ‘The Flame’ itself. The stage presence is for such an unassuming performance, superb – the passion just comes across from the pulsing bass to the superb lead guitar breaks. There are heads banging, and dancers and it all kind of begins to feel like a celebration of spirit somehow. They simply make me smile so hard. Catchy, bleeding emotion and such a tight band. Get out there and catch them live you won’t be disappointed.
OK, I’m going to have to be honest here. Ruadh were a bit difficult for me. I have heard them before (and seen them) and there is no doubt that like countrymen Saor they are a great band with some fine, passionate music out there courtesy of main man Tom Perrett. He does everything in the studio I believe but on stage there is a band of him with added guitar, bass and drums. They look very cohesive all in plain black shirts and Tom has a genuine intense charisma as a front man. This is music of sweeping keyboards though (yep backing tapes) and driving riffs with some genuine heart tugging melodies that, like Saor, seem to open up a huge vista of the raw, wild countryside and the beauty therein. The crowd gets into them easily and the huge, strong clean vocals from Mr Perrett are fantastic. Technical problems seem to plague them onstage a bit though which pulls me out of the atmosphere. Not their fault obviously but instead it leaves me focussing on the backing tape and by the time we get the (multiple) clean female vocals I’m kind of yanked out. That’s on me not the band and they went down well with the crowd so it was just me and a couple of others. Go and listen to their albums and buy them; if you’re into music inspired by the land and the history of it you will love them.
So. Headliners. Aephanemer. This special French troupe have played Warhorns before (2018) and frankly I was so looking forward to where they were five years on. Well for a start the looks and instant grins when the rapturous greeting from the crowd were just wonderful to see and from that moment on the energy and joy radiating from the stage were palpable. The huge melodic intro to ‘Prokopton’ just got the hearts pumping until that absolutely galloping riff storms out. Martin Hamiche just flicks out those leads trying not to grin and frontwoman Marion Bascoul’s superb harsh vocals ring out as she cranks out the rhythm guitar work that lets the lead fly. Her expressions are an utter delight; staring into the crowd, cracking a smile, picking people out and utterly commanding attention. The sound is spot on and yes we do get backing keyboards but with the power of two guitars, thundering drums and fantastic bass work it doesn’t really matter. The band on stage carry everything with human energy. ‘The Sovereign’ is a wall of melodic sound with the harsh vocals howling out of it. There’s a bounce in the air and the crowd and the band begin to really feed of it.
They move well on stage too, bass and lead guitars moving without distraction, swapping sides and pivoting around the frontwoman. The crowd is following everything it seems and just making the whole performance a dance between band and audience. We’re asked if we want the English Or French version of ‘Le Radeu De La Meduse’ and, of course the overwhelming response is “FRENCH!!!”
It’s hard to keep still. It’s even harder to stick to my ‘no headbanging I’m old and have a very small brain left’ rule (Ok it’s impossible). ‘Dissonance’, ‘Back Again’ and ‘Memento Mori’ flash by too quickly for me. I want this to just keep on going. My old bones object but I’m feeling like I’m twenty again as the celebration of melodic, symphonic death metal lends me a little more energy. The band seem to be unable to contain their delight up there, the performance is just like staring into a furnace for energy. The opening melody of the glorious melancholy of ‘ If I Should Die’ almost kills me, a gut punch of emotion on soaring sounds and an epic landscape.
The end with ‘Bloodline’ and a genuinely rapturous response. Oh man, that was just perfect. Perfect. A performance of energy, fire and huge musical dexterity on stage and enough charisma to burn down the venue. For me it’s a fight between them and Countless Skies for best melodic death metal band on the planet. But today utterly belongs to Aephanemer. They were spectacular, the fed off the crowd and their joy at being there was beautiful to see. My soul needed that.
So was the huge queue for their merchandise stand. Now that is how Warhorners do it. Thank you Aephanemer. Thank you.
So frankly one of the best Warhorns in a while. Since before Covid in fact. I don’t know how many of you have noticed but as Covid becomes simply another fact of life and people struggle in the UK with the cost of normal things like power and food, the festival circuit has begun to realise they are operating in a completely different landscape. New festivals are treated with suspicion in part due to a handful of very public failures, and existing ones with a long history suffer from people not wanting or not being able to commit too far in advance regardless of the quality of the line-up. It is what it is but adapting is tricky.
Warhorns have always been on a solid footing and curated with great thought, and also have one of the most loyal grass roots fanbases there is but even they had to take the very hard decision to postpone until next year two foreign based bands due to costs vs slow pre-sales, with their kind understanding, but fear not Kalmah will return to headline next year. Thankfully being clear, open and upfront gents about it and with over a decade of history and the brilliance of headliner in Aephanemer there were very few people indeed who chose the refund route. And perhaps more tellingly there was a sudden rush of late ticket purchases too, well after that announcement, so… the sight of so many tents pitched as we rolled in and later so many people in attendance was a real joy. As was there being so many first time Warhorners.
My awe and thanks in equal measure to Glyn, Marc, Elliot, Olly and the whole Northern Darkness Heavy Metal Crew for their incredible work and kindness as always. And to the Warhorners for being so absolutely there to celebrate great performances and music.
Also special thanks to Kev of Green Wyvern Photography for helping out with the pictures. Go check him out on Instagram.
See you next year!
Words: Gizmo
Pictures: @green_wyvern photography
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