Our residden panda went into this show not knowing the first two bands, and only knowing a couple of songs from Avatar, but, as she was leaving, she was adding everyone’s songs to my playlist. It was also the first night of tour, so you knew that these bands were going to give their absolute everything to kick it all off the best they could.
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Having covered one of Janne Westerlund’s band projects in the form of Pharoah Overlord, as well as being a fan of another, Circle, DJ Astrocreep must admit to having a certain idea of what to expect in his head before having his first listen and was actually quite surprised by the level of difference in his solo work to his band projects. That’s not, however, a negative mark, however much the big lad enjoy his other work.
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Formed in 2009, the Danish six-piece Vanir have returned for their fifth Viking metal raid ‘Allfather’. Taking on the genre of Viking metal and infusing it with elements of folk-metal as well as heavier stylings of black and death – metal, Vanir created a solid foundation for themselves appealing to a wide variety of metal fans. Predominately their music focuses upon Nordic myths, legends and histories as is typical of the Viking metal genre and ‘Allfather’ is no exception to this with the lyrics telling of Danish king Svend Tveskæg. With 11 tracks on offer with this release, what do Vanir plan to deliver?
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What better way to shake off the January blooze, induced by both financial and musical shortages, than in the company of some of ÜR’s favourite rock ‘n’ roll rapscallions, The Quireboys, making their now traditional start-of-the-year visit to that wee gem of a venue buried deep in the arse-end of nowhere (actually, if you want to find it, you follow the signs to the arse-end of nowhere, hang a left and keep going…)? So, off we headed, deep into the hills of County Antrim… and it appeared that there were many like-minded folks, as the Diamond was rammed by the time we piled off the beer bus and gorged our traditional chicken and bacon burger in the wonderful little chippie across the village square…
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Scandinavia certainly isn’t a slouch when it comes to producing modern day rock maestros, having churned out the likes of Backyard Babies, Royal Republic, Sons of Morpheus and The Hives – among many others – in the past couple of decades alone. But, when it comes to Norway most will likely think more of burgeoning extreme metal scenes than for good times rock n roll – something that Oslo’s Spielbergs hope to fix. Coming out the gates with the oddly-titled ‘This Is Not The End’ (obviously; it’s a debut!), the three-piece owe much more to rock’s heady heyday than to the extreme metal underground.
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