Atlanta Paganfest Review

[GameFreac]

We got there at like 5pm so I could get on the rail...my friend called his friend so she could get a free ticket (friend who dropped out) and then I saw 2 friends from church so I was just talkin to them. Finally got in at 7 and ran to the rail. I got on the end but still was on the rail



Eluveitie: So they all come on (all 8 of em) and they start off with Inis Mona. Sound is great for the most part. Then they played Of Wind, Fire, and Wisdom. Pretty awesome so far. But when they got into Bloodstained Ground is when it started to get really good. That sounded awesome live. The hurdy gurdy and violinist were really getting into it haha. At one point the bagpipe/flute guy jumped down to the security walkway and just got in my face and screamed at me cuz I was like the only one going crazy in the front to the right (everyone was going insane on the left but people were being lame to the right of the stage). I didn't know what to do so I just screamed back at him. Haha. He was really getting into it dancing and all. The rest of the songs were really good too. I hope they come back soon with a longer set and they get to play the Song of Life. Awesome opener.

8/10


Tyr: They were ok but REALLY boring. 1 guy was into em basically. A lot of people were just standing around looking. The last song was pretty good but the rest was just plain boring.

5/10


Turisas: Ok I thought they were gonna be good but they were great. They are amazing live. Holmgard and Beyond was just epic live. You can't even explain it. But the best part was definitely in the Court of Jarisleif. I was hoping they played that and they did. The violin solo was awesome live and the crowd was going crazy. The accordian player was pretty hot too haha. They got the crowd to split in 2 and hum Rasputin with the Accordian split with the Violinist which was really fun. Rasputin and Battle Metal were really fun live. One More was better than I thought...I honestly thought it was going to be boring. I honestly thought they were gonna steal the show and Ensiferum wouldn't be able to top them because they were just plain fun and energetic. They need to headline the next time they come over here.

9/10


Ensiferum: Alright so this was unreal because I was seeing one of my favorite bands of all time in the flesh finally. It didn't even seem real. I honestly didn't think they could top Turisas' performance. While Turisas' set was definitely more energetic, Ensiferum was definitely more tight and just overall better imo. They opened with Iron and went into One More Magic Potion. They didn't play Tale of Revenge like I hoped for but they played Token of Time and Guardians of Fate and those were AWESOME live. Some guy in the crowd kept yelling "Windrider!" between every song and Petri just kept saying "Nope" and finally just said something like "I choose the songs not you" haha. Into Battle was also great live and Lai Lai Hei was fun too. I knew Blood is the Prince of Glory would be amazing live and it was. I was headbanging until my neck hurt on that song, it's just way better live. Finally at the end when the guy kept yelling "Windrider," I'm not sure but I think Markus played the opening riff to it just to mess with us and stopped after like 10 seconds, which was pretty funny. They came on for the encore to play Treacherous Gods and Battle Song, which were really good for ending songs. My only complaints are they didn't play Old Man, Windrider, or Hero in a Dream but they will be back so I hope they get around to those next time....and Petri's mic needed to be turned up. You could hear him, but at times you couldn't hear him well at all. But they nailed (pretty much) all the solos and you could hear them. I loved it.

9.9/10 (simply for the fact his mic needed to be turned up, then it would of been a 10)


Overall, best concert of my life. I knew this before I even went when it was announced months ago. If you saw this you know what I'm talking about. It was just really fun and an amazing experience. I can't wait until all the bands come back. Sorry for the long review ;D


Here are pics:

Eluveitie:

Turisas:

Ensiferum:

My loot:

Ok I'm done

 

[dcowboys311]

Good review, although I think what Markus played was the intro to "Slayer of Light" because some guy in the front row kept asking for that song.

 

[Cheiron]

From where I was standing a number of people were into Tyr. It just wasn't the same type of music as the others. Its like going to a funeral doom show and expecting people to be dancing/moshing/fist pumping, and then thinking people didn't like it when they weren't. But I saw a number of people really into Tyr and they got a really good cheer at the end of the set. When people don't like the band, they don't get much of anything afterwards. As I said in the other thread, Tyr was my favorite band of the night, not because of stage presence, but musically they did the most for me.

 

[Rider of Theli]

it's funny how everyone - including Patrick - said how dull TYR was onstage compared to the others, when out of the four bands I like their sound the best. heh heh. Figures.

Hopefully I will get to see one or more of these bands when they return to the U.S. - especially since they all appreciated the turnout in Atlanta.

 

[dcowboys311]

Tyr were great. It's very hard to appear energetic when you're going up against bands with twice as many people and 3x as many different instruments.

 

[Jibrille]

it's funny how everyone - including Patrick - said how dull TYR was onstage compared to the others, when out of the four bands I like their sound the best. heh heh. Figures.

Hopefully I will get to see one or more of these bands when they return to the U.S. - especially since they all appreciated the turnout in Atlanta.

Granted I was at a different show and didn't get to see Eluviette but it's also funny to see so many people say Ensiferum was the best when I thought their sound was awful at my show. It went from perfect sound for 3 bands to garbage the moment their sound guy stepped in. Maybe he had an off night and was just really drunk from celebrating the birth of his child.

Mr order:
Turisas
Tyr
Glennbleid
Ensiferum

 

[PatrickHoyt]

No doubt Tyr was a great band

I, for one, didn't say their music was dull. I saw some people into it in the crowd and I raised my fist a few times myself, but it doesn't change the fact that they didn't do much on stage aside from play the music and play the music well.

I was looking forward to Tyr probably the second most out of all of them, but only enjoyed listening to what they were playing and had a better time watching the other bands put on a show AND play their music well. They didn't have much of a stage show--every now and then maybe they'd groove and move around, but it wasn't really that energetic.

Im sure a lot of people were in the same boat as me, they really like their set musically but the show itself was a bit dull. Just because a band doesn't have as many members as the other doesn't mean they can't be any more energetic. To me it seems like they'd have more room to be energetic.

 

[DoomsdayZach]

Tyr had an aura that no band (save for Eluveitie) could match that night. Both Eluveitie and Tyr actually write songs using traditional melodies and are more or less based on history or their culture, which gives the songs a certain power that neither Turisas nor Ensiferum possessed. I honestly thought that Eluveitie and Tyr were on the same level because of this, regardless of energy and specticle onstage (Eluveitie was VERY fun to watch though and their hurdy gurdy player was super hot).

My order was:

Eluveitie / Tyr (I honestly can't tell you which I would rather see live again more)
Turisas
Suidakra (hooray for living on the west coast FOR ONCE!)
Ensiferum

 

[GameFreac]

Good review, although I think what Markus played was the intro to "Slayer of Light" because some guy in the front row kept asking for that song.

Yeah I heard him......I wasn't sure but that's what I thought it was. Guess I was wrong.

That would be sweet if they did play Slayer of Light though. One of my favorites from Iron.

 

[GameFreac]

Ok you guys are getting me all wrong on Tyr

I don't think they're bad at all.....I actually like their cd's. They're great musicians.

It's just my opinion that they were extremely boring live. I felt like going to sleep. They should of opened.

That's all I'm saying

 

[DoomsdayZach]

No no no, i'm not disputing opinions because they're opinions. I just completely disagree, and that was why I disagreed. Cheers

 

[splat66]

I was at the Seattle show. I'm an older metalhead (41) but I love the idea of the whole folk/pagan metal scene. I went in not knowing much about any of the bands except for maybe Turisas and Eluveitie because I just had bought their CD 'Slania'. I was well impressed with every band that night. Even the openers from Oregon, Oakhelm were pretty good.

The other bands in order for me:
Suidakra - my friend Eric had made friends with them through their MySpace page and he kept on about how great they would be, and sure enough, I loved them. They even had a drink with him after they played! Cool band, cool guys. Probably the least folk element, only a few Celtic sounding riffs here and there.

Eleveitie - Did NOT disappoint whatsoever. I thought they were the 'roughest' band of the night in a really good way, with an edge that kept me riveted. My persoanal fave of the night. Loved them!

Tyr - Yeah, not that exciting but very cool. Maybe they didn't fit in energy wise with the other bands (although the bass player was fun to watch). I really liked the vocals too (was that Danish or Faroese?!). And the fact that their guitarist played with Eluveitie as well was very impressive.

Turisas - Talk about energy, wow! A very fun band as well as being totally pro. The singer cracked me up when someone gave him a Heineken and he complained about coming all the way to the States to be given a Dutch beer. And yes, the accordian player was HOT!

Ensiferum - Completely awesome. I really didn't know what to expect, but they were so professional I could even see them opening for a classic metal band like Priest, Maiden, or Sabbath. They were so f&*ing tight and they just commanded the stage. A perfect end to one of the best metal shows I have ever seen. And trust me, that's saying a lot since I've been seeing metal shows since 1979!

A quality package - let's hope for PaganFest 2009 (and I wanna see Korpiklaani damn it!)

 

[TBJ]

We got there at like 5pm so I could get on the rail...my friend called his friend so she could get a free ticket (friend who dropped out) and then I saw 2 friends from church so I was just talkin to them. Finally got in at 7 and ran to the rail. I got on the end but still was on the rail



Eluveitie: So they all come on (all 8 of em) and they start off with Inis Mona. Sound is great for the most part. Then they played Of Wind, Fire, and Wisdom. Pretty awesome so far. But when they got into Bloodstained Ground is when it started to get really good. That sounded awesome live. The hurdy gurdy and violinist were really getting into it haha. At one point the bagpipe/flute guy jumped down to the security walkway and just got in my face and screamed at me cuz I was like the only one going crazy in the front to the right (everyone was going insane on the left but people were being lame to the right of the stage). I didn't know what to do so I just screamed back at him. Haha. He was really getting into it dancing and all. The rest of the songs were really good too. I hope they come back soon with a longer set and they get to play the Song of Life. Awesome opener.

8/10


Tyr: They were ok but REALLY boring. 1 guy was into em basically. A lot of people were just standing around looking. The last song was pretty good but the rest was just plain boring.

5/10


Turisas: Ok I thought they were gonna be good but they were great. They are amazing live. Holmgard and Beyond was just epic live. You can't even explain it. But the best part was definitely in the Court of Jarisleif. I was hoping they played that and they did. The violin solo was awesome live and the crowd was going crazy. The accordian player was pretty hot too haha. They got the crowd to split in 2 and hum Rasputin with the Accordian split with the Violinist which was really fun. Rasputin and Battle Metal were really fun live. One More was better than I thought...I honestly thought it was going to be boring. I honestly thought they were gonna steal the show and Ensiferum wouldn't be able to top them because they were just plain fun and energetic. They need to headline the next time they come over here.

9/10


Ensiferum: Alright so this was unreal because I was seeing one of my favorite bands of all time in the flesh finally. It didn't even seem real. I honestly didn't think they could top Turisas' performance. While Turisas' set was definitely more energetic, Ensiferum was definitely more tight and just overall better imo. They opened with Iron and went into One More Magic Potion. They didn't play Tale of Revenge like I hoped for but they played Token of Time and Guardians of Fate and those were AWESOME live. Some guy in the crowd kept yelling "Windrider!" between every song and Petri just kept saying "Nope" and finally just said something like "I choose the songs not you" haha. Into Battle was also great live and Lai Lai Hei was fun too. I knew Blood is the Prince of Glory would be amazing live and it was. I was headbanging until my neck hurt on that song, it's just way better live. Finally at the end when the guy kept yelling "Windrider," I'm not sure but I think Markus played the opening riff to it just to mess with us and stopped after like 10 seconds, which was pretty funny. They came on for the encore to play Treacherous Gods and Battle Song, which were really good for ending songs. My only complaints are they didn't play Old Man, Windrider, or Hero in a Dream but they will be back so I hope they get around to those next time....and Petri's mic needed to be turned up. You could hear him, but at times you couldn't hear him well at all. But they nailed (pretty much) all the solos and you could hear them. I loved it.

9.9/10 (simply for the fact his mic needed to be turned up, then it would of been a 10)


Overall, best concert of my life. I knew this before I even went when it was announced months ago. If you saw this you know what I'm talking about. It was just really fun and an amazing experience. I can't wait until all the bands come back. Sorry for the long review ;D


Here are pics:

Eluveitie:

Turisas:

Ensiferum:

My loot:

Ok I'm done

I have to say, ditto on everything he said, and that goes for the 2 shows I saw(Jaxx and Raleigh), however, they did play Tale of Revenge at Jaxx, which made me giddy like a schoolgirl

 

[TBJ]

Oh Turisas.. great to see soo many people are loving them

I heard a little rumor about them coming back at the end of the year. Another AWESOME package tour.

Man.. I am still with the butterflies from the Houston show..

I dont know about Turisas but the bassist from Eluveitie told me they are coming back in October.:Smokin:

 

[Pellaz]

Tyr were great. It's very hard to appear energetic when you're going up against bands with twice as many people and 3x as many different instruments.

Agreed. 8 people on stage, then 4, then 7. Go figure. But Tyr were great.

Really, it was a great evening from top to bottom.

Gamefreac, I was fairly close behind you during most of the show, judging from your pics. Thanks for posting them, too. Great memories!

 

[DoomsdayZach]

Even the openers from Oregon, Oakhelm were pretty good.

Damn fine band. Half the guys are from Oregon (The two guitarists, used to play in Fall of the Bastards) and Pete Jay (Bass/vocals) and Eli (Drums) live in Seattle.

 

[GameFreac]

Agreed. 8 people on stage, then 4, then 7. Go figure. But Tyr were great.

Really, it was a great evening from top to bottom.

Gamefreac, I was fairly close behind you during most of the show, judging from your pics. Thanks for posting them, too. Great memories!

Haha cool

Thanks.....I know I usually take videos but my camera doesn't have sound (stupid). But these pictures will probably last longer anyways