HEATHEN CRUSADE -- Amazing -- Nice to have met you all!

As I'm sure it is well known by now for those of you who pay attention to my cyber-ramblings, I'm a power metal guy and I honestly didn't expect to enjoy any of the bands on this bill with the exception of November's Doom since I have a CD of theirs.

Boy, was I WRONG!!!

My favorite bands were (in order): TODESBONDEN, MOONSORROW, PRIMORDIAL, NOVEMBER'S DOOM and ENSHRINED.

TODESBONDEN is completely indescribable but I think the mere fact that you are reading this forum will mean that you will like them! Sort of like metal mixed with one part Dead-Can-Dance, one part Enya, some Enigma and a dash of electric violin (yes, you read that right), TODESBONDEN is the type of metal that seems at once familiar yet completely unique -- exciting to the ear but yet putting you in a constant state of deja-vu. I was utterly entranced by this band and I cannot wait for their full-length CD!

Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/todesbonden

I'm sure that anyone who is more into the black/doom metal genres will be able to wax more eloquently on Moonsorrow and Primordial than I can. PRIMORDIAL is the most wonderful blend of heavy metal with layers of Irish flavor that is impossible to describe but will immediately stand out the minute you hear them. The singer was unbelievable -- performing with staggering presence but yet heart-felt warmth at the reception the crowd gave the band. They blew me away.

As for ENSHRINED, I've never been much for the black/death metal, but these young metal-heads from northern Minnesota delivered a face-melting performance. I've already booked them on a show of mine and I am looking forward to hearing them again. These guys could go places...


THANK YOU to General Zod and ALL of the amazing people that I met off of the forum! I'm sorry that I can't remember all of your handles but thanks for saying hello to me and complimenting my job as emcee, it meant more to me than I can ever put into words.

Samantha -- hope my basement was an adequate hotel for you! :grin: It was great to see you again and next time let's hope there's more snow for you southerners to wade through! :tickled:

AND THANKS TO JOHN AND KRIS for putting on a truly amazing festival that blew my mind. I hope there will be a Heathen Crusade 2 and I would be honored to be asked back to host.


In Metal,
Nathan "The SwordLord" Block
SwordLord2003@aol.com
 
Really nice meeting you Swordlord, you did an excellent job as emcee at the event. What a phenominal festival and day of metal that was. May have been the greatest single show I have ever attended. Moonsorrow slayed, Primordial slayed, Thyrfing slayed, November's Doom slayed, Enshrined slayed, the sound slayed, the energy of the crowd slayed, the people slayed. The fun factor was simply off the charts. If the caliber of the lineup remains as strong, this will easily become an annual pilgrimage for me.

Oh yeah, and Zod wanted to come by Phantom Zone Mirror, but the three seats available were previously sold out. :loco: Had a blast rooming with him though. Special shoutouts to General Zod, MadeInNewJersey, JayKeeley, (you three make every festival we go to a huge blast no matter what), MetalRose (awesome hanging out with you and getting to talk at length for the first time, "Speaking of boobies hitting me in the face...." :grin: ), Paul from November's Doom, everyone I had a chance to hang out and talk to and of course the cast and crew of the event itself. Just a great, great weekend.

Jason
 
I'm so happy to read all the great reports around the net! I sure wish I could have gone, but I'm happy to have done my part by supporting them from afar. I asked if the event will be annual and I was met with the response of, "if this year goes well, yes."

Todesbonden is definately a worthy listen for anyone on this forum. I was playing them last night on the internet radio station I run, and the fan reaction was great! The vocalist is Laurie Ann Haus who you might know from Ephemeral Sun, Autumn Tears, Ol Sonuf, and Nest. She has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. I truly hope to see her grace the PP stage one day, and particularly with Todesbonden.

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/todesbonden
http://www.myspace.com/thetrueautumntears
http://www.myspace.com/olsonuf
http://www.myspace.com/nestfinland
http://www.myspace.com/ephemeralsun
 
Dark One said:
Really nice meeting you Swordlord, you did an excellent job as emcee at the event. What a phenominal festival and day of metal that was. May have been the greatest single show I have ever attended. Moonsorrow slayed, Primordial slayed, Thyrfing slayed, November's Doom slayed, Enshrined slayed, the sound slayed, the energy of the crowd slayed, the people slayed. The fun factor was simply off the charts. If the caliber of the lineup remains as strong, this will easily become an annual pilgrimage for me.

Hello again!

Thanks for the post, I did have a great time chatting with you also -- wish we would have had a chance to do it more. Now that I know what to expect, next year I'll figure out how to schedule more down-time so that I can hang out with people and enjoy the show more. Mostly I was just backstage making sure that I wasn't needed in some other capacity.

Thanks for your compliment on my emcee duties! Even though I have a degree in Theatre Arts and have been on-stage numerous times, I always get a little bit of stage-fright before I have to do anything like that. I really want to agree with your statement about the energy of the crowd -- they were so cool and I seemed to instantly fall into a good groove with them and by the second or third time I was on-stage, I was completely at ease. I had an absolute blast representing the show and it also provided a nice platform to rage against all corporate-music -- something I've wanted to do publicly for a looooong time. :grin:

Looking forward to seeing you in September!
Nathan
 
SwordLord said:
WOW... That says it all ... If you missed it, you missed out big-time ... don't miss next years!
That does sum it up. An AMAZINGLY well run festival, regardless if whether it was their first or their tenth. The sound was phenomenal. This was the best show I've ever been to.

By the way Bro, great to finally put a name with the face. Great job doing the whole MC thing. See you in Atlanta.

Dar One said:
Oh yeah, and Zod wanted to come by Phantom Zone Mirror, but the three seats available were previously sold out.
LOL.

MadeInNewJersey said:
Primordial ruled. Thyrfing ruled. Novembers Doom ruled. Moonsorrow ruled. Heathen Crusade ruled. That is all.
I corrected this for you. Thank me later.:loco:

Zod
 
I missed Novemebers Doom, but Paul was ok with that. Good to know others have kids as well. :)

It was a really great festival, very well organized. Working with John is always a pleasure (although I could work at this fest due to personal things :( )

Catching up with everyone, Zod, Dark One, Made in Jersey, et all! Really made me homesick for Atlanta.

-Metal
 
BenMech said:
setlists anyone?

I'd be somewhat guessing, except for Moonsorrow, whose written-out setlist we grabbed off the stage.

I'll post what I know for each band later on, but it'll be in the RC Forum, in my review/write-up thread. Come check it later if you'd like.
 
General Zod said:
By the way Bro, great to finally put a name with the face. Great job doing the whole MC thing. See you in Atlanta.

Ditto! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and wish we could have hung out and chatted about more things metal. I've poked some fun at you here on the forum for your picky tastes and it would have been fun to cross swords in public over our musical diversity -- all in good clean fun of course! :loco: Maybe we should have a "sword-off" in Atlanta this year!

See you soon,
El Swordzo
 
heathencrusade9.jpg


Name all the UM forum memembers!

AWESOME!

-Metal
 
You have JayKeeley, MetalRose, General Zod, BlackwaterNymph, Dark One, Belgar & NovembersPaul.

Naturally, I was stuck taking 473 photos so I'm not in any of them, but this photo will suffice :Smokedev:

P1230078.jpg