Even though I’ve kind of grown out of my period of loving everything that was folk metal, I can really enjoy a good folk metal release or show from time to time. And when one of the best folk metal bands of Estonia comes to visit a venue relatively close by your home, you just can’t let that pass you by, right? So there I went, to catch Metsatöll for the very first time in about 5 years on a stage…

Vetten Äpärät (***)

Opener for the night was the Finnish folk metal outfit Vetten Äpärät. These guys, who are strongly inspired by fantasy, folklore and nature, look like they came straight from the Finnish woods. To get into the mood, they started the show with what sounded like pagan ritualistic chants, cutting off the head of a toy bunny and smearing blood on the faces of all the band members and people from the crowd who were willing. Once that was done, they kicked off the show and what we got reminded me of the good old times when I was a huge folk metal fan back in the heydays of the genre. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a folk metal show as much as this one, purely out of youth sentiment. Hints of old school Finntroll were there and I wasn’t complaining. It’s been about 5 years since they released their debut album, I think it’s about time for these fellas to come with something new…

Voidfallen (****)

Second band of the day was the Finnish melodeath band Voidfallen, who only just recently released their debut full-length album ‘The Atlas of Spiritual Apocalypse’, a band I was really looking forward to catching live. Their signature masked looks are intriguing to say the least and the music I’ve heard of them, sounds absolutely epic. And I have to say that live, that totally came across perfectly! Even though you couldn’t see any of their facial expressions, which are normally essential to get the crowd pulled in and vibe with the performance, they really managed to get us all going and invested in the show. And that epic sound I mentioned earlier, was very strongly present throughout the whole show, blasting us with an absolute wall of sound. A bit of a weird act between the other two more folk metal oriented bands, but for me personally definitely not a letdown! I recommend any fan of melodeath with an epic sound to check out their music. Right now!

Metsatöll (****)

The Estonian folk metal band Metsatöll are absolute legends of the genre, having been around for over 2 decades, delivering high quality albums time after time. Compared to a lot of bands of the same time period, somehow they managed to continue to impress at every moment of their lengthy careers. It was a true pleasure to see these guys live at a more intimate club show, since last time I caught them was on the massive mainstage of Rockfest back in 2017 where they got a bit lost. The crowd got all riled up through the intro track and some of the best usage of the stage lights I’ve seen at this venue. They opened their set with a couple of tracks of their latest full-length ‘Katk kutsarkis‘, an album on which they sound as strong as ever and live these songs could match with any of their other work. Strong and catchy heavy metal music with bagpipes, flute, Jew’s harp at the right times and harmonized vocals came to greet us and the crowd went wild! There was a lot of elated dancing, headbanging and fists in the air involved and the energy went simply through the roof. I felt about 10 years younger again and I love Metsatöll for it. Thanks for the rejuvenation and see you hopefully soon again!

For more pictures of the night, go see our photo report here.