ENSIFERUM, NAILDOWN, THE BELONGING
Firstly I feel it relevant to mention the venue as it is not one that has been host to metal gigs in a long time but the people behind it are keen to get it back on the map. Last time I went there was about 12 years ago and it turned into a spaceship and took off. This was a combination of Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles and peyote Mexican mushrooms though and tonight it stayed firmly at ground level. The Fridge is a lovely spacious venue, really clean and with good lighting as well. Two body searches on the way in (one electronic the other by hand) were well over the top. I was told all places like this are subject to them but this was a first for metal crowds since the Subterranea in Ladbroke Grove bit the dust. Perhaps they were looking for plastic swords but I certainly wasn’t packing one down my trousers. A load of people were also denied entry (not sure if they were let in later) for not having ID. Secondly the drink prices had us Southerner’s blushing and our Northern comrades present, virtually ransacking the place. No beer on draught and £3 a can of Carlsberg would have been manageable if they had not run out in 30 minutes. Then it was a choice of £4 a bottle of Stella (that’s £8 a pint ladies and gents) needless to say I have never seen such a deserted bar during a gig. Redress these issues and we could have a good alternative venue south of the river again!
With all the fun and games of actually slowly getting in I didn’t catch all of The Belonging. I gave this band a bit of a hard time when I caught them supporting Inquisition and I still do not feel like I have caught them at their best. First band on had the curse of the sound desk and musically the gruff vocals and fuzzy guitars were all bouncing off the walls and ceiling of this somewhat cavernous auditorium. I believe a brand new number The Eternal Kiss saw a band with more structure than I gave them credit for last time around. Combining a black tinged deathly assault this was a bombast of ugly hate filled ideals but one I still found not particularly to my liking. Although with the sound gelling I was going through the motions of headbanging towards the end of a set that I admit did not get as much attention as it possibly deserved.
Naildown came on to the soundtrack of The Terminator and funnily enough I was with the singer of Bloodstream at the time, a band who had also in the past come onto (you guessed it). I had never heard of this lot before but instantly recognised their brand of crunchy melodic death metal (I had em nailed down from the off). With Bodomesque ‘whoas’ and vocal clean sweeps these Finns wanted us to scream for them but frankly this wasn’t going to happen. I enjoyed the melody that flew seamlessly throughout the songs but there was something about this lot that struck me as being distinctly manufactured. Think latter day In Flames and Soilwork and new darlings Sonic Syndicate and you have a pretty bland and unadventurous sound that frankly you have heard a hundred times before.
I was kind of worried what a sober review was doing for me here, might I have enjoyed the supports in my normal merry state of insobriety? Well not so if Ensiferum were anything to go by as these battle metallers were nothing short of being damn spectacular.
Coming on with the sound of thunder, lightning (oh so very, very frightening) they triumphantly took us into Ad Victorium and had the crowd charged up and eating out their gauntlets for the next 90 minutes or so (yes they certainly gave value for money with this performance). ‘Blood Is The Price Of Glory’ and it was evident that they had spilled plenty as they punched fists to the face and flew into that number from new and rather splendid album ‘Victory Songs.’ Whilst some bands spend ages touching themselves up (ooh err Mrs) before shows one has to laugh at this lots simple Adam & The Ants strip of warpaint across the face, no expense is spared on make up with these Finns.
Fists were flung in the air, rousing choruses reigned down and everything was galloping along at an immeasurable pace. I tried to take some photos without catching hands and devils horns but it was virtually impossible but it was pointed out to me that despite no photo pit if we had passes we could stand on the ledges holding the speaker stacks on the side of the stage and take some shots from there. Everyone else seemed to want to be in on the action on stage as well and bodies were flying all over the place. One lass even managed to stay on stage for 30 seconds chatting up Petri before being bundled back into the audience.
There was time for a ‘Tale Of Revenge’ before the number one in Finland smash hit ‘One More Magic Potion’ went down like a spoonful of medicine and had everyone singing along. Only a band of this ilk could get away with hey-nonny-nonny songs like LAI LAI HEI but they had people joining into the gung ho attitude behind it and all I could see from the back of the venue was a sea of hands in front of me and the band lit up behind a fog of dry ice looking like they were really in the midst of a battle. I think the fact that 3 of the group were sharing vocal duties really added to the range of things and kept everything flowing along.
New song ‘Ahti’ was bellowed out sounding like a Western Finnish style (think of one with lots of snow rather than desert) and Dragonheads had them literally on fire even if at times I had to think that preposterously I was reminded of a heavy metal Levellers. The victorious and rousing performance continued with Victory Songs and from then on we kept being informed of the fact that, “this is the last song….. or maybe not” and Ensiferum basically played for 40 minutes beyond what was meant to be curfew time, and lets face it who would have dared try and drag them off.
With Iron and Battle Song finishing this fine display off it was time to leg it down the off licence and get some reasonably priced beer. One thing that did pee me off about Ensiferum is the fact that despite a great lengthy performance the one song they didn’t play was my favourite from the new album ‘Deathbringer From The Sky’ apart from that they were pure class.
Pete Woods
LONDON, THE FRIDGE 06/04/07