As with all festivals, you make plans. You’re going to be serious, you’re going to get in early, check out bands from the very beginning, squeeze every drop out of the day that you can.
As with all second days, it’s not going to happen. Hence, Gloryhammer ended up being the first band of our second day at House Of Metal. Having proved to be a great laugh on the last tour we saw them, this was one show we didn’t want to miss.

“Hail to you, my friends!”
- Thomas ‘Angus McFife XIII, Prince of the Galactic Empire of Fife’ Winkler (vocals)

Now, since it had been only a short time since last we saw them, Gloryhammer hadn’t really done anything to their show in the meanwhile. Still, it had been fun then, so why not now?
Infernus Ad Astra once more led the way for the band to enter, after which they went for Rise Of The Chaos Wizards, setting up the story for this shows’ battle. Already in this song, Gloryhammer managed to create a connection with the audience by instigating a well followed clap-along.
Gloryhammer was the first band of the day to play the main stage, Idun, and it seemed like we weren’t the only ones having a hard time showing up early. Even though the balcony and most of the seated rows were closed of (not sure why), it still wasn’t very crowded. On the other hand, those who had shown up, were definitely here because they liked the band, and they wanted to see them. There was more enthusiasm here, than I had seen for some of the biggest bands the day before.

“Do you know what sound an astral hammer makes when wielded in space? Nothing, because there is no sound in space. But luckily, I invented sound in space! And it sounds like this – whoooossshhhh!”
- Winkler (vocals)

Gloryhammer repaid the enthusiasm by putting on a grand show. Some of it we recognised, like the epic battles against the space goblin, and some was new, like the time Winkler asked the audience how they had arrived at the festival. Some on foot, some by car, and so on and so forth, until he asked us why we simply hadn’t ridden a dragon here? He had ridden here on a fucking magic dragon, he revealed to us!
Speaking of riding, Gloryhammer had to elect a champion to go on a glorious quest here at House Of Metal. Dennis from Boden (this met with loud heckling from the natives) was to ride to Inverness and secure a pint of mead, or in other words crowdsurf to the nearest bar and bring back a beer. This had been great fun when the band instigated this in Copenhagen, but here in Umeå I could see a few holes in the plan. One, crowdsurfing was strictly prohibited, and in breaking this rule you risked being expelled from the festival. Secondly, Swedish law prohibits anyone from taking alcoholic drinks out of the bar area, which wasn’t in the same room as the concert hall! Now, what Dennis did about the beer I cannot say, but I was glad to see that he was not only allowed to crowdsurf out when the band requested it, but he was also allowed to crowdsurf back to his place a while later, without negative consequences.

If you haven’t guessed it already, Gloryhammer put on another hilarious performance, where the only thing hurting the overall feeling, was Winkler’s too worldly jogging shoes. Also, remarking on what I said about his voice in my last review, I can now say that it doesn’t bother me much in a live setting.
So, yes. Gloryhammer opened the day in style, and in a way it was lucky we hadn’t made it in earlier. I can’t imagine what could have kicked things into gear better than this. One cheese sandwich for me, please!

Setlist:

Infernus Ad Astra
Rise Of The Chaos Wizards
Legend Of The Astral Hammer
Hail To Crail
Questlords Of Inverness, Ride To The Galactic Fortress!
Magic Dragon
Goblin King Of The Darkstorm Galaxy
Apocalypse 1992
Amulet Of Justice
The Hollywood Hootsman
Angus McFife
Universe On Fire
The Unicorn Invasion Of Dundee
The National Anthem Of Unst