As the second to last band of the night and the festival, Moonsorrow entered the Dark Stage very shortly after the headlining act Amon Amarth had left the Rock Stage behind.
For us, they would be the last act, and as we felt they had grown on us over the last couple of shows, they seemed the perfect way to end the very folk/pagan inspired day at Rockharz.

“Are you having fun? The fun will be over soon!”
- Ville ‘Seponpoika’ Sorvali (vocals/bass)

While Moonsorrow doesn’t always try to come off as the most uplifting band around, there is no denying that there is a gripping intensity in their music, and when playing their cards right, that intensity carries well over into their live performances as well. I was surely hoping that this would be the case this night…
Whilst trying to ignore the inappropriate smell of French fries which filled the air, I found myself a good spot to enjoy the bloodied Finns as they began their set – as I am not yet a master of neither their discography nor the Finnish language, I can’t give you a completely accurate setlist of this gig, but I can say with certainty that Kivenkantaja, a song about the hangover the band would suffer from the day after according to Sorvali, Sankaritarina and finally Kuolleiden Maa, or Land Of The Dead as it was called here, were all played and in that order. Given the length of their songs, and the fact that they had under an hour of stage-time, I feel certain I have only missed one title though, that being the first one...

For once, Moonsorrow had been blessed with a very well-mixed live sound. With music as complex as this, a bad mix can completely ruin the experience, something the band has tried all too many times from what I’ve seen and heard.
A good mix isn’t everything though, even though it matters more for some bands than others, and it doesn’t weigh up for a lacking performance, or even worse, a bad one; so, how were the grisly looking Finns delivering their goods?
Like true professionals, that’s how! Even though their overall sound is sometimes to the slow and epic side, that didn’t stop the musicians from delivering a very lively show where every single one of them played an important part. All of them were more than happy to move about a lot on the stage, a welcome change compared to Morgoth which had played earlier in the evening, and especially the three in the front, Sorvali, Mitja Harvilahti and Janne Perttilä were more than happy to get out on the edge of the stage and try to get the crowd involved. At one point Perttilä wanted to start us up with some rhythmic applause in Kivenkantaja, but failed miserably as his own hands missed each other when he was going to lead the way – luckily this lack of coordination didn’t extend to his guitar playing, otherwise the band would have been in trouble!

“Whatever happens, each one of you and us will die!”
- Sorvali (vocals/bass)

Overall, Moonsorrow was very engaging and reached out for crowd-participation more than I remember them doing at earlier shows I have participated in.
Harvilahti’s attempt at engaging the crowd in some applause went a lot better than that of Perttilä, and Sorvali had us all singing along in some fashion to Sankaritarina, something which definitely also lifted the spirit (although I doubt that is the intention of the song initially).
Now, even though the crowd had lessened somewhat in size since the Amon Amarth gig just earlier, this was to be expected as Moonsorrow is a bit more of an acquired taste than the easily accessible Swedes, and I can still say with honesty that I was impressed at the large crowd that had stuck around for this show as well – not bad for a band who always seem to end up playing the very beginning or end of a show.

When they reached the end of the show and the slow and dismal riff of Kuolleiden Maa was playing, we saw the band members stagger out one by one, a very effective ending to a great show and festival!
This band seems to grow for every time we see them, and hopefully it won’t be another year until next time.

Setlist (incomplete):

Kivenkantaja
Sankaritarina
Kuolleiden Maa