The day went from weird to weirder as we went from Scottish epic power metal with Gloryhammer to Swedish swinging rock/metal with Mustasch. No, actually nothing could beat Gloryhammer in weirdness, but Mustasch did stand out as a one of a kind experience here at the Metaldays festival.

”Are you ready for some Swedish boogie woogie?!”
- Ralf Gyllenhammar (vocals/guitar)

Maybe this was the reason for the low attendance, or maybe Mustasch just isn’t very well-known on this latitude, either way they just didn’t have a very large pull on the Slovenian crowd. Hence the ground in front of the main stage was highly unpopulated as the band arrived on the stage, and those who were there were mostly Swedes themselves (easy to tell as they spoke to the band).
Neither were Mustasch readily interested in getting more people to know them; they did the soundcheck themselves, and went straight from soundcheck to first song without any kind of introduction or greeting – not the best way to grab the attention of potential new fans if you ask me. Gyllenhammar did ask on a later point how many Swedes were in the audience, to which a large percentage of people replied, then he went on to ask how many came from Deutschland and garnered a much lower response, and finally he asked if there were any Englishmen present, to which there came a single reply. This person was then dedicated the song Deep In The Woods, a nice thing to do surely, but seeing as we were in Slovenia, why didn’t he ever ask how many of the listeners came from this country?

“Are there any loud people here? I don’t need any speakers because I’m fucking loud!”
- Gyllenhammar (vocals/guitar)

The music was rocking away like it always does, but the style didn’t really grab me this early afternoon, and the fact that this was one of the festivals most tired and uninspired deliveries didn’t exactly help either. Only guitarist David Johannesson broke the monotony with a little bit of posing at specific parts in the set, but the rest really were a drag to watch I’m sad to say.
Not surprisingly, this was also reflected in the crowd, which apart from taking part in some singing during some of the choruses, didn’t exactly strain themselves with any type of physical activity. The only real relief of this sluggish concert was the small amount of humour provided again by Johannesson as the emptied a bottle of water on his own head and then shook it off so that it rained down over a guard standing in front of him.
I can’t imagine what it might have been, but something finally managed to put Gyllenhammar in a good mood though, as he could be seen going down into the security pit straight after the show and he stayed there, speaking to fans, long after the rest of the band had packed up and left.

Even though I tried hard to give Mustasch a fair chance, they had after all given the impression the last time I saw them that they actually had a sense of performance to them, I can only say that this was one totally insignificant gig, and we would all have been better off spending our time at the beach bar. It may have been a one of a kind experience, but that only meant that I could rejoice over the fact that it wouldn’t happen again.

Setlist:

Heresy Blasphemy
Bring Me Everyone
Deep In The Woods
Destroyed By Destruction
Speed Metal
Double Nature
I Hunt Alone