Ah, there’s nothing like the sound of power metal in the morning!

Thaurorod was the first band for us on the third day of Metalcamp, and well, morning is stretching it as it was already half past six in the afternoon, but that’s Metalcamp for you; sleep long, have a relaxing time in town and/or at the beach, and don’t stress because the music doesn’t start until late anyway.
Still, I’d say people may have been relaxing a bit too much this day, as the crowd who had shown up for Thaurorod wasn’t very impressive in size.
What they lacked in size they made up for in dedication however, and it was easy to see that the people who were standing around and singing along knew full well beforehand the music and what Thaurorod are all about. That much was easy to see already in the opening track, Warrior’s Heart, as some were throwing bananas up on the stage (if you don’t understand this, check out the video for the song); this was greeted by big smiles from the band members who joined in on the fun. Heck, vocalist Michele Luppi even picked one up and ate it!

“Thank you for the banana!”
- Michele Luppi (vocals)

Clearly a sound diet was important for the frontman, as we were told he had just recently before this gig undergone heart surgery; I don’t know why exactly, but I was glad he was able to be here and pay for us anyway, and even more impressed by the fact that the operation didn’t seem to affect his performing skills in the least!
What did affect the performance however was the intense heat of the day; the band was as always full of energy and the whole line-up was rocking and pulling one metal-pose after the other out of the bag like they always do, but I still got the feeling that it was at a little bit calmer than usual, and I guess this form for weather isn’t exactly commonplace in Finland where most of the band hails from. You could clearly see the sweat pouring from them up there!
Luppi however, who is from Italy should be more used to this stuff, but as I said before, he did impress with his performance. His Italian heritage came to show in another way as well, as he chose to speak some Italian at the concert for the pleasure of his “Italian friends” as he called them. Well, the festival is close to Italy, so I guess it was likely enough that he did have some homeland pals present.
What, or I should probably say who, wasn’t present however was one of the guitarists, Emil Pohjalainen. For some reason I didn’t see him in the beginning, and it didn’t look like he actually showed up until the second song of the set. To me it looked like he had had some technical problems, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, he didn’t let it affect him in the rest of the set, which was good.

One other aspect I really liked about this particular gig was that Luppi made an effort in making as much info about the band known to the crowd; during Guide For The Blind he introduced all the members by name, and he also introduced several of the songs by name, which I think is a great idea for a band of this size. This way it will be easier for people to go home and search for it if there was some specific aspect or tune they fell for during the concert. Smart move in other words.
He also introduced a completely new song, so new in fact that even though this was the third time I saw the band this year I hadn’t heard it before! The song was called Ghost In Me, and it followed the theme and style of the band very well so fans should not be disappointed here.

As always so far I enjoyed myself in the presence of Thaurorod. This wasn’t the best gig I have seen with them, mainly because of the things I’ve mentioned already in the review, but it was still a good show and an easy and pleasing way to start the day off. More of this is welcome.

Setlist:

Warrior’s Heart
Upon Haunted Battlefields
Morning Lake
Tales Of The End
Ghost In Me
Scion Of Stars
Shadows And Rain