After the catastrophe that was Týr’s concert at Rockharz in 2011, the band was quickly offered a reconciliatory spot on the 2012 billing, and that was basically reason enough to make me wish to return to the lovely festival as well.

“Thanks for showing up in spite of the rain!”
- Heri Joensen (vocals/guitar)

Yes, since Suidakra’s show earlier in the day the rain had returned with a vengeance, but that didn’t stop the German crowd from showing up to this highly anticipated show. Well, highly anticipated by me certainly, but judging from the number of people at my sides I wasn’t the only one wanting to hear the Faroese Vikings’ tales of bravery and combat from olden times.
Thus after a slow and tension building intro, the show erupted full speed with Flames Of The Free, a song which in addition to being a great opener also set the tone for the rest of the gig – as with this one, most of the songs today would come from the The Lay Of Thrym album, with only a few short excursions to By The Light Of The Northern Star and Land. Basically, if you were expecting a lot of old goodies you would walk away with that wish unfulfilled, but looking away from that one point of critique for a moment, Týr had constructed a very good setlist for the length of the show which held both the fast attacks, mid-tempo epics and even a single power-ballad in the form of Evening Star.

“This weather reminds me of Scotland, and Scotland reminds me of Norway, and that leads us to Sinklars Vísa!”
- Joensen (vocals/guitar)

Despite a few winding song-introductions, it seemed like the band had been looking forward to this just as much as the crowd had, and that they were full of energy. Joensen even tried his tongue with a bit of German at one point, and although I didn’t get a word of what he said I could tell by the loud cheers around me that he didn’t do too badly at it – thankfully for me he quickly switched back to English though, probably thinking it was better to leave them wanting more than to go on and mess up.
The energy of the performance was as good as it ever was as well, with the largely grinning Gunnar Thomsen running from side to side and basically making personal eye-contact with each and everyone present (you just can’t have a bad gig with this guy in the band!), and the rest of the band looked as tough as they usually do as riffed away with muscles flexing in the grey afternoon.

“Look who decided to show up!”
- Joensen (vocals/guitar)

The rain had thankfully stopped after the third song, but it took all the way to the last song before the sun finally peaked out behind the grey skies, and it was a welcome sight!
Still, the bleak weather hadn’t had any major impact on the good mood in the crowd – Thomsen had managed to start a loud “hey” chant for By The Sword In My Hand, but other than that the band really didn’t need to ask the audience to join in, the loud sing-along’s and rhythmic chanting came all by itself, a sure sign that what Týr was delivering was working well here in the midst of Germany.
There was even a long and loud “Zugabe” chant at the end of the gig, taking the words right out of my mouth that this could have gone on for longer still without anyone being upset by it. The gig had reached its end though, but instead of leaving us high and dry Joensen once again entered the stage to at least hand out a few guitar picks before the next band was scheduled to take over...

The problem in 2011 had stemmed from bad sound due to backstage people not being up to date with the equipment they were using, and honestly, from what we heard in the crowd, the sound wasn’t much better this year around, what with the bass deafening out most other sounds and the guitars being far too low in the mix, but luckily it was still good enough for the band to be able to play, which was a vast improvement.
Still, I will say that I walked away with no ill feelings whatsoever, as the gig as a whole, what with the set and the energy, had completely kicked my Scandinavian ass!
Only one thing, if it was up to me the band should have changed Evening Star with Konning Hans instead, another slow song from the same album as the former, but far more interesting if you ask me. Maybe next time?

Setlist:

Flames Of The Free
Shadow Of The Swastika
Hall Of Freedom
Sinklars Vísa
Evening Star
Hold The Heathen Hammer High
By The Sword In My Hand
The Lay Of Thrym