Valkyrja

The Rock, Copenhagen - 2010

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

Darkness had descended on The Rock, in the form of a triple blackmetal line-up lead by Marduk. With them they had brought Ragnarok, and this, the first band of the night, Valkyrja.
Valkyrja hail from Sweden, just as tonight’s headliners, but here they spoke in English, for better understanding...

As Valkyrja entered the stage to the sound of a stormy weather sounding intro audio, it was clear to see by their pale, skinny bodies, ammo-belts and grim corpse-paint that these young men had been taught in the old school of black metal, and yet (or maybe more because of this) I was given quite a surprise when they began playing, and instead of high-pitched shrieks from the beyond, singer Andreas ‘A.L.’ Lind had a much deeper voice, almost bordering on death metal grunts at times.
But don’t let this fool you, this was true black metal through and through, and although they didn’t reach the same class, some hints towards Dissection could be heard throughout, with musical changes from full on blast to more melodic pieces, and back again. Valkyrja was further helped along by a fantastic mix, courtesy of The Rock’s sound-personnel. The only drawback with this was that it was easier to hear that the band hadn’t used as much time on the actual sound as they could have, resulting in it sounding like the music was played through a can...

Valkyrja came on right on time, and what surprised me was that there were already a great number of people present; earlier experiences have taught me that the crowd usually only comes around in time for the main band, but this was clearly not the case here.
Still, even though they were great in number, they didn’t make much noise, and this seemed to bother A.L., as he asked repeatedly if we were alive, and after only getting a few shouts in response he went on to demanding proof that we were in fact alive and listening. By this he managed to get a line of headbangers going at it in the front, but not much else happened, and after this he let the subject lie...

I must admit, Valkyrja wasn’t necessarily something for me, but they were much better than I had anticipated, and all the clichés the pulled on stage actually felt real, and not something just used for effect.
They played a much more interesting gig than Ragnarok after them, and I would even be so bold as to say that they were up and rivalled Marduk for the win of the evening!

Setlist:

Oceans To Dust
Laments Of The Destroyed
The Vigil
Welcoming Worms
Catharsis (Contaminate The Earth)
The Womb Of Disease
Frostland

Valkyrja

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