Vintersorg
Månegarm Open Air - 2024
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Oh come on, you knew this was coming! If you’ve paid even the least attention to my reviews of the past, you should know that there was next to nothing that would keep me away from a Vintersorg gig, and why would it? It’s been seven years since the band last played live, and even that was a rare, unique event!
So here we are, travelling to a brand new place for us, far up in the Swedish nature, to catch another glimpse of this great band.
“I know many of you have travelled a long way to be here, so let’s make this the best Vintersorg show of all time!”
- Andreas ‘Mr. V’ Hedlund (vocals/guitar)
Yes, Månegarm had hit the nail on the head in booking Vintersorg for this year’s festival - talk about a unique opportunity. Even though Vintersorg wasn’t even one of the few non-Swedish bands on the roster, there’s no doubt they had the biggest international pull, and apart from getting our attention, it certainly set the festival on the map for many new fans through this show. This was of course something the band was well aware of, and I’m sure the reason Hedlund, as the only Swede on stage through the festival, chose to speak in English between songs. That’s catering for the fans, no doubt about it, but interestingly, even though he chose to speak in English, all of his English language songs shone with their absence from the setlist.
The show itself opened with a bombastic intro which saw fists and horns take immediately to the air as the musicians entered. For their first song, they went all the way back to their roots, as they played Tussmörkret from the Hedniskhjärtad EP, and I have to say, when the double bass drum kicked in with long time collaborator Benny Hägglund behind the skins, it was truly music to my ears, as the saying goes. What a feeling!
Apart from Hägglund, the regular trio of Hedlund, Mattias Marklund, and Simon Lundström was also rounded out with the help of one Roy Peter ‘Mr. Wild’ Wester (Vandelay) on keyboards, and further along in the show, we also heard the vocal capabilities of Frida Eurenius (Spiral Skies), and if you want a quick game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with another one of the bands here, Eurenius used to sing for Lapis Lazuli (which is where we knew her from) at the same time as Sandra Wallo played bass for them, and Wallo would later go on to play bass for Havamal for a few years, so there you go.
Back to the show at hand however, the band was really delivering on the goods. Apart from some initial problems with the sound of Marklund’s guitar, the sound was impeccable, and it can’t be praised enough that the band chose to go with live musicians instead of backtracking - it just makes such a difference in feeling and delivery.
The setlist was a well-rounded one, going all the way back to the beginnings as we’ve touched upon, up to the latest release in 2017’s Till Fjälls, Del II, with the emphasis lying on the early material. While this makes perfect sense for this setting, and there not being a single song I’d want to take out, there were whole albums which had to be skipped for time restraints, and I would have loved to hear something from them as well.
On the plus side, the band continued the trend they’d set at the House of Metal show in 2017, in that they wrote and performed a song specifically for this concert, never to be seen or heard again (outside of YouTube). The song this time was called I Månslukarens Karga Luftströmmar (In The Barren Windcurrents Of The Moon Devourer), because, you know, Månegarm is the creature that devours the moon at the end of time.
The song featured harsh vocalized verses and clean sung choruses, a fast tempo with a slower, more melodic break leading into the finishing part with repeated choruses. I’d say the style was not far removed from the Ödemarkens Son era of the band, and had we known it beforehand, I’m sure it’d been a blast to sing along to. The chorus melody was luckily seemingly easy enough to pick up though, so we could make an effort at the last couple of choruses even though this was a once in a lifetime event.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the only live debut at the gig. Straight from the applauded Cosmic Genesis album, we got Naturens Galleri, one of my personal favourites off said album. For some odd reason, it’s never been played before, and it was a delight to see it out and about here - and it absolutely holds up in a live setting, have no worries about that!
I mentioned there wasn’t time for all of Vintersorg’s albums to get air time, and thus only two of the so far three elemental albums were present. I mentioned that Eurenius was guesting the gig, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that one of these songs was Rymdens Brinnande Öar, although she also returned for a short time towards the end of Till Fjälls. I’m not mentioning this solely to talk about how good they sounded (which they did, but again, so did every song played), but I wanted to bring up how good Eurenius sounded by herself, and how well she worked with the rest of the band. As mentioned, I’ve only previously seen her many moons ago with Lapis Lazuli, and that gig left a far from positive impression on me - this however did much to rectify that, thankfully.
I also brought it up to mention that Hedlund addressed that he was hard at work on the fourth and final installment in the elemental cycle, the water centred album Vattenkrafternas Spel, and this was, not surprisingly, met by overwhelming approval from the crowd.
Crowd approval, and going back to this being a great pick for the festival, was obvious throughout the concert, as the only band to rival Vintersorg in popularity was Månegarm themselves. between every song, a loud “Vintersorg” chant rose from the fans, prompting Hedlund to finally address it by smilingly mention that “Yeah, you’re at the right concert!”
Further fan service was seen in that Hedlund was throwing CD’s to the crowd as soon as he hit the stage - it being the newly released debut Dunkelglöd from his more folky side project Dimbild. Thinking about it, Dimbild would have been a great hire for the acoustic day of the festival, especially now that Hedlund and the gang were here anyway - oh well, another year, perhaps?
I had anticipated that this would be the highlight of the festival for me, and I was not disappointed. Vintersorg dominated the festival from the second the band took the stage, maybe even from their earlier meet & greet earlier in the day, and they held the fire burning for every second allotted to them. For someone playing so seldom, the security and delivery was nothing less than impressive, and the feeling comes back to me even now that I sit and write this after the fact. Outstanding.
Setlist:
Tussmörkret
För Kung Och Fosterland
Under Norrskenets Fallande Ljusspel
Vildmarkens Förtrollande Stämmor
Ödemarkens Son
Myren
Naturens Galleri
Asatider
I Månslukarens Karga Vindströmmar
Jökelväktaren
Rymdens Brinnande Öar (feat. Frida Eurenius)
Till Fjälls (feat. Frida Eurenius)
So here we are, travelling to a brand new place for us, far up in the Swedish nature, to catch another glimpse of this great band.
“I know many of you have travelled a long way to be here, so let’s make this the best Vintersorg show of all time!”
- Andreas ‘Mr. V’ Hedlund (vocals/guitar)
Yes, Månegarm had hit the nail on the head in booking Vintersorg for this year’s festival - talk about a unique opportunity. Even though Vintersorg wasn’t even one of the few non-Swedish bands on the roster, there’s no doubt they had the biggest international pull, and apart from getting our attention, it certainly set the festival on the map for many new fans through this show. This was of course something the band was well aware of, and I’m sure the reason Hedlund, as the only Swede on stage through the festival, chose to speak in English between songs. That’s catering for the fans, no doubt about it, but interestingly, even though he chose to speak in English, all of his English language songs shone with their absence from the setlist.
The show itself opened with a bombastic intro which saw fists and horns take immediately to the air as the musicians entered. For their first song, they went all the way back to their roots, as they played Tussmörkret from the Hedniskhjärtad EP, and I have to say, when the double bass drum kicked in with long time collaborator Benny Hägglund behind the skins, it was truly music to my ears, as the saying goes. What a feeling!
Apart from Hägglund, the regular trio of Hedlund, Mattias Marklund, and Simon Lundström was also rounded out with the help of one Roy Peter ‘Mr. Wild’ Wester (Vandelay) on keyboards, and further along in the show, we also heard the vocal capabilities of Frida Eurenius (Spiral Skies), and if you want a quick game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with another one of the bands here, Eurenius used to sing for Lapis Lazuli (which is where we knew her from) at the same time as Sandra Wallo played bass for them, and Wallo would later go on to play bass for Havamal for a few years, so there you go.
Back to the show at hand however, the band was really delivering on the goods. Apart from some initial problems with the sound of Marklund’s guitar, the sound was impeccable, and it can’t be praised enough that the band chose to go with live musicians instead of backtracking - it just makes such a difference in feeling and delivery.
The setlist was a well-rounded one, going all the way back to the beginnings as we’ve touched upon, up to the latest release in 2017’s Till Fjälls, Del II, with the emphasis lying on the early material. While this makes perfect sense for this setting, and there not being a single song I’d want to take out, there were whole albums which had to be skipped for time restraints, and I would have loved to hear something from them as well.
On the plus side, the band continued the trend they’d set at the House of Metal show in 2017, in that they wrote and performed a song specifically for this concert, never to be seen or heard again (outside of YouTube). The song this time was called I Månslukarens Karga Luftströmmar (In The Barren Windcurrents Of The Moon Devourer), because, you know, Månegarm is the creature that devours the moon at the end of time.
The song featured harsh vocalized verses and clean sung choruses, a fast tempo with a slower, more melodic break leading into the finishing part with repeated choruses. I’d say the style was not far removed from the Ödemarkens Son era of the band, and had we known it beforehand, I’m sure it’d been a blast to sing along to. The chorus melody was luckily seemingly easy enough to pick up though, so we could make an effort at the last couple of choruses even though this was a once in a lifetime event.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the only live debut at the gig. Straight from the applauded Cosmic Genesis album, we got Naturens Galleri, one of my personal favourites off said album. For some odd reason, it’s never been played before, and it was a delight to see it out and about here - and it absolutely holds up in a live setting, have no worries about that!
I mentioned there wasn’t time for all of Vintersorg’s albums to get air time, and thus only two of the so far three elemental albums were present. I mentioned that Eurenius was guesting the gig, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that one of these songs was Rymdens Brinnande Öar, although she also returned for a short time towards the end of Till Fjälls. I’m not mentioning this solely to talk about how good they sounded (which they did, but again, so did every song played), but I wanted to bring up how good Eurenius sounded by herself, and how well she worked with the rest of the band. As mentioned, I’ve only previously seen her many moons ago with Lapis Lazuli, and that gig left a far from positive impression on me - this however did much to rectify that, thankfully.
I also brought it up to mention that Hedlund addressed that he was hard at work on the fourth and final installment in the elemental cycle, the water centred album Vattenkrafternas Spel, and this was, not surprisingly, met by overwhelming approval from the crowd.
Crowd approval, and going back to this being a great pick for the festival, was obvious throughout the concert, as the only band to rival Vintersorg in popularity was Månegarm themselves. between every song, a loud “Vintersorg” chant rose from the fans, prompting Hedlund to finally address it by smilingly mention that “Yeah, you’re at the right concert!”
Further fan service was seen in that Hedlund was throwing CD’s to the crowd as soon as he hit the stage - it being the newly released debut Dunkelglöd from his more folky side project Dimbild. Thinking about it, Dimbild would have been a great hire for the acoustic day of the festival, especially now that Hedlund and the gang were here anyway - oh well, another year, perhaps?
I had anticipated that this would be the highlight of the festival for me, and I was not disappointed. Vintersorg dominated the festival from the second the band took the stage, maybe even from their earlier meet & greet earlier in the day, and they held the fire burning for every second allotted to them. For someone playing so seldom, the security and delivery was nothing less than impressive, and the feeling comes back to me even now that I sit and write this after the fact. Outstanding.
Setlist:
Tussmörkret
För Kung Och Fosterland
Under Norrskenets Fallande Ljusspel
Vildmarkens Förtrollande Stämmor
Ödemarkens Son
Myren
Naturens Galleri
Asatider
I Månslukarens Karga Vindströmmar
Jökelväktaren
Rymdens Brinnande Öar (feat. Frida Eurenius)
Till Fjälls (feat. Frida Eurenius)