Wulfgar was the second band on our schedule at Tivolirock, and as To Dust before them, Wulfgar was also playing on the NEMIS (NEw Music In Sweden) stage. They were announced as Midgardian Metal, and apparently this meant Amon Amarth inspired death metal with Viking (surprise) inspired lyrics.

“It’s good to see so many people here!”
- Morgan ‘Mogge’ Löfstedt (vocals)

Sure, there were more people here now than there had been for To Dust earlier on, but there were still only about 20-30 people, so I was sort of wondering what kind of crowd Wulfgar were used to…
Whatever the band was used to though, I am certain that no one here was used to seeing/hearing Wulfgar, at least not in this way; only earlier this year, the vocalist on the bands two full-length albums, Emil ‘Ewil’ Augustsson, left the band (in what manner I know not) leaving the spot open for prior bassist Löfstedt to fill the void. With this change a new bassist was of course also required, and one was found in Adam Nilsson, live and session bass player for Nattsmyg.
The rest of the line-up included drummer Thommy ‘Grandmaster T’ Lindskog and the two guitarists Jimmie Mattisson and Reine Karlsson, making Wulfgar a more regular size quintet than To Dust and their sextet including a keyboard. Now, there are (to my knowledge at least) no connection between the two bands, and the only reason I bring the latter up again is because in comparison Wulfgar clearly were better suited in size for the very small stage both bands played on, and yet there really wasn’t any more action to be seen from them. Actually, there were less things happening with Wulfgar, which is a shame as they had more space to make do with! The only recognisable thing about the band was the leather mask Löfstedt was wearing, a thing that in an unfortunate twist made him look more like a deep-sea fish than the mighty warrior I suspect he was going for...

On the surface of things, it did look like Wulfgar at least had figured out how to draw a dedicated crowd, as I saw several of the people present at the gig wearing the bands merchandise in the form of Midgardian Metal (incidentally the name of the bands’ latest album) t-shirts, but I was surprised and disappointed in noticing that these people were more interested in speaking amongst themselves than they were in supporting their friends and family (because I can only assume that this is what they were) in the band.
A sad state of affairs, but on the other hand, the people on stage didn’t really give them much reason to do anything else; except for an out of place “I hope you’re all feeling good” from Löfstedt, the band didn’t do much else than stand in place, doing a sort of lazy in-between nodding and headbanging.

I mentioned in the beginning that Wulfgar sounded inspired by Amon Amarth, and how the hell I managed to come to that conclusion in spite of the awful sound where the drums were drowning out pretty much everything else where I was standing I have no idea today, but this should in no way be misinterpreted as the two bands were equal, or even close so, in quality – whereas Amon Amarth have managed to create a very personal sound in spite of coming from the somewhat generic sounding Stockholm death scene, Wulfgar had nothing personal in their sound, and this added to a complete lack of hooks and recognisable and epic choruses, made for one long half hour, one of the longest during the entire day...

Setlist:

Fight, Win, Kill & Conquer
Daughter Of Darkness
Blood Of Kvasir
The Death Of Yggdrasil
Brothers Of War
Nifelheim
Thundering Winds
From The Ashes
Die For My Clan
Where The Dark Elves Dwell