Malrun was one band I was ready to do a little extra legwork to be able to see. Out of pure inattention we missed out on them last year at Rockharz, and I have in the meantime fallen for vocalist Jacob Løbner’s other band, Boil, so even though it meant getting up and out to the festival much earlier than my lazy body would have wished for after the great day before, I was hoping it would all pay off in the end…

“We hope you’ve had all of the hang-over cleared out of your skulls and that you are ready to get the party started again!”
- Jacob Løbner (vocals)

This early, the happy hour was still running in the bars, so to get the party started I stood sipping on a cold beer in the warm weather, waiting for the band to come on whilst admiring their backdrop which was too wide for the small Pandæmonium stage and had to be folded at the ends in order for it to fit.
There was a nice crowd gathered, something I found impressive given the early hour (13:30 to be precise) and the small stage, but of course Malrun was the second band of the day, and the larger stages hadn’t opened as of yet, so if there was one place to be it was here.
Apart from the large backdrop, the band had also decorated the stage with some smaller podiums between the monitors, and these were frequently used as the band took the stage and started out with Face Of The Unknown which blended seamlessly into Shadowborn, both taken from their latest album, The Empty Frame.
It was easy to see that the band wasn’t combating a hang-over, as they delivered a very lively show where especially Løbner and the two guitarists, Patrick Nybroe and Mads Ingemann were in the forefront and appealing to the audience – bassist Ulrik Sølgaard wanted to join in the action I’m sure, but unfortunately he kept on getting tangled up in his mic-stand or knocking it over. Drummer Mikkel Johnsen kept down the back end and led the tempo of the show, but he was also more than once visited by Løbner who would get up and bang a few cymbals with his hands just for a laugh.

The crowd on the other hand needed a little more time to wake up, but already during the second song horns were being raised in Malrun’s honour, and some loosened neck-muscles soon followed.
To show appreciation for the crowd’s participation, and build on it, Løbner jumped the fence during Bloody Mary and went out as far into the audience as the mic-cable would allow him. With him he had a small megaphone which he used occasionally for the effect his voice got, but more often the effect was that he sung together with the enthusiastic crowd around him.
By now the party had indeed gotten back on track, and everyone around me seemed to enjoy the gig as much as I did, which was quite a lot!
Even though Løbner would stay on the stage for the rest of the concert, it didn’t mean the end of liveliness on our side of the fence though, and the headbanging turned a good notch up as Ostracized was kicked off with the comment from Løbner that “...now we’re getting evil!”

Yes, Malrun was certainly making an impression.
Compared to Boil, this felt more freeform rock ‘n’ roll to me, a style which worked like a charm in this live setting. At the time I was wondering if it would work as well on album though, as so much energy came combined in the music and the performance, but I have after a few listens later on come to understand that Malrun is very capable of holding the steam up in disc format as well. Maybe not exactly something I would put on repeat, but competent, engaging and professional. Denmark has one more band to be proud of.

Setlist:

Face Of The Unknown
Shadowborn
The Iron March
Bloody Mary
Moving Into Fear
The Jovian Transit
Ostracized
Trim The Fat