Danefae is a young Danish band, both in average members age, as well as in years playing together, and yet they’ve managed to achieve much in such a short time. Winning the Danish Wacken Metal Battle contest (at the time of writing, the finals at Wacken haven’t happened yet, so we’ll see how it goes there), and playing Denmark’s premium metal festival, Copenhell, to name but a few highlights.
It would be easy to categorize them as a spiritual descendant of Huldre, but that would only partially cover the truth as Danefae has made quite a unique sound for themselves that make them stand out amongst the myriads of folk metal bands out there.

Having two such prominent gigs in the same year is enough to make anyone excited, and when you’re too excited mistakes can sneak in below the radar. Thus vocalist Anne Olesen opened the band’s gig at the Gehenna stage by powerfully shouting out “Wacken Metal Battle!” as a greeting. Regret was instantly painted on her face, but she shrugged it off with a laugh, and after the first song was done, she immediately apologised for her mistake with a smile, and that was enough to move us along without giving it a second thought - it was after all the music and the performance that was important here.
Danefae had a delightfully heavy sound which sadly lost some of their finer details, at least when standing up front. They had a keyboard on stage, but most of the keyboard parts were pre-recorded soundclips oddly enough. In that respect, it was also odd (odd but positive) to see that the backing vocals and choirs weren’t pre-recorded, but were delivered by two live members, Camilla and Andrea, who stood on either side of and slightly behind Olesen. For unknown reasons, Jonas Agerskov wasn’t with the band today so Frederik had stepped in to help with the drums, and no, I didn’t catch the last names of any of them, sadly. Neither did I catch the last name or band name of Jesper who came and growled for one song, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was an interesting break from the form of the rest of the show. Not that I’d want it in every song, but for a single spot like this, it was nice.

Now, whether the many live stand-in’s were the reason or not, I cannot say, but for a long time, Danefae’s performance felt a bit stiff. Not that they weren’t happy to be playing here, there’s no doubt about that, but it was very much a case of “I have my spot, you have yours, and we’ll stay in these spots without further consideration”, and sadly that clashed with the lively and spontaneous spirit of the music. Who knows, might just have been nerves, but if they’re to stand a chance at the much larger Wacken Open Air, they’d do well in shaking those nerves or whatever it is, and let the performance run as free as the music - just my suggestion. In the last song, Sang Om Håb if I’m not mistaken, they did let the rigid structure fall to the side and they all danced and had fun, and that was such a delight to see, so more of that. please.

Even though Danefae is as new and relatively an unknown entity as they are so far, it was nice to see that even though Gehenna is the smallest of the ‘real’ stages, the place was pretty much packed for their show. People mostly stood and listened, and cheered the band on between songs, but on the other hand, the music isn’t really inviting to circle pits and the like, so it was hardly a sign of discontent amongst the audience. In fact, all the faces around me were smiling throughout.

I was smiling too, because despite the small notes that can be improved upon, Danefae delivered a good show and fantastically well-played and personal music, and it’ll be fun to see where they take it from here. I’ve no doubt this won’t be their last visit to Copenhell.

Setlist:

Vandskabt
Skyer
Vætter
Natsværmer
Blind
P.S. Far Er Død
Sang Om Håb