Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Moonsorrow played as part of the second wing of the Pagan Fest here in the United States. They played third in the lineup for the evening, right before the awesome band, Primordial.

While in the photo pit waiting for bands to start, I often talk with those who have pushed and pressed themselves up against the barrier to see who they specifically came to see on a night this full of different styles. Tonight, many of the fans up front came specifically to see Moonsorrow.

The band came out with blood or war paint covering their exposed flesh. The group consisted of two guitarists, a drummer, a keyboard player, and the lead singer who also played bass.

Having not heard them before, I was not familiar with their style but knew they hailed out of Helsinki, Finland and were of the Pagan Metal genre just from the tour they were a part of. They proved to be one of the heavier, more brutal acts of the evening.

They utilized the dual guitars to build a fast frenzy of sound which induced hair whipping, both their own and that of their fans. The vocalist had an extremely harsh, brutal delivery which honestly made it hard to make out any of the lyrics which may have been in their native language any ways, but it still sounded cool.

They were definitely interesting to watch and got the crowd excited with the fore mentioned hair whipping and also some mosh circles forming through out their performance.

Overall I think they were a good addition to the Pagan Fest lineup and lived up to their own description of themselves "Epic heathen metal from Finland".

I thought the keyboards were a little too hidden in the wall of guitars but they did add a majestic dynamic, especially for the intro and outro of songs. The other members of the band singing in the chorus sections also lent power and more of that epic quality which is something that many of the Pagan style bands have incorporated to great effect.