Arnheim Metal Meeting 2005
There was an absolute snow chaos when we quested for the Arnhem Metal Meeting in Holland. Because of the resulting slow pace on the highway we arrived in Arnhem behind schedule at about 4 p.m. So we unfortunately had missed the first bands, but the Running Order of the One-day-festival promised some more interesting concerts. However, it was not possible to witness every gig, since the 14 bands had been allocated in three different halls, so that some shows overlapped. After having entered the hall, we first couldn’t believe our eyes: the location could be described as relatively extraordinary. One felt like being in an opera and only the visitors reminded oneself that one attended a Metal festival. There definitely was a nice atmosphere.
However: We, as fast as possible, went to watch ENSIFERUM, for whom we fortunately arrived just in time! The show rocked like always. After beginning with a new Intro the gig continued with common burner like ”Token Of Time”, ”Iron”, ”Into Battle” or ”Tale Of Revenge”, but the audience today had the privilege to listen to a new song of the upcoming EP ”Dragonheads” for the first time, as well as to the Amorphis Cover ”Into Hiding”. The reason for kicking ”Lai Lai Hei” and the ”Battle Song” out of the program still remains unknowable to me. The gig was again ingenious nonetheless and after looking around in the audience at the concert I surely wasn’t the only one to think so since everybody was going crazy.
The next band on the Running Order was ENSLAVED. Unfortunately I had never heard much of them before, nonetheless their concert pleased me. And as much as I could see from the beer tent, their power also rubbed off on the crowd, since everybody seemed to have much fun at the gig. I didn’t leave the beer tent for some while, until GRAVE were about to play. The Swedes unremittingly played a two fisted set which was interrupted only by short announcements. There was not much action on stage, but that didn’t seem to disturb the banging crowd in the first rows. Afterwards it was time for the Doom Metal guys of CANDLEMASS who seamlessly let their opener ”Mirror Mirror” flow into the song ”Bewitched”. Doom Metal normally isn’t my cup of tea, but most of the people on the Arnhem Metal Meeting seemed to have another opinion, since there was a great atmosphere in the crowd during the gig and every song got much applause. Messiah sang his way through ”Black Dwarf”, ”Solitude”, ”Copernicus” and even threw ”Samarithan” and ”Crystal Ball” in. The sound was really good as well as the interaction of the band, which one couldn’t nag about.
Our next personal highlight after Ensiferum were THYRFING who entered the stage saturated in blood. Now that promised to become an interesting concert ! They at least convinced me with their Viking/Death Metal and also the headbangers around me appeared to be satisfied. THYRFING’s set contained songs like ”Digerdöden”, ”Mjölner”, ”Raven Eyes”, ”From Wilderness Came Death” and ”The Voyager”. It was a really convincing show – musically like optically. The next and last band to play that day were DESTRUCTION. The German Thrash heroes came up with old like new material which they presented in their well known mind-blowing style. Of course the moshpit was a must again. It was not necessarily my kind of music, but the professional interaction of the musicians gained my recognition for sure.
My conclusion after the long and exhausting day was that despite the weather conditions it was worth making that nice and short trip to Holland. I as a die-hard Pagan Metal fan of course liked ENSIFERUM and THYRFING best, but also the other bands knew how to convince.
The Arnhem Metal Meeting surely is always worth a visit !!
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