The previous year 2005 pleased us with a great number of foreign bands who came to play here in Russia, a very large part of these bands were from the North. We can mention Candlemass and Moonsorrow, Ancient and Korpiklaani, Sentenced…the list is long and it’s difficult to remember all at once. Finntroll - another guests from the Northern shores turned out to be a fine Christmas present for all the Russian fans. The band has already played in Moscow together with Impaled Nazarene a couple of years ago but I didn’t see them play that day. And so everyone how came to SDK MAI on December the 10th got a chance to repair an omission.

Lot’s of snow, strong wind, cold weather and other charms of Russian winter are all typical for December. People just want to find a nice little place where they can warm up their bodies and souls. There’re plenty of ways to do that. But definitely the best variant to warm up on the 10th of December was to visit Finntroll gig ant to see hot guys from Finland play. As we were approaching SDK MAI we saw a big crowd in front of the hall waiting for the concert, Russians just love finnish humppa.

Surprisingly the concert began on time so we didn’t have to wait long, approximately at 20:00 the band got on stage and started to rock. Six men in leather skirts and with battle make-up made everyone dance and sing with them their captivating songs. The brisk beginning was a little ruined by the sound quality: the drums and the bass were dominating but the melodic part was totally missing, I mean the rhythm-guitars, keyboards and vocals. Nevertheless this wasn’t a big deal for the fans who came to rock, and all the dancing began from the very first song. You have had to be careful while crossing the hall and had to watch out for the dancing fans so they don’t bump into you. As the show continued the trolls became more confident ‘cause at first they seemed quite constrained despite their cheerful music. The atmosphere and the response of the audience made the guys relax and be themselves. Some time later they were rocking with everybody else and that is what the audience expected. To the middle of the concert the sound also got better, and you could hear the guitars and the vocals.

The Russians definitely can be proud of themselves, the band was really amazed by the warm welcome so that Wilska invited the fans to sing Trollhammaren with him. Well actually the people didn’t need any invitations, they were singing from the very first song.

On the whole the concert was good, well for me personally it was good ‘cause the show lacked something that could make it an excellent gig. Still there were enough people like me who just stood quietly behind all the jumping fans and watched the band play.

So to sum up I should say that probably everyone warmed up during the gig with all those songs and dances but definitely less people felt the real heat of the real pagan fire.

Photos here.

Set-list:
Blodnatt
Manniskopesten
Eliytres
Svartberg
Hemkomst
Midnattens Widunder
Krigsmjod
Nattfodd
Vatteanda
Slaget Vid Blodsalv
Fodosagan
Trollhammaren
Ursvamp
Kitteldags
Jaktens Tid
Grottans Barn
Det Iskalla Trollbodet

Encore:

Fiskarens Fiende
Skogens Hamnd
Bastuvisan
Forsvinn Du Som Lyser
Nattfodd(2nd time)
Segersang

ThyDoom thanks CDK MAI and personally Dina Drozdova for the provided journalistic accreditation!

Translated by La Sorcière

Написал - Helvete and Lord Ash