Winter has finally begun in Finland, and on this frozen midweek night with the streets covered in snow, only the most dedicated bunch showed up at Bar Loose for the second date of the Finnish leg of EREB ALTOR‘s tour (the first being in Turku, then Tampere, before heading down to Tallinn and the Baltics).
Opening the night was Italian ambient/black metallers ENISUM, who stood out with the weird-looking tree branch made into a mic stand prop in front of the stage. Perhaps not the easiest thing to carry on a European tour, but in support of their seventh full-length, “Frozen Mountains,” it adds to the atmosphere and natural theme of their music. One needs to be in a very specific mood to enjoy this kind of music, and my guess is that the audience was still a bit too frosty to warm up to their slow, solemn soundscape.
EREB ALTOR, on the other hand, had a completely different response from the audience (of course being here pretty much for them). With the bearded—but now bald—bass player Björn back in the game after Mikael‘s passing almost exactly a year ago, the guys performed with enthusiasm, and the crowd answered them in kind. The Gävle-based combo led by Crister “Mats” Olsson certainly showed good energy playing a bunch of new songs from the latest “Vargtimman,” as well as older classics. The people in the front were so fired up they seemed to forget the below-zero temperatures outside, and the evening turned into a cozy, intimate event, almost like a private party. After the encore, though, it was time to head back outside; after all, for most, work was waiting the morning after.
ENISUM
EREB ALTOR
Photos by Marco Manzi
