This will have been my third outing with Finland’s finest battle metal pioneers. But this is different from seeing them at the 400 capacity Soundhaus in Northampton, and very different from seeing them on the main stage at Download. Camden’s Barfly holds roughly 200 people, and for some un-Norse-godly reason the venue wasn’t sold out! But this made the show that bit more intimate.

The support bill was an odd choice, not chosen my Century Media or the band I’m willing to bet. Witchsorrow and Raven’s Creed had both played the Bloodstock Festival unsigned tent the previous week, and had now been given slightly inappropriate support places. One could always dream of having Korpiklaani or Eluveitie…Never the less, Raven’s Creed were exceedingly entertaining. The crowd who only desired to see Turisas was slowly getting into their solid metal sound. Unfortunately none of the face painted, sword welding audience were reacting well to the traditional doom sounds of Witchsorrow, wrong crowd, wrong band.

I was curious as to how the six piece band was going to fit on a stage that looked like it was build for four at a stretch, and was potentially made out of MDF wood, perhaps some kind of battle metal Tetris game? After the mandatory chants of ‘Turisas!’ and ‘Battle!’, followed closely by ‘Metal!’, the band emerged from their dressing room, which could be viewed from the crowd (But hey, I’m writing for RockPulse, not Interior Designer Monthly, back the music). Kicking the audiences face’s in (in the nicest of ways) with their fur-covered boots, Turisas open with the unexpected, crushing and grandeur Rex Regi Rebellis, with folk instrument solos galore! Warlord (Mathias to his mother) Nygård is perhaps one of the most natural front men of recent times. He connects with the audience without using the cliché phrases of ‘Are you ready to rock?!’ or ‘Who is having a good fuckin’ time?! twenty times per show. And within such a minuscule venue the connectivity and energy was so thick you could’ve sliced it with a broadsword. Battle Metal and Rasputin are of course on the set list, but it’s the unpredicted Fields of Gold and A Portage to the Unknown that highlight the enthusiastic die-hard fans in the sea of red and black limbs. Folk metal/battle metal is becoming increasingly popular within the UK (and for good reasons!), it’s refreshing to know that a band like Turisas is leading this movement and are being acknowledged as the main band in their field, and do you know why? Because they deserve to.

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