«Magic & Trollish … like a journey back to the time of the vikings… A worthy 6 on the dice»
As always, I and my family spend our summer vacation at Træna and this summer was no exception. Træna was a place nobody knew where was before, but the Træna festival really put the name on the map and it is located fr out in the sea on the coast of Helgeland. The festival is not a metal festival, but now and then there is a metal band playing there and last we wrote about something that was from the metal scene was when Satyricon played there just over 10 years ago. This year there was noone less than Wardruna who took the trip to «the middle of nowhere» or as I and my friends always say; «The Paradise on Earth». Well, lets focus on Wardruna. Personally I have not been a very big fan of the band and I rather has been thinking it’s quite boring but WHAT-THE FUCK?? This was probably the consert of the century.
In addition to the main scene, some selected bands play in «Kirkheller’n», a cave in the mountain formation of the Træn mountains, located behind the island itself, namely at Sanna. This cathedral-like cave is used as a wedding place for many married couple to be and you can not really describe what it looks like, it must be experience.
Despite some delays, probably because of the audio, as there are some cables to be pulled to get this concept up running, but when they finally started up, the delay was forgotten and gone with the sea breeze. The magical and trollish mood that was created in this cave this Saturday was hair-raising. Even those who do not especially have the sense of the genre, as most people put in the field of folk metal, but anyway met up to check them out. I can with the hand of my heart say that ALL liked this. Young as old. Wardruna’s interpretations of the old Nordic cultural heritage simply returned us all to the Vikings era and I understand why the popular Vikings series, which I had not seen before this concert, has picked exactely this music from Wardruna for the serie.
All the songs they performed were magical and time-consuming and when the last song, «Helvegen» came they supriced us with a guest performance of both Aurora and Oslo Fagotts, I think there were some tears in the eyes of the audience and I for sure was sold. This is one of the definite bests concert experiences I’ve ever experienced and possibly because of the whole atmosphere around it all but I’ll be back to see these people live another time and then I can close my eyes and think back on this wonderful performence they had on the island where relatives of my ancestors most likely lived on the epoke of the Vikings since it has been living people here for 9000 years.
Text & Photo: Cayza