Ragnarok festival 2010
By: Roel & Ingrid
29-04 till 01-05
Ost BayernHalle, Rieden-Kreuth, Germany

Day 1, welcome to the new Ragnarök festival!

The Ragnarök festival was moved this year to Kreuth near Rieden in Germany. It was moved to the Ost BayernHalle. A place normally reserved for horses was now transformed to a metal gathering of a couple thousand people. The last few years Ragnarök had one stage which played bands after each other. This year they chose a different option with two connected stages making it possible for bands to play almost directly after each other. These stages were placed in the middle of the biggest hall dividing the hall in a festival part and a backstage. This inherently caused the problem of a big room with loads of echo. But more about that during the reviewing of the bands.
Our first experience with the festival was the opening which was a bit late (about 2/3 hours after opening time). This caused a little sunburn on most of the skulls as the sun was burning with full force. Besides that the festival has grown immensely!

The opener of the festival was Ravenlore, a local band. It has a bit of a black sound but definitely lacks something new, and though they made some mistakes, this was the first band so I was enjoying it and they were nice to start with.
The second band was Thormesis. The first corpse paint was to be seen. I liked it as it was done with red and white instead of black and white. This was (except for the clean vocals) the only good thing about it. Even though the band sucked, the festival goers slowly entered the hall and started noticing the bad sound and also the not so great underground which consisted of black rubber mats that didn’t connect leaving loads of cracks and little ledges.
The third band was Imperial Dekadenz this was the first band which drew in a bit of a crowd. They play black metal and seem to know what they are doing as they made only a handful of mistakes. Again the sound of the hall wasn’t great which would be a continuing problem throughout the festival.
The fourth band was Carach Angren and it would be the only Dutch band playing. So as always we had to go to the front and support our fellow countrymen. Eventhough the show was reasonable, Carach Angren could not convince me to really bang my head. This was again the fault of the hall in which the festival was being held. As Carach Angren has a really layered and symphonic sound the echo got worse and worse eventually leading to one big cacophony of music in which not a instrument could be heard correctly. They did have the first little pit going.
After Carach Angren it was time for the Grailknights to play. In my opinion one of the worst bands ever to hit the stages but still I was going to watch them for the first time. But after more than an hour of waiting for them to appear, because they were stuck in a traffic jam, I lost my appetite for their cheesy music and went for a bite. The eating venues were outside and were the same as last year. This means there wasn’t much to choose from. Later we found a couple of other things to eat but these were not correctly placed at the festival (at the back and hard to reach).
After my little snack Grailknights had finally started to play their fooked up music causing me to almost fall asleep in the nice grandstands in the back of the hall.
After a much needed beer or two during the Grailknights it was time for one of my favourite bands, namely Arkona from Russia. This time they brought a flute and a cello making for a good concert. And indeed it was the best concert of the day or as I put it down fucking cool, nice Moshpit. This concert caused the first of many bruises on my body.
After Arkona it was time for Belphegor. A black metal band from Austria. Instantly I noticed the right speakers of the left stage. They started acting up as they sometimes did connect and started blasting the wall of sound Belphegor was creating in the audience and then stopped working in total. This totally fucked up their show in my opinion. So even though they had a nice show for a reasonable band the band kind of annoyed the crap out of me.
After Belphegor on the right stage it was thankfully time for the next band to play on the way better left stage. It was Hellsaw also known as the glamrock band within the black metal genre. As the bands had a delay of more than one hour the audience numbers reclined and we went to sit in the back of the hall watching and hearing the easy to listen too music of these Austrians.
Last band to play was Slartibartfass, try to say that! Again the sound on the right side of the stage was failing. This made it very uncomfortable to listen and watch this band. Though they tried their best. The girl playing bagpipes turned into someone who looked like she had performance lessons from Gaahl (needs more drama!) as soon as she started singing.
After getting to the sleepinghall, we immediately noticed there was no running water nearby that day (the toilets outside where closed) and the only toileting possibility was a few boxi’s (yes not dixies but boxi’s). If the sleeping hall was switched with the merchandise hall this problem would not have arisen.

Day 2, bagpipeday!

Day two also known as our Queensday (it was the party of the birthday of our queen) started with a small breakfast in the sleeping hall. After leaving it we noticed a really cheap alternative for this shitty breakfast, in the form of a all you can eat thing at a small venue located in the hall. This would from that moment on be our morning eating place. After the small intermezzo Heathen Foray followed. They had a bigger audience than Ravenlore the first day and they enjoyed it. I didn’t know what to expect but it seemed to be a pagan/Viking metal band with the vibe of later to come Kromlek. The only gay part was the double neck guitar. The sound of the left stage seemed to be fixed. And the day started well.
Second band was Ingrimm which was a bit of a surprise as they were programmed for the third day. This was the start of a lot of program changes which were not communicated well to the audience. Ingrimm was a bit of folky metal in the style of In Extremo but sucky.
The third band (Nachtgeschrei) continued on the same road and so the music still sucked. These two bands lacked audience and innovative music.
After these two mediocre bands we started to grow tired of the In-Extremo/Subway-To-Sally-vibe and all the bagpipes, but still had to endure Ragnaroek.
But then the most memorable concert of the festival namely the Skyforger acoustic set. This rocked my socks off. Most songs were from their acoustic album Swords Song but also the intro of Thunderforge was played. This was a concert to remember and I will think fondly of it in years to come. The band seemed to really enjoy themselves. They even had a extra singer on stage from the band Auļi also from Latvia.
After this really memorable moment Van Canto played. Even though the thought behind Van Canto is cool they just can’t create good music as the best songs live are the covers. This band also played the worst song of the festival namely a cover of Wishmaster from Nightwish. I just can’t think of a reason to place this band on this festival (which is mainly pagan/black). Off course the Germans loved it so the crowd did stay energetic.
After Van Canto it was Solstafirs turn. This is a mix between stoner and progressive which is quite up my alley. Unfortunately the sound of the left stage started acting up again. I only saw two songs of this band.
The next band was The Vision Bleak. It was just 3 weeks ago that they played in the Netherlands (*link*) Ofcourse they had to play Kutulu, we even saw people walking around with signs that had the text on it. Though their performance was a bit stiff, it was a nice show to watch.
The Ninth band of the evening was Vreid . As they were playing on the left stage I was dreading the sound again. And as the last few shows on that stage the sound kept popping on and off again at the right side. This just puts me in a black mood as the show was very good and especially the few special Windir songs (with the brother of band creator and now dead hero Valfar) rocked.
Next band was the famous Finnish band Ensiferum. It was obvious that they were one of the most popular bands at the festival since it was immensely crowded. Unfortunately for the fans, the sound of the band was pretty bad. We almost couldn’t hear Petri singing. Nevertheless they played very enthusiastic and knew how to bring that atmosphere to the crowd. Though they played almost only the newer songs, it was a nice show.
Next up was Haggard. Remembering their show on Ragnarök in 2008, I was a bit disappointed this day. Only half of the band was standing on stage compared tot 2008, and therefore it was by far not as good. At least the guitar and bass player tried really hard to make the best out of it with their enthusiastic stage performance.
Almost the last band of the day already was Hollenthon. First thing to notice was their new bassplayer (oh yes he can stay ). Though we really like this band, this show wasn’t their best. The sound was too loud and all we could hear was ‘boom boom’. Though it differed a bit from where you were standing.
Last band already this night was Obscurity. The show wasn’t very spectacular. Though you can tell this band does have something special, it didn’t really shine thorough today. They played a song from the new album and their energetic performance made it a nice ending of this day.

Day 3, Black metal day!

First band this day was Midnattsol and we really can’t understand why this band was playing on this festival since it doesn’t fit the idea of the festival. Besides that we have to confess that their show wasn’t that good either. Maybe because their keys player was sick and they missed a member.
Second band today was Helfahrt. To all the girls: you should really go WATCH this band, listening not obligated Their show was nice. They had an energetic stage performance, their rough German black metal sound was good, and they had a good response from the audience. They could have been programmed a bit later on the day, it would have done them more right.
Third band of the day already was Akrea, more German black metal. Though we black metalfans can’t complain about this, we have to confess that Akrea wasn’t by far as good as Helfahrt. Though they played a nice show, there wasn’t that much extraordinary about them. We weren’t the only ones thinking this, since the audience shrunk pretty much.
Next band is one of Ingrids personal favourite bands, Fjoergyn. Unfortunately the now well known sound problem at the left stage came back again. Hail to the man that climbed in the construction, trying to fix it! Though Fjoergyn is a great band on cd, as a true fan I have to confess that it’s lots less when they play live. It even took me one minute to recognise my favourite song when they started playing it (Ernte im Herbst). At least the setlist was much more variated.
Being a black metal day started to show, more and more people walking around with corpsepaint arrived in the hall.
Next band for us was Riger. We can’t say that much about them, another black metal band, nice, but nothing much special about them. Unfortunately for them they had some troubles with their guitars it seemed, they were a bit false and sloppy sometimes.
Helrunar was next, one of the favourite bands of our colleague Tabitha. Personally, both of us didn’t really like it, another blackish metalband, and too dreary maybe. Nice surprise was that they played a new song for us from their upcoming album.
Not the first time we saw Suidakra play. Though their music actually can’t really bother us, for some reason a Suidakra gig is always a great party… they must do something right or put a spell on their audience or so! All that’s left to say then can only be that they played a nice and energetic show and it went really well.
Finally it was time for some tr00 Norwegian Black Metal bands! Ragnarok is a black metal band like this, as we know them. They played the usual Norwegian black metal, as it is supposed to be. Though their drummer made some mistakes every now and then, it was a really great show. Especially their singer knew how to rock the stage. It surprised us that there wasn’t much of a audience watching them. They couldn’t end their setlist unfortunately because of the organisation telling them that their time was over.
Wolves In The Throne Room was next. Though this is a great band, it seems they like themselves a bit too much. Though it might be part of their ‘act’, it was more annoying than an act. Their guitar player didn’t put his body towards the audience for 1 second but stood somewhere lost at the side of the stage playing for himself; there was no lightshow; flashlight on camera’s were forbidden; the pauses between the songs took ages.. well, you get the point.
Though they play nice music, this show didn’t really convince us… at all!
And then it was the time, again, for Skyforger to enter the stage. This was supposed to be the releaseparty of their new cd, but the official releaseshow is on the 8th of May, but this was indeed their first show after the release. This showed in them playing a lot of new songs that even Ingrid liked (you have to know, she’s not a great Skyforger fan). Ruining their show a bit were the problems with the sound. A lot went wrong; mainly the bass that was too loud. But this didn’t seem to stop their fans, since it was pretty crowded!
What is a German paganfestival without Equilibrium? It’s been a couple of years since they last played on Ragnarök, so they just had to be here this year. As always, their show was great, and surprisingly there weren’t any soundproblems!! Though they have a new line up, they still play the same old songs, but they did surprise us with a new song from their upcoming album Rekreatur!
Time for Sarke to start playing. They also had to play a new song, which was named Captured, and they also played a cover form Celtic Frost for us. Though Nocturno Culto wasn’t satisfied with his audience, he tried very hard for his doing, he even headbanged!! Nice show this was.
Ofcourse Gorgoroth had to be on this black metal day. Unfortunately this band isn’t what it’s used to be. Having Pest as lead singer, the image of the band changed a lot. They entered the stage way too late, and the high screams aren’t what we are used to (though they sounded pretty cool). Though it was a nice show, it might be that the days of glory for Gorgoroth are over.
Last and finishing band of the festival for us to see was Kromlek. What a change happened to this band! It’s obvious that they want to get rid of the typical pagan image that they had before. Covered in smoke, sounding more black metal now, this is an entirely new Kromlek playing. Also some of their new songs they played for us were obviously different than the old Kromlek songs. I think I do like the new Kromlek, but it’s hard to judge, since the sound was so very bad! It was hard to hear singer Alphavarg at all. Hope to see them again with better sound.
So that was the end of Ragnarök 2010 for us. An entire new concept of the Ragnarök festival. We really enjoyed the festival, but we truly did miss the old Ragnarök feeling. Maybe Ragnarök should have changed the name of the festival together with the change of the venue, since it wasn’t like the old festival at all. nevertheless we had a great time, even though the sound problems of the festival ruined a lot of the performances. But the cheap drinks and great atmosphere at the festival, already made us forget most of the sound problems! See you in 2011

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