Grand Demise of Civilization: Started with a really clever military riff/rhythm. Nothing else in the set lived up to that riff, but it was still quite good. All fast deathened black metal, and touches of those military beats continued through the set. Good players all around, particularly the drummer. Halfway through, the shaved-bald vocalist unbuttoned the collar of his black shirt, I thought to reveal the swastika tatoos on his chest, but thankfully that didn’t happen. He did speak in evil-man voice between every song, but it was actually rather effective, since their particular brand of hate seems to have a bit of a theatrical high-concept to it.

Lunarium: First, yes, they have dedicated sword-bearer in the band. Well, in addition to swords, he also bore various Halloween decorations, including a skeleton and a giant troll. Everyone else was kitted out in their best Scottish/Renaissance-Faire gear. Luckily the singer owned up to the Spinal-Tap-ishness of it all. The best moment was when he was digging around in a rabbit-skin belt-pouch: “Next time, I need a better place to keep my guitar picks!” Musically, it was folk-metal in the Falconer vein. Lead singer was actually quite good, and their 3-part harmonies were some of the best moments. So a fun early band, and good for the fest, but you could tell they were from Ohio and not Edinburgh.

Ulveheim: If you can have Scot-lovers from Ohio, I guess you can have Odin-lovers from Mexico, right? They seemed good enough, incorporating some Viking choruses into their thrashy death metal, but I left after a few songs to grab some dinner. If they would have sung about Aztec warriors and their death-sports instead, I might have stuck around.

Inquisition: Two members, a croaking vocalist/guitarist and a pot-bellied drummer, heavily corpsepainted, playing headbanging rock’n’roll thinly disguised as black metal: must be Immortal, right? Nope, it’s another I-band (and not “I” either!) This, is Inquisition. Anyhow, Immortal is so good that even an Immortal-clone is still pretty awesome. Hair was flying furiously throughout the audience for their set, and they were the biggest draw of the night. Not much more to say about a band where one guy is hidden behind the drumkit and the other is tied to the microphone most of the time, but they rocked hard.

Ancient Rites: It took them 20 years to make it to this continent, and along the way, they lost a drummer and nearly lost a singer to some sort of exploding skin infection. But like true metal warriors, they soldiered on, flying in the drums from a tape, and beating back the infection. They were also short a bass-player, but it seems this may be normal for them? Their odd mix of catchy, epic choruses and keyboards, mashed together with un-catchy thrashy riffs (a mix forged in the days before bands discovered how to do this more elegantly, I presume) actually works really well in the live situation. It certainly helps that the singer is a really charismatic guy, and they had already built a relationship with the audience by partying with them the night before. He ended up in the crowd at the end of the set, so I hope that infection isn’t contagious!

Overall, a strong first night, which bodes well for the fest, since I think this was considered the weaker night of the two by a fair margin. Everything appeared to run smoothly and on-schedule (even though Inquisition might have gone over), and my favorite little touch is the low volume on the between-bands music; thanks for that!

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