Some might say that the Northampton Soundhaus is an annoyingly located venue. These people would be right. After driving through the streets for a good hour or so, asking old ladies for directions and what not, the decision to go to a car park was finalised. Still lost and now on foot I did the only thing I could in my situation…follow the nearest face-painted person welding a plastic sword. After two minutes of hounding the nearest Iron Maiden t-shirt (which there will be at any gig) I found the Soundhaus. The Soundhaus is an oddly shaped building with neon purple lights on the outside, this only added insult to my inability to find it. After buying myself a well deserved Guinness I ventured into the main area.

From seeing the crowd near the front of the stage as I walked in I thought I’d arrived even later than expected. The enthusiasm of the crowd lead me to believe that Turisas had already donned the stage. But much to my relief I found that it was the first band of the night, Alestorm. The defining of genres now-a-days has become ridiculous, zombie-core, sludge-core, grime, poodle rock etc… But describing Alestorm as pirate-metal only seems fitting, every other word from the vocalist while interacting with the crowd being ‘arrrrg!’. Songs involving the subjects of finding lost treasure, suffering a pirates curse and of course…..drinking and coitus with wenches. Most of the crowd waving pirate flags and plastic flint pistols suggests that the seemingly new band have a loyal following. You would need a heart as black as the night sea not to enjoy Alestorm. An excellent band of which we can only expect bigger things from. (Their new album has been released on Napalm Records-Captain Morgan’s Revenge)
Norther took to the stage, with a crowd smaller than Alestorm’s, but still with some big fans making themselves apparent in the sea of Blind Guardian and Ensiferum t- shirts. Norther (for those who have not listened to them) sound a bit like Children of Bodom minus the exemplary guitar playing, which isn’t a big sell to a lot of people. They were no doubt on this tour to promote their new album entitled simply ‘N’, which includes the new single that most people would think was a KISS or Manowar track, ‘We Rock’. Overall Norther were a pretty damn good live band, but not the most inspiring of musicians.

After a good twenty five minute wait involving the crowd chanting ‘Battle!’ and ‘Metal!’ continuously and batting an inflated condom around the house lights finally dimmed. Slowly all of the band members came of the stage playing some lively introduction music, but the crowd were all waiting for Warlord Nygard (real first name being Mathias) to take to the stage, complete in his battle armor and fur. The crowd gave off so much energy but Turisas force fed it back to them tenfold. Storming through songs off the 2007 album ‘The Varangian Way’ such as In the Court of Jarisleif, To Holmgard and Beyond and The Dnieper Rapids. Songs from the genre defining Battle Metal album were of course played (The Messenger and One More). Mathias’ main language may not be English but he mastered it in the way to guarantee laughs and provoke other amusing crowd reactions. Asking questions that Jerry Seinfeld may ask such as ‘So what is the difference between Northampton and Southampton?’. Creating such answers as ‘Southampton are inbred!’ and ‘Southampton are well gay!’. Not the most mature of answers, but this night isn’t for maturity. Turisas leave the stage after a short period of time, only to come blasting back with some of the songs of the night as an encore. The surprising Sahti-Waari, and the mandatory Battle Metal, as well as the much desired cover of Boney-M’s disco classic, Rasputin! Aching arms fill the room, a great deal of necessary fist pumping has been done tonight. I leave the venue happy as only someone surrounded by plastic hatchets and broadswords can be (which is extremely happy). The concerts goers leave with red and black face-paint smiles. For once England was happy to have been invaded by Vikings.