BATTLELORE

With a lot of happiness I took the car, picked up Jasmin and we drove to the freeway. 7 hours and 5 traffic jams on 4 freeways and a nearly-accident in the city of Bonn later we reached totally f***ed up the Maritim Hotel in Bonn. At least we had luck and found a parking lot immediately.
While we were walking to the hotel, elves, orcs and kings came down our way. Yes, we even could have a look at a few barefooted hobbits. After checking in we watched the Lord of the Rings-market. You could buy anything from pictures to books, autographs of the Lord of the Rings movie stars to the full elbish outfit, which had a proud price of 370 Euros.

Jasmin and I met Oliver and we had a chat. Kaisa was in a hurry. So she said “hello” just while going by.

Some hours later a middle-sized crowd of elegant elbs as well as different Middleearth creatures, us inclusively, waited in front of the Gondolin hall to welcome Battlelore!
As the whole team got into the room after one hour of delay („10 minutes to go…“ – „Yes, just 10 minutes to go…!“ – „Really, only 10 minutes now!“), we didn´t have to wait very long: Battlelore went on stage with their usual outfit from Middleearth, while the intro „Horns of Gondor“ of the latest album „Sword´s Song“ was played by Maria. We met Timo, who was shooting photos later on all the time.

„Fangorn“. The crowd didn´t come out. And that didn´t change with „The grey wizard“ (yet). With “The mark of the bear” it totally changed and the famous spark jumped to the audience (and back) and you could see headbanging rohirrim and elves…

Singer Patrik Mennander wanted to present a very special last live gig with Battlelore. He did that with running back and forth across the stage, pouring water to the audience all the time and finally he sang in the middle of the fans. Elven voice Kaisa Jouhki let her clear voice hear to the ballad called “The green maid”; a duet with Patrik. Great atmosphere! Right after that Battlelore rocked again and for the first time the Finns played “Swordmaster” from their first album “Where the shadows lie…” live. Battlelore dedicated “Sons of Riddermark” to Oliver, Jasmin and me – one of my favourite songs!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Although bassist and founding member of Battlelore Miika Kokkola always was in the background, I should mention now that he doesn´t have any time for the band at the moment. This was the last concert in Battlelore for him, too. The second part of the tour with Atrocity Battlelore will have Timo Honkanen on bass and Evemaster singer Tomi Mykkänen on vocals again.

But back to the concert: I haven´t seen such an energy at a Battlelore concert before! They get better and better with each gig and they showed the Germans a set of over 70 minutes for the first time. This cross-section through both albums found the top with the so far unreleased track called „Ghan of the woods“, which found his space in the bonus tracks. “Raging Goblin” let the neck muscles feel the pain again!

And that is why there were falling a few tears on both sides, as the Finnish fantasy metal band left the stage with a large applause.

And somehow I felt very dizzy after that concert of 70 minutes and I had to laugh all the time (Jussi, you remember that? :-)) Pretty fast the hall was empty. Oliver, Jasmin and me were waiting for the band. Kaisa came to us and took a picture of us three. I would love to have a look at it some time… 😉 We all had a nice chat with the whole band while the stage was cleaned. Henri´s gift for us was his broken drumsticks from that concert! Thanks!
A little later we spent a few hours together with Battlelore and some new buddies to say good bye to Patrik and Miika.
I am looking forward to the second part of that tour and to the new album which will probably be released next year…

Photos taken during the show check at Metal Centre's LIVE Gallery.