EISTNAFLUG 2013: My experience

I always find it funny that Eistnaflug reviews tend to start with nature descriptions and/or the story of "getting there", whether they're by Icelanders or foreigners. It's like people find it fascinating that such a festival exists in such a place, for one, and I suppose it is. But since I grew up there, we can skip all that (why would I want to get into details of a journey I've taken on just about five million times) and get right to the music. It should be noted that I caught only a minority of the bands on the bill, so this review is very far away from a full festival review. As the title says, this is what I experienced.

Village: Neskaupstaður
Fjord: Norðfjörður
Main venue: Egilsbúð

Eistnaflug - A Musical Venture Deep Into Iceland from Rasmus G. Sejersen on Vimeo.

THURSDAY
After going for a swim in the local pool (well I say swim), a mainstay of going to Eistnaflug, we are headed to see AMFJ, the first act on the first day of the on-venue program. The first thing that grabs me when I'm in Egilsbúð, heading up the stairs to the main hall, is the sheer volume of the noise AMFJ produces and the effect it has on my body. I've never regretted having earplugs in my wallet and that Thursday was no exception. My god, just how loud can one man be? Definitely the loudest on a metal festival (no less) is your answer. I've never really been a fan of AMFJ, having seen him here and there at shows in Reykjavík, but the sheer strength in decibels of everything he puts out is admirable. On a festival bill of extremities, he manages to stand out with a performance that makes me feel the sound waves thumping on my neck. What a show by just one man and his gadgets. I couldn't possibly stand any more when he stops performing, but can't help but applaud him for the awesome racket he makes.

After a two hour break from concerts (which was almost needed after that noise fest) I'm back in Egilsbúð to see Logn. They do something I've never seen them do before and don body paint and clothes to match. The instrumentalists painted and dressed in all black and the vocalist in all white. In a performance of trying out new things vocally, he manages to creep the hell out of me with that white paint on his shaved head. Leaving his mouth open and breathing loudly into the mic makes a chilling effect on a dim Egilsbúð. He told me before the show about the glitter cannon he planned to use but by the last song I've forgotten all about it and he manages to surprise me as glitter rains across the centre of the crowd.
Musically it's unfortunately a bit tough to judge the performance. These guys were playing their first show in 12 months (you guessed it, they last played at last year's Eistnaflug) and are playing "new" material (almost the same set as last year, although I wasn't there to see it then) and with me not making out quite what the guitarist is doing makes it tough to say how the new stuff compares to the old. It seems different, and a bit more along the lines of what Sindri, the guitarist, has been doing with his other band, World Narcosis.

After another break I'm off to see another band that Ægir (Logn) drums in, Iceland's newest black metal band, Morð. Again there's a contrast in appearance, the instrumentalists donning the standard corpse paint while the vocalist is in blackface (yep). Unlike the Logn guys which wore all black to match their paint, this takes you a bit more to the very grey area (to say the least) of blackface. Musically Morð are to me along the lines of most of the black metal I've heard so far in my life, your standard blast beats and tremolo picking with the usual ways of chapter changing. They seem to carry a bit more groove with them though, even throwing in a breakdown for good measure. Perhaps not a surprise considering the fact that Ómar from Celestine (pt. II) is the main songwriter and founder of the band. They have an ugly and dissonant sound and the overall feel is that of misanthropy, but I could really use more time to get to know all the nuances of their music better.

After catching the last notes of Helhorse (DK), who are too much "rock n roll!" for my taste (well playing band though, to be fair) I go out to the 15 minute break and catch up with some people, leading me to miss the first song of Innvortis' performance, the title track of their last album, "Reykjavík er ömurleg". The rest of their performance is as it has always been, from the side of the band at least. They've played each edition of Eistnaflug so far, and as far as I can tell always with the same setlist. After languishing in quite more obscurity in the previous years however, this time they play in front of a packed Egilsbúð. You can probably attribute this to them finally recording and releasing material they've probably had ready since not long after their previous album came out, which was about 14 years earlier. Their performance is really enjoyable, people are singing along en masse and crowdsurfing seems to be at an all time high. Fortunately for me I do catch their performance of "hits" like "Andrea" and "Drepstu!" / "Fínt að búa þar sem ég bý."

Next up are another mainstay of Eistnaflug, Momentum. They have a new guitarist since I saw them last and on the whole they don't disappoint. Launching straight into my favorite song by them, The "Conduits Lead", this is always going to be a good gig. The new guitarist has a nice singing voice, which helps Hörður catch a vocal break during their performances, having previously carried the load of all clean vocals and most of the vocals in general. Momentum seem to enjoy recording their albums with a lot of interplay between clean and more "growled" vocals (they aren't always really growled) and the new guitarist helps getting that across when live. They played some new material which sounds promising.

Agent Fresco

Then came Dimma. Little did I know that they had fans by the hundreds at the festival. Maybe I don't know the right people but I have yet to hear anyone say, "man, I really like Dimma". Turns out though, loads of people felt that way at the festival. So good was their reception that they got to play way past their time slot, courtesy of grandmaster Stebbi himself (festival organiser and founder). And while they wooed the crowd I couldn't help but think that they sounded distinctly bland, and well, kinda bad to be honest. The lyrics were awful and the songwriting seemed like something that of a band competing in Músíktilraunir, a fellow festival goer remarked to me. Whatever else can be said about Dimma they certainly have found their simple formula for success, and a grumpy review from someone like me won't change the fact they're doing really well for themselves, and good for them.

All that delay meant that Plastic Gods went on stage a lot later than billed, which didn't help me in trying to stay awake and watch. Both fatigued from a full day of running around and watching music and from the long drive from the day before, I struggled to watch them. Don't get me wrong, they were pretty good and everything ran really smoothly, a testament to the coordination of the band I guess. No mistakes, no surprises, everything just kind of flowed. After a half an hour though (with supposedly an hour left) I gave up and got some much needed sleep.

FRIDAY
First band I saw as an audience member on Friday was Morðingjarnir, having sat in the merch room during Ophidian I trying to sell some CDs, barely making out a few tones here and there. Morðingjarnir are a band I never really listen to at home, but I've always liked seeing them live, both with their entertaining live set and the banter from Haukur and Atli on stage. Those two guys are funny as hell. This time they were aided by longtime occasional collaborator and Haukur's flatmate, the ever-handsome Baldur from Skálmöld. Unlike later in the evening he did however not play shirtless, which was a definite disappointment. Morðingjarnir really have nailed the art form that is playing live. They have everything in just the right amount, seriousness, silliness, humour and quality music, plus the always-great lyrics from Haukur. They're one of those bands that can get away with messing up the start of a song and starting it all over again, and you just don't care and no one feels awkward. Having them as an Eistnaflug mainstay is a fantastic idea.

The Psyke Project

After seeing Morð for the second time in the offvenue Mayhemisphere I had gotten quite the headache (not from Morð though) and went and took a good nap and didn't return until the second to last band was set to take the stage, Denmark's The Psyke Project. They're quite used to Iceland now, with this being their fourth visit and one of the guitarists even having a tattoo of the Icelandic flag on his shoulder, but they'd never been to Neskaupstaður before. The day before their performance I saw them skinny dipping in the ice cold Atlantic sea (another Eistnaflug mainstay for many guests) so they definitely seemed to enjoy themselves at the festival. Their performance was very good, but hampered by awful sound during just about the first half of their set.
I remember that during the band meeting for Friday's bill, the stage manager clearly said "don't crank up the amps on stage" but to be fair the meeting was in Icelandic and despite the numerous visits I'm pretty sure The Psyke Project don't speak Icelandic yet. And apparently crank the amps they did, for the feedback, which is pretty prominent on their newest album Guillotine (review coming soon), released this spring. As the show went on the sound improved, but for a big part it was unfortunately all a big mush since they tune their guitars down to drop G. Which was really unfortunate since they were playing a pretty good gig, a primetime slot and a well attended show. They put on a good show though, energetic and lively, and no nonsense. Unfortunately in all the abundant stagediving at the festival, some jerk shoved Martin (vocals), throwing him a few meters on stage. Fortunately he wasn't injured and continued the show as if nothing had happened. Fittingly though the Psyke Project were doing a song where the lyrics are "you coward" and sang that part just as Martin was helped to his feet again.

Skálmöld

After the Danes came the Norsemen, the axe-wielding superstars Skálmöld. They and their Norse folk metal have become amazingly popular in Iceland, to the point you can find primary school kids on youtube singing their songs. Everybody and their grandfather is seemingly losing it over them, and while I had never liked them, I had understood the hype. Their folk metal is highly accessible, and the lyrics play straight into nationalist tendencies in Iceland, referencing Old Icelandic, Norse gods and viking times.
Since I was playing the festival and didn't have to pay for a ticket, I thought, I might as well use this opportunity to see Skálmöld, see what all the hype's about. Truth be told I'm not going to pay to see them, I've always found them a bit silly for my taste. That night though, they blew me away. Their live show is not only airtight and well rehearsed, it's immensely entertaining. The songwriting is really odd at times, with really weird riffs being thrown together to make a song sometimes, but in a live setting these guys are just killer. They are of course seasoned veterans of live-playing with many different bands and this project of theirs is well executed in just about every way. Seeing them work their magic in front of an absolutely packed-to-the-roof Egilsbúð was, quite frankly, awesome. Everything is well done, they seem to have a lot of fun and so does the along singing, crowdsurfing, jumping-up-and-down crowd. Having them close the Friday night was only appropriate.

SATURDAY

Due to someone I stayed with sleeping way too long I missed everything but the last one and a half song by We Made God. I really wish I'd seen more of their set, both because it's been a while since I've seen a show by them and judging by what excerpt I saw of their performance, they were in great form. When I came in, they were about halfway through the great "We have lost the battle, we have lost the war" and I got to see them go nuts during the last part. Always energetic or introspective on stage, they certainly deliver when they do this song, which is one of their absolute best. What followed was what I think is called "Drón", which features some of their more post-rocky work.

Now, what I like about We Made God is their position somewhere in between. They combine influences from post-rock, post-hardcore and screamo and do a great job of it most of the time. They bring enough of the post-rock to attract my attention, and not too much of it to make it boring (which is quite easy, I've been in a post-rock band). Some say they are a mix of Sigur Rós and the Deftones, but the only thing that reminds me of Sigur Rós is the fact Magnús uses a cello bow sometimes (something that inspired Nökkvi, We Made God fan from death metal band Gone Postal, to do the same). And easily identified influences from Deftones on We Made God's music are nonexistent. So they do their own thing basically, a little Mogwai, a little Daïtro, a little something here and there. And I simply wish I'd seen more.

Whorls

I was skeptic about Denmark's Whorls. Saw a bit early in their set, wasn't that impressed, went outside. There I found no one I knew, so I went back in and certainly didn't regret it when these guys blew me away. It's another one of those bands that can't easily be pigeonholed (seemingly a signature trait of Danish extreme bands). To give you somewhat an idea of what they sound like, I guess the best term would be blackened post-hardcore. But that definitely doesn't tell the whole story and the fact their fellow Danes The Psyke Project could accurately be described with that same term should tell you something, because these two bands sound nothing alike. Whorls were really loud and dissonant and the atmosphere in the smoke-filled Egilsbúð was pretty mystic (don't get me wrong though, the band wasn't making any misguided attempts at being "mystic"). Being one of those bands that could pull both hardcore and metal kids, they deserved a bigger crowd than they ended up drawing.

Malignant Mist is a relatively new Icelandic death metal band, and of course Ingó from (among others) Plastic Gods, Bastard, Severed Crotch, Ophidian I and Manslaughter fame is their vocalist, as seems to be the case for seemingly all death metal bands in the country. I can have no complaints about him, as he does his job securely and comfortably, has a nice stage presence and certainly delivers his vocals with brute force. He was probably by far the best thing about Malignant Mist that day.
There's something to be said about a lot of the drumming at Eistnaflug. I'm much more of a hardcore punk guy where the drumming is in a way simpler, more steady and I don't get why sometimes the drummers (a number of Eistnaflug drummers did this) seem to switch the drumming style five times within one riff. Maybe I'm just not enough of a metalhead to get it, I don't know. And don't get me wrong, this is definitely not for a lack of talent in Icelandic metal drumming. A lot of the time I just don't seem to get a sense of the riff being played because the drumming is constantly changing (instead of grooving along you have your range of fills every ten seconds it seems), and they don't seem to get any sort of groove going, which was the number one thing I noticed about Malignant Mist. All supremely talented instrumentalists no doubt, they definitely weren't trying to show off but it unfortunately came out that way. Which is sad, because these guys have all the material and potential to do so much more. To me, everything just seemed like an exercise in speed and technicality, and it seemed to lack feeling and groove, save for Ingó. Or maybe it's just me, maybe a lot of people liked their performance. Someone mentioned to me that they'd really gain a lot by getting a second guitarist, because once the one guitarist they have now goes into a solo (which is seemingly every 30 seconds), they seem to lose what little groove they'd built up by that time.

Next thing I saw, or tried seeing shall we say, was Singapore Sling. A band whose name I'd heard a million times but never actually seen live, nor heard music from at all. They started out alright and I first thought "okay, I get what the hype's about", but then they kept playing the same riff over and over again. Two more songs of the same and I left and ventured out into the sunshine. The material they play is quite good to be honest, and I could definitely stand a show by them if they'd actually bother to write more than one riff per song.
I talked to a few people about the band and they seemed to like it for the most part, but I was baffled by people's stamina in listening to the same riff over and over again, with a vocalist barely audible enough for you to hear how off key he was at times (he sang so quietly you could hear loads of feedback as the sound guys desperately tried to up the volume on his mic to deliver his whispers to the audience), and a tambourine player that was off rhythm a lot of the time. What also baffled me was the fact they had three guitarists and didn't think to have at least one of them play something different from the rest. That would've made hearing the same riff over and over again at least a bit more bearable. But again, I only saw three songs, so maybe they played material with more variation after that. Unfortunately I was so bored by the third song though that I left.

Muck

What followed was Muck, which was the band I was personally looking most forward to seeing. And they did for the most part not disappoint. They have just about everything that a great hardcore band needs. Great chemistry, a bunch of vastly different approaches to songwriting, seemingly never-ending will to experiment and simply killer material most of the time. Hardcore is of course a too simple term for them, as they incorporate all sorts of influences like garage, crust, grind, black metal, indie rock and more into their sound, and do a heck of a job of it. Like the reporter from Terrorizer said, get these guys to continental stages pronto. They did a number of new songs, whose only low point is the added prominence of clean vocals, which I'm never a big fan of in this type of music.

Red Fang are probably my discovery of the festival. I'd checked them out a bit beforehand and they didn't really impress me with their selection of material on youtube, but man did they ever put on a killer show. Wow! I guess you could say they are like a more stoner metal version of Mastodon, but labels don't really matter at this point, all you need to know is that they just blew me away. Fun, energetic live show in front of a packed Egilsbúð. It was actually so packed that I gave up after a while from the heat, sweat and overcrowding. I wanted to see more of Red Fang but I really needed to sit down and have a breather after being crammed against a wall and getting unknown sweat on my shoulders and some people's butts on my hands for half an hour.

Whether I can enjoy Sólstafir is really up to the mood I'm in, and not really being in the mood for them at the time and not being able to enjoy them from a spot where I can see them (packed venue) I only lasted for about half a song of them, which to be fair though takes about 15 minutes to listen to. So after a good break I decide to check out the festival's last band, Brain Police. My experience of them was a bit like with Skálmöld, I've never been a fan but they played a really good gid which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had my doubts about them closing the festival but after watching all but their last song I can't help but agree with the organisers' choice. Brain Police put on a tight and entertaining show and the crowd loves them. It's absolutely packed as Jómbi launches into a drum solo with his drumsticks on fire, which comes out much better than it sounds on paper. Certainly a sight to see. They perform mostly material that even I know pretty well (having never seen them live before and all) and all is well, and I go to sleep very happy with their performance and the whole experience of the festival. The morning after I'm not quite as happy about embarking on the 11-hour ride back to Reykjavík after only five hours of sleep, but it's definitely all worth it. And barring unforeseen circumstances, I'm coming back next year.
- Kristján Friðbjörn

Momentum

Vintage Caravan

Saktmóðigur

Eistnaflug 2013 full lineup HERE.
All photographs and banner by Guðný Lára Thorarensen [twitter]. Thank you.

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