Moonsorrow

Live at The Whisky a Go Go

Los Angeles, California

September 12th, 2012

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Moonsorrow are a Pagan Metal band that borders on Black Metal in style. They refer to themselves as "epic heathen metal" and while they often tour and play with Folk Metal bands and other Pagan acts, they definitely have their own sound and style.

Their songs are extremely epic in length and nature, often meandering from blazing heaviness to melodic story-telling and back. They make heavy use of keyboards for their orchestrations and atmosphere but do not use any other traditional instruments on stage.

They refer to their music as being spiritual and challenging and not necessarily drinking songs or of the happy folk variety. In other words they are very somber, almost Gothic in their melancholy at times, and are nothing like their tour-mates Korpiklaani.

The band is focused around the two founding Sorvali brothers that began the band just before the turn of the millennium. Henri handles rhythm guitars and backing vocals while Ville is the lead singer and bass player as well.

On stage they are joined by long-time compatriots, Mitja Harvilahti on lead guitar and backing vocals, Markus Euren playing keyboards and whipping his hair around, and Marko Tarvonen on drums.

They come to the stage dripping with blood as if splashed fresh from the kill. They started the set with "Tähdetön", a song that illustrates at once what a Moonsorrow song is about. The song weaves in and out of different moods, and could really by three songs without breaks between them.

They continued with "Kivenkantaja". All of their songs are sung in their native tongue which is Finnish. Despite not understanding the lyrics, the emotional content of the songs are intact regardless.

At points the songs are furious and bombastic, others melodic and building. They played "Taistelu Pohjolasta" followed by "Sankaritarina" before coming to the final song of the set.

Despite they having only played four songs so far, they actually had a pretty lengthy set run. For their final song they did "Kuolleiden Maa".

The intimate venue of the Whisky was packed and it would seem that a great many of the fans came out specifically for Moonsorrow.

It was a great show overall, with the awesome Tyr just prior and super fun Korpiklaani to follow up. While not billed as an official Paganfest the lineup and show tonight were just as good if not better than the official staple of tours so it was awesome to get this type of show here on the Sunset Strip.

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