Yesterday we drove to Brande-Hörnerkirchen north of Hamburg to see Italian power metal band Wind Rose playing at the Hörnerfest 2023. I've discovered Wind Rose a while back already and their live performances have always made me smile, so I did not hesitate to get us day passes for the Hörnerfest for July 1st.
Hörnerfest is an open air festival focusing heavily on folk, pagan and medieval music. The festival runs for three days and offers camping, medieval encampments, jugglery, axe throwing, fire dancers and plenty of tents offering everything the medieval heart might covet from horns to pouches to capes and plenty of delicious food. It was headlined this year by Subway to Sally, Corvus Corax and Tanzwut. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad yesterday, it rained all day, so we didn't spend as much time on the festival grounds as we might have done. The atmosphere was very peaceful and calm though, the crowd was a diverse mixture of metalheads and medieval fans, many brought their kids along. The spirits were high despite the rain and there was a lot of dancing and laughter.
Wind Rose started their set at 9:30 PM. I stood in the front row and observed their soundcheck. The guys all seemed pretty reserved at that time and I did not expect the degree of power that hit us all minutes later. Honestly, those guys stepped on the stage and they had the crowd right from the start. Francesco Cavalieri only had to lean on his monitor once and grin at me and my heart was filled with happiness. The positivity of this man is beyond words.
Wind Rose have been active since 2009. Francesco Cavalieri (lead vocals), Claudio Falconcini (guitars) and Federico Meranda (keyboards) were founding members, bassist Cristiano Bertocchi produced the first demo in 2010 and later joined the band in 2014. Drummer Federico Gatti has been with the band since 2018. Wind Rose have released 5 studio albums so far. Their music has been called dwarven metal as their lyrics revolve around Tolkien's Middle-earth and their stage outfits match them perfectly. They are going all out with the dwarven theme. If you are looking for power metal - this is a power as it gets.
They played To Erebor from their third album Stonehymn (2017) and songs from their latest album Warfront (2022) like The Battle of The Five Armies and Army of Stone, but of course, the audience was not disappointed and they also played their most popular songs Mine! Mine! Mine! and Diggy Diggy Hole from their fourth album Wintersaga (2019).
The sound was not too great, but it didn't matter. The spirits were high and I haven't exerperienced so many crowd surfers on any of the concerts I've been to so far than during that 1-hour-long set yesterday. People were jumping up and down, running in circles, pumping their fists and singing along and we all had the best time. If Wind Rose ever play near to you - go ahead and watch them, you will not be disappointed, promise!
And now go ahead and find my happy face in the front row 🤘
Kommentar schreiben