Maximum Rock Festival, Turbohalle, 24-25.10.14

In the middle of a period where organisers/bands aren’t exactly lining up for concerts, let alone festivals, Maximum Rock was a breath of fresh air. First of all, I wasn’t extremely familiar with most of the bands, but I had quite a few revelations (more about that later). Second of all, it was by far the best organised festival I ever went to. Of course the way the location is separated helped and also the number of people in the audience was considerably smaller then what the location could’ve held, but it was a great example of how a festival should look like. Except for the long wardrobe line at the end of the second day, I didn’t have to wait in line for anything – there were enough toilets, enough food&drink stands... everything flowed smoothly. I loved the idea of the drum stage, where you could pass the time during the breaks and I also love that the hall has a separate section where you can smoke and sit down for a bit. Compared to Helloween and Gamma Ray at the Roman Arenas, where the organisers forbade smoking but didn’t offer a proper solution (and thousands of people had to go in and out through a door the size of my bedroom door for a smoke and eventually gave up and smoked inside), this type of room separation “convinced” people not smoke in the concert hall in a natural way, without any need to impose or forbid anything. The only thing I can somewhat complain about was the sound, it severely handicapped a few of the bands, but I think it was mostly due to the acoustic of the hall and I can’t really blame that on the organisers, considering there isn’t a single indoor concert hall with truly good acoustic in Bucharest (at least not one suited for this type of music, I don’t think the Athenaeum was quite the right place to listen to Unleashed).

Falconers, elves and balancing on a ledge

The early summer of 2014 was a good time to be a folk metal fan, as June brought on not one, but three such albums, mostly from bands that took their sweet time working on their next release.

Falconer, Black moon rising

Black moon rising is a pleasant album, that sends out tons of good vibes, without becoming too cheesy or fainty, in typical Falconer vein. Relying heavily on Mathias Blad’s simple, yet clear and warm voice and on catchy and melodious hooks that inspire you to sing along, it doesn’t depart from the recipe of success that the band established with the first releases. The only difference is that it seems a bit more powerful and more aggressive than the previous albums, but not by much. Also, Falconer set out to be a mix of power and folk metal so intertwined that I don’t think even they used to know in which direction is the balance tipping. On this album, however, the balance clearly tips towards power metal, as the folk aspect is almost entirely overlooked and the only truly folkish track is Scoundrel and the Squire (which is a nice little medieval song, with a waltz-like tempo).