Now that things are getting more “normal” we are able to go to a variety of festivals and I have quite a few to choose from this year. One that I have chosen to attend was Warhorns Late Winterfest, held near Selby in Yorkshire at the Drax Sports and Social Club. As ever there was a variety of heavy metal on offer. Friday night had a small selection of pagan themed metal, symphonic metal and drinking metal.
First up were a band from the southeast, one that I had enjoyed before, ᚲᚨᛚᛚ ᛟᚠ ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ (Call of Fenrir) who, starting a theme for the weekend were a member down, their bassist. Despite this they played an good set to open the festival.
Following them were VLKA, from the northwest, a Viking metal band, also down a bassist. Again, they rose above this and played a good set.
On checking the line up beforehand, I was quite excited to see Pythia on the bill. I had previously only caught them at a gig in 2010 and after that they disappeared off my radar. There had been five bands on that bill and I only remembered three of them , including the headliners, the openers and them. On the strength of that gig I bought their debut album and two tracks, both of which they played, stand out so much that they go through my mind when triggered. Anyway, now to today. They have had line up changes, including the vocalist but this didn’t diminish from their performance, in fact they seem even more interesting. New vocalist Sophie has a powerful voice well suited to their brand of symphonic metal and she was able to show off her talents over strong backing from the rest of the band.
This would prove to be hard act to follow but rather than compete on music, headliners Red Rum stuck with entertaining the drinking part of the audience. I felt that I would have enjoyed them more at another time but, like quite a few of the other members of the audience who were there for the music, I left after a few songs.
I don’t normally take pictures of bums but here are those of ᚲᚨᛚᛚ ᛟᚠ ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ whose themed tops had these interesting patterns on them.
VLKA spell their name onstage with these shields.