First things first: Turisas = Finnish Viking Metal = Fantastic.

Second thing: There were a couple of people wearing backwards baseball caps. They need to know: it’s not big, it’s not clever, and it’s not metal. And it’s very, very much not stylish. They make normal people look like a cross between Americans with adenoids, and William Hague.  Even the people wearing the plastic Viking helmets with horns looked better, which is a situation plastic Viking horned helmet wearers do not often find themselves in.

Now, to the bands. English black metallers Abgott, the support band, were new to me. A lot of the audience was a little sulky when they started their set, just putting up with them till Turisas appeared, but Abgott won us over. They are a classic black metal band, with proper corpse paint, huge amounts of hair, quality head banging and masses of aggression, leavened by surprisingly sweetly piercing, noodley guitar solos. Nice.

They got a big cheer from the crowd by offering tribute to Newcastle, and Venom, as being the beginning of black metal.

My problem is, while I like straightforward black/death metal bands, I couldn’t eat a whole one. The unrelieved aggression gets to me after a while. It makes me quite annoyed. At home I usually only listen to a track or two at a time. That said, however, I did quite enjoy their set, and they went down well.

We then had a wait while things were set up for Turisas. The horned helmet wearers turned out to be equipped with plastic axes, too. Top marks for accessorisation! One enterprising soul had even made a big cardboard hammer, which I guess was Thors hammer. They whiled away the time with a bit of brandishing at the sound check guys – the sound check on the accordion got a huge cheer and an extra brandish.

Turisas finally appeared, to wild applause. Unlike the last time I saw them (supporting Lordi in Glasgow) they had a lot of clothes on. They looked considerably more authentically Viking this time. Previously they had been more caveman than Viking, but that had not been a problem. I had made the effort to adjust to the semi-naked, oiled torso and tiny furry pants look. Indeed, I had been quite keen to have to repeat the effort this time, and was a bit disappointed to find that it was not necessary.

Clothes aside, they were even better than I remembered them. The stage in the small room in the Academy is tiny, and was really crowded with the six big men there. It made their presence even more huge. They were magnificent; flamboyant and aggressive and loud, metal and folk wonderfully intertwined.

They are showmen to the core, and a fantastic sing-along band, and we all roared along with them. They have one of the best drinking-and-fighting songs ever, “One More”, from their album “Battle Metal” –  

   “I stand up and raise my pint up high

   One more for our brothers who fought beside us

   One more and forward again ...

   Once more, we’ll fight and conquer …”

We all knew the words to this, and the rest: “Battle Metal”, “Holmgard and Beyond”, “A Portage to the Unknown”, and their big set piece – one they have just recorded, to be released as a single this month, Boney M’s “Ra Ra Rasputin”, which they went silly and cheesy over, and divided us in two (not with an axe, but on either side of the glitter ball!) to sing alternately, one side following the accordion, and the other the electric violin, with Warlord Nygard conducting. Where I was standing, everyone giggled a lot at this, and then we threw ourselves into it shamelessly whole heartedly.

They ditched the traditional big guitar solo in favour of violin showcasing, with the madly enthusiastic crowd happily chanting “F**k guitar solos! F**k guitar solos!”

They enjoyed themselves, and so did we.

I went home with my ears all fuzzy, and my voice gone hoarse. The marks of a great evening!