 | Written by Kirsti Heitz Photographed by Navneet Johal (C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com KORPIKLAANI w/ ARKONA @ Mod Club Toronto, ON, Canada November 4, 2018 Presented by Live Nation |
An epic night of folk metal was bestowed upon Toronto on November 4th with Korpiklaani and Arkona hitting up the Mod Club with extended sets. Foregoing an opener, Arkona played a little over an hour, while Korpiklaani gifted fans with a full two-hour set. It was an interesting evening, as both bands predominantly stick to lyrics in their native languages, making it quite a show to watch Torontonians mumble and hum along to tunes in Finnish and Russian.
| ARKONA Photo credit: Navneet Johal / (C) 2018 www.metalmasterkingdom.com | With the dramatic flair that Arkona is known for, they took the stage to melancholic backing tracks and Masha Scream’s renown gutturals. I was surprised, yet not surprised to see that they opted for slower and somewhat broodier tunes for the first half of their set. Surprised because these are tracks that I’ve never heard them play live and I didn’t expect them to have so many mellow tunes. I was also not surprised because to fill in a full hour and 15 minutes, I see how they would definitely want to add some mellower material, unless they had Havok-level stamina. True Arkona lovers (you’ll know them because they’re the ones singing the lyrics in Russian) enjoyed the variety of tunes regardless of the energy level, while the rest of us seems to wander back and forth from interest to listlessness. I was a little disappointed to see some of the more interesting guitar work and all of the keyboard arrangements were played through backing tracks as opposed to being played live, but Arkona more than made up for it when they started getting into their tried and true high-energy folk tunes who’s names I wont even try to pronounce. |
You can tell that there’s a big difference in their performance when it comes to the tracks that made them famous because they give a tighter performance and become more audience-participation oriented. I felt that Arkona was more confident when playing these songs, and how could you not be confident when you inspire mosh pits and crowd surfers. The entire Mod Club was chanting wordlessly along to the melodies, clapping along per the band's instructions or simply bouncing around to that amazingly infectious folk beat. Arkona left fans on a high that was perfect in anticipation of the Finnish natives Korpiklaani.
| Korpiklaani then entered the stage one by one with uncharacteristic low energy, and got the Mod Club warmed up, and I literally mean warmed up. I don’t understand how vocalist Jonne Järvelä was wearing a leather suit if I had boob sweat going on. Korpiklaani’s image is like a metal band mixed with Finnish rednecks, whether it’s Jonne’s leather suit and iconic hat or guitarist Kalle "Cane" Savijärvi’s tasselled shirt, but it simply works for them and adds to the up-beat folky tunes. Their live set isn’t filled with dramatic moments or theatrics, that simply isn’t the Finnish way. Korpiklaani gives a straight forward performance that is focused on the music and lets fans feed off the energy from the tracks themselves. Due to the fact that they played an extremely long set, we got to hear a lot of variety, including a ballad, some brand new tracks and of course a few Korpiklaani anthems. I was surprised that they didn’t take this opportunity to load concertgoers up with all the high-energy tracks that fans love like “Rauta,” “Let’s Drink” and “Tequila”, but at the same time, I’m pretty sure a few members might have had a heart attack if they had to play high-energy tracks for a full two hours. | KORPIKLAANI Photo credit: Navneet Johal / (C) 2018 www.metalmasterkingdom.com |
The crowd went crazy for “Viinamäen Mies” as a full mosh pit blew up and the band looked on with a smile of approval. The most active member is Jonne, who was either inciting the crowd, bending over to let fans sing into the mic or doing an adorkable little dance. It was only towards the very end of their set that we got to see the Korpiklaani I fell in love with when they played the beloved fan tune, and one of the only tracks they have in English, “Vodka”. The energy level in the Mod Club reached a peak and the venue turned into a sauna as everyone sang along chanting “vodka!” On-stage, you could see the energy trickled over to the band as Jonne headbanged his blonde dreadlocks and twirled around onstage, and accordionist Sami Perttula whipped his rat tail around. For their encore, Korpiklaani returned onstage with beers in hand to preface another fan favourite “Beer Beer.” One lucky crowd surfer even got beer poured into his mouth from the hands of lead singer Jonne himself, which made concert goers and band members alike laugh. My one disappointment is that after pushing the energy level up with “Vodka” and “Beer Beer”, Korpiklaani ended their two-hour set by taking the intensity down. I prefer it when a band leaves you with that energy high that is simply sizzling, but seeing as how it was Sunday and most of us had to now wait in the eternal coat check line to then head home and get up early for work, perhaps it was the best choice to not leave fans wanting to go forth and wreak mayhem. All in all, an exciting night from two truly spectacular folk metal bands.
| ARKONA Maria "Masha Scream" Arkhipova - Vocals, keyboards Sergei "Lazar" Atrashkevich - Guitars Ruslan "Kniaz" Rosomaherov - Bass Vladimir "Volk" Reshetnikov - Wind ethnic instruments Andrey Ishchenko - Drums Label: Napalm Records Website: www.arkona-russia.com www.facebook.com/arkonarussia | KORPIKLAANI Jonne Järvelä - Vocals & guitars Matti "Matson" Johansson - Drums Kalle "Cane" Savijärvi - Guitars Jarkko Aaltonen - Bass Tuomas Rounakari - Violin Sami Perttula - Accordion Label: Nuclear Blast Records Website: www.korpiklaani.com |
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