Extreme metal is in the main viewed as being Poe-faced and guilty of taking itself far too seriously. However, this evening is very much the antidote for those assumptions. Skálmöld and Finntroll make perfect touring partners because they both lean into a sense of euphoric abandonment, a quintessential sense of fun and frivolity. They also share a deep connection with their respective countries’ musical heritage. Yes, this is metal but is metal honed by the indigenous music of Iceland and Finland.

With six over-active members, Skálmöld fill all the space available on Academy 3’s minuscule stage. Theirs is a buoyant and playful take on folk metal that skilfully combines the rowdy rawness of folk with the incandescent ferociousness of metal. It is obvious that every single member of the band is having an absolute blast and is rather chuffed to be here this evening. In fact, Björgvin Sigurðsson makes a particular point of stating that is over seven years since they were last in our city and that they are jubilant to be back. Skalmold’s rampant joyfulness is utterly infectious and the ecstatic happiness on stage is soon mirrored by the audience before it.

But they are not just rabble-rousers, there is an astounding level of musical dexterity on show. Vocal duties are swapped all the way through their set and every member seems to get the opportunity to take the lead vocals on at least part of a track, if not a full number. They also seem to be highly adept at changing style and pace at the drop of a hat, but this continual churn of musical reference points never feels faltering and disjointed. They pretty much go round all the houses when it comes to what sort of metal they are majoring in, but always in a smooth and connected way. There are snatches of punk, dollops of prog, smatterings of death and black and large chunks of trad. All topped off by grounded galloping flourishes of folk.

Even those who were not au fait with their material are by the end of the set won over by their playful and distinctly honest personas. They may well be the warm-up act, but they are gifted a generous 60 minutes of stage time. By the end of their allotted time, every single inhabitant of Academy Three is sporting a massive grin. There is something utterly life-affirming about witnessing a band so wrapped up in the sheer elation of what they're doing, and that simple thrill is the key ingredient for why Skalmold are so magnificent this evening. 

For the entire 90’s metal was dead to me. I became an indie kid and had short dalliances with trance and drum and bass. It was in the early noughties that metal’s gravitational pull once again got hold of me and I was swiftly brought back into the fraternity. On my return, I found that the invention of file-sharing made it incredibly easy for me to dive deep into the many subgenres that had emerged in my absence. As I disappeared into a rabbit warren of strange mutated musical forms, Finntroll was one of the first acts to take my musical fancy. Hailing from Finland but singing exclusively in old Swedish (imagine lyrics in Chaucerian English) they sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. They combined the dark twisted complexity of black and death metal with the frothy abandonment of traditional Finnish Polka.

Tonight, almost 20 years on from our first encounter, they still sound completely different from anything else purporting to be folk metal. As a critic, you rely on the ability to say so and so sounds like this or that other act. The honest truth is that is impossible to do so with Finntroll, because they sound distinctly like Finntroll and nobody else. There have been variances in their sound over the last 26 years, and as we get tracks from every one of their seven albums it's quite easy to trace their musical evolution. There have been forays into power metal and phases where the black metal atmospherics have been turned up to 11. But what has stayed constant is the use of traditional Finnish folk and it is its jaunty undercurrent that has enabled Finntroll to maintain their utter uniqueness. 

Mathias Lillmåns makes numerous references to the fact that they have a sort of new album out and it is true that its release midway through the first lockdown robbed “Vredesvävd” of any form of promotional push. However, tonight is not about highlighting one particular facet of the expectational back catalogue. It’s about celebrating the entire bonkers journey that they have been on and revelling in their utter individuality as a live act. As ever they lean into the troll part of their moniker with prosthetic ears and lashes of face paint. Mathias’s mike stand also bellows out smoke in intermittent blasts, which just adds to the theatrical atmospherics.

But really it’s about the songs and their ability to create oodles of communal moments. There are more aye, aye, aye’s; whoa whoa whoah’s and na na na’s than you can shake a stick. Every track is a simple but highly effective combination of metallic hardness and sugar-coated catchiness.  With ‘Trollhammaren’ it all collides into a wonderful collective frisson of raised voices and pulsating bodies. But to be honest they are not a greatest hits sort of band. Each song played, no matter if it is from their debut “Midnattens widunder”, the utterly insane “Nifelevid” or 2013’s “Blodsvept” (as Mathias rightly points out, the last time they were in Manchester) is greeted like a platinum shifting mega tune.

We sometimes forget the joyful wonder of live music and the irreplaceable feeling of experiencing it in communion with others. Tonight, was a timely reminder that this is about much more than a band playing their instruments well. It’s about their ability to connect and transfer their passion to the watching hordes. It’s about their ability to capture and harness the imagination and enthusiasm of the crowd. It’s about their ability to personify joy and tonight was all about joy. The joy of individualism, the joy of being part of something, and the simple joy of being you. Quite simply Skálmöld and Finntroll brought the joy and there was enough for everyone.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Finntroll, Skálmöld