Live Review: Turisas/Korpiklaani at The Islington Assembly Halls (25/02/19)

It’s been a very long time since Turisas last played in London and you can tell that a huge part of the crowd is here for them specifically. Everywhere you look there are Turisas t-shirts and a fair few people with black and red face-paint. The excitement for the battle metallers to take the stage would have you believe that this was their tour specifically rather then a joint one with Korpiklaani.

For me it’s been 5 years since I last say them play and that came at Hellfest in France. It’s been even longer since we last had new music from them. Called Turisas2013, it was released in (unsurprisingly) 2013. Since then we’ve not really had a whiff of new music other then the odd social media post suggesting that a new album could be in the works.

That in itself is disappointing but for everyone inside the venue there is the slim hope that we might get a live showing of a new song tonight. Especially as social media posts by the band suggested they had a surprise in store for fans.

Well, that surprise was not a new song but rather a two-song acoustic encore. A nice idea but one that completely saps the energy of everyone inside. It would have worked far better had it just been one track. Before the encore though we get a high-energy and exciting set of classic Turisas songs performed with the level of expertise you’d expect. Rousing renditions of We Ride Together, Battle Metal and Stand Up and Fight go down wonderfully yet something just feels off.

Discussing it afterwards with fellow writer, Brendan we agreed that our issues with their set came down to personal preference. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with it. The songs sounded great, the building’s acoustics really gave them some punch and the band were energetic and in good form. However, after so many years away it’s all too familiar and considering the wealth of content they could draw from, songs like Hunting Pirates seem an odd choice. Not only that but the band continue to end their sets with their cover of Boney M’s Rasputin. What was once kitschy and funny is now annoying. It seems to get the dance floor moving though so as previously said, it’s a personal preference.

After a long wait and a fair few people clearly leaving, Korpiklaani hit the stage with boundless energy. Jonne Järvelä is having an absolute blast, his grin is infectious and the sound of their bouncy folk-metal is very on point. It’s not as raucous as Turisas but it’s still loud as hell and the band could be playing to ten thousand instead of the couple hundred they are and you imagine they’d still be throwing as much effort in.

We’re far more of a Turisas fan then we are Korpiklaani however and there’s no denying that the latter of the two aren’t quite as exciting. Tracks start to bleed into each other and there’s a certain amount of ‘heard it’ when we get tracks back to back. Is it a bad showing? Absolutely not, in fact it’s brilliant at times. It just a pity that a few too many songs are pretty forgettable.