1. he last stop on this year's Paganfest
America tour was Worcester,MA,
in the tiny upstairs portion of The
Palladium.With a lineup consisting of
the Finnish darlings Korpiklaani and Turisas,
Taiwan's Chthonic,Germany's VARG,and
Cincinnati's own Winterhymn,it was bound to
be an excellent way to spend a Sunday night.
Wait a minute.A folk metal band...from Ohio?
It's true! If you're like me,you're used to folk
metal coming from European countries but
Winterhymn plays the part well,violin and all.
It may have been the last show of the tour but
they played as though it were the very irst and
the crowd danced and drank along with every
song.Even their tour mates in VARG got involved
when they came onstage to prank the band
by slathering them in fake blood in the middle
of their set.All in all,it was a job well done.
Let's get this out of the way right now: I love
Germans and I probably shouldn't be allowed into
their country unsupervised.That said,how did I feel
about VARG? I loved them too and judging by the
crowd's reaction,they agreed with me.I had heard
of this band in passing but this was my irst time
actually being exposed to their music.One of the
highlights of the evening was when Winterhymn
came back out to stage dive and crowd surf near
the end of VARG's set.They were the heaviest band
on the bill and easily wound up sneaking into my
number two spot because of this.They were loud,
energetic,and perhaps even a tad intimidating.
I would love to see them again in the future.
The third band on the bill was Chthonic.Their
sound seemed a bit out of place compared to
the other bands.It was bit too monotonous for
my taste but they were visually interesting.
Chthonic was using screens and lights in an
area where most bands choose to not to simply
due to the lack of space for anything,but the
musicians themselves.Overall,they weren't
T
PAGANFEST
TOUR
2014
Live At The Palladium,
Worcester MA
Korpiklaani
Cthonic
Turisas
INTERVIEWS
CONCERTREVIEWS
FESTIVALREPORTS
ALBUMREVIEWS

2. bad but they also didn't wow me either.I didn't
have a very strong opinion either way after
this performance but I am willing to give them
another shot the next time they come Stateside.
I have to be completely honest and say that the
reason that I even went to this show in the irst
place was speciically to see Turisas again.If you
have never had a chance to see them live,you can
usually pick out fans in the crowd by their red and
black war paint.There were more crowd surfers
during Turisas' set than any other band but it
was their closing song that really took the cake.
Sure,they have a ton of great original material
but everyone and their mom has a huge soft spot
for their cover of Boney M's 'Rasputin'.The band
pulled over a dozen people up on stage to dance
and sing along with them.It was a great way to
end things and I'm glad that years of demanding
to have that song played has inally paid off.
Headliners Korpiklaani seemed a bit more subdued
than the last time I had seen them.I was expecting
lots of dancing and men resembling wizards
making strange hand gestures.The typical playful
banter was instead replaced with their brand of
face melting folk metal.Korpiklaani deinitely put
on a top notch show and things were signiicantly
less boozy until the band ended with 'Happy Little
Boozer' and we danced with our Jager Bombs held
up high.It was a mess.It was interesting to see
a group that I usually consider more of a“party
band”take a different approach and I believe
it worked well.Could this be a sign of things to
come? I guess we'll just have to wait and see
what these Finns have into store for us next.
You'll be hard-pressed to ind anyone who hasn't
enjoyed attending a Paganfest show.From the great
lineups bursting at the seams with incredible talent
to fellow fans dressed in full Viking garb,these
events are not to be missed and grow in size every
year.Here's hoping Paganfest 2015 gets moved
downstairs so we can get some real dancing in.
WORDS: ALEIDA LA LLAVE
PHOTOS: CWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Korpiklaani
Varg
Wibterhymn
Cthonic