Friday September 25th Paganfest 2009 took place at the Effenaar. Six bands were performing with each the same theme: Pagan metal. Because of my own inattention I found out the festival would start at sex o’clock when it was already seven. Therefore is missed the performance of the first bands of the evening; Ex Deo and Swashbuckle, and I reached the venue at the end of Alestorm. The first thing that came to attention was the packed up crowd at the stage with more than a few legs rising up into the air. Rough pirate / viking metal with a man-size parrot jumping across the stage. Speaking of pirates.

After Alestorm the wind was blowing over and I managed to get a place at the front of the stage for the fourth band of the evening, but the first for me: Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. I heard of them before, but I didn’t know these Germans at all. The in sm outfit clad keyboard player, complete with whip, was a striking figure. Sitting on his large swing he somehow managed to get some sounds out of his instrument. Singer Fuchs doesn’t care too much and likes to put up a show for himself with a rising stage and large banner. Than he pulls a girl out of the audience and places her in an inflatable boat that rides the audience. But she turns him down and runs of with the guitarist.

The audience is calmer than during Alestorm, and still there isn’t much movement when the good old Unleashed enters the stage. This band exists for twenty years now, much longer than the average age of the audience. The rough but tight death metal doesn’t really fit at this festival. Singer Johnny Hedlund calls his music viking death metal, but it sounds more than an excuse for their appearance. It really doesn’t matter; they sound great and tight, but not completely at the right place on an evening like this.

Finally it is turns for Korpiklaani to haunt the stage. It seems these Swedish are perhaps the main course of the evening, they don’t feel like the highlight. The venue is not as filled as during Alestorm; something that perhaps is due to the late hour. Nevertheless Korpiklaani knows how to build a party and they jump up and down the stage on their happy beer metal. In spite of that they don’t manage to keep my attention for long. After three quarters of an hour I have enough, and I remember I felt the same during their performance at Summer Darkness. Korpiklaani is nice, cheerful and a real festive, but not a whole performance long.

In the end the evening is a real success, and I realize it is a pity I was too late for the performance of Alestorm. Perhaps a next time.