Ensiferum hit the road in respect to their PATH OF GLORY tour and were supported by Ex Deo. I was there when they stopped at Musikzentrum in Hannover, Germany, on 3rd May 2018. Many people with Ensiferum and Ex Deo shirts stood at the entrance and it looked like there existed two fan base group arriving for their personal favorite band.
First act of the day was the side project of the Canadian guys of Kataklysm, called Ex Deo. The audience celebrated the entering of the band with loud cheering. The mood seemed to be nice. They reflect Roman history in their lyrics, and wore appropriate Roman uniforms. Especially frontman Maurizio Iacono looked very impressive with his (I guess) captain costume. “The Rise of Hannibal”, “I, Caligvla” were the first tracks of their show and this was a really powerful start of the concert. The musicians performed very nicely: Maurizio did typical Roman gestures and the others headbanged all the time followed by few people in front of the stage. The atmosphere overall was quite awesome. The light show supported the mood of the songs the whole show and everybody could see that the musicians enjoyed what they were doing. An orchestral part of the show including a crazy drum solo of Oli Beaudoin blasted at least my mind. This was quite nice and a really good job! Last part of the show was “Romulus” – the most known song I guess – and as expected, many people yelled: “Romuluuuuus!” while rising their arms in the air. It’s a pity, that they performed without a bassist or the bass from tape was too quiet. I missed a bit more power in their sound. But the show was very impressive and powerful anyway. I’m glad that they played in my home town and was able to see them live eventually!
Ensiferum – the headliner of the evening – went on stage and the crowd delighted their presence just from the beginning. I’m not the biggest fan of them but I must admit, I had fun to see them live. They released their newest record ‘Two Paths’ a while ago, and played many songs of it accordingly. It was a big party with dancing, singing people and several mosh pits. The mood of the audience was quite fine. The musicians performed very well and showed that they had big fun to be there on stage celebrating with the crowd. After a really nice bass solo and the last song “Into Battle”, the audience yelled for an encore, and they get an encore: “Iron” a classic and nice track of them withdraw the last energy of the crowd, made them headbang and yell the lyrics. Quite awesome. The very last part of the show was short part of the Guns N’ Roses cover “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, very cool. So, the people had fun while the show and it was a big nice party although the sound wasn’t very powerful, again.
PATH TO GLORY, the name of the tour of Ensiferum and Ex Deo kept its promise. There were glorious riffs, mighty vocals and a great atmosphere in the venue Musikzentrum in Hannover, Germany. It was fun to be there and I recommend this powerful package of awesome bands for every lover of good and nice metal music. Thanks for that experience!
