I’m from a small town in the middle of Iran, where metal is quite alien. I now live in Umeå, Sweden. On March 4th I went to the biggest metal festival in town – House of Metal.
Unfortunately my three favourite bands (Ashpyx, Grave and Krisiun) were not on the same day and since I wanted to be a little thrifty, I decided to go for Asphyx and Krisiun as they play on the same day.
On Saturday evening, I finally got to see the bands I never saw before. Asphyx, the old school death metal band from the Netherlands and Krisiun, a Brazilian death metal band. I wish I could see the almighty Swedish death metal pioneers Grave, but maybe next time I will.
The atmosphere at House of Metal was exciting. Three stages, four bars, merchandise sales and metalheads everywhere. Seeing so many metalheads is quite unusual for me, because where I come from, you barely find a metalhead. Some people were having a chit-chat, some checking the schedule to attend their favourite band and others were drunk, stumbling as they walked.
I got myself a drink and went to see my first favourite band, Krisiun. It was almost 21:45 and I was impatiently waiting for Krisiun to step on to the stage. When they started playing some people were headbanging. The rest were just watching. The weirdest thing I saw was that many people were sitting on chairs. I mean, come on, it is supposed to be Death metal, not an opera! Anyway, the singer of Krisiun encouraged people to engage in a mosh pit. I and a few others engaged in a mosh pit, but sometimes it was just me and two other dudes in the mosh pit.
I managed to form a circle pit, but no one joined me, so I did
it alone. Releasing the energy and anger – I wish there was a boxing bag there as well! At 00:30 I went to see Asphyx’s show. Their crunchy death metal sound is flattening. I tried to provoke people to form a mosh pit, but no one was eager to do it, so therefore I just headbanged.
I had a great time there and hopefully I will attend the next year’s gig.