HEIDENFEST – ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL – 3RD FEBRUARY 2026
Heidenfest is essentially a touring mini-festival of folk-metal bands. It usually tours Europe and Scandinavia, but as far as I am aware, this is the first time that it has visited the UK. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to have been a great deal of marketing for the event, and it has not sold out. Indeed, the upstairs area is closed off. Still, downstairs fills quite quickly, and there is plenty of atmosphere.
Festivities commence at the unnaturally early hour of 5.30pm with The Dread Crew Of Oddwood, who describe themselves as “an acoustic pirate band” and hail from San Diego, California. They play amplified acoustic instruments and style their music as “heavy mahogany”. Opener Dead Man’s Medley sets the tone with double bass, mandolin, accordion and tin whistle all driven along by a full drum kit.
For Side Quest, Stark Cordwain (which may not be the name that appears on his passport) swaps his tin whistle for an Irish bouzouki. Squall Of Death continues the pirate theme, whilst Deckard Cordwain plays a mandolin solo with his foot on the monitor. Giant Fucking Demon Crab ushers in crowd participation time: Wolfbeard O’Brady tells us to raise our right ‘claw’, and then our left ‘claw’, “exercise those snippy-snippy muscles” (that is, make like pincers) and move sideways like a crab. Whilst the instruction to raise our claws and make like pincers is widely taken up, moving sideways is difficult as there’s no bloody room!
Give Me Your Beer is an outrageous demand and is not one that I will submit to lightly. For Trollwhack, a guy (probably one of the crew) takes the stage, moving like a troll. We next get a song about honouring your fallen comrades. This appears to be slightly more serious than what has gone before, but it does feature Deckard Cordwain playing his mandolin behind his head, whilst Stark Cordwain plays his tin whistle with it inserted into his right nostril. Deckard then uses his beer mug as a slide on his mandolin. So it’s probably not that serious then. The set closes with Lawful Evil, after which the band have their picture taken with all of us in the background, which is rather sweet. The Dread Crew Of Oddwood have seemingly introduced us to the level of anarchy that we can expect during the rest of the evening. Great! Bring it on!!!
Trollfest
Next up is Trollfest, who are from Oslo. There are pink flamingos made from balloons onstage, and one of their guitars is covered in white fur. However, I can see that the bass is a five-string, so they must be pretty serious, right? Wrong! When the band take the stage, they are all dressed as pink flamingos. It’s like an acid flashback taking place before your very eyes, even if you’ve never actually taken acid!
Unsurprisingly, their opening song is Dance Like A Pink Flamingo, and they teach us how to dance like pink flamingos. I can’t now remember how to do this. I have spent the last two days trying to wipe the dance from my mind. I was becoming increasingly worried that Trollfest were trying to break my already somewhat tenuous grip on sanity and reality.
They are, however, clearly serious musicians, with guitarist Mr Seidel tapping on Flamongous. The band are very tight, and the lead vocals are shared around. Twenty Miles An Hour is from the new album Flamingo Overlord. I must confess that I’m a tad worried about their obsession with flamingos. I mean, it can’t be healthy.
They decide that there is too much order in the room. So the audience is split into two, with one half sitting down, and the other half jumping up and down. Then that is switched around, then everyone sits down before everyone jumps up and down. It’s a lot of fun, and much beer is spilt, which at around £8 a pint is probably not quite so much fun. Trinkentroll features a rowdy sax solo from Drekkadag.
They attempt to set a record for the longest conga line at a metal show ever. I’ve never actually seen a conga line at a metal show before, but a high percentage of the audience are taking part in this one. Naturally, as a reviewer, I stand back and observe. That’s my job. The guitar parts in Renkespill sound like an accordion. How do they do that??? Then the song takes on a distinctly eastern feel.
A topless male dancer takes the stage. He has pink tape over his nipples and is playing a tambourine. This does not surprise me. Nothing about a Trollfest gig will ever surprise me again. All Drinks On Me features Stark Cordwain from The Dread Crew Of Oddwood on tin whistle. The band gets the crowd to shout the song’s title. Let’s hope we don’t meet the band at the bar afterwards.
Closing song Kjettaren Mot Strommen is apparently “a grand progressive metal epic”. Nothing wrong with bigging up your material, but it really isn’t that epic or progressive. It is, however, pretty good and fast and bouncy. I enjoyed it anyway.
Heidevolk
Heidevolk are Dutch and, to an extent, bring things down to Earth a bit. Although classed as ‘folk metal’, they are a more traditional metal band playing electric guitars, and dressed as a classic metal band and not as pink flamingos, or any other kind of exotic animal. They do have two lead vocalists, though.
I once played in a band with two lead vocalists. It didn’t end well. However, these two, Jacco Buhnebeest and Daniel den Dorstighe, seem to get on okay. Hell, they even harmonise together!!! The vocals have something of a Viking feel about them, and one of the vocalists has a shield.
Ostara features both guitarists soloing and tapping. However, Kevin Houtsplijter’s drumming is a little too busy and distracts from everything else. Yngwaz’ Zonen provokes a circle pit, whilst A Wolf In My Heart sounds like a martial song from 2,000 years ago. It puts me in mind of slaves rowing a ship. Everyone apart from the drummer is on vocals, and drums are the only instrumentation. It’s powerfully stirring.
At the beginning of Oeros, both vocalists hold tusks aloft. It looks meaningful, but of what I’m not entirely sure. The closing song Nehalannia is a very definite boogie, the intro reminding me a great deal of Iron Maiden’s Running Free. Good as they are, Heidevolk are the most ‘normal’ band of the evening. I quite fancy returning to the anarchy and chaos of the previous bands.
Finntroll
Luckily for me, Finntroll from Helsinki arrive to take us there. They have some fantastically dramatic walk-on music. The whole band are wearing horns, which makes them look downright satanic. The vocalist has a goat’s head on his mic stand. I like them before they’ve played a single note!!!
For Vindford / Manniskopesten, smoke comes out of the head on the singer’s mic stand, and one of the guitars has almost a synth sound. It later transpires that Finntroll are without their normal founding vocalist, Vreth, for this tour, as he has health issues. He is replaced by Mathias “Kistelach” Dahlsveen, who looks and sounds as if he were born for the role.
The last two songs have sounded like metal polkas, and drummer Heikki “Morko” Saari is having one hell of a workout. Fiskarens Fiende is apparently a drinking song. It certainly inspires plenty of crowd surfers. There is virtually no security at the barrier, which is potentially a tad dangerous.
Blodsvept features some surprisingly delicate guitar, whilst Nedgang has a stormingly fast intro. Bassist Sami “Tundra” Uusitalo looks like a rather satanic Mick Box, incidentally. The synth intro to Svartberg is on the backing track. Drummer Morko is the first of the band to join in. It sounds extraordinarily dramatic.
Mask is very fast and has an exquisite folky but metallic guitar figure. Trollhammeren elicits a huge audience response and seems to be an oldie. Skogsdotter, meanwhile, is about a man who braves the wilderness and meets a devious woman who enjoys raping and mutilating young boys. Blimey. Probably not one to listen to just before bedtime, then. The guitar lines sound like they’re being played on very loud and distorted tin whistles. Or maybe that’s just my tinnitus.
Korpiklaani
Headliners Korpiklaani seem to adhere more to the folk metal ethos, including both accordion and fiddle in their line-up. Beer Beer is particularly powerful and makes me want to drink. Luckily, I still have a pint of Guinness in my hand. Please note: other stouts are available.
Happy Little Boozer starts in ¾ then simply explodes! It’s more folk-punk than folk-metal, but it’s anarchic and wild, and I love it! Drummer Samuli Mikkonen is awesome, but to be fair, the whole band are extraordinarily impressive. Kalmisto has an incredible riff. It’s what Led Zeppelin might have sounded like if Jimmy Page played violin instead of guitar.
Ammanhauta is another song with a big riff. It sounds like mid 1990s Levellers. Vocalist Jonne Jarvela has an alto mandolin for Tuli Kokko, which also features an accordion solo from Sami Perttula. Surprisingly, the crowd has thinned out a bit for the headliners. Maybe some people have fallen foul of the early start. Still, it’s their loss because Korpiklaani are stunning.
Levaluhta has reggae verses and fast rock choruses. Jonne plays a mandolin solo before the band tear into Paat Pois Tai Hirteen, which is an absolute cruncher! It features one of many ace violin solos from Olli Vanska. The only misstep is Samuli Mikkonen’s drum solo. Whilst undoubtedly impressive, it’s quite self-aggrandising and goes on a bit too long.
The set finishes with vodka, which is an absolute highlight. It should also be accompanied with a warning: please drink responsibly!
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: ROBERT SUTTON
