Live Review: Heilung - Cologne 2024

Palladium, Cologne, Germany
19th September 2024
Heilung - “Heilung Returns - Germany 2024” - Support: Zeal & Ardor

HEILUNG with support ZEAL & ARDOR - what an interesting combination. Nordic sounds on the one hand, Dark to Black Metal on the other. And all in front of a sold-out audience in Cologne’s Palladium, because these bands magically attract the audience.


Zeal & Ardor

When Manuel Gagneux from Basel in Switzerland asked in an online forum over 10 years ago which two musical genres he should create a piece from, he received the answers “black metal” and “nigger music”. After some initial hesitation, he pursued the idea and fused Black Metal with Gospel sounds and gradually built a band around his solo project, which has repeatedly received excellent reviews, most recently with the current studio album ‘Greif’. Although ‘Greif’ turned out to be relatively mellow and only barely touched metal, ZEAL & ARDOR’s music is a lot more brutal than the Nordic performance that HEILUNG were to conjure up on stage a little later. Nevertheless, Manuel Gagneux and his band went down extremely well in the sold-out Palladium in Cologne.



Music & Performance
The short, catchy opener ‘the Bird, the Lion and the Wildkin’ from the current album kicked things off and led directly into ‘Götterdämmerung’, and by this point at the latest, the band had the audience’s full attention. It got loud, there was shouting, the lights flickered aggressively. While large hoods made it difficult to see the faces behind the band at the start, Manuel Gagneux and his comrades-in-arms now took them off. They had arrived. And over the course of the next 40 minutes or so, the Swiss offered a balanced mix of their five albums released to date, continuing to explore their limits and demonstrating the full range of their work: ‘Devil Is Fine’ had a strong gospel character, ‘to my ilk’ was even balladic, while the closing, merciless ‘Clawing out’ could be categorised as ‘industrial metal’.



In a nutshell: a brilliant performance!

Setlist
01. the Bird, the Lion and the Wildkin
02. Götterdämmerung
03. Ship on Fire
04. Tuskegee
05. Blood in the River
06. Kilonova
07. to my ilk
08. Death to the Holy
09. Sugarcoat
10. Devil Is Fine
11. I Caught You
12. Clawing out

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Light: 6
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10

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Heilung

What can you write about this performance? It certainly wasn’t a concert in the classical sense. HEILUNG themselves describe their performances as rituals. And that actually sums it up quite well. The Danish-German-Norwegian band HEILUNG does not play concerts. They perform rituals. Each performance begins with Kai Uwe Faust, Christopher Juul, Maria Franz, and their collective leading an ancient prayer. But then the boundaries between musical performance, ancient pagan rituals, past and present blur. Soon the audience is entranced by incense and throat singing, primal rhythms, imaginative costumes, subtle electronic textures, a hypnotic light show, an army of warriors, and outbreaks of fire - truly a ritual.



Music & Performance
The evening began with an opening ceremony, like every evening of this band. The stage was consecrated, or rather inaugurated, and later everyone involved in the evening gathered in a large circle on the stage and got in the mood for the next 90 minutes together. The songs performed afterwards were then almost secondary, as HEILUNG songs rarely have a distinct melody like ‘Anoana’. Basically, the drumming of the musicians on the sometimes extremely large drums at the back of the stage dominated many of the songs played, while additional instrumentation on unusual instruments such as the Ravanahattha, which is well-known in India, hardly made a difference.



Meanwhile, the three permanent members of the band alternated on vocals. Maria Franz’s clear female vocals had an ethereal effect, while Kai Uwe Faust’s throat singing was very different. Christopher Juul, the third member of the band, was less present, as he stood at the front left of the stage throughout the evening and provided additional percussion. When he sang, it sounded like a nagging whisper. The band was joined by two more female singers: Annicke Shireen and Mira Ceti had their place at the front right of the stage and gave an impressive performance. Of course, that alone would not fill the evening and would not be very varied, but the performance of HEILUNG is not limited to the musical part. In fact, there was a lot going on on stage. At times, warriors armed with spears and shields entered the stage, stood there in rank and file and later danced almost ecstatically. At times, it was more a feast for the eyes than for the ears.



In general, the visuals were absolutely outstanding. The stage itself looked earthy and looked like a forest clearing. The three permanent band members and the backing singers wore impressive outfits, the drummers and warriors were in no way inferior and looked just as great and authentic. This is what “Amplified History” looks like and nothing else. Extremely impressive.

Setlist
01. Opening Ceremony
02. In Maidjan
03. Alfadhirhaiti
04. Asja
05. Krigsgaldr
06. Hakkerskaldyr
07. Svanrand
08. Tenet
09. Traust
10. Anoana
11. Galgaldr
12. Elddansurin
13. Hamrer Hippyer
14. Closing Ceremony

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Light: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 9.5 / 10

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All Pictures by André Wilms