Moonsorrow Bring More ‘Epic Heathen Metal’ Back to the U.S.

"New York City! We're happy to be back here," Moonsorrow frontman Henri Sorvali said to the crowd at Gramercy Theater. The band was welcomed to the stage with a "Moon-sor-row!" chant. On April 8, when they played with Finntroll and Swallow the Sun, Sorvali kept the banter at a minimum. He briefed each song with it's respective title, and the band went on to make the crowd scream even more.

As happy as the band was to be back in New York, so was the crowd. An open sea of horns in the air proved so. Even though I doubt most people knew the Finnish words, they still lip synched the lyrics.

Moonsorrow played on the same stage almost a year ago while on tour with Primordial and Korpiklaani on Paganfest. For those shows the band wore deep red paint every night. For the Finnish Metal Tour, however, there was no paint or blood -- and the experience was just as transcending. Even though the band does refer to their genre as "epic heathen metal " and not black metal, their anti-Christian, naturalistic and folk themes put them pretty close to the extreme genre.

"Thank you! Spending the evening with you is beyond awesome," Henri said before the band played their last song.

On Aug. 14, Moonsorrow play the Czech Republic's Brutal Assault Open Air Festival.