WELICORUSS on METAL HEIL FEST 2009



How did Welicoruss manage to take part in this massive open air in Irkursk, featuring the best young metal bands from all over the Eastern Russia? It came all of a sudden – one spring morning the fest’s mastermind and chief organizer Alexender Rozhkov has dropped us a message via e-mail, inviting to headline this fest. We were quick to accept the invitation, as this event is a good start for great metal open air fests in Siberia. Not Wacken yet, but quite a challenge for local bands and their fans! Thanks to Alexander and staff, the organization is quite good and thoroughly planned – which makes everybody hope to see not only Russian, but EU bands as well in the years to come.

15-17th of July, 2009 - arrival
2000 km from Novosibirsk – 2 days by train – and here we’re in Irkutsk at last. The bus with 666 number took us to Sibirskaya Zaimka, the place of MHF. Zaimka is a tourist complex on the bank of Angara river, 38 km from the lake Baikal, in the heart of pine forests. Huge ancient trees, magestic Angara, green hills and other no less picturesque landscapes create the atmosphere of peace and tranquility which attracts tourists from all over the world. Our appartments appeared to be… ‘zimov’e’ (which means small wooden hut, used in ancient times by the hunters to endure “zima” – icecold Siberian winter). Stuffed wild boar’s muzzle, furnace in Old Russian style, wooden rough-cut furniture and buildings of the same traditional style enchanted us and Apokefale, Tomsk band we’ve shared the room with. Hovewer, not for a long time have we been misguided by that happy feeling of the Old Russian calmness and unity with Nature – the next day first bands to play have blown up the stage with roaring sounds of metal. The same day our bassist, Alexander, had his 25 anniversary – so you can imagine the following party… No comments –you’d better see photos)



18th of July - GIG
This was the date of our live gig. First of all, I’d like to mention that the line-up was the strongest that day – Skalаver (Irkutsk), Exventer (Kemerovo), Storm (Ulan-Ude) were especially cool. WELICORUSS? I guess we’ve performed with our full power. Thanks to technical staff, the sound was excellent – our bass roared louder than hell, drummer was obscured by puffs of smoke- imagine all of this blasting with infernal lights and thundering with the crowd’s roar. Hell of a gig, and devils of fans who wanted to make us play more by trying to slam the stage’s barriers. The rest of the evening we’ve spent in the bar signing and chatting with our fans. No surprise that we had reached our beds only early in the morning, exhausted, yet overwhelmed with positive emotions.



19th of July
This day we had a rest after our gig, socializing with other bands and devoted the majority of time to sightseeing.

20th of July – the last day
We were free at last and decided to visit the most famous place of interst and tourist Mecca of the area- the great lake Baikal. Not only did we manage to swim in its icecold waters and enjoy breathtaking views of mighty forests and black cliffs, but also got acquainted with mystical myths and legends the place is shrouded in. To tell the truth, it was the most important part for us – to draw inspiration from shamanic lore, the ancient local views upon the secret Powers of Nature and Universe, thousand years old cave inscriptions, stone idols and sacred cult places. The valleys surrounding Baikal were (and are) the best places to meditate and lift the veil of secrecy from dim and distant past. You’ll see the reflection of this in our upcoming album, partly inspired by this very primeval, savage and sacred places...



P.S. Our greatest thanks to the fans, festival organizing party (Alexander, cheers!) and participating bands. From the accomodation and the security to lights and sound, everything was of the highest level. The very place chosen for the open-air is majestic. We hope the MHF will become international in the years to come – all conditions for this are ready.