Aaaaalright fellas!

You may or may not have heard it already, but Helfahrt has been confirmed for the famous (if not legendary!) Ragnarok Festival, which will take place in April 2010. Some of you might remember our last gig there back in 2007- we certainly look back to that day with great satisfaction and priceless memories and hope that 2010 will be at least as good and many of you will be there with us again!

If everything works according to plan (which hardly ever seems to happen when we are involved, but we are optimistic this time) our next album “Drifa” will be released on the festival, which is yet another good reason to come!

We are really looking forward to this event and maybe we get a better stage time than back in 2007. But if not - we will share our breakfast on stage with you just as we did it before!

Cheers & all the best!

Day I, Bad Salzungen



..

Yesterday was Bad Salzungen (KW70) on the list. More or less a warm-up
Gig. Nothing too special..The club was nice but the sound wasn..t! Also
catering was pure crap! But who said that Rock..n..Roll is Glam? The
audience showed up when we played and the rest is worthless.
The Nightliner is very big -I think the biggest I..ve seen in my entire
life. But although quite cosy. Today we will head towards Berlin. We
are realy looking forward to this and hope to be in a good shape when
the bus arrives.

Tour Diary Part II



..

Right now our battle ship rolls into Hamburg. Weather conditions suck -
but we have it very warm and cosy in our buzzzz.We are all very excited
as the "Markthalle" seems to be quite a famous and big venue.Today is
also the first "meet & greet"-session. The show in Berlin yesterday
was just awesome!!! We played in front approx. 300 people that went
crazy like 5150ies! So a big THANK YOU goes out to Berlin this time.
After the show we joined the night life in Berlin and nearly the whole
LAPF-crew started partying on the highway to the end of the night.
Esepecially Tobbs, Markus, Max and some guys of Odroerir finally ended
up in some sort of 80ies revival music -club. I think it..s better to
keep the mouth shut concerning further details of this night. There is
just to say that we invented a very innovative and extravagant version
of the famous "robotic-dance".
All
right - that..s all for now - fresh coffee and showers await us. Maybe
we manage it to upload some pictures in the next days -so stay tuned
for more!




..

"Reeperbahn-drinking"

Tour Diary Part III



..

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Minden,
ready to Rock! Yesterday was a very nice show in Hamburg, good
audience, catering was excellent this day! Also we met some good old
friends and had some nice chats. The Markthalle is a fucking big venue.
Unfortunately we had our gig on the stage of the smaller club called
"Marx". But it was still alright. The only bad thing were the always
recurring sound problems on stage, caused by the high voltage cables of
the train station situated right next of the club. Of course we had to
go to the Reeperbahn after the show. Unfortunately there is not much
action on sunday.There were only three  in the
sitting in the windows, but one of them actually looked quite good!
Still it was...interesting. After our red-light experience we ended up
in some sort of Irish Pub and at 6 in the morning we got caught in the
Döner-trap! We hope to revive the mighty robot-dance today! See you
there!

..

Tour DIary Part IV



..

Mondays gig in Minden wasn..t too bad. We could play in front of 70
headbangers and the catering was quite good aswell. Today is Darmstadt
on the run. Yesterdays day-off was quite boring but still alright. We
could relax  a litttle bit in our sleeping bulks, watching some movies
ect. At 7 p.m. we arrived at the venue in Darmstadt. The last night we
had freezing cold -20 degrees and into the bargain the two radiators
inside the bus had malfunctions. It was so cold inside the bus that
even our drinks were frozen the next day. We made plans for tonight to
keep on partying so that we don..t get cold in our bulks.
Today
Max and Markus went into Darmstadt to check out the swimming bath of
the city. They absolutely lost their direction, ended up in a nearby
forest - totally freezed up and finally arrived after 2 hours in the
bath. But they told us that it was "good to have some sports on tour"
Today
we don..t expect too much. There will be approx. 100 people tonight.
Still ok. Tomorrow morning we will head towards Aphen in the
Netherlands. So tonight is our last show in Germany til we arrive in
Munich. We hope the best!
Alright- we have to go to the soundcheck now - all the best so far!





..

"lost somewhere near Darmstadt"

Tour Diary Part V



..

Alright, alright - sorry for the delay  - we had no Internet acces in
the bus since our last show in Darmstadt. Right now I am sitting on a
computer in the swiss venue "Salzhaus". The last couple of gigs were
just awesome and really crazy! The second show in the Netherlands at
"Dynamo" was really good and we all enjoyed it very much to play there
for a second time. The ongoing after-show parties at the venues and of
course inside the bus were beyond humanity.
London
was one of the most intensive and strange gigs we ever had. The club
was smaller than my living room and there wasn..t really a stage
indoor. No showers, no proper toilets and you could choose between
bloody hot water, burning the shit out of you, and freezing cold water
- turning your hands into a nice blue colour. The club, situated in
Camden-City, a really strange place in London for old Hippies, Gothics,
Skins, Metalheads and everything you can image was very interesting and
overwhelming. We have never seen  a place like this before. The show
went really good, even we had just a 12 channel mixer and 2 (!)
monitors on stage. The audience enjoyed our music and I think we will
have the possibility to return to GB very soon. After the show we all
went to a nearby Rock/Metal/Punk/HC Pub were we all got terribly drunk
from drinking Guinnes with booze and other national specialities.
Odroerir even managed to make a girl dancing for them on the top of a
bar-table. Max, our singer got so drunk that he did not managed to get
into his sleeping bulk and Tobbs had to help him upstairs into the
nightliner. Unbelievable!
Ok, we will tell you more about the other
shows tomorrow - the rest of the crew also want to surf a little bit.
All the best so far - and wish us luck for tonight.
Cheers!!!!

"on the ferry to Britian"

Lyon (FR) / Le Lyons Hall

As our gig in Antwerp had to be
cancelled due to various reasons, we directly headed towards France.
This time our bus-travel was was quite long, but we could grasp a view
of Dover when we were on the ferry to France. Very nice indeed! As
nearly the whole crew slept when we drove through France, it was very
calm inside the bus and you could watch the landscape passing by
without being disturbed.

When we arrived at the venue we directly
took the metro to Lyons city, looking for a suitable restaurant for
dinner. Well, that might sound quite like a cliché - but this night I
had the best wine I ever tasted.

The next day we all woke up frozen 
- the bloody radiators inside the bus hat malfunctions again. Ever
slept without sleeping bag at 0 degrees? Try it out!

When we entered
the "Hall" we could not believe it - the "stage" was built with wooden
Euro-Pallets, it was even colder than outside and the only radiator was
installed in some sort of storage room but it did not make a
difference. Also we were surprisingly told that tonight there would be
Samael and Vader playing in Lyon aswell! "Good" to hear!


"Helfahrt invades London / Camden City"

We heard some
rumors about a cancellation of this gig - but we were all hot for
playing so we tried our best. The catering was non-existend - we had to
buy (!) some sort of micro-waved hot dogs, terribly tasting and causing
severe diarrohea for
nearly everybody. Bad to hear that the only toilet was that dirty that
you even did not dare to spit into it. Right before we hit the stage,
the whole light equipment gave up, suddenly it was pitch black! The
local organiser tried to fix it - but he had no chance.I think we never
played such an intense "black metal" show before. Also the other bands
had many problems but they all did their best for the fans! The few
people that came this evening enjoyed our show and I think they were
all quite gratefull that we did not cancel our shows. We left Lyon
right after the gigs, looking forward for better conditions.

Bologna / Italy
So tonight was Bologna! The venue and especially the
stage were really big. Enormous I dare to say. When we arrived at the
venue we were all welcomed heartly and the catering was just
mouth-watering. Unforunately it was tuesday, so we did not expect too
much audience this evening. So it was - but the few people that came to
see us, made a hell of a show! When we started our gig we were quite
fascinated due to the crazyness and power of the Italian fans! There is
just to say: THANK YOU BOLOGNA!!! We played a phantastic set and
definitely enjoyed the evening. Later on there was the typical
buzzz-partying. Tobbs our bass-player was accidentaly locked in the
storage room at the back of the bus and from now on Helfahrt was given
the name "storage-room-crew! I personally went to bed quite early due
to the fact that I catched a really bad cold with headache and all that
stuff.




Switzerland / Salzhaus


As
our tour-manager "Kelly" told us, the venue for this gig should be
huge, warm, cosy and with modern interior as well as a good sound
system. Well, when we arrived we realised that he was right. The
Salzhaus is more than comfortable, we had internet-access and the
catering was very special again! This time we had no local support band
but even it was 8.30 p.m. the audience was absolutely hot and
celebrated us and our headbanging show frenetically. Also Odroerir and
Gernotshagen played very good shows and I sure that they will remember
this night for a long time. Stupidly I was totally ill, my head felt as
heavy as ten tons and so for me the party ended right after our show.
Very bad! The rest of the bands went after the show to a nearby
Metal-Hardrock bar where they revived the mighty dance again, together
with Chrigel and Marry from Eluveitie. When I woke up at 7.30 a.m. I
still could hear singing and laughing from the lounge of the bus - so I
am sure that they all had their fun.





Innsbruck / Hafen
This club has been quite common to us, as we had played in the so called "Hafen"  two years ago with mighty Helheim. Tonight should be the first show with our "support"-band EISREGEN, who should act as a headliner for the last 4 shows. When the bus arrived I really felt very sick as I was realy clenched by the bloody cold I got in Bologna (or even earlier). The only god thing was that I could stay in bed while the others were working. When I got up - all the work was done and I could directly go the awesome prepared catering tables. Very delicious!! Surprisingly we did not play on the normal stage this night, but in the other hall - much more bigger with a capacity of approx. 1000 people to fit in. We all did our soundchecks and did not expect too much of this evening. We all knew that most of the people would come to see EISREGEN - well -in the end exactly this happend. We played in front of  80 people but we realised the ongoing problem very soon - they really did not want to see us. Odroerir and Gernotshagen had a little bit better shows - but nothing special aswell. When EISREGEN entered the stage, the audience flipped out totally and I think that the band enjoyed this gig. After the show I went, as on the days before, right to bed. Rumors were told that some of Gernotshagen and Odroerir went to nearby pub but I did not noticed much of them.

Traun / Spinnerei
On the next day I felt much more better and something told me that the show tonight should become a good one for Helfahrt. I crawled out of my bulk, moaning and stretching, not realising that the whole trailer had been already emptied by the other. Once more. Headind for some coffee I glimpsed towards the stage, which was already under preparation for the coming concert. Catering was very nice and so the daily routine of rigging up the euqipment, making soundchecks, telling silly jokes, drinking beer and looking forward for the coming show went on. It seemed that the whole touring crew were quite tired and exhausted from the last 15 days.. We entered the stage right in time and this time we had the chance to play in front of nearly the whole audience. Also it seemed to us that Trauns people are more addicted to Pagan Metal. Good for us, Odreorir and Gernotshagen! The show went on and I think we played a really good one this evening. Audience was very grateful and we celebrated song on song together with them. Even I was still a little bit "tipsy" from all the pharmaceuticals I took in the past, everything went fine and so we bid farewell to one of the best audience we had so far. Thank you Traun!
Also the other bands did good shows - Odroerir were totally sold out of the mead (honeywine) they took with them from Thuriniga. (150 bottles btw!!!) Later on we all went again to a nearby Irish-pub were we took a seat right in front of the bar - drinking and growling all night long. I gave a shit concerning my cold and "Lo and behold!" -it was totally gone the next day!

Vienna / Szene
We all awoke with a pumping head and and stiff neck from the aftershow-partying last night. We were told that somebody was that drunk that he lost his trousers! Well done! The "Szene" is a damn big club. The stage is awesome and also the backstage-area is mindbreaking! Altough we all felt very aggrieved because of the last proper day of the tour, everybody tried to hide this sorrow under a grinning face. We had dinner, made soundchecks blablablablabla - nothing special. We were told that this night the show would be sold out so we awaited the best to come. Unfortunately we had to play quite early this time - so when the people arrived, just some of them noticed us being on stage. From time to time it became better and in the end also this gig became a really good one. Not so good as the shows from the other bands - but to be certain - did you ever moshed out your head at 7.30p.m at concert? After our gig we met some good old friends from Germany and when our tourmanager told us that the venues curfew was at 00.00p.m - but Viennas clubs and discos should be open til 4 - we knew that this night would be quite a special one. Somebody also told me that our nightliner would leave tomorrow at half past seven. Best conditions for having a long and thrillng drinking tour through Viennas night life. We left the "Szene" at half past twelfe and drove with a cap into Viennas city where we should visit the famous "Escape"-Club/Disco. No sooner said than done! When over 20 people entered the club like hungry lions the barkeeper knew what to do. We started to drink some beers - but when we later experienced the 50ies and 60ies music bar in the cellar of the "Escape", everbody suddenly started ridiculous dancing. You could not dare your eyes anymore. The whole LAPF-Tour-crew - dancing in the most silly way you can imagine -waving the arms and shouting out old hits! Great!!! I cannot remember as good as I wish - but abruptly the party was over and I found myself together with a girl and Stickel (Odreorir) on the streets of Vienna. Totally lost. As our hunger for alcohol still wasn..t over - we asked the mysterious girl to guide us through the city to find some suitable place for two guys like us. Problem: Even in Vienna every bar or club rings the bell at 4.30! After one hour of running across nearly every bloody street of Vienna, the girl asked Stickel and me to join her as a gesture of friendship. She told us her name and we converged together more and more. Thanks to Marlis (the name of the arcane person) hospitality, both of us could have some "good night"drinks at her home. So, thanks a lot Marlis!!! Whenever we come back - we will pay our dues - for sure! I think it must have been between 7 and half past 7 a.m. ,when Stickel decided to go back to the warm and comfortable  nightliner. Problem: We did not knew were we were situated right now and we also did not know the street of the venue. After a short call from Marlis mobile phone we were ordered to come back to the bus asap!!! Well, let me tell you: We really tried! We were both drunk as shit and all our plans of reaching the bus in the time schedule we were given from the tour-manager failed. From now on, things became a little bit complicated. When we finally reached the venue we could not see a bus or something else. Just some slops on the parking place where our bus once stood. Drunk, in desparation, without money, without mobile phone, without jacket and everything else you normaly take with you, we decided to take the metro to Viennas main station - trying to catch a train to Munich. After hours of waiting we scraped our last money together to buy the stupid train tickets and felt immediately into sleep when we boarded the train. It must have been 11 a.m. when something woke me up. Rubbing my tired and drunk eyes, I could see a policeman standing in front of me. He hold his hand open as a friendly gesture to hand him out my identity card. I don..t know how - but in some way I could convince him that my identity card was still lying in the bus and that he had two severe Rock-Stars in front of him. We were really lucky and arrived in Munich after 6 hours of sitting in the damn train.
We had standing ovasions back in the venue when we entered the hall. Tired, drunk, exhausted and in a very bad mood. Fortunately we had very nice and good showers in the backstage area - so Stickel and I started immediately to get sober and clean to be fit for the last show of this awesome tour.
The last shows were went really well - everything went fine and when Odroerir played their set - we were told on stage to sing together with them the song "Iring" ("lasst euch sagen aus alten Tagen......"). A tremendous moment for us all. There is nothing more to say actually. We just said goodbye to everybody, shaking hands and blessing our new friends! It is very hard to return to reality after nearly 3 weeks of touring. We were all crushed and tired - but the "light a pagan fire-tour" really was an adventure and intensive experience for us all! Maybe the best time in our lifes so far!


"fear and loathing in the buzzzzZ"

After 17 incredible days on tour, we are now finally back home. This was an absolute highlight in the lives of all of us, and we will never forget these days! We would like to thank Maik from Gernotshagen, who did a great job organising this tour, Kelly, our „tour-mama", SMP-Tollzorn and Einheit-Produktionen, who made all this possible, Odroerir and Gernothshagen for a great time and of course we thank all of you who visited one of the concerts and had fun together with us! You are the best! See you next time!
Helfahrt

And again we have got an amazing review for "Wiedergang" This time the german magazine "Metal-district" posted their oponion on our compositions.

Enjoy!

Dieses Review hat mir einigermassen Kopfzerbrechen bereitet und wartet deshalb auch schon einige Zeit auf seine Veröffentlichung. Zu Beginn war es eher so, dass ich den "Wiedergang" auseinandernehmen wollte, was einige meiner Schreiberkollegen anderer Mags auch getan haben. Zu Unrecht, wie ich finde. Denn eigentlich ist der "Wiedergang" sogar ein Album mit dem Zeug zum Meilenstein, auch wenn man zugeben muss, dass diese Erkenntnis unter Umständen einige Durchläufe benötigt; einfach zu konsumieren ist dieses Album nicht, aus mehreren Gründen. Aber hey, das ist Black Metal, oder? Niemand hat gesagt, dass das eingängig wie Popmusik sein muss. Black Metal will elitär sein, nicht für die Masse bestimmt, nicht einmal für die Massen der Black Metal Anhänger. Und ja, der "Wiedergang" ist elitär, versperrt sich dem Nebenbeikonsumieren, und eröffnet nach und nach eine heimelige, waldige, mit Moosen zugewachsene und verwucherte Baumlandschaft, düster und ganz und gar nicht einsam, dieser Wald ist von toten Seelen bevölkert, von Waldschraten, Perchta und Wiedergängern aus längst vergessenen Tagen, sogar von den vergessenen Tagen selbst.
Oberflächlich betrachtet knallt einem der Sound erst einmal die Türe vor der Nase zu. Das ist so roh und rumpelig, dass man meinen könnte, es mit einer der zahlreichen Proberaumaufnahmen zu tun haben, die derzeit die Szene mal wieder überfluten und einen Hauch Frühneunziger mitbringen. Dass aber genau das Teil des Konzeptes ist, wird erst nach und nach offenbar, nämlich dann, wenn man merkt, dass HELFAHRT sehr wohl wissen, was sie da tun. Und dann kommen einem Namen wie KAMPFAR und ISENGARD in den Sinn, Sätze von DARKTHRONEs Fenriz, wenn er von Kultivierung der Primitivität spricht. Bei genauerem Hinhören schälen sich dann viele tolle Feinheiten aus dem Soundgewand, das genau so gewollt ist, aus krass übereinander geschichteten Ebenen besteht, 'transparent' wäre das falsche Wort dafür, vielleicht supra- transparent, so dass es roh und rumpelig in einem imaginären Kreislauf wieder von hinten aufrollt.

Selbstredend ist Black Metal nur die halbe Wahrheit, natürlich ist das Pagan Black Metal, aber so spontan will mir eigentlich keine Pagan-Truppe einfallen, die derart reudig und kompromisslos rumpeligen Black Metal spielt, ganz ohne ktischige Melodeien und dabei doch so pagan ist. HELFAHRT werden nicht einmal dann kitschig, wenn sie Akkustikgitarren einsetzen oder Flöten. Ich glaube nicht, dass ich schon mal Flöten gehört habe, die so sehr Black Metal tönten; melancholisch, rauh, organisch. Sind das Holzflöten? Holzig und organisch ist ein gutes Stichwort, denn das ist es, so fühlt sich der ganze "Wiedergang" an. Knorrige Bäume, verdorrte Rinden, feucht-moosige Wurzeln, 'ich atme Erde'. Ein seltsam anmutender Satz, der letztlich ein Album zu beschreiben vermag.
Diese ganze Primitivität, die hier an den Tag gelegt wird, gilt ganz und gar nicht für die Lyrics, die die Kitschfettnäpfchen der deutschen Sprache nicht mal streifen, Lyrik auf hohem Niveau, die oft mit wenig Worten komplexe Bilder und Emotionen zu schaffen vermag. Kurzerhand wird man selbst zum Baum, die Wurzeln tief in feuchtem Boden, den Wind im Haar und Ekel vor dieser Welt, das alles ist als tatsächlich fühlbares Erlebnis in einem Satz wie 'ich atme Erde' enthalten, die knorrige Rinde, die mentale Sperre gegen diese Welt. "Auf Nagelfars Deck" weht einem der Wind die Gischt ins Gesicht, rauhe, salzige Seeluft und die Einsamkeit der Meere und die letzten Strahlen der kalt-gelb-orangenen "Altsommer"-Sonne auf der Haut. Auf den Lichtungen vor den Grabhügeln "Perchta" (Vala, mittels Runen beschworene, tote Frauen, die von der Zukunft deuten), knarrendes Unterholz, wenn Waldschrate sich Wege bahnen und feststoffliche Geister, "Wiedergänger" längst vergessener Zeiten, die den im Artwork perfekt eingefangenen Wald bevölkern.
Die charismatischen Vocals sind wichtiger Bestandteil der sehr intensiven Atmosphäre, die hier gezeichnet wird. Eine grossartige Gesangsleistung, die irgendwo zwischen kaltem Growlen und sich überschlagenen Screams angesiedelt ist, verdammt schwierig zu beschreiben, weil das gleichzeitig gemeint ist. Der "Wiedergang" ist auf vielerei Weise vielschichtig, öffnet sich erst nach und nach, man muss sich einlassen darauf. Die hier kultivierte Primitivität geht oft weit über bekannte Grenzen hinaus, die simplen Arrangements mit den liebevollen Details stellen sich dabei auf die gleiche Stufe wie KAMPFAR, ISENGARD und KVIST, ohne das zu kopieren. HELFAHRT schaffen ein sehr eigenständiges Werk voller krasser Gegensätze, das roh und krachig ist, dabei aber auch intensiv und heimelig, organisch und sehr lebendig. Ich wage zu behaupten, dass dies ein Album ist, an dem sich zukünftig viele Bands werden messen lassen müssen. Grossartig!