Metalheads fall on hard times

On 28 March 2020, Faroese heavy metal bands will once again compete for the chance to represent the Faroes in the annual Wacken Open Air festival in Germany.

This will be the sixth and final Wacken Metal Battle, as the local qualification round is called in the Faroes.

According to local organiser Teitur Egholm Fossaberg, the reason why this is the last time is that the contest now has so many nations competing that the German organisers have started grouping nations together.

This means that the Faroe Islands will be grouped together with Iceland and Greenland in the future.

Poor practice conditions

Fossaberg says that practice conditions for bands in Tórshavn have worsened significantly over the past few years.

The Margarinfabrikkin youth centre is no longer has the same capacity for band practice as it had a few years ago, and that is clearly reflected in the capital’s heavy metal activity.

Fossaberg says that the City Council is keen to book heavy metal bands for concerts, but it does little to provide practice spaces for the bands.

International metallic success

The first Wacken Metal Battle local qualification event took place in 2012 in the Sjónleikahúsið theatre and featured eight bands.

Hamferð won the first event and went on to win the international event in German later that year.

This huge achievement encouraged many other bands to sign up for the following year’s event, sparking a new wave of Faroese heavy metal.

After a break in 2015, the Wacken Metal Battle resumed in 2016, which had 11 participating bands, the highest number since the contest started. Since then, the number of bands signing up for the event has dropped significantly.

Translated by prosa.fo