On Wednesday, January 28, 2026, we went to Brno to the Fléda club for a concert by three very different bands. Surprisingly, however, the combination of Finnish Ensiferum, german Freedom Call and austrian Dragony worked very well together and their "Winter Storm Tour" had huge success.
The first to get the hall moving were Dragony. This band is not entirely unknown in our region. Last year, they added a new singer Maria Neshto their ranks, so they could tour more. Unfortunately, this band has been plagued by bad luck again, and after a wave of illness among all the members, they had to improvise a little. In Brno, only five members showed up, and they even had a substitute drummer, which disappointed me a little, but what can you do? Despite all this, they tried to give their best to the performance and entertain the audience with their songs. Thanks to the new singer, they were also able to play some older songs that I hadn't heard from them before, but there were also newer songs such as "Beyond The Rainbow Bridge" or "The Einherjar."
I was actually most looking forward to the band Freedom Call. I hadn't seen them live for over a year and I simply missed their cheerful energy and happy metal. During their set, we could jump, dance, and sing along not only to their older well-known songs such as "Warriors" or "Power and Glory," but also to newer songs from their latest album "Silver Romance" or their latest single "Heavy Metal Happycore," during which a small circle pit started. Their presence really pleased and warmed up almost everyone present, and the atmosphere was truly intense.
The atmosphere was totally heated up with the help of Freedom Call previously. Luckily it didn’t stop the band Ensiferum, nor the crowd and we had a great experience.
We started with "Winter Storm Vigilantes" from the last album "Winter Storm". We come back in time with songs such as "One More Magic Potion" or we could witness a very nice version of "Scars in My Heart" with Maria Nesh (Dragony). We finished with "Two of Spades" to dance and jump on its funk vibes. It was a good glimpse of their career with old, more recent and new songs. Ensiferum took us with them into battle. The crowd was jumping, screaming, singing, running around in moshpits until the end. No need to go to the gym when you are participating in such an event. It was exactly what one expects about live metal: intense, pure and powerful music from the beginning to the end.
But on Wednesday evening in Brno, we didn’t feel the winter at all! As the members of Ensiferum said themselves, it was more like a Finnish sauna. Between Dragony, Freedom Call and Ensiferum, I think everyone could find something to enjoy: going Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, visiting the Land of Light or running Into Battle!
Photos by Vasilis Tiropolis
Report of Ensiferum by Céline Fetel
Report of others and edit: Kerry Lynx