Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineJanuary 25, 2025gallery, live, melbourne, Odin Imaging, Nathan Goldsworthy, odin imaging, Wardruna, Palais Theatre

Wardruna @ Palais Theatre 23-01-25

Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineJanuary 25, 2025gallery, live, melbourne, Odin Imaging, Nathan Goldsworthy, odin imaging, Wardruna, Palais Theatre

photos: Nathan Goldsworthy @odin.imaging

The Palais Theatre stood quiet at first, its grand facade a sentinel to what lay within. But as night descended, Norwegian music constellation Wardruna transformed it into something otherworldly—a portal to the past, to the primal thrum of ancient earth. This was their first performance on Australian soil, the inaugural night of a 2025 tour whispered about as much as it was awaited.

Frontman Einar Selvik walked onto the stage like a shaman stepping into a sacred circle, the weight of centuries behind him. His voice, layered with the haunting harmonies of Lindy-Fay Hella and the ensemble, became a thread tying the living to the long-silent. Instruments like the tagelharpa and goat horn sang of fjords and forests, each note a ghost story woven in sound. It wasn’t music in the traditional sense; it was an incantation, an invocation to forces we often forget still linger.

When they performed their new single, “Hertan,” it was as though the audience was collectively holding its breath. The song wasn’t just heard—it was felt, a heartbeat shared by all in the room, its rhythm echoing the pulse of the world outside. The rest of the set unfurled like an old myth, with tracks from their five albums carrying us through time and legend.

The crowd was entranced, caught somewhere between reverence and awe. The applause was thunderous, but it was the silences that stayed with you—the moments when the last note hung in the air like a specter, refusing to dissipate. Wardruna’s music didn’t just fill the theatre; it seeped into its walls, its foundations, leaving an imprint that would long outlast the night.

This wasn’t a concert. It was an odyssey, a journey into the past and the primal forces that still shape us. Wardruna’s debut in Melbourne wasn’t just unforgettable; it was transformative. Those lucky enough to attend will carry its echoes in their bones for years to come.