Hello,
Guess who is here? I know, I know, you already think 'Oh, this bastard
is going to give us another shitload of worthless personal information'
:-) OK, let's get to business then. We attended a show on Friday, and
although none of my favorite bands was going to play that night, the
line-up was to good to miss it. Performers included following bands and
entities: DIVINE EMPIRE, PECCATUM, WITCHERY, BORKNAGAR and, finally,
EMPEROR. DIVINE EMPIRE (aka as ex-members of MALEVOLENT CREATION) kicked
Witchery
Taken from www.necropolisrecords.com
off the night with their uninspiring brutal death metal ala
aforementioned MALEVOLENT CREATION and CANNIBAL CORPSE. I did not expect
anything interesting from this band and, unfortunately, my expectations
came true. Boring at best, and annoying most of the time, they did not
provide necessary energy for crowd to feed on. The interesting thing
about this band, however, is the fact that I have seen a couple of zines
where folks clearly stated how great this band was and that after seeing
their energetic live performance you would certainly become a believer.
Well, sometimes I just wonder if this is the same band that we have
listened to... PECCATUM was stated to play next and their part of the
show was, definitely, much better than that of the previous band. I was
a little bit concerned about how their unusual brand of metal would
sound live, especially considering the fact that PECCATUM is not exactly
the band, but more of the classically influenced project of Insahn from
Emperor, which also includes his wife and her brother (family business,
ha-ha). However, my fears were quickly swept away by their tight and
powerful sound as well as their strange and twisted, somewhat theatrical
stage presence. I really enjoyed first 2 or 3 songs, but after that
their music had gradually become less interesting and kind of too
disharmonic for my taste. Anyway, it was nice to see something different
and thus I can confidently state that their part of the show was pretty
good. If one still does not know anything about WITCHERY, he/she should
probably go and see a physician right away, because it was just
impossible to miss this band, as they appeared, in one form or another,
in practically every metal publication. Their show started in a pretty
interesting way, as one of the guitar players (I don't think it was
Jensen) spitted a mouthful of water right on the crowd. Hmmm, I turned
out to be lucky enough to get almost the whole portion on my denim
outfit, ha-ha. Well, at least it was not blood, you know. They played
their favorite retro-trash, and it was pretty funny and upbeat stuff
('The Reaper, The Reaper he's coming to get you', ha-ha!), but I still
don't understand what all the hype surrounding this band is about. It's
clear Necropolis tries to push them as hard as they can, but don't you
|
people have your own brain and ears, ah? It just shows that
representatives of so-called 'independent metal press' are not much
better (if any) than their mainstream colleagues. Money can buy
everything... and almost everyone. Fast forward to the next band and
finally it's almost music to die for. I don't wanna be too pathetic and
pompous here, but BORKNAGAR pretty much stole that night with their
powerful and epic music. I have never had a chance to hear how Garm
(their ex-frontman for those of you who do not know it yet) sounds live,
but let me assure you that ICS Vortex (or whatever he wants to call
himself) aka as Simen knows his stuff well, said at least! What a great
fucking voice he's got! I just wish that in the future he would sing
more clear parts, because that's there he showcases the best of his
abilities. They did not play that long, only about 35-40 minutes or
maybe even less, but they managed to play both 'The Dawn of the End' and
'Oceans Rise' which are my favorite songs. Hope one day they come back
to Cleveland as headliners. Finally, after some serious preparations,
Borknagar
Taken from www.darkwood.com/borknagar/
The Mighty EMPEROR got on stage. Were they really mighty? I wouldn't say
that. The show was kinda OK, but I still do not understand why everyone
considers them to be the best black metal band around. First of all,
what they played can be hardly classified as black metal (well, I guess
you already know about that). However, I would not call it death metal
either. It was more like very dissonant noise most of the time. As a
result almost all the songs tended to run into one another which
certainly did not provide some of the listeners with a lot of
excitement. I am not even sure if they played 'I Am the Black Wizards',
which is, in my opinion, their absolutely best song. I can recall that
they played 'The Loss and Curse of Reverence' and '...Nightspirit' as
well as a whole lot of songs from the new album. By the way, I still
have not heard the last album and after experiencing EMPEROR live, I can
not say that I am really eager to buy it. Say whatever you want, but for
me 'In the Nightside Eclipse' will always be their finest hour unless
they decide to return to their roots and record something in this vein.
However, such a possibility looks for now very unlikely. R.I.P.?
Regards,
Andy.
P.S. For those of you wondering there IMMORTAL is - I guess they were
wandering 'At the Heart of Winter'!
|