Mr. Master of Desaster and the Wall of Drums Things did not look too well. After the fall tour disaster in South America it was not clear if the European tour shortly after would take place at all. But it seems, Mr. Eikemo got his act together and realized what thin line he is walking and admitted himself into rehab. Anyway, the Outstrider tour has started and as I heard, the first show was great. Well, I rather see for myself if it is true. No matter what, an ABBATH show is always an entertaining matter ;) And they put some illustrious combatants on the bill.
The ABBATH show brought me to the :: Matrix :: Bochum. I wasn’t here for a longer time. Some things have changed to improve sound and noise protection. Paid off! Apart from the fact that it was blisteringly loud, the sound backwards was even better than front stage.
Four bands on the bill - the evening was kicked off early. Is there now a curfew? I heard rumors that residents caused trouble...
:: pics :: NUCLEAR ::
However, Chilean Thrash metallers :: NUCLEAR :: came a long way to support the trek across Europe. They were announced in late December, so many people didn’t even know about them. First I thought, they might have met Abbath on their South American tour and made a deal with them. Later I was told that NUCLEAR met the other bands for the first time yesterday at the first show of the tour.
NUCLEAR indeed started super early and then thrashed blisteringly fast through their set of not even 30 minutes. Holy shit! That was brutal! Extremely precise and groovy too. High speed Thrash with charisma and a Punk attitude (ink told its story). I never heard of NUCLEAR before. Now I experienced them bodily. Left its impact I tell you ;)
The band played kind of a best-of set through almost all records, since their most recent album, Formula For Anarchy, dates back to 2015. But there was also one brand new track, No Light After All, that will appear on the band’s upcoming new and sixth album, which - as the band says - will be much darker and the heaviest the band has recorded to date. Expect the new record later this year.
The Matrix was loosely filled and so the response was quite lame. Well, I had a lot of fun watching them and enjoyed their blasting. You cannot do wrong by playing Thrash Metal! The show was a bit hectic but I liked it and recommend you to check them out.
Band: Sebastian Puente (git), Francisco Haussmann (git), Punto Sudy (drums), Roberto Barría (bass), Matías Leonicio (vox)
Setlist: Confront, God Forsaken Life, Violence That Burns, Killing Spree, No Light After All, On Killing, Apátrida
:: pics :: 1349 ::
Lengthy changer-over the first. It turned out that every band had its own equipment, at least its own drum kit. So, it took some time, and technical problems added to the discomfort.
:: 1349 :: have just released the video to Through Eyes Of Stone, a track from their brand new album, The Infernal Pathway, both of them awesome musical pieces.
As usual, 1349 were scant with lights. Red or green spots here and there. Damn. Even for the evilest of evil bands you can put a proper light show together that suits music and attitude of the blackest of Black Metal bands. Again, the (drum) sound and volume was brutal. At the latest, from here, you can call it a wall of drums. It was almost a physical pain to feel the drum beats. At least in the front row. As for that, guitars and vocals were hardly to hear and the sound in general front of stage was rather bad.
1349 got into their set with fire and Sculptor Of Flesh from their third record Hellfire. Right after they went through their set viciously, focusing on their last three records.
Again, the crowd reacted rather reserved. The band would have deserved response that is much more frenetic. Perhaps, it was because everybody got blasted away ;) Most of the time, I had this image in my head with fans with hair streamed out behind and speed-distorted faces, the cartoon style, you know ;) Anyway, show was a bit hectic too but cool.
Band: Ravn (vox), Seidemann (bass), Archaon (git), Frost (drums)
Setlist: Sculptor Of Flesh, Through Eyes Of Stone, Slaves, I Am Abomination, Striding The Chasm, Golem, Atomic Chapel, Dødskamp, Abyssos Antithesis
:: pics :: VLTIMAS ::
Black, blacker, :: VLTIMAS :: Morbid angels were circling over the Matrix. Something Wicked Marches In. Literally. Yes, David Vincent is one hell of a frontman. Deep voice, big gestures and pulling faces (did he adopt that from Abbath? ;)). I just try to remember if I have seen him with Morbid Angel back then. Dunno.
Founded in 2015, Vincent, Eriksen and Mounier have put together a highly acclaimed debut album that was played in its entirety. It was stretched up to a 50 minutes show with a few intros here and there as Something Wicked Marches In runs only 38: 17 minutes.
Again, scant lights, hellish loud but clear sound and tremendous power. Some banter and swearing the crowd to Abbath, David Vincent called Mr. Master of Desaster.
VLTIMAS played their set much more relaxed and easygoing. No hectic, no trouble, no technical issues. Yep, that was fun too ;)
Band: David Vincent (vox), Rune Blasphemer Eriksen (git), Flo Mounier (drums), Ype Terwisscha van Scheltinga (bass, live), João Duarte (git, live)
Setlist: Intro, Something Wicked Marches In, Praevalidus, Total Destroy!, Monolilith, Truth And Consequence, Last Ones Alive Win Nothing, Everlasting, Diabolus Est Sanguis, Marching On
:: pics :: ABBATH ::
It’s not even 10 pm and we reached the grand finale. The venue was now packed and the expectations high. But first… some waiting. Made me look closer on the things on stage and discovered a teleprompter. Seems like some brain cells went down the drain ;)
However, a huge :: ABBATH :: metal logo was “shielding” the drums and made them almost invisible. Apropos invisible… I missed bass player Mia Wallace. I know, she was touring with Kirlian Camera in December, but only a handful of shows. Did I miss something? Oh wait… news are coming in… telling that Mia “was forced to leave ABBATH”. Hm. Damn. She would have looked much better on stage ;)
Now I can copy & paste: scant lights, lots of dry ice, um… loud? Of course, Abbath and the second album Outstrider took center stage. He was not drunk but entertaining as always, including his grimaces. Next to songs from both ABBATH records also classics from Immortal were played and one song from the I album Between Two Worlds.
Yes, ABBATH still nail it! That was a pleasure. And yes, it was extremely loud again including the wall of drums, the one or the other fans could not bear. This was a pretty cool concert evening with four great bands and performances. Only as a photographer I was disappointed.
Band: Abbath (vox, git), Ole Andre Farstad (git), Ukri Suviletho (drums), Rusty Cornell (bass)
Setlist: Hecate, Count The Dead, Bridge Of Spasms, The Artifex, Harvest Pyre, Ashes Of The Damned, Warriors (I), Solarfall (Immortal), Calm in Ire (Of Hurricane), Outstrider, One By One (Immortal), Mountains Of Might (Immortal), To War!, Winterbane
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