THE CHARIOTS OF FIRE TOUR
[Seb] It took us exactly 959 days between this one and the last concert at :: Turbinenhalle Oberhausen :: (Dimmu Borgir and WITTR) and it sadly appears as though there might be another reason for a concert hiatus coming: This time not due to a virus, but because tour after tour is currently being cancelled. It is something like a self-enforcing death-spiral of “existential uncertainty/angst - lacking presales – concerts/tours being cancelled due to lacking presales - people skipping presales because of cancellations”… let’s hope for the best, it’s all we can do.
At least for today, there was quite the queue at 6 pm sharp, and even though the venue was likely not sold out, there was a proper amount of fans in front of the T2 stage for the headliners.
[Dajana] Yep, it is quite sad when you have to state that a tour trek, such as this one, can be "happy" to see the hall half-filled these days, where it should be sold out otherwise. A long row of tour cancellations the last couple of days and own experiences of empty locations tell its own story. The gallery was closed and the hall down filled loosely. I guess approx. 700+ fans have been there (at 1300 max).
Much better it was to meet some lovely people :)
:: pics :: BØLZER ::
[Seb] To everyone’s surprise, :: BØLZER :: begun to play at about 6.20 pm, only minutes after the doors opened (with some delay) and between 10 and 25 minutes early: I expected the concert to kick off as 6.30 pm but the digital tickets appeared to even say 6.45 pm. As a paying customer, especially someone who came for the first band in particular, I’d certainly have been somewhat pissed off… Maybe the boys did simply start right after the sound check to play a longer set, I’ve got no timetable to refer to.
Being „only“ a duo, BØLZER’s sound is quite impressive. Other than the guys of Inquisition (the only suitable comparison that comes to mind), KzR does not play and later loop an assertion of riffs, but has some sort of foot pedals that allow him to emulate a standard bass line. The band did search for a bass player at some point but has since given up on it after they couldn’t find someone who they deem suitable. The main characteristic of BØLZER’s music is of course the multiple times distorted guitar sound that sort of lends their sound the appearance of more instruments being in play. Especially when he slows down from the ultra-fast and complicated shredding in favor of plainer and slower neck breaker riffs, this technique allows KzR to achieve a very massive and forceful sound that doesn’t have to shy away from comparison to other death/black bands with a traditional lineup.
That KzR is somewhat stationary due to his triple duties (guitars, vocals and “foot-bass”) does of course result in a quite subdued amount of showmanship, but then the dense stage smoke didn’t allow for much to see anyways: most of the times, the only thing you could see clearly were the three little candles at either side of the stage. Overall a good gig, would have deserved a larger crowd for the most part.
[Dajana] Yes, I agree, the sound was massive, mercilessly steamrolling everything to pieces. Wow! Forgot the impact the band leaves…
Band: Okoi Thierry „KzR“ Jones, Fabian „HzR“ Wyrsch
:: pics :: TRIBULATION ::
[Seb] I’ve honestly got no idea how often I’ve seen :: TRIBULATION :: by now without ever being out for them: It almost feels as if they were support for ever other tour that took place in the last years prior to the big C. Of course, the guys have a lot of fans and are also up there with the best as far as technical skill goes, but the band simply does not cut it for me. The whole show – even though TRIBULATION juggle with an abundance of styles and stylistic elements – seemed unpleasantly uniform to me. Sometimes it even appeared as though the band were playing more for their own pleasure than for the crowd. Even the vocals where underwhelming insofar as they blended in that much that I would – especially at the end of songs where they would keep “tootling” for minutes on end – sometimes be hard pressed to tell if the singer was actually there or called in sick.
I’m sure there is a good reason why this band exists and at least good portions of the crowd seemed to be quite fond of them, but unless something changes (and drastically so), TRIBULATION will be filed under “lineup needed to be completed somehow” in my book…
[Dajana] I always look forward to see TRIBULATION play live. I like their music and I like to photograph them. Though, I have to admit that the band's last record, Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, is a good one but I miss the influence and impact of Jonathan Hultén. And I miss him live too.
Band: Johannes Andersson (vox, bass), Adam Zaars (git), Joseph Tholl (git), Oscar Leander (drums)
Setlist: In Remembrance, Leviathans, Nightbound, Melancholia, Hamartia, Funeral Pyre, Strange Gateways Beckon
:: pics :: ABBATH ::
[Seb] The Outstrider-Tour early in 2020 was one of the last highlights before the long draught that was about to follow: It is only fitting that :: ABBATH :: would mark the beginning of this year’s indoor concert season (if there will be one). In the meantime, Mr. Eikemo was busy and released a third full-length album. Dread Reaver isn’t quite as strong as its two predecessors (a bit too much emphasis on raw speed this time), but now there’s definitely enough good material so ABBATH does not have to resort to old Immortal material too heavily (it would be a shame, if he didn’t at all, of course).
In front of a backdrop with a giant ABBATH-portrait (someone who doesn’t know him but watched WWE as a kid could as well conclude, that it’s a hybrid of the Undertaker, a tiger and a panda *g*), the band opened furiously with the first song of the current album, Acid Haze. The first half of the gig was a well-chosen best-of from the three studio albums, where frenzied and blast beat dominated black metal and churning, violent riffs balanced each other out nicely. A welcome interlude was the much slower and groovy Warriors from the (only) I-album Between Two Worlds. After the last “own” track, Winterbane, it was – finally and much cheered on by a lot of fans – time for the Immortal-portion of the evening. While the numbers from fan favorite Sons Of Northern Darkness were not much of a surprise, I was quite happy with the selection of thrashy and driving The Rise Of Darkness from the last “real” Immortal album and even more so with the grandiose Withstand The Fall Of Time: After all, At The Heart Of Winter is my personal Immortal-favorite.
ABBATH, the man himself, wass of course, up to some shenanigans, as always. Not only did he obviously enjoy his trademark “stretched” creaking of “Dankeschöööööön” in between songs, he also deliberately butchered some of the song titles in his usual hilarious way. Despite that, he still seemed a bit subdued compared to his over-the-top-days where he would routinely be in a rather questionable state when on stage ;-)
Great as always and I will certainly be in front of the stage when ABBATH pays our region his next visit.
[Dajana] ABBATH is indeed unique, distinctive, unmistakable and always a guarantor for an entertaining show. Whenever I see him/them playing live I think die-hard-trve-Black-Metal-fans must loathe them to the hell and back. Well, they obviously do not ;) And yes, it once again was pure fun to watch them and to rock out with them. The good way.
It was also great to see Arve playing bass with them. When I saw him I instantly was like… damn, you know this (painted) face ;) But, what happened to Mia?
Only drawback was, for all bands, the massive use of smoke - you could hardly see anything on stage and the uninspired, on all bands repeated light set.
Band: Abbath (Olve Eikemo, vox, git), Ukri Suvilehto (drums), Ole André Farstad (git), Arve Isdal (bass)
Setlist: Acid Haze, Dream Cull, The Artifex, Ashes Of The Damned, Dread Reaver, Hecate, Warriors, Winterbane, In My Kingdom Cold, Beyond The North Waves, The Rise Of Darkness, Withstand The Fall Of Time
:: pics :: WATAIN ::
[Seb] :: WATAIN :: as persons are not exactly my cup of tea, but credit where credit is due: The Swedish quartet is miles ahead of most other bands in their genre, when it comes to style and decoration, something they perfected in their 24 years together. The Swedes haven’t been idling during the pandemic either and released a seventh full length album in April. Bearing the somewhat bulky title of The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain it has already made several runs on my players and I actually like it a lot.
Following a bombastic intro and in front of an equally imposing scenery with dozens of candles and occult symbols WATAIN did as well opt to open with the first track of their recent album: the furious and brutal Ecstasies In Night Infinite. After a very kind address of welcome („Good evening ladies and gentlemen of Germany, Oberhausen“), WATAIN would jump back and forth between the new album and exclusive songs from the early 2000s, mainly from Casus Luciferi: The only „block“ of new songs consisted of Serimosa and Before The Cataclysm (with its intro).
I was a bit surprised, that they omitted all the „hits“ from 2007s Sworn To The Dark. Of course it is impossible to feature all songs one would (by now) consider „classics“ in a 70ish minutes long set, but this is probably the first time ever that I saw a WATAIN concert without any track from that album (since 2007, of course).
If you know the band from the very early days on, you’ll might be surprised how technically versed the guys are after two more decades: the almost 20 year old numbers sound almost more polished when they play them live than they did on the studio albums back in the day. Much too soon we arrived at the 70-minute-mark of the gig and with the line “from present day and age to the darkness of the past“ the final two songs, Angelrape and Malfeitor (both of 2000s Rabid Death's Curse) was introduced, after which we were treated to an outro that went on for some minutes and was as bombastic as the intro.
[Dajana] I absolutely loved the intro and outro. Such gorgeous music. I would like to know if that was a soundtrack I should know or if it was something composed specially for WATAIN?
[Seb] Whatever you might think of the band, their esoteric background or the – depending on your stance, deep or awkward – announcements or even short monologues of vocalist Erik: In terms of “pure music”, WATAIN are still both on top of their games as well as amongst the best the genre has to offer. While not being as “static” as many other band they still adhere to their roots enough to not disappoint their fans and they appear to have one of the most loyal fan bases around. My only point of criticism would be that WATAIN did not play the outstanding We Remain. I can only speculate why: Maybe they didn't want to play guest singer Farida Lemouchis voice from tape, maybe they deemed the song too slow for being played live?
Overall it was a great concert. Could have been a bit longer though, there’s no neighbors around one has to care about ;-)
Band: Erik Danielsson (vox), Pelle Forsberg (git), Håkan Jonsson (drums), Davide „Set Teitan“ Totaro (live git), Alvaro Lillo (live bass)
Setlist: Intro, Ecstasies In Night Infinite, Black Salvation, The Howling, I Am The Earth, Reaping Death, Devil's Blood, Serimosa, Not Sun Nor Man Nor God, Before The Cataclysm, Angelrape // Malfeitor, Outro
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