Astaroth,
Inferno, Veritas Mentis, Bastard, Ravenhorst
Ann and Pat, Linz, December 6th, 2001
...
and on we (me, my GF Dunja, Darkwood and one of his friends)
went to see if the metal scene in Linz was just as lame
as the one in Vienna. Actually the main reasons to go
there were of course the infamous INFERNO plus the oportunity
to meet some friends and do some heavy drinking (except
for me cause I was one of the fuckin drivers...), but
at least I was also curious to learn something about the
crowd over there.
The
first impression after our arrival were quite disappointing:
The venue was something like an alternative/punk youth
club and the ‚crowd‘ consisted of about 20
people who looked qute stoned and lethargic.
Therefore the atmospere was quite weak when RAVENHORST
entered the stage. I had only heard one or two tracks
of them before which didn’t impress me too much,
but I have to say that their live performance was really
convincing. Furious stage acting and good playing skills
really did their mixture of norse BM with some IMPALED
NAZARENE influences good justice, and one could clearly
see that they enjoyed playing their stuff. They did a
good cover of IN’s ‚Steelvagina‘, but
also their own material sounded much stronger than on
CD. Considering the fact that this was just their 2nd
gig ever they really did an impressive job and I’m
really looking forward to see them under better circumstances.
BASTARD
are one of those bands which are playing in Vienna quite
often so I know them quite well and have to say that I’ve
seen them in much better condition. Their performance
was good and the set (consisting of newer songs in the
swedish BM-style plus one old, death-grinding piece) showed
that their songwriting skills are well-developed, but
the fire was missing as they seemed to be pissed-off by
the lame crowd, which is really understandable. Their
gig somehow went by without any ups and downs, and one
could see that they were quite happy to leave the stage
afterwards.
Next
were INFERNO who had switched places with VERITAS MENTIS
- much to the dismay of Mr. Darkwood who had just left
the club to get some food and therefore missed most of
them. And he really had good reasons to be angry cause
the czechs were absolutely brilliant! I’ve rarely
seen a BM band actually LIVING their music on stage as
much as these maniacs! Everything was close to perfect,
from the theatralic performance of their vocalist to the
majestic pagan-influences, but still raw songs. The only
real drawback were the announcements between the songs:
Most of them were hardly understandable, but I could hear
‚blablabla aryan blablabla‘ a few times (from
a band considering itself slavonic...) and ‚Black
Metal for white people only!‘ as final comment before
leaving the stage (Did these guys ever hear of Sarcofago,
Mystifier, Blasphemy etc.?!). For me this doesn’t
make any sense and weakens the impression of an otherwise
perfect gig.
After
the frantic headbanging together with some of the SANGUIS-guys
(the only people besides us who were showing some enthusiasm)
I had to find something to eat too so I missed VERITAS
MENTIS almost entirely. What I saw reminded me of MYSTICUM
(due to the use of a drum computer) mixed with swedish
stuff and was quite convincing, but I have to admit that
I couldn’t really enjoy them as the apathy of the
crowd was starting to spoil my interest - the whole evening
had the atmosphere of public rehearsals and this was really
starting to get on my nerves. Anyway, hails go to VERITAS
MENTIS for doing a professional gig even in such an abysmal
situation....
The
same goes for the ‚headliner‘ ASTAROTH. Competent
performance, good songs, but absolutely no atmosphere
also due to the fact that they all had short hair, no
corpse paint and some of them wore baseball caps and alien-shirts.
Of course you sholdn’t judge a book from its cover,
but hey, this band used to look very Black Metal, so I
can’t really understand the changes...
After some more (old, MARDUK-style) or less (new, keyboard-ladden)
convincing songs I decided to go backstage to enjoy the
depressive mood spread by various members of the bands,
and as soon as everything was over we left the dreadful
scenario and went back to Vienna as fast as possible -
literally spoken, as Darkwood produced some funny near-death-experiences
with his ultra-satanic driving style...
EquimanthorN
Marching Towards Christian Extermination 2002
-
Krieg, Black Witchery, Avenger, Manticore + Imrith
Planet Music, Vienna, September 29th, 2002
I usually restrain from writing about gigs I co-organize,
but this time it was quite different as the Planet Music
- crew was involved and we didn't have much work to do
- I even had enough time to watch all the bands AND get
pretty drunk as well, hehe...
IMRITH
started the evening as local support act and did a very
good job, especially when considering that this was their
first gig ever. Unfortunately the bad sound (which was
perfect when they did their soundcheck) partly destroyed
their efforts as both guitars could barely be heard, bringing
the bass too much upfront. But of course this wasn't the
bands fault - they gave their best to present their songs
(which, according to their own description, can be compared
to GODLESS NORTH) properly and succeeded with good musicianship
and the impressive stage presence of singer/guitarist
Gjöll. The audience - or at least the small part
of it which had an idea about BM - appreciated that and
so this can surely be seen as a successful debut, even
though the band itself was anything but satisfied afterwards.
Next
came MANTICORE, a still rather unknown US band which recently
released their debut on Breath Of Night. I guess they
won't stay a hidden secret too long as their music fuckin'
shreds - very BLASPHEMY influenced, but slower and with
an own style. Banging to these sick and twisted tunes
surely was difficult and so there wasn't that much violence
in front of the stage (a fact which became quite annoying
later...), but it nevertheless was an intense experience
that received praise even from people who normally don't
like this kind of music. They finished their gig with
a cover of PROFANATICA's 'Weeping In Heaven' which was
executed in a very faithful and brutal way.
AVENGER
have some kind of cult status among some people in Vienna
since their semi-legendary gig in June, so for the first
(and last...) time on this evening the audience showed
enthusiasm when the czech bastards started their gig.
Their dark, mostly mid-tempo Death Metal didn't really
fit to the rest of the billing, but that didn't really
matter as the quality of the songs and the way they were
presented was as professional and energetic as usual -
everyone into original eastern european metal should check
out their albums immediately! Towards the end of their
performance they also paid tribute to their home scene
by doing ROOT's 'Pisen Pro Satanas' and 'Pad Modly' by
MASTER'S HAMMER before leaving the stage, only to return
with one of their own compositions for those maniacs who
were screaming for an encore.
BLACK
WITCHERY on stage have pretty much the same problem on
stage as on CD/Vinyl - when listening to them for about
15 minutes (like on the split with CONQUEROR) they totally
destroy, but after that their music tends to lose its
effectivity due to the constantly high speed. Their musical
performance was as flawless as their stage presence (robes,
bullets & old school warpaint) and I banged during
the whole set, but somehow I missed the adrenaline rush
I get when listening to them at home. Maybe this was also
caused by the indifferent guitar sound which swallowed
most of the riffs... a very fine performance nevertheless,
even though I expected something more exceptional. 'Ritual'
(BLASPHEMY) was the inevitable cover version and made
me finally bang my head in a more furious fashion.
As
most probably already know ARMAGEDDA had to leave the
tour because of personal problems, so KRIEG had to fill
the gap - I never cared much about either band, so this
didn't make a big difference for me. The KRIEG-stuff I
had heard until then didn't exactly leave a lasting impression,
but on stage the 'band' which consisted of Imperial on
vocals and session musicians (Akhenaten, Honza of AVENGER
and some german guys) did it much better and performed
the songs in a way that did them good justice - pure primitive
blasting madness with very effective midtempo parts here
and there. Unfortunately the audience showed almost no
reactions which led to some insults and beer cups getting
thrown off stage into the auditorium - a very fine move
of you ask me because the atmosphere could really only
be calles pathetic at this time of the evening. Now I
know what Fenriz meant when he said that the Norwegian
audience is like 'a bunch of farmers who stare at a cow'!
After 25 minutes and a rendition of VON's 'Satanic Blood'
everything was over....
I really don't understand how people can be so apathic
when five good to brilliant BM acts are devastating the
stage.... Fuck off! Fuck off eternally!
EquimanthorN
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