Saturday - such a lovely day to drive across the A40 which is one of Germany's busiest highways. Fortunately I left my home quite early to arrive just in time to see German shooting stars Thron as the first band at that festival. With their latest album Dust they offered some really cool, highly melodic and catchy black metal Dissection-style. So I was curious to see and hear if they can keep the high quality from their studio-albums on stage. And what can I say – yes, they do. Kicking off with 'Dying In The Mud' which is also the opener on Dust, they fully convinced me (and the audience) to their craft. The whole performance was full of energy and the sound was great. You could easily recognize every song they played and the guys focused mainly on material from Dust but they also referred to its predecessor Pilgrim with three songs. This was some good stuff to start the metal afternoon (although I don't exactly know why the guys had to open the gig because in my opinion they had earned a later slot).

Setlist: Dying In The Mud / The Tyranny Of I / To Dust / Nothingness / The Golden Calf / The Prophet / Return / Epitome / The Reverence

 

Now it was time for some slaughter. Belgian speed-black maniacs Slaughter Messiah entered the stage and took no prisoners. After a sinister intro they attacked with their first strike 'Slaughter Messiah' which is one of their earliest songs back from the demo tape from 2011. Great and really psycho. The vocal performance of Lord Sabathan (who really is a metal maniac with all the old-school heavy metal patches on his battle vest) is really unearthly and it is fun to see him screaming and yelling his lungs out. Obviously they had a very good day that Saturday and showed that to the crowd. I personally liked that they didn't focus too much on their full-length album Cursed To The Pyre from 2020 (a new EP is coming later this year!) but also on some older stuff from their EPs and a new track ('Exorcized To None'). Hopefully the guys will come around soon again to do some more live slaughter.

Setlist: Intro / Slaughter Messiah / From The Tomb… / Pouring Chaos / Descending To Black Fire / Black Speed Terror / Bells Of Damnation / The Hammer Of Ghouls / Crypt Of The Undead / Exorcized To None

 

Shame on me, I never had heard anything about Norwegian doom-deathers Abyssic before, even though they are currently signed to Osmose and already released three regular studio albums. So I actually didn't know what to expect but what the Norwegians did that early evening was really fantastic. First of all the wardrobe of the guys and the lady looked really great (dress award together with Nargaroth), especially drummer Tjodalv (yeah, you're right, that's the ex-drummer from Dimmu Borgir or Old Man's Child) had a very special disguise for the first songs (interesting fact: they only played songs from their debut A Winter's Tale and the third album Brought Forth In Iniquity). And second, the music was some kind of both, relaxing and stirring. Abyssic were spreading a very special atmosphere with the contrast between dark growls, very heavy guitars and the contrabass vocalist Memnoch was playing here and there. If I had to describe their style of music, I would say that if Theatre Of Tragedy would have chosen the dark and non-kitschy way back on their first album, it might have turned out like them, combined with some more doomy influences like Aeternus. This was a remarkable gig and with that they have at least one more fan now.

Setlist: Funeral Elegy / Cold As Winter Storm / Chronicle Of The Dead / Sombre Dreams / Mirror Of Sorrow / Djevelens Lys

 

Now it was another debut time. Germans Imperium Dekadenz played with their new line-up for the first time. Their new guitarist Ursus debuted as well as C. as their new drummer so that Vespasian fully switched to bass activities. Starting with 'Bis Ich Bin' from their 2019 album When We Are Forgotten they had an easy game with the audience. They got really strong support from the sold-out Resonanzwerk and had a lot of fun on the stage which they also gave back to the audience. Songs they played were from almost every album, only Meadows Of Nostalgia wasn't regarded in the set-list. If you didn't know that they guys were playing the first time on stage together, you really wouldn't have noticed that. Their gig was flawless and the music came over really great. I hadn't expected so much power from them, thumbs up for Imperium Dekadenz!

Setlist: Bis Ich Bin / Aue Der Nostalgie / Aurora / Transcendence / Awakened Beyond Dreams / Memories…A Raging River / The Night Whispers To The Wise / Schwarze Wälder

 

The female metal fans (especially) in the first row were highly expecting Psychonaut 4. A lot of them cheered for them when they entered the stage and a lot of songs were sung along by them, too. Their casual mixture of black metal and kind of depressive rock was quite entertaining and came over not as half as depressive and average as on CD and way much better than Shining did on their latest albums. This was a furious show with vocalist Graf who kneeled, screamed, and jumped into the photo pit to shake hands with the fans. This was a show which was over way too soon because of its intensity.

Setlist: Parasite / We Will Never Find The Cure / Moldy / Too Late To Call An Ambulance / Tbilisian Tragedy / Beware The Silence / Lethargic Dialogue / Forest / My Sweet Decadence

 

Last but not least it was Nargaroth's turn. This band is highly controversial if they are trve or not and this essential problem in the black metal scene couldn't be solved that evening either. But what you could see was a band that had a lot of joy on the stage and who didn't take themselves too seriously. Vocalist Ash made some jokes about his age (guess he has seen Lethal Weapon too often) and that his spikes are way too heavy but this really made the gig very likable and entertaining. Apart from this show, they kicked ass pretty much and convinced me to check their stuff once again. Actually, I don't know if this all was true or just some kind of show, but I liked it. And so did at least 95% of the audience, too. This was a fantastic old-school black metal gig with nothing to complain about. And since I am making compliments now I would also like to compliment the entire Redback Promotion crew who delivered a fantastic festival with great bands and an unforgettable evening once more.

Setlist: Amarok – Zorn des Lammes / Abschiedsbrief des Prometheus/ The Day Burzum Killed Mayhem/ Black And Blasphemic Death Metal / Conjunction Underneath The Alpha Wheel / Black Metal Is Krieg / Karmakeddon Warrior (Imapled Nazarene Cover)

Entered: 4/10/2024 3:17:57 PM

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I'm just going straight to the point today. Last week releases simply crush and suffocate with the aim of turning the listener into senseless corpse following the blasphemous sounds of the underground. It's heavy, punishing and relentless. I don't think there's anything on that list that gives your eardrums a breather, or protects your psyche from traveling to the darkest corners of the human mind. But last time I checked that's exactly how we like our music (and coffee) - black, raw and unsweetened. So, enjoy this little piece of the sonic netherworld and let me know if I've missed any pieces of metal savagery that was unleashed without my knowledge.

Till next week...

Black metal from Denmark: Nupta Cadavera - Nupta Cadavera (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

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Doom, melodic, death metal from Italy: (Echo) - Below The Cover Of Clouds (Solitude Productions)

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Metalcore from United States: Absence Of Despair - Desolate (Independent)

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Black metal from International band: Asagraum - Dawn Of Infinite Fire (Edged Circle Productions)

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Doom, heavy, epic metal from Germany: Atlantean Kodex - The Course Of Empire (Ván Records)

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Metalcore from France: Betraying The Martyrs - Rapture (Sumerian Records)

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Death metal from Norway: Blood Red Throne - Fit To Kill (Mighty Music)

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Doom metal from Chile: Capilla Ardiente - The Siege (High Roller Records)

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Death metal from Spain: Come Back From The Dead - The Rise Of The Blind Ones (Transcending Obscurity Records)

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Doom metal from United States: Crypt Sermon - The Ruins Of Fading Light (Dark Descent Records)

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Black, death metal from Poland: Devilish Impressions - Postmortem Whispering Crows (Non Serviam Records)

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Black metal from Norway: Dold Vorde Ens Navn - Gjengangere I Hjertets Mørke (Soulseller Records)

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Death metal from Germany: Endseeker - The Harvest (Metal Blade Records)

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Thrash, heavy metal from United Kingdom: Eradikator - Obscura (Divebomb Records)

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Death, technical, deathcore from United States: Eschaton - Death Obsession (Unique Leader Records)

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Black metal from Norway: Eternity - To Become The Great Beast (Soulseller Records)

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Black metal from United Kingdom: Formicarius - Rending The Veil Of Flesh (Schwarzdorn Production)

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Black, death metal from France: Mithridatic - Tetanos Mystique (XenoKorp)

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Doom, heavy metal from United States: Mourn The Light - Oxblood Forge / Mourn The Light (Independent)

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Melodic, death, metalcore from United States: Nemesis Alpha - Eternal Machines (Sliptrick Records)

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Black, doom, death metal from United States: Nightfell - A Sanity Deranged (20 Buck Spin)

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Thrash, death metal from Sweden: One Hour Hell - Voidwalker (ViciSolum Productions)

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Death metal from United States: Phobophilic - Undimensioned Identities (Blood Harvest)

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Heavy metal from Sweden: Ram - The Throne Within (Metal Blade Records)

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Thrash, crossover metal from United States: Smash Potater - Suburban Legends (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions)

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Atmospheric, black metal from Canada: The Ember, The Ash - Consciousness Torn From The Void (Avantgarde Music)

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Brutal, death metal from United States: Visceral Disgorge - Slithering Evisceration (Agonia Records)

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Doom, stoner metal from United States: Void King - Barren Dominion (Off The Record Label)

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Grindcore from United States: Woundvac - The Road Ahead (Corpse Flower Records)

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Death metal from Germany: Abythic - Conjuring The Obscure (Xtreem Music)

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Black metal from Belarus: Downcross - What Light Covers Not (Independent)

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Death, grindcore from Italy: Abbinormal - 1996 (Sliptrick Records)

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Atmospheric, doom metal from Ukraine: Raventale - Morphine Dead Gardens (Ashen Dominion)

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Nupta Cadavera, (Echo), Absence Of Despair, Asagraum, Atlantean Kodex, Betraying The Martyrs, Blood Red Throne, Capilla Ardiente, Come Back From The Dead, Crypt Sermon, Devilish Impressions, Dold Vorde Ens Navn, Endseeker, Eradikator, Eschaton, Eternity, Formicarius, Mithridatic, Mourn The Light, Nemesis Alpha, Nightfell, One Hour Hell, Phobophilic, Ram, Smash Potater, The Ember, The Ash, Visceral Disgorge, Void King, Woundvac, Abythic, Downcross, Abbinormal, Raventale

Entered: 9/16/2019 8:21:36 PM

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