Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: 14.02.2016
We haven’t seen a package as stacked as the one that hit Kino Šiška on Sunday in quite a while, and in terms of the sheer size of the bands involved it probably only compares to last year’s Deathcrusher tour with Voivod, Napalm Death and Carcass. This time four heavyweights were stomping across European stages, four horsemen of the apocalypse, and they closed out the Europa Blasphemia tour right here in Ljubljana, in front of a sold-out Kino Šiška.
It’s more the exception than the rule for the support acts on tours like this to draw more than ten, twenty heads, but this time was different: opening duties on the tour went to a pretty well-established name in the black metal underground, the American duo Inquisition. Dagon and Incubus wrapped Šiška in an atmosphere of cosmic horror shortly before seven, and even then they already had a nicely sized crowd watching. The duo mostly fired off ammo from their still-current album Obscure Verses For the Multiverse, and despite being just one guitar and drums, their sound was loud enough that it didn’t come off thin live. Dagon knows how to throw down convincing riffs, occasionally even spicing them up with melodic bits, while Incubus’s drumming isn’t built on nonstop blasting alone, but is varied and dynamic. Dagon’s guttural vocals, which personally get on my nerves, faithfully serve the music’s goal – invoking Lovecraftian cosmic horror – and with that, Inquisition made for a thoroughly solid warm-up for Sunday’s blasphemy.
The only strictly old-school death metal act of the night was the legendary Swedish wolverines Entombed A.D., who came back to Ljubljana after a year and a half and proved that their form is on the rise. The opener Midas In Reverse alone showed that the upcoming album Dead Dawn will be far more energetic than its predecessor Back to the Front, and in under an hour the Swedes, led by mascot LG Petrov, proved they still sound as mighty live as on Left Hand Path. Since the crowd was clearly tilted a bit more toward black metal this time, the Swedes didn’t get quite the rabid response they might have expected, but they didn’t let it bother them much. Petrov still impresses live with his barking, snarling vocals and likable charisma, though this time bassist Victor Brandt was far keener to step into the spotlight, and his over-the-top posing would fit in Poison more than in Entombed. Never mind that, though: classics like Stranger Aeons, I For An Eye and Revel In Flesh, plus the death ‘n’ roll anthem Wolverine Blues, thoroughly rattled our ear canals, and the closing anthem Left Hand Path greased the earwax even further with the fatness of those Swedish death metal riffs.
Abbath met a fate similar to Petrov’s a few months ago. Norwegian courts ruled that Olve Eikemo can’t use the name Immortal, awarding the rights to it to his former buddies Demonaz and Horgh. In his own signature manner, Abbath told the whole thing to fuck off, started his own band and relatively quickly put out an excellent debut, which was also the focus of the Ljubljana show. Abbath probably combines the best moments of Abbath’s career, looking back mainly to At the Heart of Winter and Between Two Worlds, and the debut really does contain some of the strongest material in the career of metal’s best-known corpse paint wearer. Even though Abbath still comes across on stage as a caricature and a parody of exactly what he’s supposed to represent, the music says something completely different. The frost-soaked melodies of songs like Winter Bane, Count the Dead, Ashes of the Damned and Fenrir Hunts, backed by excellent sound, proved that Abbath’s world still lives in eternal ice and snow, while Nebular Ravens Winter, Warriors and especially the epic Tyrants were merely a step up from what was probably the high point of Sunday night. What else was going on on stage doesn’t even matter, because Abbath is bigger than the stage, so the static guitarist, who gave off less energy than an extra in The Walking Dead, and the unflappable drummer going by the name Creature barely registered. Just like bassist King, who, according to Abbath, played his parts from behind the stage because of the intense heat (truth be told, you couldn’t really hear him). Abbath : Immortal – 1 : 0. With his »larger than life« presence, Abbath is always unforgettable, but even more so was the guy in front of me who Skyped with his grandma on the phone during the show. Priceless.
At half past ten it was time for the tour’s headliners, the Polish titans Behemoth, who decided to play their current record The Satanist in its entirety on this tour. It celebrated two years since its release right in the middle of the tour, and it seems to have well and truly settled into the hearts of the fans who packed Šiška to the last corner. If anything, after Nergal’s rebirth, when he beat a serious illness, Behemoth are the definition of professionalism, because there’s no room for mistakes on that stage. The band is superbly tight, the sound is spot-on, and the energy is more than in place. But that’s also where it stops, because the whole thing feels staged, and every move of every single band member looks like the work of a professional choreographer. With the over-the-top pomp of most of the songs on the album and a generally kitschy stage, every trace of spontaneity dies. Behemoth definitely deserve the status they enjoy today, but if The Satanist is a kind of return to the past, their stage show could have followed suit, since it resembles a production at MGL, Ljubljana’s city theatre, more than a primal black metal show. Still, in the end Behemoth’s gig had some very bright moments too, especially when, after a somewhat rickety start, they woke up the crowd with Ora pro Nobis Lucifer.
Setlist
INQUISTION:
1. Force of the Floating Tomb
2. Ancient Monumental War Hymn
3. Dark Mutilation Rites
4. Master of the Cosmological Black Cauldron
5. Embraced By the Unholy Powers of Death and Destruction
6. Command of the Dark Crown
7. Infinite Interstellar Genocide
ENTOMBED A.D.:
1. Midas In Reverse
2. Stranger Aeons
3. Second to None
4. Living Dead
5. Pandemic Rage
6. Chief Rebel Angel
7. Chaos Breed
8. I For An Eye
9. Revel In Flesh
10. Wolverine Blues
11. Left Hand Path
ABBATH:
1. To War!
2. Winter Bane
3. Nebular Ravens Winter
4. Warriors
5. Ashes of the Damned
6. Fenrir Hunts
7. Tyrants
8. One By One
9. Count the Dead
10. Root of the Mountain
11. Endless
12. All Shall Fall
BEHEMOTH:
1. Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel
2. Furor Divinus
3. Messe Noire
4. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
5. Amen
6. The Satanist
7. Ben Sahar
8. In the Absence ov Light
9. O Father O Satan O Sun!
10. Pure Evil and Hate
11. Antichristian Phenomenon
12. Conquer All
13. Chant For Eschaton 2000
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