Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Gala Hala, Ljubljana
Concert date: 26.10.2016
Brutal concert October is wrapping up, but before it’s really over, at least two more big shows are waiting for us. There’s Monday’s Halloween spectacle of technical death metal with Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation and Rivers of Nihil, and before that, last Wednesday, the gates of hell swung open in Gala Hala and spat out four black metal bands from all corners of the world. On the European Bloodshed Rituals tour, Greece’s Rotting Christ and the Colombian-American duo Inquisition are presenting their new albums, and keeping them company on the road of bloody rituals are the Brazilian cult Mystifier and avant-garde black metallers Schammasch.
The first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Switzerland’s Schammasch, took the stage as early as seven, and still they didn’t play to an empty room. Luckily, the poor turnout of Monday’s Enslaved show at Kino Šiška wasn’t repeated, and by the time the two headliners played, Gala Hala had filled up to nearly every last corner. Schammasch don’t (yet) have that kind of reputation or name recognition, but they made for a pretty decent warm-up. The Swiss four-piece builds its sonic assault on a black metal foundation, from which it often veers off into much more experimental or even avant-garde waters. Like Ghost, only far less effectively, the band builds its image on mystery and Christian iconography, embodied by a vocalist with a hidden face, draped in some kind of papal vestment. For an opener, the set was pretty long and came off perfectly solid, but Schammasch still can’t hold a candle to their (roughly) genre-related countrymen Bölzer.
The next support act, the obscure Brazilian cult Mystifier, left an even better impression (ahem… judging by what we saw and heard, maybe a different word is in order). The trio has been walking the earth since 1989 and, alongside bands like Sarcofago, Holocaust, Vulcano and of course Sepultura, broke new ground for the Brazilian underground scene. They haven’t recorded a new studio album since 2001’s Profanus, but they’re still pretty active live. The trio of guitarist Beelzeebubth, drummer Jhoni Apollyon and vocalist, bassist and keyboardist (yes, you read that right) Diego Arauja took the crowd on a nearly hour-long death waltz of primitive black/death metal, which came off as very endearing thanks to a truly energetic stage show, even if at times it was pretty Spinal Tap. Half the hall was grinning from the heart when the bassist started playing his mini keyboard, which came off more comical than menacing. It didn’t help the evil look that Beelzeebubth hid behind sunglasses and couldn’t get through a single solo without obvious, desperate fumbling. Regardless, it was definitely the most heartfelt, grateful and primal performance of the night, something you can really only get from the Brazilian underground.
After Rotting Christ’s triumphant show at Metaldays the year before last, nothing less was expected of them this time. The Greeks delivered as expected and played one of the better club shows in recent memory. The band was in a great mood for interacting with the crowd, mostly thanks to charismatic frontman Sakis Tolis, who had the audience in the palm of his hand throughout the hour-long trip through the Greek underground. Rotting Christ proved once again that they’re one of the more unique extreme metal bands around, blending black metal with gothic influences and traditional Greek music, which lurks mainly in the mighty choir moments, the almost chorale-like singing and Sakis’s declaiming. At the same time, Rotting Christ know how to get the adrenaline pumping with full-throttle moments that bring them close to thrash metal. With this combination the Greeks manage to create a sinister, devilish atmosphere, which Sakis builds on with his gestures, and even more so the older songs, which blended nicely with the newer ones. The current album Rituals isn’t the peak of their career, but it keeps up the band’s consistent quality, and they shine brightest live. Rotting Christ closed an excellent show with the epic anthem Non Serviam, and the crowd kept screaming for more for quite a while.
And to finish, a lesson in inquisition from the Colombian-American duo Inquisition, who have climbed to the very top of black metal in recent years. It’s still incredible to watch (and hear) how the duo manages to fill the entire sonic picture live with just guitar and drums (plus a few pre-recorded arrangements). You don’t miss the bass or a second guitar for a moment, because Dagon’s singular riffs fill your eardrums the way inquisitorial torture instruments fill other bodily orifices. Meanwhile Incubus delivers a varied drum performance that doesn’t rest solely on countless blast beats, and Dagon is already known for one of the more unique vocal approaches in black metal, aiming for the complete dehumanization of the human voice. With his kind of robotic, Tibetan throat singing, he pulls it off brilliantly. Even though there were a few fewer heads in front of the stage than for Rotting Christ, the duo mercilessly presented the current studio album Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith, added a handful of older wreckers, and didn’t let a dead strobe light throw them off during their one-of-a-kind ritual. The invocation of cosmic horror was flawless, and we probably witnessed the best black metal show of the year.
Setlist
ROTTING CHRIST:
1. Orders From the Dead
2. Ze Nigmar
3. Kata ton Demona Eautou
4. Athanati Este
5. Elthe Kyrie
6. Apage Satana
7. The Sign of Evil Existence
8. The Forest of N’Gai
9. Societas Satanas
10. In Yumen-Xibalba
11. Grandis Spiritus Diavolos
12. Non Serviam
INQUISITION:
1. From Chaos They Came
2. Ancient Monumental War Hymn
3. Hymn For a Dead Star
4. Desolate Funeral Chant
5. Infinite Interstellar Genocide
6. Vortex From the Celestial Flying Throne of Storms
7. Dark Mutilation Rites
8. Embraced By the Unholy Power of Death and Destruction
9. Master of the Cosmological Black Cauldron
10. Command of the Dark Crown
11. Astral Path to Supreme Majesties
12. A Magnificent Crypt of Stars
13. The Realm of Shadows Shall Forever Reign
Photo Gallery
