Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: 05.12.2013
Black metal sits best in winter, and Norwegian black metal veterans Satyricon know it well. They’ve fired up their touring machine again with a run promoting their new studio album Satyricon. In Kino Šiška they were joined this time by Taiwan’s Chthonic, while a local band warmed up the crowd too.
At the last minute the organizers added one more opening act: Ljubljana symphonic black metal outfit Condemnatio Cristi, who recently released their second studio record Soundtracks and so got the chance to present it on a bigger stage as well. It’s commendable that local bands get to play before a band like Satyricon, and CC made pretty good use of the opportunity. The guys delivered an energetic show, confident and assured, but the band’s main problem is still that they lose the thread by constantly hopping between genres, which just doesn’t work the way it should. One moment they’re tearing things up with raw black metal and blast beats, then they bring it all to a dead stop with a soulful solo, only to steer it off into death metal waters. Sadly, the sound didn’t do the guys any favors either, completely drowning out any real clarity between the individual instruments. Condemnatio Cristi made for a solid warm-up, but sadly nothing more than that.
Taking a Slovenian stage for the first time was probably Taiwan’s biggest musical export, the melodic black metal band Chthonic, who weave plenty of elements of Oriental music into their sound and draw thematically mostly from Taiwan’s rich history, folklore and mythology. Chthonic attacked the Šiška stage like a storm and, in front of an already sizable crowd, played a ferocious gig backed by excellent sound and an incredibly lively, energetic performance. Live, Chthonic bet big on their visual image, which draws on Asian mythology, and even though the »gimp« behind the keyboards and the drummer in the muzzle can come off as pretty kitschy, the band’s look is rooted in oriental folklore. Frontman and only remaining original member Freddy Lim worked really well: he got the crowd going with ease, surprised with his energetic liveliness, and also played the traditional instrument erhu, a kind of two-string violin, all while delivering a confident vocal performance, even if at times he sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks with rabies. The densest cluster of the male part of the crowd was clearly on the right side of the stage, where the charming bassist Doris Yeh had taken up position. She was far from just »eye-candy«, though, since her fingers moved across the bass really confidently and she headbanged keenly from start to finish. Chthonic’s premiere here worked out in the best way possible, and I hope that in the future we’ll get to see another Asian band here, for example the superb Sigh.
As if the already freezing Ljubljana December weren’t cold enough, black metal veterans Satyricon, led by the legendary duo of Satyr and Frost, chilled it further with the cold of a Norwegian winter. The two men who were there at the birth of the beast called Norwegian black metal are today the targets of fairly frequent criticism that Satyricon are heading in the wrong direction and forgetting their roots. But whether Satyricon are black metal, post-black metal or whatever genre junk you want to call it, you can’t deny the band’s power and grandeur. Even if the current album Satyricon, which they’re touring on, isn’t quite what you’d wish for. This time the Norwegians promised a nearly two-hour show, but sadly the running time fell well short of that. Satyricon kicked off their ritual with the new track Voice of Shadows, which more or less set the course for the rest of the gig, and thanks to the “fault” of the song selection, that course was a little sleepy and far too drifting. Satyricon served up a rather transcendental, otherworldly performance, which sadly lacked the primal, beastly nature of the Norwegian band. Only the exceptional charisma of a rather reserved Satyr this time gets credit for the gig’s greater power and persuasiveness, since it would otherwise have been quickly forgotten. The cunning Satyr also picked up a guitar a few times during the show, but sadly that didn’t bring any major change to the band’s musical picture. Frost, on the other hand, once again proved his inhuman mastery of his drum fortress, shining especially in moments of brutal blast beating. With a somewhat awkward choice of songs (from the current album they didn’t pick the best – for example Walker Upon the Wind and Phoenix, which is unique for Satyricon), Satyricon did successfully create a dark, mystical atmosphere, built mainly from dreamy, ambient parts and long instrumental passages that added up to a kind of ritualistic ceremony led by the phenomenal Satyr. But sadly it all came across as pretty routine and sterile, and it was definitely not the show you’d expect from the standard-bearers of Norwegian black metal.
Setlist
CHTHONIC:
1. Oceanquake
2. Supreme Pain For the Tyrant
3. Southern Cross
4. Sail Into the Sunset’s Fire
5. Defenders of Bu-tik Palace
6. Takao
SATYRICON:
1. Voice of Shadows
2. Hvite Krists Død
3. Now, Diabolical
4. Black Crow on a Tombstone
5. Our World, It Rumbles Tonight
6. Nocturnal Flare
7. Repined Bastard Nation
8. The Infinity of Time And Space
9. To the Mountains
10. The Pentagram Burns
11. Mother North
12. K.I.N.G.
Photo Gallery
