Some call it Rocktober, I call it silly season. Apart from this sterling show London also has Ufomammut playing with Jex Thoth and Cruachan with Ereb Altor on tonight. Doubtless there are others on elsewhere too. Tough choices but short of having Jex and Hoest doing a duet this was pretty much a perfect show for me and countless other black clad worshippers who began filing into the Underworld at 6PM. No locals just full blooded Norse on the stage tonight and first up we get Dominanz whose sound is thick and meaty with a hefty mid-paced gravity about it as they fire up their armoury and punish us with ‘Embraced By Malice’ the opening cut from 2014 album Noxious. There’s plenty of solid head banging grooves and as they continue, singer Roy (a black metal name and a half) rasps his parts admirably. As they move into ‘Dream Of Fire’ there’s a real Norse sounding swagger about things before the band down tools allowing a jubilant and bravado laden hefty vocal roar to leap out. Powering back up the guitar cleave hits you right between the eyes. Speed is not always this lots main focus of attack and it is employed with restraint making things occasionally grandiose and epic sounding. A sampled keyboard clamour makes many of us sit up and take note as they forge ahead with the unmistakable sound of Baphomet’s Throne by Samael. It’s played faithfully and sounds suitably impressive. The thorny and spiteful guitar work does well to ensnare those coming into the venue and last song Noxious with a slight industrial edge did the job as the band leave a suitably foul stench in their wake.
Orkan have a couple of Taake live members in their ranks and I had just given latest album ‘Livlaus’ it’s 2nd spin prior to the show. They immediately prove a heavy proposition in the riff department building things up with drums thudding in and blasting away hell for leather. Vocalist Einar Fjelldal curls up on the stage into a ball and we wait for him to bellow but the full effect is not to come quite yet, the song ‘Fanden på veggen’ is still getting going and winding and grinding away instrumentally. Melody courses through it all and finally the vocals bite in properly over the tumultuous swarming guitars which are stinging away with utmost precision. It’s a savage and venomous adrenaline rush of a track unrelenting in its ferocity as it thunders away, occasionally slowing down and shimmering majestically. Playing with a large sense of intricacy and with unforgiving shredding power this lot both transfix and impress in equal measures and I’m pretty damn close to being blown away by the performance. There’s some really groovy rotten rolls as they flail away and drumming is so fast at times it is close to hitting d-beat territory and everything spills off the stage infecting those head banging away down the front. It was near impossible not to join in. As for the last number a bearded hobo from the street outside suddenly lands on stage and starts bellowing away; oh no it’s actually Hoest! It’s an all too short, sharp and neck cracking set and I’m going to have to find time to give their new album some more spins after this. Another point worth mentioning is that all the bands were selling their shirts and CD’s at a tenner a piece; bargain!
The 3rd Attempt is the baby of Tchort and Blood Pervertor after they decamped from the seriously out of action far too long Carpathian Forest. With new album ‘Born In Thorns’ having been played to death by me recently I was looking forward to seeing them live and it would appear I was not alone. It’s rammed at the front with the audience pumping fists getting camera phone shots as though life depended on it and singing along. The album must have sold impressively or been bootlegged far and wide for this sort of reaction. The sharp and spiralling licks of numbers like ‘Torment Nation’ come at us fast and thick and whereas Orkan sounded like they were playing songs the same live as in the studio there’s more of a sense of chaos and danger about this lot in the live environment. Battering into ‘Art Of Domination’ they do just that putting a blood red mist in our eyes as they blackly thrash away. It’s no surprise everyone is keen to get a shot or two in they are really a photogenic bunch singer Ødemark looming over the front and dangerously waving around an arm wrapped in barbed wire. The slower paced ‘We Defy’ which the more I hear it the more it reminds me of a frozen Immortal, sounds great and is met with plenty of grimacing and posturing from the corpse-painted horde on stage, they even attract an audience member up making a quick commando raid and messily diving off. The kick drum really thuds away and the snarly fuzzy guitar sound gives it all that chaotic edge. ‘The fucking Beast Within’ spits out the singer before they belt into the next one ploughing away through it and unleashing their particular potent brand of hell and no doubt converting those who had not yet heard them with a big bellow of “Satan.” The 3rd Attempt were playing like they were headliners and pretty much owned the show on this their first UK visit. ‘Sons Of Winter’ is a grim and frosty pinnacle with the word ‘fire’ being spat out with enough venom to scorch the first few rows.
Luckily the headliners and regular visitors to our shores Taake are more than up for matching any might and power already. Ominous Norwegian words through the PA herald the band onto the stage to huge cheers and the musicians explode into their first heaving mass getting those crammed in at the front worked up to fever pitch. Drums blast in and the roadies desperately try and untangle cables around the band, risking life and limb in the process. It might look chaotic but the group are not put off in the slightest and the sound is thick and cleaving as they drive away. Yes it may well have surprised a few people who had not seen previous tour pictures but vocalist Hoest is sporting a big mountain man beard but why that should effect anything musically is beyond me as he glowers and spits out vocals with plenty of venom about them on tracks such as ‘Nattestid Ser Porten Vid, Part I.’ The classic sound of the albums are forcefully flung out and those not wanting to get into the thick of the mass are left head banging contentedly at the sides and back of the venue.
Dipping in and out of various albums to rampaging guitars and death grunts both on and off the stage the band look like they are revelling in the atmosphere as they strum hell for leather over epic parts of Hordalands Doedskvad. Set list enthusiasts should at least get one song right as a burst of banjo unravels (nope I did not see one being played live) but that bit on Myr always brings a smile to my face and did no difference here as I tried to stay on feet and walk back with a much needed beer. Elsewhere is a passage of medieval sounding music that also enhances the atmosphere and makes the music all the more intriguing as they break up the crazed and windswept pace. Of the newer stuff I’m pretty sure that Orm got an airing but after a brief pause there was no mistaking the heathen cleave of the classic Nordbundet which enigmatically uncoiled with precision and gravid rasps from the vocals. Jettisoning a near capacity crowd of drunken black metal heads out onto the streets of Camden at just 10PM due to crap club night at the venue could have just added to the chaos from what we had just been thrown through. The triumphant performances all round left us in a happy mood though and as for further memories they are all the more hazy.
(Review and photos © Pete Woods)
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