Saturday 5th October

 

1.30pm, Saturday – it’s the graveyard shift. As tradition dictates, and they like their tradition round these parts, a Dutch band took to the stage. I can’t count the number of times the occupant of this slot has caused me wonderment and delight. Today it was the turn of Enma, who took to the stage with their colourful penis-shaped logo prominent on the screen behind them. It all started with heavy rock, copious hair and energy. As we moved to “Hemera’s Call” I wasn’t sure if the singer was trying to sound emotive or he just had a bad voice but at least things were taking a welcome direction from the hard rock template to something more progressive with a strong background rhythm as you’d hope from a five piece. But as the set progressed, it all became too bland for me. Just because you can do heavy metal doesn’t convert of itself to being interesting, and this wasn’t. On reflection that logo might have been a rocket but whichever way I looked at it Emma didn’t blow me away.

A little post-script: my Norwegian friends Shani and Bengt took their six year old son Alvin to ProgPower, and were at the front for Enma. The band were so taken with Alvin’s enthusiasm that they invited him up on stage afterwards and gave him some goodies. That’s real class on the band’s part to do that.

A leather-jacketed woman with a glittery face and long white hair extensions growled at us. The guitars growled too. This was No Terror in the Bang. It was all seemingly in the name of horror and artistic expression, and there was plenty of that. The opener captured our attention. As the instrumentalists provided the punch and darkness, the lady provided the grotesque theatre, rapping, cavorting, swinging the braids, smiling and sharing her personal stage world of insanity.

Vaudeville goes metal. Well they are French. It would be easy to think that if she hadn’t been performing on stage, the lady would need to be committed to a lunatic system. It’s good to share. But she wasn’t just having lung exercise. On “Heal” and the sultry “Monster” she sang with great sensitivity, demonstrating the vulnerable tone of Stevie Nicks even. But none of her fireworks would have had any effects without the depth of drum and guitar work.

No Terror in the Bang’s set was at once extreme and obscure but delivered in such an irregular way that you couldn’t ignore it. Harshness juxtaposed the emotion of “Lulled by the Waves”, which built up in intensity and power. At times there was an element of deathcore but then there were so many elements, all aimed at creating a darkened atmosphere. If I have one criticism, it’s that this set came across as patchy as the band threw so much into this horror metal, for want if a better term, and it was hard to get to grips with it. I suppose you could say the shock factor was integral, or even its raison d’être.

I think I might struggle to listen to more than the hour or so that we had here, and without the visual enhancement of a live show. For sure this was art in extreme form, and No Terror in the Bang deserve credit for giving everything in their spectacular story-telling.

Terror became Terra. I was very pleased when I saw that Terra were taking part in this event. But then doing my research I came to realise quickly that this was not the Terra I know, namely the rather excellent atmospheric / experimental black metal band from Cambridge UK, they of three albums with the Triangle Face side project, itself notable for their renowned and innovative album “Sentinels of Pseudo-Reality: Interpretations of Maelstrom”, but rather a band of the same name from Italy. I wasn’t disappointed however as it’s always a pleasure to experience new bands. After taking an age, Terra finally got going with a literally striking three man beat. And then it stopped. Cue a bunch of disgruntled Italians. Away we went again, tribally as before. The main drummer, the other two having reverted to guitar and bass duties, sang an imploring chant to the god of sound engineers …. ok, I made that last bit up. Actually the sound was clear enough to know that the song was compelling and the arrangements were unusual. It was a shame the band were having to battle through technical issues. Mid-way through “This Scent” an engineer came on with a new mic. The drummer announced “Walking on Sand” – the irony hadn’t passed him by.

The band battled on. With the drumming trio in action again, the song was delivered in part a cappella and had tangible soul. “Rise” then lived up to its name as Terra delivered a song which full of drive, passion and anger. Drummers often hold bands together but this one in particular did with this style of play which set the tone, his vocals and his skills in presenting, and his need to manage his increasingly frustrated guitarist. They were all being tested here today. The band carried on with good grace and humour, and the songs had strength. ”Save our Ship” was more than just a cry for help, and was another hard, heavy and impassioned song. Terra proved as adept at playing moody passages just as they were at playing in a heavy progressive style. Part of their act is the recreation of an ethnic style, which comprises the drum combination and a mysterious-sounding flute. We didn’t really get the best of that side with the unwanted distractions, but in spite of the obvious technical problems and frustrations Terra did manage to get across the creativity and direction of their work.

Four Portuguese men dressed corporately in black shirts looked like they meant business. With their visual aids on the flanks and behind them, Apotheus started their set. Moody beginnings led to a controlled avalanche of power. It was clear that every note, movement and lyric were carefully conceived, resulting in uniformity of sound. “Cogito” was delivered with passion, precision and intensity. “We tell stories”, explained the spokesman, whose introductions and awareness of the audience put previous presenters to shame. Flawlessly Apotheus played great prog metal songs without frills, incorporating clean and harsh vocal elements. The audience absorbed them like a sponge, not that this was hard with this quality of song and performance. Magic pierced the air as echoes resounded from the start of “Ergo Bellum”. The build-up was dramatic. The lead singer reminded me of Akerfeldt in full flow. A storm of drums and guitars secured the dynamic intensity. This was spellbinding.

So too were the slower songs things of beauty and epic magnificence. Songs from the Ergo Atlas (2023) and Far Star (2019) albums formed the basis of the set list. What was remarkable was the range of prog death, rock n roll and slower styles. The quality never wavered. Finishing with “The Unification Project” and “A New Beginning” Apotheus cemented their reputation as a band who know how to capture an audience with intelligent, lofty progressions and scintillating soundscapes. I did wonder if my appreciation of Apotheus’s professional and almost scientific approach was unduly influencing my view of the song quality. But I concluded that the song structures and quality were outstanding, based on what I heard here. I haven’t heard enough of the recorded material to comment on that, but as live bands go, they don’t come more accomplished than Apotheus.

I saw the next band play live a couple of times in the early 00s. The band in question is Madder Mortem from Norway. One of those concerts was the most violent I’ve ever attended. This was at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. While waiting outside to go in, a kindly beanpole of a Goth guy tipped me off that the Navy boys were coming over from Gosport to meet up with the local dock workers, and not for a friendly chat. The mood was threatening from the off. Muscular tattooed blokes paraded around the room with their tattooed offspring in tow. And then as Madder Mortem played, it all kicked off. This wasn’t moshing. This was a massive, all-out fight with no prisoners taken with no-one, myself included, outside the perimeters of this carnage.  Murder on the dance floor and all that. It was just like a regular night out in Grimsby. Off went Madder Mortem who weren’t responsible for any of this – hard is their music, melancholic and perhaps angry but not anger-inducing – and on came the headliners Opeth. The changeover was seamless as the fight continued unabated. We got to the end of the Opeth set. Bodies were everywhere, but the security people had done a good job and had thrown out at least 100 of the 150 or so present at the start. Akerfeldt prefixed the encore “Demon of the Fall” by announcing to those left standing: “the room is empty now …. there’s more room to be insane in”. A great night out. I bought Madder Mortem’s album “Deadlands” as a consequence of seeing them and have kept up with them since, and so was looking forward to seeing them again, albeit in probably more tranquil surroundings.

Tranquil is not really a way of describing Agnete. F. Kirkevåg’s vocals. They are strong, demand attention and according to the song and the mood inspire spine-chilling emotion. She may be small in stature but she’s big in voice and personality. The thing with Madder Mortem songs, as they proved here, is that they cross so many boundaries, as Agnete herself acknowledged when switching from a depressing song to what she called a party song. And there was plenty in the middle. I guess the setlist mix wasn’t random but we did seem to bounce around a lot, sometimes literally, between styles. There’s such a lot of material to select from. I was delighted to be taken back to those early days with “Rust Cleansing”. We had the whole range. As our sympathetic narrator again observed, the songs are full of dark, emotional content. The menace is always there, sometimes lurking in the wings but especially in the lyrics. In passing I noticed references in the songs to rain – I guess on this basis Norway should be twinned with Wales, meteorologically speaking. Meanwhile at the appropriate moments Agnete bounced around like a child. She quipped that “Old Eyes, New Heart” is appropriate because the band is a bunch of “old farts” but enthusiastic.

It was certainly infectious, helped by such powerful presentation and the technical quality of every song. The instrumentals, along with the lyrics, are appropriately dark and provide a hypnotising flow, in the case of “The Head that Wears the Crown” along the lines of Katatonia I thought, but then comparisons are not valid because Madder Mortem have created their own shape over the years in developing this power-packed metal. Agnete’s voice is so strong that when needed it manages to outdo the combined and substantial output of the drummer, bassist and two guitarists. She can sound angry but is visibly happy and sometimes emotional. The guitarist’s growls were pretty impressive too. But it’s all in the development of the songs, whether party style or slow and sad. As Agnete told us, Madder Mortem are a genre-defying band. The crowd lapped up the songs and the enthusiasm coming from the stage. So there was no sign of carnage in the corridors of the Sjiwa on this occasion but we did witness a dynamic performance from Madder Mortem.

Sadist were back at ProgPower, headlining on the Saturday. As expected they came out guns blazing with their furious and deathly metal assault. Sadist’s songs have no frills but do have melody and are full of fresh technical content. “Do you like Alfred Hitchcock?” growled the big bald bearded Italian in charge of presentation, throwing a bit of menace into his words. This was of course “The Birds”. What a refreshing and horror-inspired piece of metal it was. Without detracting from his ferocious image, our Italian friend radiated fun. “Season in Silence” was next up and was belted out like there was no tomorrow. It featured a nice little bass guitar solo before normal fury resumed. Wondrous sounds were coming from everywhere. Death metal can grind you down. This was uplifting. Sadist weren’t averse to a bit of tension.

“Perversion Lust Orgasm”, croaked the bearded man, not because he felt like it but it was the next song. And the brutal beat went on at rapid pace, here with two drummers including one on hand drums. Old stuff featured like “Sometimes They Come Back”. And old school dirt it was, except that with Sadist it’s not dirty but invigorating. This band puts paid to the myth that death metal people should be uniformly grey and grim. The music was exciting, the band showed every sign of enjoying it and the presenter addressed us like family. It all added up to a highly inclusive stage show. “Escogido” kept up the assault. A cheeky bit of keyboard provided added colour and atmosphere. The horror theme returned. This time the hand drums provided the colour along with the exiting rhythms and solo which came as part of the Sadist package. Sparks flew from all directions. Band introductions having been made by our new friend the bearded man, the next volley of fury was aimed at us in the form of “The Attic and the World of Emotions”. Beardy growled, squinted, looked pained, gesticulated and pointed to his ample stomach. The sound of the keyboards rang around the room. The bass guitarist had a few little turns amidst the brutal forward-driving fury which was our reference point. The band members smiled and acknowledged the audience.

After a little play on growls, our bearded brother announced “Accabadora”. Bang, bang …. no terror, just rampant metal. Sadist hammered in the nails. A keyboard passage signalled “Tearing Away”. It was another superbly executed song of uncompromising death-thrash metal with the attendant technical finery. As the closing song our friend promised a song “for you, my brothers, my tribe”, this of course being “Tribe”. The crowd rose to the occasion as the expansive strains of Sadist’s technical melodic metal fury were fired head-on at the appreciative audience. There was an encore and that was that. It was a blast. Sadist had entertained us royally.

Part 3 

Review: Andrew Doherty 

With photographic contributions from Conny Myrberg (www.artrock.se), Francesca Frosali and Jonathan Huizenga.