Everything about this show went FUBAR! First Von were announced as playing a few nights prior to this at The Garage and tonight at The Electrowerkz it was meant to be Absu. Then we heard Inquisition were playing here and Von had jumped onto that bill cancelling their previous one. There seemed some confusion about Absu and indeed even on the night of the show people thought that was still taking place but it was pulled and many assumed Wodensthrone were going to play supporting Von and Inquisition. Following this? Well Absu had been pulled, there was no Wodensthrone just Von and Inquisition EXCEPT, just as doors were about to open we were alerted to the fact that Inquisition were not at the venue and may or may not make it in time to play! This left many with the choice of not going into the show and getting a refund if Inquisition did not turn up or going in and getting £3.50 back off their ticket if they ended up seeing just Von. Needless to say there was much confusion, a black metal street party outside the venue and Von playing in front of just a much smaller amount of punters than they deserved to.
Play they did and they had one hell of a lot to prove since their last well documented shambles of a London come-back show. I had quite a bit of faith in them though as I have followed the progress made by Jason Von Venien in kicking out the old, including founder Goat and assimilating the new into a working unit. Whether you class the band as Von or not is entirely up to you, am not getting into that argument. I will however say that the reworking of old material into ‘Satanic Blood’ 2012 packed a considerable punch even if it did really divide opinion. However 2013 Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves is without doubt one nasty vicious beast of an album and I was looking forward to hearing parts of it pulled off live.
Taking the stage to a moody blood red cold lighting guitars and bass were immediately heavy and cloying and there was a tense atmosphere in the air. Sluggish riffs crawled out as the three front members had backs to audience yet to face us. As they did the music formed a savage tumult reeking of hate with the guitars sounding like an unrelenting horde of stinging scorpions. The dual playing of Lord Giblete on our stage right and GC Carter Grant to the left was really shredding. Venien cloaked and imposing at the centre growled and thundered away on bass and drummer Dirty FvKn! Pistols (Anthony Mainiero) battered away behind them. I found the vocals could have been a bit higher in the mix but hell considering all that had been going on it’s a wonder we got to see a band at all. The first song went on for aeons and indeed everything about the set seemed drawn out and elongated but at least the band could play and seemed into it as they surged ahead. As they progressed I found myself slightly surprised to hear some harmonic metalized almost bluesy stoner riffs flowing through it all. At other times things dashed off with a heavy rotting decayed vibe. The necromantic and bestial charges were full of blackness and for me delivered the goods having suitable weight and gravity about them. The audience did not seem to react a huge deal though, perhaps having minds on whether or not our croaky Colombian’s had turned up yet or not?
Some of the guitar work was suitably effective sounding like a plague of locusts devouring all in their path and it was all too much for one guitar with GC having to go off and fix his string (long enough to fix up too). This did not prevent the remaining trio from effortlessly jamming away without him and it made the bass tones all the thicker for it. I tried to get head around exactly what we were hearing here and summed it up as blackscumgaragerockpukedoom which makes very little sense probably unless you were there. It began to wear a bit thin though and indeed even ages in after the guitarist was back it was as though now they had started playing the number and let it go on there was no cut off point and it was near impossible to stop it. When they did those who had not wandered off breathed a collective sigh of relief. Another surge into what sounded like another classic had us somewhat appeased but it again sprawled off into another elongated jam. It has to be said there was what can only be described as a lot of self-indulgence going down here and it was not going to be over yet. In fact the band played for around 80 minutes moving through some arid desert rock structures confusing the black clad audience into thinking they have stumbled into Roadburn and thinning it out considerably. It looked like Venien lobbed some water over the drummer getting him to go onto a solo. Somewhere amidst everything we did get the likes of Devil Pig and Satanic Blood I believe but as for working a track list out of everything congrats if you are that well informed. I left feeling like I had been hit over the head by a hammer whilst smoking a bong.
As for Inquisition the following statement was made on their Facebook
“We apologize to all of our supporters in London for being unable to fulfill our obligations. British authorities denied our entry due to a lack of work visas. We were detained at the Calais ferry station for four hours while they investigated our situation. It is a common practice for promoters and bands to evade work visas without any negative impact when entering England, however this time authorities passed on a lesson as a reminder of the importance for promoters and bands to take care of this mandatory document. Again, we sincerely apologize, we ourselves understand how it is to plan your day around an event, only to not have a band appear is not something pleasant. Next time will be a go for sure.”
(Review and Photos © Pete Woods)
27/06/2013 at 11:26 am
Pretty spot on, I’d enjoyed what I heard of “Dark Gods..” online (bought it at the gig and it is indeed a monster of an album!) and I thought about 80% of the set was great. There was too much self indulgent jamming though that took momentum out of the set, should have ended with a couple of faster songs.