Another evening of black metal at the Underworld on Saturday, with yet another Norwegian act headlining the bill, this time, the controversial Taake, marking the 20th anniversary of their third album, Hordalands doedskvad (Death Poems of Hordaland), or Doedskvad for short.
I first heard of the band via their controversies involving frontman Hoest (Ørjan Stedjeberg), particularly the one in which he set out to provoke Germany’s current authoritarian regime by wearing the symbol of the one it replaced and the one in which *others* smeared the symbol on him for daring to blaspheme against the religion of the Paedo of Peace. Impressed, I made a point to check out the actual music, which, language barrier aside, stands up substantially next to, and independent of, the “hype”.
Still, I remained on the fence about attending this one, what with having quite the procession of gigs lined up and only so much time to exploit; it was the inclusion of certain support acts that helped me decide to jump off and grab a ticket.
The first support of the night, London’s Vestia, started things with an eye to epic, their flowing robes complementing their grand-scope, Hellenically informed brand of black metal. Mining from their debut album, The Acheron, the four piece left a potent mark with the likes of full-steam opener ‘Unknown Goddess’, the, storm-to-slow burn of ‘Her Pale Shiver’, and ‘Hearth and Home’, an allusion to the Hellenic goddess for whom the band is named (Hestia + Vesta = Vestia). The whole band sounded crisp, with special mention going to vocalist/rhythm guitarist Elegy’s line of blackened shrieks and to lead guitarist Giannis, who beyond laying down some mean chords and riffs, appeared to be having the time of his fucking life whilst doing so, making something of a playground
of his platform.
Still, Vestia’s epic ease-in paled in intensity next to the onslaught of the band that persuaded me to get hold of a ticket. I’m talking, once again, about Croydon’s finest, the crushing Necro Ritual, who delivered yet another blistering aural assault. As I and another audience member agreed, if you’re feeling sleepy or drowsy, this is a band that’ll wake you the fuck up!
Once again, the set opened with the tribal drumming of Talos (Jason Ludwig) ushering in the post-nuke dystopia of ‘Threads’, with each of his fellow instrumentalists following in his wake, slowly building to the crescendo; finally came vocalist Corseth (Robert Driscoll), bellowing out post-apocalyptic proclamations about how we’d be worked “until there’s fuck-all left”, all the while learning to “envy the dead”.
The rest of the set kept up the bilious energy I’ve come to expect and appreciate from them, with highlights including the blistering ‘Black Holocaust’, guitarist Abattoir (Owen Watkins) exhorting the “fucking cunts” of the audience to bang their heads at the start of ‘Lycanfire’, Rob handing me a beer at the *end* of ‘Lycanfire’ (cheers for that!), and another airing of one of my favourite Necro Ritual tracks, the infectiously riffed ‘Irreligious’ (“Yes, it’s on the setlist!” bassist Void preemptively assured me, prior to doors opening). Sadly, ‘Bastard’, my other favourite, was benched for this outing, so I didn’t get a chance to “check the cunt’s still breathing” in this instance.
As ever, post-show convo was a pleasure, with Jason giving insight into the making of the ‘Threads’ video and Rob commenting more on his Sturmtiger stand-in set at Subterranean Manifestation the week before. However, I forgot to say this to them on Saturday: Get some headline slots, maybe even tours, under your bullet belts, maybe with the advent of the next album—fly that flag of Bysmer higher!
Speaking of headline slots, I’d expected Taake to do a straight-ahead playthrough of the Doedskvad album, maybe with some added songs from elsewhere in their discography to bulk up the set. A glance at the playlist disabused me of the former notion—it turned out that they’d pressed the shuffle button on the spotlighted album, throwing the number order in to disarray! As a result the set kicked off with ‘Hordalands Doedskvad VI’, the albums instrumental track, effectively buying Hoest some extra prep time before making his vocal introduction for ‘VII’ (the album’s closing track). A tall figure possessed of a piercing gaze, mask-like corpse paint, and an Aura Noir jacket/hoodie combo, he certainly made a memorable visual, as well as vocal, impression. Every number of the album was done justice by the band, with ‘III’, ‘I’, and set closer ‘II’, my favourites from the album, really benefitting from the crisp instrumental work, particularly those tight tremolos. Of course, as I alluded to earlier, Hoest’s vocals certainly weren’t lacking, his native Norwegian rasps holding court formidably, even if I couldn’t understand a single lyric (unlike certain audience members who’d done to great pains to get a grasp on it—hats off to ’em!). That said, he wields the English tongue well enough to address the audience between songs, coming off as rather gracious (“We wish we could visit more, like we used to.”) and lamenting the Underworld’s clubnight curfew (“We’d play three hours if we could.”)
As things played out twas another top night of black metal, with the sound mix of the venue really doing justice to all three bands showcased, especially the headliner’s commemoration. Come back soon, you blasphemous bastards!
~MRDA~
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