Italian blackened post-math-sludge band Hungry Like Rakovitz had the opportunity to kick off this evening. Apparently, their vocalist and bass player couldn't make it to this show but that didn't harm the performance. A friend took over the vocal duties while the core of the band (guitars and drums) blasted the doubt out of their minds. Before we realized it, we were headbanging along with the complex and intense blend of pretty much everything that is heavy and distorted.  
This was a perfect opener for what was about to become an awesome night. The sound was great, the ambiance was joyous and friendly and Hungry Like Rakovitz were in the zone, so to speak. Although this is music I very rarely listen to at home, at gigs I can't get enough of it, especially when it comes with such massive flashes of pure energy and aggression. So yeah, I was a little disappointed when they stopped after thirty minutes. Nonetheless, it was already quite impressive so I wonder what these guys are going to sound like when they return with their complete line-up.

Two minutes and thirty three seconds into the Lambs-gig, I found myself thinking "if all lambs would sound like that, I'd become a vegan in no time'. This was an extremely intense blend of sludge and crust, something the nice people at AMC seem to like a lot. This gig too was finished after mere thirty minutes but in that time Lambs slaughtered everything they could get their instruments on. Even I stayed inside the whole gig, something that doesn't often happen with this kind of music.

Lambs performed with a heap of aggression, brutal vocals and harsh guitars, reminding me a bit of some hardcore gigs I've seen in the past. It also brought back a feeling I had been missing. Something was different tonight. It felt like one of those awesome concerts in my late teens and twenties, before all kind of stupid regulations took most of the fun out of these things. But this was fun, this was adrenaline, pure, harsh and relentless. 

Before the English quartet would start their set, they built up a light show, seemingly taking everything extremely serious. A bit too serious for me, to be honest. I mean, I've seen several bands focusing on their light show and background projection so much that they forgot to play their music decently. So I found myself thinking "is that really necessary?". Well, to be frank, it wasn't but it added something to the whole show, driving it closer to perfection. Yes, perfection, because I could never have expected a show like this from Telepathy.

​Perhaps it was my scepticism about the light show or the fact that it was getting pretty crowded, but I wasn't "feeling it" in the first few minutes. It was ok, and "professionally" it would give these guys a decent rating for their performance but nothing more. But then it happened, Gradually, Telepathy started climbing my "best-gigs-of-2016" ladder. They easily surpassed Dopethrone, left 65DaysOfStatic behind them and started pulling the legs of Russian Circles. Goosebumps formed on my arms and it was hot in there. Halfway through, I decided that this was a perfect gig.

The sound was crystal clear (or clear enough for a post-metal/sludge/... concert), their performance was pure energy and the audience was -rightly- ecstatic. This was a highly immersive trip. Even people who had seen Telepathy before were in awe, like me. I knew it was going to be a decent evening but I really didn't expect things to be as majestic as it was. Right now, Telepathy are somewhere on top of that ladder. The bands at Desertfest have to be damn good to surpass this...

After the gig, I did some shopping, introduced myself to some of the musicians and wished them good luck at Incubate. Exhausted but highly satisfied I started walking towards Antwerp Station. Arriving there, I was surprised to see that the whole building was closed down and surrounded by heavily armed policeman and women. There was a van from Dovo (the Belgian bomb squad). They were keeping everyone at bay, no one was allowed in the station or any of the metro stations because of an apparent bomb threat. 

There were also security people from De Lijn (bus & tram company) who, much to my delight, provided me (and other people) with the information they needed, calm and friendly. They would guide people towards other travelling possibilities, which made me decide to start walking to the nearest overground tram stop. Eventually, that would turn out to become an eight kilometer walk, including a chat with some people who had no idea what was going on. Shortly after midnight, everything in Antwerp went back to normal. 

It was weird to see how people were still drinking, laughing and having fun, mere twenty meters from a station, occupied by heavily armed men, trying to find a possible bomb. In the end, they arrested two guys who were acting suspiciously and the threat was lifted. For me, the situation was a bit surreal but it didn't spoil the awesome evening I had just experienced. During my walk, I often found myself thinking "damn, that was good". It was. If you weren't there, you should pack your things and head to Tilburg as all three acts will play Incubate as well.


​Serge

This looked like the perfect opportunity to start going to gigs again, after staying away for a few months to focus completely on the launch of The Metal Deck. After all, it was about time that we published some more gig reviews and what better way to start than with a load of fierce black metal.

So, in an extremely good mood, I headed towards Het Bos, one of Belgium's nicest venues, grabbed a few drinks, looked through a heap of records, cds and merchandise before the actual concerts would start. I don't know how some reviewers always manage to show up too late for the first bands. I'm always too early...

From the first seconds of Germany's Shrine of Insanabilis' set I knew this was going to be a harsh but awesome night. They immediately kicked off with everything that makes the black metal scene so interesting: trenchant riffs, eerie screams, some death growls and plenty of variation. I really enjoyed their hypnotic passages but I was always a bit disappointed because the songs (and especially the slower, almost psychedelic parts) were a bit too short for me. By varying between fierce blast-beat driven passages and slower, hypnotic ones, these guys definitely convinced me of their abilities. On a side note, I really enjoyed the stage presence of the guitar player on the left side of the stage. At times he looked at the audience as if he was getting ready to smash the skulls of anyone who was not headbanging. He's quite a big dude so I'd definitely start headbanging if he looks at you.

Irish trio Slidhr suffered some technical issues in the beginning of their set which clearly harmed their entire concert. After the guitar fell out a second time, I could see the disappointment and frustration in their eyes, but nonetheless they stubbornly went on with the gig. The audience didn't seem to mind and enjoyed the whole thing anyway. And why not? After all, Slidhr came up with some awesome blackened sounds, brutal enough to slash your eardrums and immersive enough to remain interesting. I enjoyed most of their set from a comfortable couch near the merchandise stand. I quickly discovered I was tapping my feet along with the music and shaking my head in approval. So yeah, I think Slidhr definitely deserves another shot in Het Bos.

Icelandic horde Sinmara won this evening, at least for me. Their black metal sounds and their stage performance were everything I needed to make this a successful event. Highly varied black metal, a bleak and haunting atmosphere, eerie screams, gut ripping and dissonant riffing and arguably one of the best drummers in the scene today, this was a damn enjoyable concert. In fact, this might have been one of the best black metal concert I have seen in years. At one point, there were two women dancing in front of my and I though "why the fuck not". After all, Sinmara came up with some highly danceable passages, along with some of the best blast-beats I have ever heard in a live setting. The stage performance was quite static, as if the musicians were in some kind of trance, and that perfectly fitted with the whole atmosphere of this gig. 

But of course most people were there to see the international cult of Acherontas and their dark ritualistic art. The smell of incense quickly filled the venue while the intro blasted through the speakers. When the quartet finally climbed on stage, they immediately drew all the attention towards them in a highly charismatic stage performance. At one point I thought, "if Gurdjieff would have started a black metal band, it would probably have sounded something like this". An Acherontas concert is an occult ritual, driving on layers of distorted noise and accompanied with screams and epic chants. To me, obviously, it still was a black metal performance, a solid one nonetheless, one that easily kept the audience in its grasp. Many bands play black metal and behave like a black metal band on stage. Acherontas is different, they add a dark mystique to the whole thing, noticeable mostly in the massive charisma of the vocalist.


​Serge