| Live review: Mayhem + Aeon & Godphobia - Klubben, Stockholm - 2009-11-27 |
| Review published: 2009/12/09 |
|
Norwegian black metal legends stopped by Klubben during their mini-tour through Sweden and Finland. Support
on the swedish part of the tour came from Aeon and Godphobia.
Godphobia
First band on stage is Godphobia, a newly formed Swedish death metal band. Prior to this event, i had not heard
one single word about this band and i wasn't too interested in checking out their songs either. It becomes almost
painfully obvious that I am not alone about that. There seems to be around 3 people who actually have some sort of
clue regarding what band this is.
I don't think that i can muster up one single positive thought about this performance. To begin with, the music is just
completely uninspired death metal and there's really nothing exciting at all about it. The vocalist is what really brings
the whole impression down though. Apart from his rather useless cookie-monster worshipping, he also appears to be drunk out
of his mind and wobbles around on stage with the appeareance of having no clue what he is doing or what is going on around him.
Furthermore, he also decides to spice up the show by saying things like "This song is for all the women in here. It's about sucking dick!".
The inevitable response is a few awkward laughs from the crowd and the vocalist keeps mumbling some equally nonsensical words before the band bursts into another song which sounds just like the previous one.
Shortly put, this was a very boring performance and a major time-waster.
Rating: 1/10
Aeon
After dozing through the boring first show, Aeon, another Swedish death metal band enters the stage. Aeon released their debut album four years ago
and the follow-up two years ago. It's a relief to instantly notice that this band is absolutely nothing like the first one. They definitely
have some pretty good songwriting skills and the riffing, as well as the drumming is pretty similar to that of Polish death metallers Decapitated in some songs.
The drums are handled in a skillfull manner by Nils Fjllstrm, who also recently joined black metallers Dark Funeral.
The vocalist is also really good at what he does. His approach is quite brutal but the lyrics are still pretty distinguishable. Said lyrics will have to be
taken for what they are, slightly tongue-in-cheek anti-religious lyrics with titles like 'God gives head in heaven', 'Caressed by the holy man' and 'Doorknocker'.
There are also similarities with several American bands, most noteably some of the big bands to emerge from the Florida death metal scene, such as Deicide
and Cannibal Corpse (who originally hailed from Buffalo). The Cannibal corpse influences are mainly heard within the riffs while the vocal delivery and the lyrical
content leans a bit more towards Deicide. Now, there's nothing wrong with taking influences from great bands like the ones mentioned, but I think that most of the songs
from the debut album is perhaps a bit too much like a tribute to these and other bands and struggles a bit with creating an original sound for the band. The songs
from the second album follows in the same vein to some degree, but definitely leans more towards Aeon striving to create an identity of their own. This leads me to believe
that, when this band has played together for a few more years and released another album or two, they will develop into something great. The potential is definitely there.
The crowd response is a bit cool at first, but the intensity of the band's performance gets the audience going pretty soon. Overall, a very well-performed show with no apparent
flaws, except perhaps, the above mentioned limitations in originality and individuality. Also, Aeon's music tends to become a bit repetitive live and some more tempo-variations
etc. would do them good, something which, again, is probably gonna develop over the course of their career.
Rating: 6.5/10
Mayhem
As in many other cases, the main band definitely takes their time before they enter the stage. More than an hour goes by between the ending of Aeon's gig and the start of
this one. The crowd has grown significantly during the evening and it's no secret that most of the people attending this show has come to see Mayhem. Anyone with an idea
who Mayhem is probably aware that you will be in for a pretty special show, both musically and in particular visually. The last time I saw this band live was three years ago
at the Gates Of Metal festival in Hultsfred, where the stage had been covered by tons of slaughterhouse waste, Attila using a hollowed pig's head as headwear and Mayhem's
standard placement of Pig's heads on stakes at the front of the stage.
Since then, Mayhem have definitely toned down the visual part of the performance. The pig's heads have been abandoned and nowadays, Hungarian vocalist Attila is the one providing
the visual madness that enhances the quality of the performance without diverting too much attention from the music itself. After the two-minute long instrumental intro to Pagan Fears,
he enters the stage in clothing resembling that of the pope. The first of numerous different accessories that he uses on stage to present his vision is a red lantern on a chain which
he dangles slowly in front of him, as if trying to hypnotize the crowd. Throughout the show, he varies between this lantern, a scythe and a rope with one end tied around his neck while
swinging the other end around in the air.
After the first song, Mayhem continues with 'Ancient skin' and 'From The Dark Past'. After those two songs comes 'My Death' from 2004's 'Chimera' album. This song is one of the highlights
of the evening for me. This dark, mid-paced song makes for a really good live performance and especially the last part with Attila chanting "Odium humani generis" is incredibly effecttive
and creates the feeling of being cloaked by an impenetrable darkness. This is followed by another song which has huge potential live, 'View From Nihil'. This is one of the tracks that
relies heavily on the solid drumming-performance by Hellhammer, who pounds his way through the setlist in an impressive way.
The rest of the show follows the idea of playing songs spanning their 25-year long carrier and fans of older Mayhem, as well as newer fans is in for a treat. The songs which
stands out the most are 'Anti', 'Deathcrush', 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' and of course their timeless classic 'Freezing Moon'. Especially Anti and De mysteriis.. contains a vocal performance
that you will never hear from anyone else than Attila Csihar.
One thing that was slightly alarming beforehand was the fact that Blasphemer, the lead guitarist and main composer for the last few albums has recently left the band. But to be honest,
his departure does not leave too much to mourn over. Especially since the band decided to hire two new live guitarists instead of just one. This gives a much richer sound and the two
temporary guitarists seem to have found their place in the band really quick and they do their job without any problem. The only sign of insecurity shown is when Silmaeth decides to take
a step backwards and in the nick of time finds Attila swinging his scythe around on stage. Like the guitarists, the bassist and founding member Necrobutcher does his thing and mostly
sticks to himself on stage. And there is no need for him to do any more than this, because his place in Mayhem has been given for such a long period of time now.
To conclude, anyone who has known Mayhem for some time knows what to expect from them during most of the show and these expectations are never let down. And then, there's always the
stage show that Attila puts on that you don't really know what the hell to expect from, which adds a nice twist to the whole thing. The music is well performed, by a band with two and a
half decades of experience within the black metal scene. Exceptional vocal performance. The only downside i can find is that in one or a few songs, Mayhem plays it all a tad too safe,
relying solely on their routine and at those few moments, one could wish for a little more passion in the performance, otherwise a brilliant show.
Rating: 8.5/10
Per Karlsson
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