Concert: Watain, Withered, Book of Black Earth
Posted on October 05, 2008 at 8:52 pm by admin
I’m always game for new things, which is exactly what this concert was all about, either in the delivery of cutting edge music, or through a band I’ve only heard a little bit about, but have yet to have seen live.
The first band on this tour to hit the stage was Book of Black Earth, who have a new album coming out through Prosthetic Records at the time of this printing. As it stands, that label is always attempting to move forward, and forge ahead they did. While you can say that Book of Black Earth draw their influences from thrash, death metal, melodic death metal and even doom, they’re in fact more than the sum of their parts, and come off as a fresh new concoction in the world of metal. This newborn beast also went over live, bringing their raw, rotting until black atmosphere to the stage, mostly quick with the quick beatings (as the fast songs typically go over better live), but they showed no fear by playing a purely slow, oppressive song, not intended for moshing.
Withered was a band that I’m quite a fan of, however my fear was that audiences might not understand them. The band stated before hand that they’re used to playing to crowds who don’t mind when the action is fierce, but when their songs shift to an ultra-slow direction with gloomy melodies, the audience tends to clear the room. This case however was exactly the opposite. While the anticipation wasn’t quite as big in the beginning, more and more began drawing closer to the stage as Withered played on. Their set was surprisingly intense in an obvious ay, as their guitars busted out with a loud, powerful old-school European death metal buzz, and they went mostly with fast songs, with a few blasts. The slow moments were truly slow, like shifting towards a doom or even Neurosis atmosphere, yet even those moments were intense. The live presence was also very different, focussing a lot more on playing with long breaks between vocals in a mostly dark room accented by red lights. The focus was certainly on the music itself.
Finally came Watain, a raw black metal band from Sweden with a large focus on both the raw and old-school. I have to admit, I’ve been impressed by bands who play with nothing but their instruments and themselves, Watain put on their show with some very underground add-ons, such as lit candelabras, and incense. The corpsepaint appearance was slightly different than most black metal bands as well, the band choosing to wear leather vests and apply a dustier, dirtier appearance to their bodies, and even their guitars. The look made them look like very old corpses that had recently been dug up, and the 80’s looking vests went with some of the retro themes to the music, which was in fact not focussed on blasting. I was impressed, and deeply entertained.
The overall vibe from all the bands was something underground, and for some also very cutting edge. The bands themselves however almost seemed a little out of place on a large stage in a nice venue instead of a small, grass-roots crowd in a small room. Perhaps those that catch these bands on the other tour dates will get a chance to see them perform in smaller venues, as there’s an energy and persona that bigger places have a hard time capturing.
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