This was the third year I've traveled to Vienna for the annual Anti X-Mass Festival. As always they offered a great line-up so I really didn't mind the traveling and border stuff just to get there. Not to mention that one of my friends left his passport home so we started our trip by turning back. In the end we were late for the first band Aentenus and due to my other pleasant duty (interviewing Kataklysm) I missed the next two bands Macabre and Ragnarok too.
Even Impaled Nazarene was already on stage when I finally entered the venue. I know their albums, and though I'm not a true IN fan I was really curious to see these insane, strange looking Finns. But somehow I might have expected too much. Of course the technical problems - the microphones didnt work perfectly - were against them and they might have been tired but I didn't feel the power and chaos coming through their music as well as their typical Finnish sound that they normally have.
Mikaaki left his clothes on himself this time and he was sweating like hell, it was running down his bald head. But it was nice to see Somnium on stage since Finntroll was forced to cancel their European tour two months ago. With their crest-haired bass player they were all very impressive looking on the stage. In short it was nice to see them but I look forward to another (better?) time when their performance will impress me.
Songs that they played while not comprising of the entire set list were: Absence of war, Karmakeddon Warriors, Vitutuksen Multihuipennus, Goat Perversion, Total War -Winter War, The Horny and the Horned, Motor Penis. Impaled Nazarene
IN was followed by Hate Eternal, a 3-piece band whose members are Erik Rutan, Tim Yeung and Jared Anderson who provided the most technical death metal of the night.
Listening to music that they play makes me wonder how a human being is able to play such complex, fast music without any mistakes. The best way to describe them is to say they produced some kind of 'complex destruction`. Its difficult to say if the crowd there didnt know them or they were just stunned but for sure, there was not too much moshing, head banging or much of anything else. Honestly, I was also just standing (jaw-dropped) and concentrated on their music.
The exact set list was: (thanks to Erik for this) Servants of the gods, Catacombs, Powers that be, The obscure terror, Chants in reclamation, In spirit, King of all kings.
Hate Eternal
Though Kataklysm have played in Hungary before I was eager to see them again. If I said Hate Eternal was the complex destruction that night, then Kataklysm delivered the melodic destruction to us. These Canadians produced a really strong, mature album this year titled 'Shadows & Dust' and notwithstanding that some of their fans that liked the band from the beginning are saying they are too melodic and unvaried now. Yeah, they are capable to compose more complex, more complicated music and for sure, lately their music has become more listenable than around the time of 'The Temple Of Knowledge' album but they are still making some f** heavy music with melodies, that is their own 'northern hyperblast'. But as long as the band and the fans enjoy the music that's the only thing that matters.
They opened with the intro of the album and with the first song, 'Shadows & Dust'. And the audience immediately went insane. They were the first band that night who made people move, their fans continuously attacked the stage. And as the songs from the new album clunked after each other, urging us to head bang, with the amazing drum work of Max Duhamel (yes, he really does those controversial one handed rolls with one hand) and the unique voice of Maurizio Iacono. His high pitched and growling vocals became the main character of the band since he replaced Sylvan, even if some fans protest against him. One thing is for sure, he is the leading personality in the band.
Most of the songs they played were from the new album. Beside the above mentioned 'Shadows & Dust' we listened to 'Illimunati', 'Centuries', 'Face to face of war' and some more and they also played 'The Awakener' and if remember there was 'Manipulator or souls' too.
Kataklysm
It was soon 9pm when Immolation entered the stage, whose last album `Unholy Cut` got very good reviews wherever Ive read about it telling that they made an album again satisfying everybody who is into the band. As usual they played a heavy set in their own tight schedule. They played fast and precise that is a staple to their music being very intense. Its always a pleasure to listen to such technical music live, transmitted by professional death metal bands. While Alex Hernandez was concentrating on his tight drum parts the rest of the band head banged just like their fans. Sometimes even Ross Dolan made his incredible long hair fly around.
Some song titles I managed to write down from their set: Of Martyrs and Men, Sinful Nature, Unholy Cut, Bring Them Down, The Everlasting Fire.
Immolation
After Immolation, the time had arrived for Marduk, one of the most touring Swedish black metal bands. Since Im not a huge fan of the band and Ive also seen them too many times, I wasnt really interested in them. But I admit they have a very strong fan base wherever they go and they keep a good contact with the audience during their performances that gives a participant feeling to everybody who is there. They played their evil rolls and the fans reacted on that.
Legion was full of life; only with his presence he simple dominated the stage. Heavy stage diving began to start again while they played and several times the fans almost managed to pull him down from the stage. He even had to fix the cable of the microphone once as you can see on this picture:
Midway through the performance his nose started to bleed. Ive heard different versions so far, that somebody had punched him accidentally but I did not see that so in my opinion it just started to bleed. He didnt care too much with it either and the show went on. Here are a few song titles to give a taste from their performance: Glorification, Beast of Prey, Burn My Coffin, 502, Fuck Me Jesus, Ars Moriendi.
Their well-known show had come to an end and for the first time that night a band came back to play an encore. Funeral Bitch had been dedicated to Legion's mother and then they really said farewell to us with Baptism By Fire. In the end B.Warr tore the strings from his bass guitar, throwing its pieces among to the audience.
Marduk
After Marduk, they took a longer break till everything on the stage was set for Six Feet Under. I dont think I need to introduce this band, everybody knows them or at least has heard about Chris Barnes and his fellow musicians. They are simply one of the leading acts of the death metal scene and as soon as they got on stage they launched their destroying music onto us that night. Heavy, low-tuned death metal and an incredible voiced vocalist was all we needed. Greg Gall plays his drums so easily, like it was just another relaxing afternoon activity. And when their caveman looking frontman Chris started to head bang his rasta locks it looked like a bunch of wriggling snakes. His growls truly sound like they comie from six feet under. It makes him easy to recognize due to his guttural, high screams. I know there are better death metal vocalists out there, but somehow he embodies 'The Singer' of death metal.
Beside their own songs they played one of the weirdest cover song ever made by any kind of band so far. It was TNT from AC/DC, though fans wanted to hear California Über Alles. I'm sure, everybody who was there had a great time, including the band members too. They came back to play an encore too.
A few songs I remember that they played: The enemy within, Snakes, The day when the dead walks, Impulse to disembowel, Human target, Suffering the ecstasy, Feasting on the blood of the insane.
Six Feet Under
It was a long night but I'm sure nobody minded being tired after seeing such a great line-up on stage consisting of all good bands playing extreme metal music. Seems that going to Vienna to attend the 'Anti X-mas festival' in December is like a tradition of mine now, but I assume it's a 'nice' way to start to celebrate the holidays for every metal fan.
Even Impaled Nazarene was already on stage when I finally entered the venue. I know their albums, and though I'm not a true IN fan I was really curious to see these insane, strange looking Finns. But somehow I might have expected too much. Of course the technical problems - the microphones didnt work perfectly - were against them and they might have been tired but I didn't feel the power and chaos coming through their music as well as their typical Finnish sound that they normally have.
Mikaaki left his clothes on himself this time and he was sweating like hell, it was running down his bald head. But it was nice to see Somnium on stage since Finntroll was forced to cancel their European tour two months ago. With their crest-haired bass player they were all very impressive looking on the stage. In short it was nice to see them but I look forward to another (better?) time when their performance will impress me.
Songs that they played while not comprising of the entire set list were: Absence of war, Karmakeddon Warriors, Vitutuksen Multihuipennus, Goat Perversion, Total War -Winter War, The Horny and the Horned, Motor Penis. Impaled Nazarene
IN was followed by Hate Eternal, a 3-piece band whose members are Erik Rutan, Tim Yeung and Jared Anderson who provided the most technical death metal of the night.
Listening to music that they play makes me wonder how a human being is able to play such complex, fast music without any mistakes. The best way to describe them is to say they produced some kind of 'complex destruction`. Its difficult to say if the crowd there didnt know them or they were just stunned but for sure, there was not too much moshing, head banging or much of anything else. Honestly, I was also just standing (jaw-dropped) and concentrated on their music.
The exact set list was: (thanks to Erik for this) Servants of the gods, Catacombs, Powers that be, The obscure terror, Chants in reclamation, In spirit, King of all kings.
Hate Eternal
Though Kataklysm have played in Hungary before I was eager to see them again. If I said Hate Eternal was the complex destruction that night, then Kataklysm delivered the melodic destruction to us. These Canadians produced a really strong, mature album this year titled 'Shadows & Dust' and notwithstanding that some of their fans that liked the band from the beginning are saying they are too melodic and unvaried now. Yeah, they are capable to compose more complex, more complicated music and for sure, lately their music has become more listenable than around the time of 'The Temple Of Knowledge' album but they are still making some f** heavy music with melodies, that is their own 'northern hyperblast'. But as long as the band and the fans enjoy the music that's the only thing that matters.
They opened with the intro of the album and with the first song, 'Shadows & Dust'. And the audience immediately went insane. They were the first band that night who made people move, their fans continuously attacked the stage. And as the songs from the new album clunked after each other, urging us to head bang, with the amazing drum work of Max Duhamel (yes, he really does those controversial one handed rolls with one hand) and the unique voice of Maurizio Iacono. His high pitched and growling vocals became the main character of the band since he replaced Sylvan, even if some fans protest against him. One thing is for sure, he is the leading personality in the band.
Most of the songs they played were from the new album. Beside the above mentioned 'Shadows & Dust' we listened to 'Illimunati', 'Centuries', 'Face to face of war' and some more and they also played 'The Awakener' and if remember there was 'Manipulator or souls' too.
Kataklysm
It was soon 9pm when Immolation entered the stage, whose last album `Unholy Cut` got very good reviews wherever Ive read about it telling that they made an album again satisfying everybody who is into the band. As usual they played a heavy set in their own tight schedule. They played fast and precise that is a staple to their music being very intense. Its always a pleasure to listen to such technical music live, transmitted by professional death metal bands. While Alex Hernandez was concentrating on his tight drum parts the rest of the band head banged just like their fans. Sometimes even Ross Dolan made his incredible long hair fly around.
Some song titles I managed to write down from their set: Of Martyrs and Men, Sinful Nature, Unholy Cut, Bring Them Down, The Everlasting Fire.
Immolation
After Immolation, the time had arrived for Marduk, one of the most touring Swedish black metal bands. Since Im not a huge fan of the band and Ive also seen them too many times, I wasnt really interested in them. But I admit they have a very strong fan base wherever they go and they keep a good contact with the audience during their performances that gives a participant feeling to everybody who is there. They played their evil rolls and the fans reacted on that.
Legion was full of life; only with his presence he simple dominated the stage. Heavy stage diving began to start again while they played and several times the fans almost managed to pull him down from the stage. He even had to fix the cable of the microphone once as you can see on this picture:
Midway through the performance his nose started to bleed. Ive heard different versions so far, that somebody had punched him accidentally but I did not see that so in my opinion it just started to bleed. He didnt care too much with it either and the show went on. Here are a few song titles to give a taste from their performance: Glorification, Beast of Prey, Burn My Coffin, 502, Fuck Me Jesus, Ars Moriendi.
Their well-known show had come to an end and for the first time that night a band came back to play an encore. Funeral Bitch had been dedicated to Legion's mother and then they really said farewell to us with Baptism By Fire. In the end B.Warr tore the strings from his bass guitar, throwing its pieces among to the audience.
Marduk
After Marduk, they took a longer break till everything on the stage was set for Six Feet Under. I dont think I need to introduce this band, everybody knows them or at least has heard about Chris Barnes and his fellow musicians. They are simply one of the leading acts of the death metal scene and as soon as they got on stage they launched their destroying music onto us that night. Heavy, low-tuned death metal and an incredible voiced vocalist was all we needed. Greg Gall plays his drums so easily, like it was just another relaxing afternoon activity. And when their caveman looking frontman Chris started to head bang his rasta locks it looked like a bunch of wriggling snakes. His growls truly sound like they comie from six feet under. It makes him easy to recognize due to his guttural, high screams. I know there are better death metal vocalists out there, but somehow he embodies 'The Singer' of death metal.
Beside their own songs they played one of the weirdest cover song ever made by any kind of band so far. It was TNT from AC/DC, though fans wanted to hear California Über Alles. I'm sure, everybody who was there had a great time, including the band members too. They came back to play an encore too.
A few songs I remember that they played: The enemy within, Snakes, The day when the dead walks, Impulse to disembowel, Human target, Suffering the ecstasy, Feasting on the blood of the insane.
Six Feet Under
It was a long night but I'm sure nobody minded being tired after seeing such a great line-up on stage consisting of all good bands playing extreme metal music. Seems that going to Vienna to attend the 'Anti X-mas festival' in December is like a tradition of mine now, but I assume it's a 'nice' way to start to celebrate the holidays for every metal fan.
