Khanate
The Bunker, Belfast
20 November 2005
The night is billed as one of pure, unadulterated slowness and heaviness, and feeling the rumbling bass of Khanate's soundcheck through one's feet upstairs in the enue is a heartening experience. Having only heard the band very recently, I was excited to hear the news that two Irish dates were planned, and bought my ticket well in advance.
Slomatics were first up to face the crowd, and their brand of slow, sludgy doom went down a treat, warming the crowd up nicely. Their bass-heavy fuzz was powerful enough to be felt rather than heard, and the assembled metalheads lapped it up, particularly "Running Battle".
It's rare to hear of a Scald gig, the band being of the hermit persuasion, and this is perhaps a double-edged sword. It's great that they are such cult legends in Ireland, but bad because performances are few and far between. Tonight's performance was, in a word, apocalyptic. Assaulting eardrums with "Larva" and "Cocoon" (two new songs from a top-secret project) Scald started off incredible. Equally, "Spiracle" goes down a treat, but it is modern metal classic "Maggot Farmer" that has everyone's head banging. Having recently signed to Code 666 records, possibly the most respected label in the metal underground, and with the forthcoming "Vermiculatus" album imminent, Scald seem destined to join the ranks of the world's cerebral metal elite.
Following such an act will always be hard, and although Stephen O'Malley's Khanate play to perfection, something just doesn't work. True, the music is heavy enough to actually make your clothes shake, and Khanate obviously know what they're doing with creating bleak and crushing sonic soundscapes, but they completely failed to capture my imagination. Perhaps if one were to be more in that style of music, they would "get it". Unfortunately, it was not for me. Scald: band of the night by far.
Reviewer Donal Mcbrien
from here >
http://www.planet-loud.com/v6/livereview.php?live_id=176
just saw this
its great to be cult
:Smokin:
<3
