I'm feeling a little bit headachy and under the weather since yesterday morning. Probably caught some minor virus. But if Tuesday night has anything to do with it, I'll say it was worth it. A couple of days of suffering (hopefully not more!) for two phenomal club shows seems like a fair trade.
 |
| AUTHOR & PUNISHER |
One of the first things I noticed was: Hey, I just met that guy in Denmark, at the last music event I've been to! Didn't know that the Ecstatic Vision front beast Doug Sabolick was also aiding Tristan Shone on his long-time solo project Author & Punisher on guitar. What a small world. And quite a different kind of gig.
It had been six years ago (also at the Hafenklang venue, but upstairs) since I had seen Author & Punisher the last time. The man/machine symbiosis of this Industrial act is still amazing. The sounds emerging from the self-built cyborgy apparatuses still sound like extractions from a mind of someone with a teenage obsession over Godflesh's "Perfect Skin Dub". Which I can ultra-heavily relate to. But the human-robotic touch gives the sounds a new original twist.
With the added guitars the sound of Author & Punisher has become broader, and to keep speaking in Justin Broadrick terms, the new songs are more Jesu than Godflesh. Or they are Portishead. Literally, because the set included a cover of their 90's hit "Glory Box". (Thankfully we have the internet, otherwise the chorus would have hunted me for days without me ever assigning it to the right artist.)
Only for the last track Shone went back into his older - harsher and weirder - self on his own, closing a great show with the only flaw that it took the Hafenklang crew painfully long to understand that the band didn't want the house lights on.
It had been six years ago (also at the Hafenklang venue, but upstairs) since I had seen Author & Punisher the last time. The man/machine symbiosis of this Industrial act is still amazing. The sounds emerging from the self-built cyborgy apparatuses still sound like extractions from a mind of someone with a teenage obsession over Godflesh's "Perfect Skin Dub". Which I can ultra-heavily relate to. But the human-robotic touch gives the sounds a new original twist.
With the added guitars the sound of Author & Punisher has become broader, and to keep speaking in Justin Broadrick terms, the new songs are more Jesu than Godflesh. Or they are Portishead. Literally, because the set included a cover of their 90's hit "Glory Box". (Thankfully we have the internet, otherwise the chorus would have hunted me for days without me ever assigning it to the right artist.)
Only for the last track Shone went back into his older - harsher and weirder - self on his own, closing a great show with the only flaw that it took the Hafenklang crew painfully long to understand that the band didn't want the house lights on.
 |
| IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT |
Not even a year ago, also reporting from this very location I concluded an Imperial Triumphant live review with the statement that "there are no better alternatives of being busy on a Tuesday evening". I guess that still stands.
But not being a fan of what happened to the band soundwise at this year's Roadburn show at all, it wasn't a no-brainer that this would always work, and I was in need of some serious redemption.
And holy moloch, I got that! Since the band is still touring "Spirit Of Ecstasy" and they just are the Avant-Garde Black Death Jazz Dissonantians they are, it was technically a very similar show, including gimmicks like the "champagne" shower and the insane bass solo in the crowd. But this time the sound was better than on both last encounters, so that the only thing which could have improved this show was the kind of majestic metroplian light show, which the Hafenklang just cannot provide.
But who cares if this abrasive music is presented so perfectly? When a band shifts from cataclysmic cacophonous light-speed brutaliy to smooth Jazz breakdowns and makes the audience listen carefully until it's really over, before someone dares to start the applause, then you know that the stars have aligned. As always the stoic golden masks were a crucial part of the performance, adding a comedic note and underlining the ridiculous ease in which the trio was racing through the high-performance sport of their material.
Yes, this was one of the most important Extreme Metal bands of the present exactly how you want to experience them. Full points. Perfection. Praise the Imperial Triumphant!
But not being a fan of what happened to the band soundwise at this year's Roadburn show at all, it wasn't a no-brainer that this would always work, and I was in need of some serious redemption.
And holy moloch, I got that! Since the band is still touring "Spirit Of Ecstasy" and they just are the Avant-Garde Black Death Jazz Dissonantians they are, it was technically a very similar show, including gimmicks like the "champagne" shower and the insane bass solo in the crowd. But this time the sound was better than on both last encounters, so that the only thing which could have improved this show was the kind of majestic metroplian light show, which the Hafenklang just cannot provide.
But who cares if this abrasive music is presented so perfectly? When a band shifts from cataclysmic cacophonous light-speed brutaliy to smooth Jazz breakdowns and makes the audience listen carefully until it's really over, before someone dares to start the applause, then you know that the stars have aligned. As always the stoic golden masks were a crucial part of the performance, adding a comedic note and underlining the ridiculous ease in which the trio was racing through the high-performance sport of their material.
Yes, this was one of the most important Extreme Metal bands of the present exactly how you want to experience them. Full points. Perfection. Praise the Imperial Triumphant!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen