This Friday night I returned home from four days spent with "Downfall of Gaia", who were on their two week long tour over Eastern Europe. I actually don't know how detailed (or not) this review will be, since this is the first time I followed a band for a number of consecutive days and not only did a lot of things happen, but also there are quite a few personal elements that occurred. Spending several days with the same bunch of amazing people, sharing food, laughter, mischief, sleepless nights and everything in between really manages to bind a group of individuals. So I'll just go with the flow of my own thoughts and write what first comes to mind.
17 October, day one - Backa Topola, Serbia
My journey began with a three and a half hour drive by train to the town of Backa Topola, located in the far northern regions of Serbia. The train arrived somewhere around five o'clock to the town, which meant that I was destined to wander around alone and kill several hours prior to meeting the guys from the band and actually have some company. Since I never went to Backa Topola before, I armed myself with a map and once I arrived, a trek to find the venue ensued. The town, with its low population and generally countryside feel, was quite eerie due to the fact that while I was walking to the show space I haven't encountered a single person, nor was any store open or light turned on in the surrounding houses. A distant echo of barking dogs followed my wake and the overall weather which was really gloomy made this whole experience like that out of a horror movie. After a good half an hour of walking in the cold scenery I finally reached the venue, hanging out a bit outside with a dude from Subotica whom I met in front of the place and soon the owner let us in.
The venue in question is called "Panta Rhei" and from the moment I saw the exterior it grabbed my interest completely. On first glance the red brick-made building seems like a combination of a medieval house, mountain home and a church, with walls decorated with stone columns of sorts and windows which seem to be erect from the house, making it have a peculiar looking shape. The interior extends the medieval feel, with tight, dark corridors, high walls and a lot of woodwork. There are several wooden benches and tables inside, as well as a brick bar, a small stage which was used only for the drum set and even an inside balcony looking down from the upper floors. I had a lot of time to analyze the design of the place, since I spent my time in the company of people who were speaking in Hungarian, the town being so close to the border with Hungary that the languages meld with one another. Aside of the design, my attention was focused to the unbelievably cute dog of the owner, which was just sitting next to me and demanding to be played with. The moment you I would retract my hand from petting her, she would immediately push her snout under my hand and desire more attention. Animals > humans.
Eventually, "Downfall of Gaia" arrived, along with their driver, Lucas, who is actually the bass player of the German band "Finisterre" and Bjorn, one more friend of theirs, the self proclaimed "useless tour guy". (hope I spelled your names right guys!) In any case, I searched for Dominik and/or Peter first, since they are the ones with whom I exchanged most of my mails. After some mingling with them, getting introduced and me generally being completely retarded and not being able to speak English correctly due to shyness and excitement (fanboy alert!), I was asked to join them for diner and a round of drinks. It was totally amazing how nicely I was accepted by the entire group, especially since no one except Peter and Dominik knew I would be joining them in the days to come. Through those first couple of conversations prior to the gig and me finding out that this little blog of mine is actually way more popular than I thought it was, I realized how we all click well together and how overtly nice these people are. These four days were bound to be great.
After some cynical jokes, serious discussions and getting to know each other better, the gig was about to start. There was an extremely low number of people, somewhere around seven not counting the three of us following the band on tour, due to both this being a small town and the fact that the gig was on a working day. Luckily the organizer "warned" the band that this will likely be the case, so it was not a bad surprise for them. The venue got quiet while the band was setting up and soon the silence was broken with the sound of “Prolog”, the intro song of “Epos”. The eerie tone crept around the people present in the darkness filled, cold complex, building up with the chilling guitar playing and finally exploding when the tunes melded with the song “Odium”. That tone metamorphosis between the songs is brilliant when witnessed live, thanks to the soundscape which constantly increases with tension and strength. What was once just a creepy, yet gentle tune in front of you now stands as a massive, unstopable behemoth eager to pick you up and continually smash you to the ground. I never reviewed “Epos” and will be completely honest here and say that prior to the tour my liking of the said release was not that strong. The demo recordings were an amazing neocrust creation packed with aggressive beats clashing with melancholic sections, an overall great release. By chance I failed to listen to their “Tour EP”, so the transition from short bursting songs of the demo to the brooding and epic tunes on “Epos” was quite a shift for me. There was a seeming lack of violent chrescendoes and the slower sections appeared to be too long on the latter album which made me not really like it that much at first. Witnessing “Epos” being performed live changed my feelings for it, literally skyrocketing and sealing my love for it. My initial dislike was probably due to my loved neocrust band being turned into an epic, dark post-rockish project all of a sudden, but thinking about it now that metamorphosis is simply magnificent. “Downfall of Gaia” managed to break out of its ordinary crust coocoon and come out as an astounding and unique band which offers a superb story to tell. The amount of passion and emotions they succeeded in transfering toward me through their music for the duration of the tour is something that I will seriously never forget.
In any case, after the amazing “Odium”, which in the course of the tour turned out to be one of my favorite songs by the band, “Zerfall” continued to attack the venue. Once the ten minute monster was finished, the two songs from the split with “In The Hearts Of Emperors” were played. It was so enjoyable to see and hear the band play songs which always meld into one another, giving you the feeling that the tracks are actually crafted into one gigantic song. As the band continually radiated with tunes, the “crowd” offered some movement, though it was overtly...strange, to say the least. There was some dancing around, one girl even trampling over Peter’s mircophone and not giving a fuck about it in the process, yet the audience was generally silent when a particular song would end, which left the venue filled with some awkward silence. The end of the set was the stupidest thing ever, since the band started leaving their instruments and everyone in the venue was just standing there, Bjorn and me exchanging some confused stares and offering claps, me yelling “more” and trying to flame up some thanks from the people present. Luckily, we woke up the crowd and a bonus song was played, that being “Silere”.
After the excellent set, the gig was over and we moved to a table and shared some more drinks and talks about some pretty interesting stuff. It was cool to see the guys, especially Toni and Lucas, being intrigued by some problems and general situation in Serbia, talking about Fascism, Nazism and all those retarded extreme social movements and other idiotic problems plaguing the system, plus having Hannes telling the epic tale of how he chose art over social activity. Deep in the night, we moved into the sleeping quarters. I set off completely hardcore on the trip and not bringing a sleeping bag, which I soon realized I couldn’t do without, yet luckily the owner of the venue was prepared even for tards like me and provided me with a warm matress and sheets. Crawling inside the room designed for sleeping and huddling around the heater, dreams followed soon, ending my first day of the tour.
17 October, day one - Backa Topola, Serbia
My journey began with a three and a half hour drive by train to the town of Backa Topola, located in the far northern regions of Serbia. The train arrived somewhere around five o'clock to the town, which meant that I was destined to wander around alone and kill several hours prior to meeting the guys from the band and actually have some company. Since I never went to Backa Topola before, I armed myself with a map and once I arrived, a trek to find the venue ensued. The town, with its low population and generally countryside feel, was quite eerie due to the fact that while I was walking to the show space I haven't encountered a single person, nor was any store open or light turned on in the surrounding houses. A distant echo of barking dogs followed my wake and the overall weather which was really gloomy made this whole experience like that out of a horror movie. After a good half an hour of walking in the cold scenery I finally reached the venue, hanging out a bit outside with a dude from Subotica whom I met in front of the place and soon the owner let us in.
The venue in question is called "Panta Rhei" and from the moment I saw the exterior it grabbed my interest completely. On first glance the red brick-made building seems like a combination of a medieval house, mountain home and a church, with walls decorated with stone columns of sorts and windows which seem to be erect from the house, making it have a peculiar looking shape. The interior extends the medieval feel, with tight, dark corridors, high walls and a lot of woodwork. There are several wooden benches and tables inside, as well as a brick bar, a small stage which was used only for the drum set and even an inside balcony looking down from the upper floors. I had a lot of time to analyze the design of the place, since I spent my time in the company of people who were speaking in Hungarian, the town being so close to the border with Hungary that the languages meld with one another. Aside of the design, my attention was focused to the unbelievably cute dog of the owner, which was just sitting next to me and demanding to be played with. The moment you I would retract my hand from petting her, she would immediately push her snout under my hand and desire more attention. Animals > humans.
Eventually, "Downfall of Gaia" arrived, along with their driver, Lucas, who is actually the bass player of the German band "Finisterre" and Bjorn, one more friend of theirs, the self proclaimed "useless tour guy". (hope I spelled your names right guys!) In any case, I searched for Dominik and/or Peter first, since they are the ones with whom I exchanged most of my mails. After some mingling with them, getting introduced and me generally being completely retarded and not being able to speak English correctly due to shyness and excitement (fanboy alert!), I was asked to join them for diner and a round of drinks. It was totally amazing how nicely I was accepted by the entire group, especially since no one except Peter and Dominik knew I would be joining them in the days to come. Through those first couple of conversations prior to the gig and me finding out that this little blog of mine is actually way more popular than I thought it was, I realized how we all click well together and how overtly nice these people are. These four days were bound to be great.
After some cynical jokes, serious discussions and getting to know each other better, the gig was about to start. There was an extremely low number of people, somewhere around seven not counting the three of us following the band on tour, due to both this being a small town and the fact that the gig was on a working day. Luckily the organizer "warned" the band that this will likely be the case, so it was not a bad surprise for them. The venue got quiet while the band was setting up and soon the silence was broken with the sound of “Prolog”, the intro song of “Epos”. The eerie tone crept around the people present in the darkness filled, cold complex, building up with the chilling guitar playing and finally exploding when the tunes melded with the song “Odium”. That tone metamorphosis between the songs is brilliant when witnessed live, thanks to the soundscape which constantly increases with tension and strength. What was once just a creepy, yet gentle tune in front of you now stands as a massive, unstopable behemoth eager to pick you up and continually smash you to the ground. I never reviewed “Epos” and will be completely honest here and say that prior to the tour my liking of the said release was not that strong. The demo recordings were an amazing neocrust creation packed with aggressive beats clashing with melancholic sections, an overall great release. By chance I failed to listen to their “Tour EP”, so the transition from short bursting songs of the demo to the brooding and epic tunes on “Epos” was quite a shift for me. There was a seeming lack of violent chrescendoes and the slower sections appeared to be too long on the latter album which made me not really like it that much at first. Witnessing “Epos” being performed live changed my feelings for it, literally skyrocketing and sealing my love for it. My initial dislike was probably due to my loved neocrust band being turned into an epic, dark post-rockish project all of a sudden, but thinking about it now that metamorphosis is simply magnificent. “Downfall of Gaia” managed to break out of its ordinary crust coocoon and come out as an astounding and unique band which offers a superb story to tell. The amount of passion and emotions they succeeded in transfering toward me through their music for the duration of the tour is something that I will seriously never forget.
In any case, after the amazing “Odium”, which in the course of the tour turned out to be one of my favorite songs by the band, “Zerfall” continued to attack the venue. Once the ten minute monster was finished, the two songs from the split with “In The Hearts Of Emperors” were played. It was so enjoyable to see and hear the band play songs which always meld into one another, giving you the feeling that the tracks are actually crafted into one gigantic song. As the band continually radiated with tunes, the “crowd” offered some movement, though it was overtly...strange, to say the least. There was some dancing around, one girl even trampling over Peter’s mircophone and not giving a fuck about it in the process, yet the audience was generally silent when a particular song would end, which left the venue filled with some awkward silence. The end of the set was the stupidest thing ever, since the band started leaving their instruments and everyone in the venue was just standing there, Bjorn and me exchanging some confused stares and offering claps, me yelling “more” and trying to flame up some thanks from the people present. Luckily, we woke up the crowd and a bonus song was played, that being “Silere”.
After the excellent set, the gig was over and we moved to a table and shared some more drinks and talks about some pretty interesting stuff. It was cool to see the guys, especially Toni and Lucas, being intrigued by some problems and general situation in Serbia, talking about Fascism, Nazism and all those retarded extreme social movements and other idiotic problems plaguing the system, plus having Hannes telling the epic tale of how he chose art over social activity. Deep in the night, we moved into the sleeping quarters. I set off completely hardcore on the trip and not bringing a sleeping bag, which I soon realized I couldn’t do without, yet luckily the owner of the venue was prepared even for tards like me and provided me with a warm matress and sheets. Crawling inside the room designed for sleeping and huddling around the heater, dreams followed soon, ending my first day of the tour.
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