My sluggish writing concerning "Fluff Fest" and other summer gigs, really managed to make posting rather delayed. When this concert review is done I will be covering my impressions and experiences from this year's "Ieperfest", after which there should be some time that I need to dedicate to numerous submissions which came my way. There are tons of releases that arrived and there definitely won't be any sort of content shortage for this blog any time soon.
This gig was already announced prior to the happening, so some basic info should be known already. The event took place on a warm Tuesday evening, 7 August 2012, in "Club Fest", Belgrade. Yes, after a very long time I finally managed to attend a gig in my hometown. The venue in question hasn't been covered on the blog before, so I'll just briefly sum what's it all about. Located in Zemun, a sort of old school/historical part of Belgrade north of the Danube, it is quite short a walk from the place where I currently live, though for anyone coming from the center it's a lengthy bus ride. Some people might find it difficult to reach, since it is in a really tiny street and on the edge of a larger building, but it's fairly easy once you consult a map. The venue has a very simple, yet effective, design. Once entered, you are greeted by one big room with a mid-high stage right in front you. To the close left and right is a sort of balcony where there are places to sit or stand, since you need to take a few steps on the stairs to actually get to the stage. Once "down", to the right is a big bar and to the left more sitting spots and the dancing floor. There is not a lot of light in the room, so the overall ambient is quite enjoyable.
After an hour long delay, the gig started around 11PM, "Intakt" kicking it off. I will keep this segment of the review quite short, since the Serbian three piece wasn't really my cup of tea. Although the thrash metal sounds which these guys unleashed were very well executed, the repetitive songs failed to find my liking. I just guess that my ears have grown fond of chaos, mayhem and constant variety, so it just comes down to personal preference. Nevertheless, I stuck around for their entire set and I saw that several Hungarian/Dutch guests really liked their tunes, so cheers for that. I did really like how the singer announced each song, since I found it really funny, over and over again.
Once the local support finished, a fair number of people left, obviously just supporting their friends who were previously on stage which kinda sucked if you ask me. Either way, the Dutch lads were set up rather fast, so "Tyrannicide" started soon. Two guitars, bass, drums and four vocals, this quartet has it all, throwing their skills in an extremely violent audio outburst. Drawing a fine line between overtly political anarcho punk and really grim hardcore, the band presented some very interesting tunes. The melodies flow between downright aggressive and choking start-stop sections which proved to be quite enjoyable for a live performance. Existence of four different vocals is the thing that really grasped my liking, since the various screams add a really thrilling sensation due to the fact that you can't expect who is going to yell next. Also, it was amazing to watch the drummer who basically annihilated the drum set with remorseless pounding, not to mention that he also contributes to vocal duties. I am yet to take a listen to the recordings of this band at home, which you can do along with me on their bandcamp page here, but I presume that I will equally like them as much as I enjoyed their gig.
Once "Tyrannicide" finished, their guitar player stayed on string duties and three guys from Hungary came to join him to form "Rivers Run Dry". The neocrust four-piece started, if I recall well, with "Come Disaster, Come Catastrophe!", a slow, but progressively building up intro-like song, followed by "Age of Isolation" which is one of my favorite songs by the band and an amazing kickoff for their performance. They quickly managed to slay everyone in the room with their rending melodies and rather chaotic incarnation of crust, making you really want to smash things around you. The songs came with certain spots where the level of chaos and mayhem would drop down a notch, either with gentler melodies or whispering vocals, like in the song "Pesticide". I always loved those murmuring sounds coming from the vocalist, but live they were even more amazing than on recordings, giving a really eerie feeling to the atmosphere. I realized that, by some weird occurrence, they have a rather small listener count on last.fm and I definitely consider that a real shame. So in case my readers don't know about "Rivers Run Dry", I urge you all to go and take a listen to their tunes on their bandcamp page, found here. They won't let you down.
A rather short review, but the gig was awesome nevertheless. It was cool to see that the bands were pleased with the venue and actually praising it during their performances, so I presume they were happy with the entire event, despite not having a big audience. Thanks to "Resetor booking & promotions" for making this gig happen. Hope you enjoyed the review!
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