Battle of Britain Memorial - The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings (2011)

http://battleofbritainmemorial.bandcamp.com/

Just a quick note before the actual review, since I forgot to mention it in one of the previous posts. All you boys and girls from bands which have, in the past months, sent me a request for being posted here will be written about, even without the previously mentioned physical consent. I don't want to bother you people now with that and will carry the responsibility if some troubles occur. But, bands which in the meantime have already sent me something via mail, like this band and "The Canyon Observer", will go up front a bit, just not to make them wait. Worry not, no one will be neglected and I am really thankful to everyone interested in being on this blog.

"Battle of Britain Memorial" is a four piece act hailing from Toulouse, France. Initially a trio which came together in April 2009, the band expanded its ranks with one more member in the following October and it became their final setup. The band first appeared to the crowd in May 2010 and their recordings saw the light of day one year later, when in May 2011 they released "The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings". And yes, once again French music manages to highly impress.
This album is truly a beast which succeeded to trample over me upon the very first listen, lashing out a combination of post rock, post metal and screamo. Packed up with six songs and almost forty minutes of music, the tracks are truly massive and composed in such a way that they completely consume your attention. The thing that really intrigued me at first was the fact that every band member has equal amounts of time under the spotlight and everything seems balanced. When I say this I don't just mean the ability of the listener to hear and enjoy every tone when the entire band plays together, but rather instances when a particular instrument steps up and becomes dominant. The perfect example is the opening track, "Welcome to Rapture", which begins with some eerie and atmospheric guitar playing. Later, when the song progresses a bit, one gets the feeling that the drums become the leading instrument, while at the end you get to hear the bass being alone and carrying the song toward the end. This exhibition of certain aspects of the band is present throughout the album and is perfectly executed, since it doesn't sound forced upon, but rather ultimately flowing. Of course, the same goes for the vocal performance which sometimes literally drags the tunes with a forceful command. Swinging between singing so gentle that it seems more like humming at times and a raspy, violent scream, the pinnacles of the verbal sections are quite powerful. I must admit that I really enjoyed the vocals, since the voice is somehow filled with a lot of tension and emotion, the listener having the feeling like it is about to crack any second. Additionally an interesting thing is the use of audio samples which definitely play an important role in this release, because at times they are pushed so much up front that it seems like they are the fifth member of the band.
"The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings" is a concept album in its core and the flow of the idea is quite good. There is a certain trait of metamorphosis while you listen, since the overall feel of the album changes from aggressive at the beginning and leaning to a more gentle side toward the end. It is not an actual change of style, but much rather a mood swing. Thanks to this, a specific experimental aspect can be sensed in the music and "Battle of Britain Memorial" makes good use of it. Constant tempo changes, the already mentioned tone domination, shifts in mood and the application of samples really paved the way for a high dose of variation when it comes to song composition. Furthermore, this is all enveloped with some excellent production and sound quality thanks to Jérémie Mazan, guitarist of "Nephalokia".
In the end, what to say other than "check this band out". If you are into some music similar to "Rosetta", "Envy", "Time To Burn" and "Arroyo", but crafted in a style contributed solely to "Battle of Britain Memorial", you will not be disappointed. I'd like to thank Jérémy from "Blue Wave Production", the label/booking/promotion from France, for contacting me and for sending the lovely cd, which sadly suffered some damage thanks to a careless postman. You can get in touch with "BWP" via the label's myspace page here and also visit the band's official website found here, where you can download this release. Enjoy!

Distro update

Yeah, so these days I am extremely hooked with listening to "Agalloch" and "Nest" and just can't make myself listen to something else that needs to be reviewed. Until then, I updated the distro section with some new stuff. Remember that although the list is in Serbian, feel free to get in touch even if you are from another country and we will work something out. Some new records are yet to be added, so I will update the list again in the following days.

Gig review: Ghone, Aidan Baker, Nadja

Alright, this is a review of a gig to which I was seriously looking forward to in quite a long time. Usually when my brain has that much time to ponder about an upcoming show, I kinda get myself in an over-hyped mood and my expectations are set really high. What happened a few nights ago managed to blow those expectations to oblivion and amaze me beyond words. This was magnificent.

The event happened last Sunday, more precisely 13 November 2011, yet again in "CK13", Novi Sad. Shows just keep popping up in that town that it seriously makes me consider moving over there, if anything to save money I would usually spend to travel to the city. But going back to reality, after some geek action on a "Werewolf: The Apocalypse" session on Sunday, I set off on the trip around 6 PM, catching the train which was surprisingly not late. To my sadness I was travelling alone, so the time during the ride was spent reading some anarchist material I managed to amass, drinking tea and finally arriving to the station somewhere around 8 PM. The gig was supposed to start in one hour from then, so I took a longish slower walk through the city to reach the venue, though the bone piercing wind outside wasn't that pleasant and it actually made me more tired than the walk itself. Arrived, bought ticket, stood in the corner because I was the only person attending alone and probably looking weird, found a neat place near the very stage and somewhere around 9:30 PM the gig began.

"Ghone", a one man project from Greece was the first to create music that night. All his equipment (and that of "Nadja") was set on a little table on the stage, everything being illuminated by one single small lamp, the rest of the lights above the performer being shut off. The audience was slowly getting quiet and "Ghone" cut through the silence with sharp tribal like drumming, with slow and eerie pauses between the beats. The melody was slowly building up and completely entrancing, the sound further expanded with guitar playing. No, not with a pick or with fingers, but with a drum stick. The entire scene where you see "Ghone" enveloped in darkness and using the guitar almost as a violin, creating the most horrific and weird sound was amazing. That entire part of his set was ultimately chilling and grim, tension constantly building up and the sound getting bigger and bigger. What was truly excellent was the progression of the performance, since that eerie tone was slowly transformed into a mellow, gentle and soothing post rock-like melody. It was unbelievably relaxing after all those weird tunes and "Ghone" took his time to set the audience once again at ease. Yet it was a trap, since after all the beauty we were faced with came the darkness once again and we were smashed with some aggressive sections which served as a crescendo moment to end his performance.

After a small pause and a change of light, Aidan Baker got up on stage, taking his guitar and succeeding in taking the crowd for an extremely interesting ride. Repeatedly striking the strings with his palm, Baker created a soundscape which is really hard to describe, but astounding to behold. Watching and listening as he slowly weaved a complex sound construction with constant changes on the pedal knobs and different ways of stroking the strings, managed to make me imagine scenes from the book "Neuromancer". As if flying through the Sprawl, the mood invoked was, personally for me, somewhere between grim and seemingly hopeful. Like I wrote above, extremely hard to describe, but equally mind twisting at the same time. When the crowd was almost completely enveloped in the sound, Leah Buckareff slowly got on stage. She took the bass and masterfully adapted and melded with the ongoing melody created by Baker and thus "Nadja" was formed.

Up until this point, my enjoyment and general entrancement was at its peak constantly, but from the moment Leah joined the stage, the borders of my perception and amazement were penetrated and definitely acquired new heights. What managed to stun me beyond words was the overall perfect combination of both the audio and visual elements, their entire performance like a theater play rather than a regular concert. The sound was indescribable. As the flight through the Sprawl took an unexpected turn, the audience became faced with an enormous cage of sound, nowhere left to run away from it. The vastness and the gigantic proportions of the tones were constantly increasing, literally as if dozens of atomic bombs were detonated around the venue and a work of art being created around you at the same time. While I was standing there in the front row, everything was shaking, my whole body feeling the sound crawling over me at one point, chest pounding and at the peak of everything my left ear felt a short, slashing pain. Meanwhile, the video performance was astounding. Amid the total chaos of distortion and noise, Leah and Aidan were calm, slow moving and gentle, everything crashing around us yet they remained ultimately serene. Their hands were moving above the pedals on the table and masterfully crafting the sound around us, looking like they were slowly picking fruit rather than creating the explosions attacking the crowd. I have been into drone for some time now and seeing such sound being created live was extremely inspiring. The amount of audio manipulation, the overall skill performed by the musicians and various tricks displayed seemed just unbelievably entertaining and once again, purely inspiring. After their performance, there was so much ovation and cheer from the audience, the venue being full by the way, that both Aidan and Leah went off stage with smiles on their faces.

Reading what I wrote in this review, I can't help but realize how short it is, yet being quite descriptive at the same time. It is simply a result of me experiencing this show as something truly artistic and like nothing I saw before. Thus the review itself is a closer expression of the thoughts brooding in my head, more personal than it is usually the case and far less technical. It was an amazing gig and definitely one that deserves to be in my top 3, simply because everything was perfect. "This is beautiful. This is art."

It's more like a message to you

As a wise comic book man once said "with great power comes great responsibility" and it seems that the saying can be applied to blog running as well. Looks like this little moth blog acquired quite a fine dose of fame, so to speak, thus recently it has been under the watchful eye of labels and non-band entities. It might sound like a cool thing and it is to some extent, but as the above written quote says, there are some rather unpleasant issues that came along as well.

Namely, in the past few weeks I have received a couple of emails criticizing me for reviewing and posting download links of some bands without the "consent of the respected label", which was quite weird to me. I had to battle my way through things, saying that the bands asked me to review/post them, forwarding emails back and what not, everything being quite frustrating. Luckily after several of those eerie and extremely unpleasant moments and maneuvers I held my ground and the reviews were saved. I seriously don't know what is wrong with the reviews and uploads, maybe those people think that I'm profiting from this in some way and taking glory points away from the people who put out the records with blood, sweat and tears or whatever such nonsense. I'm writing all of these reviews/interviews/tour announcements/everything because I find enjoyment in this and have met a lot of wonderful people through the blog. A bunch of times a band/label would ask me to review them and later not only do they not spread the word about the said review, but much rather fail to even say thanks for the write-up, yet I don't mind, since I'm doing all of this out of pure enjoyment. In fact, the vast majority of everything posted on the blog (something like 90%) was posted per band request and not my own personal pick, which I'm thankful for since I found a lot of amazing bands this way and consider their wish to be here a compliment to my "work". A couple of times I already ranted about blogs and diy and passion and other shit associated with everything in this type of music, which I won't do now since I'd end up writing an enormous wall of text of hate and education and would sound like a pissed off man waving his walking stick and would be just repeating myself.

So, because of all these people who fail to understand the machine that works behind this blog and underground music in general, I'd like to kindly ask all of you something, so that you help me out with not having to battle angry and insulted people in the future. Please, read on:

If you are a solo artist/band/label/whoever and are interested in being reviewed on "Natures With No Plagues", PLEASE send some form of consent toward me, but NOT just in digital format. Send anything, be it a letter asking for a review with a drawing/love letter/band picture/poem/joke/palm print/nude pictures/song tabs (this would be so cool), a cd-r with burned tracks, promo material, real label consent or the actual official release on tape/cd/vinyl/floppy/VHS which you desire to be reviewed, anything as long as I have some "proof" that someone in fact wanted something to be posted up here. Anyone interested can contact me from now on through my email and ask for my address, so that we can further talk about whatever.

I feel completely stupid for having to post this, but I just don't want to have my own experience with spreading my thoughts on digital paper about something I really love get ruined by other bitter people. Lately several bands have actually sent their cds and whatnot toward me on their own right, so I think that setting up these "rules" is nothing out of the ordinary, just making everyone safe, sound and keeping this flowing.

And for those who have been insulted by my review without their respected green light and those infuriated by this post, I recommend listening to this.

Love,

Stefan.

Downfall of Gaia & Vestiges - Winter 2011/2012 USA Tour

Yes, these two amazing bands are gonna be conquering the States this winter! The whole tour is pretty much sorted out as much as I see, so this is here just to give you a heads up in case you didn't know that they will be playing in your area. Be sure not to miss out on a gig if you have a chance to attend!

27.12. MA/NY - TBA
28.12. Baltimore, MD - The Compound
29.12. Washington, DC - TBA
30.12. Richmond, VA - Strange Matter (w/Balaclava)
31.12. Rock Hill, SC - The Courtroom
01.01. Asheville, NC - The Get Down (w/Autarch)
02.01. Baton Rouge, LA - Here Today Gone Tomorow (w/THOU)
03.01. Austin, TX - The Scoot Inn (w/ Dead to a Dying World)
04.01. Denton, TX - TBA (w/ Dead to a Dying World)
05.01. Nashville, TN - Little Hamilton Collective (w/ Dead to a Dying World, Sky Burial)
06.01. Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Roboto Project (w/Complete Failure)
07.01. NY/NJ - TBA*
08.01. Philadelphia, PA - TBA*
*only Vestiges

Recently I traveled with "Downfall of Gaia" on their Eastern European tour, so check out my reviews of those gigs h e r e, just to prepare your mind to be blown away if you go to a show. Also, I did interviews with both "Vestiges" and "Downfall of Gaia", which you can check out here and here. 

The Canyon Observer - Chapter I: The Current Of Her Ocean Brings Me To My Knees (2011)

Bandcamp

I took a few days to rest from writing, since all those gig reports really took it out of me. It is always strange how even the slightest breaking of the writing schedule can make me extremely lazy, so a couple of days turns into a week. Time to roll up the sleeves and dive into the keyboard.

"The Canyon Observer" is a quintet coming from Slovenia, bearing sounds ranging from post metal to sludge and a slight touch of post rock. There isn't much information about this five piece online aside of the rich gig list they have behind them, playing with bands like "Russian Circles", "Rosetta" and "City of Ships". The thing that enraged me was the fact that they actually had a show in Belgrade some time ago, but of course I didn't know about that, retarded "promoters" from this city striking again. Anyway, the first blog post the band made hails from February this year, so I presume that the formation of the project occurred some time prior to that. This release, however, came out in October and it is the first recorded material of the band.
"The Current Of Her Ocean Brings Me To My Knees" brings us four songs with roughly half an hour of music, so get ready for some long and epic tracks. At times when bands have those six plus minute songs, tracks often bear repetitive tones to fill the void and max the length, but the first thing that I noticed while listening to "The Canyon Observer" was the amount of various sounds implemented per title. Something new is constantly happening in a given song, be it a sudden melody shift, a vibrating gentle guitar section or just outright aggressive mayhem, most of the times without any riff or part being repeated.  Only the final track, "My Will", drags along an incredibly massive and reckless repeating sound, but it serves its purpose so well, creating a really heavy sludge atmosphere which the listener dares not to question.
The thing that I really enjoyed with this band is the clash of those violent and soothing parts. There is even a third element floating around, a sort of atmospheric trait which acts as a bridge between the above mentioned sections. It is extremely enjoyable how you are being bounced between the three moody areas, especially since you witness that audio evolution and buildup. The first track, "The Lingering Scent Of Her Divinity", is a perfect example of the harmony and shifting nature of the band's music and just a perfect intro into the album. The slow and mellow buildup at the start of the song takes its time to grow, with tribal-like drumming, a superb background bass line and some elegant guitar playing. But past the second minute, the music suddenly changes and crashes down onto you, with the addition of the vocal leading the collapse in the form of something between a scream and a growl. Once the short explosion of aggression ends, the atmospherics reach their peak, with even the vocal being transformed into a singing one. Until the end of the song you are being thrown between those various mood changes and that trait is omnipresent and persistent even with the rest of the tracks. If I were to quote some of their possible music inspiration, I'd say that there is some quite heavy "Isis" influence being heard in their tunes, which I consider to be an enormous plus, being able to recognize that. Of course, the cool thing is that they managed to carve their way and create something that is solemnly contributed to them alone.
All in all, I really enjoyed this first chapter of the story which "The Canyon Observer" wants to tell. There is quite a lot of potential being heard in their music and I definitely look forward to hearing something more from them. Hopefully they will come to Serbia again for a show and maybe even do a big tour over the rest of Europe, so keep your eyes open. You can get in touch with the band through their tumblr page found here. Be sure to check their page out since it has both the gig dates and some pretty sweet live footage. Enjoy!

Gig review: 12xu, Old Growth

Wow, quite a lot of gig reviews this month. Indeed, this was a month full of great concerts and some I will even fail to write about, that being the "Went" show I attended a few days ago. Thought about writing some words for that gig, but I was completely wrecked that night and basically fell sick due to a weakened immune system, so my time was spent in pain, despite the band kicking in its usual fashion. I'm basically still in bed and recovering, so I'll keep even this review short, but I just had to mark it on the blog in any way possible since the bands definitely deserve it.

The gig took place on last Tuesday, namely 25 October 2011, in good old "CK13", Novi Sad. Initially this was supposed to be a house show set up in a practice room by my friend Vuk, but once the local guys from Novi Sad heard "12xu" they were so infatuated with their music that they decided to back him up and organize the gig in a proper venue. I, of course, was happy to see the band play wherever, but I was thrilled that they are booked in one of the best venues in Serbia after all. I won't be talking about the venue here again, since I recently covered how awesome it is in the "Downfall of Gaia" gig review, found some lines bellow this post. Once again the venue proved to be a flawless place to host a gig, yet the only thing that was lacking in contrast to the "Gaia" show was the number of people. There was not a lot of time to promote the show properly due to the sudden change of plans, plus it was a working day, so in the end there were twenty something people, if I recall well. In any case, my friend and I arrived an hour or so earlier, yet the time flowed fast ever since I threw my gaze onto the distro brought by the bands, resulting in insane amounts of drooling, staring, touching and generally pondering about what to buy from the amazing batch of records. If my wallet was deep enough, I seriously think that I would just purchase the whole damn box filled with vinyl. In the end, a hard decision had to be made, so after the gig I walked out with two "Daitro" records...which was kinda funny since I had my "Daitro" shirt on and a button as well, so I looked like a complete fanboy. Not that I ain't!
Onto the show itself, "12xu" jumped up on stage first, grasped their instruments and took the audience for an amazing ride. Their whole set was just an enormous emotional bomb being detonated with wave after wave of extremely melodic and passionate tunes flooding over the venue. Ever since I first heard their material from the "Single Series" I tried to imagine what would their show look like, because the tunes seemed to be overtly driving and fast, rushing so much that your brain needs some time to figure out what just happened. Needless to say, the trio made out of ex-"Daitro"/ex-"The Flying Worker!" members completely overcame my expectations and put an unbreakable seal on my love for their music. They mostly played songs from their newly released LP, which I am yet to take a listen to at home, so sadly I can't accurately comment about which songs were played. Additionally, since my brain was ultimately stunned I can hardly recall which songs from the "Single Series" were included in the set, but as much as I remember "Oregon, Place Du Pont" and "Des Voix Qui Reasonnent" were performed. It was just so incredible witnessing them live and being completely carried away by the music, so much that once their audio claws stopped slashing I realized that my mind was so relaxed that it didn't pay attention to details. At one point Julien was even complaining and making fun on his own account about how his throat hurts and can't properly sing, but to me everything seemed beyond perfect. In the end, the band wanted to get off stage, but the amount of cheering just didn't want to let them go so easily, so we got a bonus song. All in all, amazing performance, one which I will definitely remember fondly.
After "12xu" it was time for "Old Growth" to leave an impression on the audience...and they carved the most positive of marks. To be honest, I briefly took a listen to them back in May when the tour was announced, so I didn't have any particular thoughts about their music and last Tuesday I wasn't aware in the slightest of ways how much I would be shaken for my lack of an opinion. So the three guys got up on stage and after some pretty sweet jokes, about woodland rain perfume and how the crowd is composed of the prettiest people they ever saw, the jam began. It all started in a slower fashion, mid tempo tunes with a sound of old rock and some interesting vocal performance, yet I needed some time to adjust my ears to something slower than the storm which was following "12xu". As their set progressed, their music somehow evolved, getting a bit heavier and faster, at times reminding me of a rock version of some of "Kylessa" work, roughly said. Their songs were extremely long, bearing several repetitive tones, yet being highly complex and detail oriented. I was standing there in front of the stage and literally enjoying and analyzing their tunes at the same time and simply providing that ability to the listener is an unbelievable merit of the band. As I mentioned above, I didn't listen much to the band prior to the gig and the song names are unknown to me, but it is remarkable how specific riffs and track sections got stuck in my head, being highly impacting and inspiring in the moments when I heard them live. I was trying to find some of their albums online, but aside of their splits with other bands my search proved futile...shame on me for not buying their records. In any case, the entire set was purely entertaining and just a huge enjoyment to watch. The last song was worth the note, since the guitar player played it without one string which previously broke. After the show when I was raiding the distro, my friend and I talked to him and he additionally said that he was way out of tune as well, so the song was horrible. In my opinion, the entire set was beyond great despite the technical difficulty, especially in the end when they managed to pull out a good song in face of various issues. The dude was so friendly and being overtly surprised that we came from another city just to see them play and in the process making fun of my shirt in front of Julien, which was additionally funny because of the bought records. In any case, I said how impressed I am with their music, so now I really hope this review reaches the eyes of "Old Growth" somehow.
All in all, great night and an amazing gig. I was really happy that I met some new nice people and also grabbing some time to talk to Julien again, to whom I previously had the privilege to talk to after the "Daitro" concert in Belgrade in 2008 and the "Baton Rouge" interview...which means he should definitely come back with "Baton Rouge" so that I can say I saw all his bands! And bring back "12xu" and "Old Growth" again, this show sparked an enormous wish to see these bands play again some day. Thank you all for a lovely show!

Gig review: Downfall of Gaia Eastern European Tour 2011, day four

20 October, day four - Sofia, Bulgaria

Here we are at the final day of my tagging along to the tour of "Downfall of Gaia" and it revolved in not a really glorious fashion, for me personally at least. I had high expectation for the gig itself, which was scheduled in the capital city of Bulgaria and luckily everything happened as I thought it would, though there were some problems along the way, both personal and technical, resulting in me attending the gig in an overall bad mood.

The caterpillar mode managed to fail me during the night, since my cocoon was constantly penetrated by the freezing air floating around the room, thus my sleeping hours were cut short. As a result I was at least looking forward to a revitalizing warm shower in the home of our host, though the splash of the cold water from the seemingly full water boiler managed to make me regret ever entering the bathroom. Spending one millisecond in the wretched tub, packing my stuff and the rest of the guys getting ready as well, we went to "Bingo" once again to pack the equipment in the van, during which the band received a massive amount of cash from last night's show, a glorious sum formed out of one digit...glorious in contrast to the three digit of euros needed to enter the country in the first place. Complete fail. In the process of filling the van, we found out that "Rosa Parks" have also confirmed that they will play and I was so excited about that, since I missed their shows a couple of times when they played in Serbia. Packing up everything and running away from the venue as fast as we could, Lucas, Bjorn and I went to the supermarket in search for some food, though we quickly decided that we should in fact nom the pizza once again. After I managed to randomly impress and cause laughter from a bunch of passerby girls with my English skills, we hunted down the pizza and met up with the rest of the group and hit the road. Soon enough we set our roots onto a gas station yet again and devoured the food and once more being approached by several insects, though no screaming and panic this time.

The road through Macedonia toward the Bulgarian border was fast and smooth, accompanied by listening to some tunes in the van and looking at the outside scenery. At the border there was no big trouble, but still I needed to act with my Serbian speaking skills. For some reason I feared that they might not let me enter the country, but to my surprise the border patrol was actually....happy and surprised in a positive fashion that a dude from Serbia is travelling with a bunch of Germans. Thanks to the fun factor the time on the border crossing was minimal and painless, so we were on the open road again very soon, once again enjoying the lovely landscape found in Bulgaria. Due to the outside entertainment provided by nature, the ride seemed short and we arrived to the venue quite quickly. But once we arrived, the curse of Kumanovo struck once again, this time attacking the van itself in the form of the back door being stuck closed and unable to be opened. The fact making the whole situation worse was that the show would start a bit earlier, due to three bands playing and a sound check was scheduled prior to the gig as well. Time was short and the door was stubborn. The van's insurance company was called and it took first one dude, then two dudes and two hours to fix the stupid lock. In the meantime, the seats inside the vehicle were butchered so that the massive equipment would be dragged out. Add to that a "minor" incident where a box of records was almost run down by one idiot driving by in a car and you have the whole scenario for a frustrating pre-show catastrophe. During all these trials, I hanged out with my travelling companions from this Summer's trips, the dudes from "Tigersuit" zine, as well as meeting some more people who happen to accidentally know about my blog and enjoy it!

The gig took place in club "The Box", quite a modern and neat little place. Going through narrow and low ceiling staircase, you enter a sort of balcony which hangs above a big gig room where a small stage is set, in front of which there is a dance floor of sorts and to the right a raised up platform with tables and chairs. There is not a lot of light present and the overall ambient is quite nice and comfortable. Despite the problems which occurred, the gig started on time and all was well. "Rosa Parks" played first and they absolutely blew me away in a completely unexpected fashion. Back in the day when I was still involved with the previous music blog, I posted their EP which was filled with mellow, dreamy post rock melodies sculpted into long tracks. The storm of sound that was unleashed from their instruments in "The Box" caught me by surprise since it proved to be like nothing I expected to hear. Extremely fast songs bursting with unexpected spasm like riffs, exploding track sections and occasional screaming without the use of microphones, all enveloped with in epic proportions associated with post rock, managed to leave me completely speechless. There was just a nonstop pounding on their instruments and an amazing display of dancing and body movement on stage, going so well with the speeding music that was flooding the room. The impact hit of the sound was really inspiring, making your body feel the desire to just jump around and go with the flow of the music. Sadly, the band played only half of their usual set because of the lack of time, but they succeeded in leaving the biggest of positive marks on me and putting an impressed look on my face. I don't know which songs were performed, since I only listened to the above mentioned EP and it was actually hazy in my memory even on that night. After their set I just had to approach one of the members and just congratulate on a wonderful show. We talked a bit and I even had the guts to ask them whether they would be interested in doing an interview, the bravery spewing from the fact that they also know about my blog! What is wrong with you people?!?! (serious ego boosts for me) In any case, they seemed overtly surprised with the offer and I guess we should definitely talk more over email, so maybe one day you get to read about them here. All in all, a flawless performance and I really hope that I will grab a chance and see them once again in the future.

After "Rosa Parks", a local Bulgarian band named "Expectations" got up on stage. I have heard a lot about them previously, though I never got a chance to take a listen. In any case, what I saw that night in Sofia was really impressive and entertaining. A melodic, emotionally charged hardcore swinging between mid and fast tempo, at times having some slightly metallic riffs, the band had quite a turbulent performance. I'll be honest and say that their music isn't one hundred percent my cup of tea, since I don't enjoy those slower hardcore sections a lot, but their overall performance was extremely high quality and their tunes carry strong potential. Those violent outbursts really throw a nasty punch and the crowd seemed to constantly respond in a similar fashion. The funny thing was that, despite me being generally impressed by the band, the locals and the band itself stated that this was definitely not their top show and that they weren't quite happy with the performance, which definitely sparked a wish in me to see them again. Worth the note was that Hannes was extremely impressed with "Expectations", which he told me during the show in a very infatuated way.

"Downfall of Gaia" was the last to conquer the stage that night of course and finally they got a chance to shine after the gig last night. The Sofia show was on par with the one from Novi Sad, though the latter one I personally enjoyed more. They had an ultimately clean sound provided by the venue, so the entire tale they told through the performed melded songs flowed in a magnificent fashion. Gentle, soothing and highly melancholic in the slower sections, yet world shattering and emotionally powerful during the aggressive moments, the crowd got to see and hear the band in all its beauty. The audience was weird a bit to me, since I somehow find moshing to "Downfall of Gaia"...unnecessary to say the least. From my standing point as a listener, their music manages to hit and play an extremely deep personal chord in the bottom of one's being, which results in just experiencing the tunes in your own mind and emotion, rather than expressing it outright through body movement. Still, those are just my demented thoughts and as I said the crowd had a different way to show their amazement and enjoyment. An absolutely stunning and perfect performance, plus I was really glad that the band itself was happy with the audience and everything happening that night.

After the show it was sadly time to say farewell to my four day family, since I was about to depart on my own path, so after a group hug and goodbyes I left the club. I have to admit that I felt completely mellow in those last moments, since I really felt bonded with all of them, simply because they are all unbelievably nice people and I am proud to call each of them a friend. I'd like to thank them all for accepting an outsider into their van and home, in the process making me feel like we already know each other for years and not experiencing a single moment of awkwardness. Thanks for all the shared food, toothpaste, all the scheisse and fun times, cool talks and retarded yet amazing humor, just everything. Hope to see you all once again some day, junge, but until then.....macheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Gig review: Downfall of Gaia Eastern European Tour 2011, day three

19 October, day three - Kumanovo, Macedonia

Oh boy...so here we come to the black sheep of the tour, or at least of the four days which I have spent next to the band. There are so many things that went wrong on this day that in the end there was nothing else to do other then make as much jokes about it as possible and somehow cloud and scare away the unbelievable amount of crap. Scheisse junge, but for now we will take it one step at a time...
The day started in a perfect fashion, getting up early to Bjorn's lovely wake up message, realizing that my hair looks insane due to falling asleep while it was wet from the shower (not so perfect), having a lovely breakfast in the courtyard of "CK13" and packing up everything on time. After we said our goodbyes to our great hosts of the day/night, the road was well under our tires. The path led us through a part of my hometown, so I tried to be entertaining and offered some random facts about Belgrade as we drove by. Our drive through Serbia seemed quite fast and easy, despite it actually demanding quite a lot of time to reach Kumanovo, simply put just smooth sailing.
But then troubles flew in on the wings of a wasp! ("OH MY GOD!") Jokes aside, the following event could be considered a funny introduction to the real issues of the day. So, while nomming some food on yet another parking lot of a gas station, a small swarm of wasps started creeping up on our ajvar. Once the numbers started reaching critical mass and several people began running away, we entered the van...yet one of Gaia's little flying fiends followed us inside. Thus que some screaming and more laughing tears from yours truly thanks to Hannes and the upper quote hailing from him. The wasp felt overtly not amused and flew away, thus the bold travelers continued their journey.
And then came the border. At first, we were just held there and pinned down in the van, since the border control was busy raping the brains and nerves of the vehicle owner in front of us, so it seemed that some troubles will be looming ahead. The wait took extremely long, yet your dear writer was struck by a more internal problematic, that being the vast sea of pee rising inside of my body and reaching alarming levels quite fast. While my struggle took epic proportions, the others sat there and waited patiently, except for Lucas who went to check the green card or whatever the name of that thing is. A lightning bolt struck the van in the moment when he returned and told us the price of the damned piece of paper, the number bearing three digits of euros! Once the money was vomited out of the pockets, the border patrol took notice of us. Of course, the morons didn't speak a word of English and decided not to use their manners, if they have them at all, and insult us on their native language, not knowing yet that a person from Serbia is travelling with the Germans. Macedonian and Serbian are quite similar, so one of the "junkies" understood what they were saying. They didn't bug us that much, so we were granted passage quickly, only to get to another border crossing. This time I had to jump out and use my verbal skills and clear the way, luckily I was successful.
Soon enough we were in Kumanovo, receiving a text message that the organizer will be late to meet up with us. I was preoccupied with just finding a place to relieve my body of the ever increasing liquids, so I didn't pay much notice to the text. Once I calmed down, three of us decided to hunt for some food, though we were faced with a hard task of finding something vegetarian in the nearby area. Close to the parking lot there was a pizza place, with corpses on them, so it took all my talking skills to explain that we want some food without meat on it. Shortly after, the giant 5 euro pizza was ours!
Que some more waiting for the organizer to show up and once he finally arrived, we got to the venue, which was basically around the corner from where we were parked. In a nutshell, the place is awful. If you remember my description of the "Bigz" venue in Belgrade, found here, something similar could be applied here...just, minus the cool horror factor and plus the place looking like a crack house. Completely dirty and crumbling interior, a sexy "backstage" filled with garbage and lack of lights to provide some surprise rape. Yes, total fail. The backstage held a treasury with some food provided by our host, noodles with noodles, and at that specific moment I wished that god exists so that I can thank him for blessing my gut with the previously devoured pizza. After that lovely welcome, our dealings with the host were cut, since he crawled to the other room and decided to take a nap on the floor... The entire experience left all of us baffled and it managed to invoke a certain rage inside of me, much like the one shown in the above linked review concerning the host. It seemed that the dude simply forgot that he booked a show (genius) or that he just didn't care. In any case, we decided to fill our time with watching a funny dubbed episode of "Star Trek" and just ponder about what to do if no one shows up. At a certain point around 10 PM only a guy and a girl were present and it seemed that they would be the audience for the night. Luckily some more people showed up later, so the gig started a few minutes after 11 PM to still a low number of people, slightly more than in Backa Topola.
The sound of the venue was awful and unbelievable amounts of crunchiness and chaotic crackles managed to stick to the sound of "Downfall of Gaia". Despite the sabotage, they succeeded in pulling out a good show, yet not as powerful as they could otherwise and this gig made me really appreciate the fact that the band's recordings have such a superb sound quality. There isn't much that could be said about this gig, since I already saw a better performance by them and the overall bad day left a stronger mark in my brain. As I said, despite playing in a horrible environment, their set was good and powerful, although the venue itself took away a large part of the enjoyment. The slower song parts were amazing in the standard fashion of the band, but once aggressive sections took the stage the point and impact would be weaker since you are left with just a huge wall of sound crashing over your head, not having that emotion wrenching merit. If I haven't seen them before, I would definitely be mind blown though. That being said, the crowd was happy and satisfied, actually being the first audience which I didn't have to inspire for an encore ovation.
Once the show was over and we packed the equipment, the group was taken to the organizers home for rest, though the curse of the day extended to night as well for me, resulting in not so abundant sleep time. 

Gig review: Downfall of Gaia Eastern European Tour 2011, day two

18 October, day two - Novi Sad, Serbia

Being wrapped in sheets like a caterpillar and near the core of the source of warmth provided a really good night sleep. "Panta Rhei" was an excellent place to crash and in the morning it managed to get everyone up and running quickly. Morning rituals were done, some of us even washing their hair with cold water despite the existence of a warm batch ("C" is "H" and "H" is "C", isn't that obvious, backwards universe?) and pretty soon we started packing up the equipment into the van. I was given the task to help with packing the merch and I succeeded in not breaking/burning/destroying anything in the process. Once everything was done and we said our goodbyes to the owner of the club and the cuddliest dog on the planet, we went to hit the road.
There was a quick stop at a nearby supermarket and when the first gas station was in sight the parking lot was ours! What followed was a beautiful vegan feast on the sunny concrete and more proof of how much sharing food with people can be astonishingly bonding. After lots of coffee, bread, ajvar and all sorts of delicious food, the open road was hit again...though only for a short while, since the van was stopped by the forces of law and chaos. Of course the high IQ policemen had no knowledge of English, thus I had to quickly jump out of the van and try to save the day. Luckily, they weren't being overtly hostile, so after a confession from one of them that "he can understand everything, except a nose piercing", we were free to continue the journey to Novi Sad. Largely uneventful, except for an instance when I laughed so hard that I started crying (you sexy Bjorn you) the trip was fast and short, thus we pretty much arrived to the venue earlier than expected. We were greeted by Aleksandar, drummer of "Reflections of Internal Rain" and my look-alike brother from another mother, a running joke connected to us in the Novi Sad scene. I was quite surprised and happy to see him, finally being able to talk in person a bit and spend some time together, so the van was closed fast and we set off to guide our German guests through the city.
After a long walk toward the Petrovaradin fortress and surrounding area, we returned to the heart of the city to grab some delicious food from Dule, singer of "Reflections of Internal Rain" who had a perfect fitting job of feeding the travelers. He pretty much managed to make me want to eat the plate itself due to the inexpressibly delicious food, so a quick note to all worldwide bands: if you have a tour over Europe, drop by to Novi Sad if only just to taste Dule's dishes! The band and the rest of the tour companions seemed to be tired and sleepy, so I took the task of washing the dishes and give them a chance to chill out a bit. Later, equipment was set and a sound check performed at around 7 PM, which I had the privilege to attend and offer my ear skills.
Some notes concerning the venue, since I now realized that I haven't mentioned it so far. The hanging out, eating, sleeping and the gig itself took place in "CK13", the famous Youth Center in Novi Sad. I have talked about this venue in some previous gig reviews, but it has been a while since my last visit and as much as I saw the venue changed a lot, in the most positive of ways. Even in the past, this gig space was one of my favorites in Serbia and I was extremely glad to see it evolve even further. This time I got to see the "backstage", as well as the small library connected to the gig room, which is filled with some alternative/underground books and zines, the kitchen and the sleeping quarters/offices which are nested a floor higher. The entire venue provides a really comfortable feel to the visitor, since it is somehow secluded from the rest of the city, despite it being in the heart of it and literally offers you with everything you need. As for the actual gig room, it managed to impress me a lot, radiating with the most clean and excellent sound during the show.
In any case, prior to the concert and during the show, I had the chance to meet up and talk to some friends from Novi Sad, as well as meeting the good friend and colleague on the blog, Luka, with whom I haven't talked in person for more than a year. I also grabbed the chance to get to know some new nice people along the way, especially the youngsters of the scene. Haha, it was so funny when dear old friend Vuk addressed me as "the screamo god of Serbia" and promoting my blog in the process. In any case, I was extremely glad to see new faces, especially younger ones, being interested into the whole underground music, since in Belgrade it is somewhat stagnant and dying.
So, after a lot of social mingling and just having a good time, the gig started, "Reflections of Internal Rain" breaking the murmur of the audience, since sadly "Furtive Forest" couldn't play that night. Most of you know by now that this band is one of the most loved Serbian acts by yours truly and it was a real pleasure seeing them live once again. They recently returned from a tour with "Birds In Row" and I was amazed with how much energy and strength they managed to bring back. The stage was constantly bursting with movement and jumping and dancing around, their music even driving the audience maximally, which was quite cool since I remember the Novi Sad crowd being not much into expressing body movement before. Their set featured the majority of tracks from their latest release, "Answers" and some older songs such as "Resurrection", "My Promise" and "Sunset of the End". I'll be honest here, of course, and repeat myself that the new songs didn't manage to completely impress me, as much as the "Last Flood" material did. Those songs are absolutely top notch and make me really proud that the band hails from these parts, though they didn't grab my attention that much. I really settled down to this band being a bit depressive and with a slightly melancholic, yet aggressive and direct tone, which somewhat changed on the new recordings. "Answers" provides a lot of experimental sounds and extreme amounts of melodic and twisted tones, which I am not yet used to hear under their name. Guess I just need more time, right? All in all, their set was excellent to behold, most importantly because of the amount of passion which materialized in front of your eyes while you look at them and it is really beautiful to see the band being so alive and kicking after all these years.
"Downfall of Gaia" came up next and managed to blow my brains away. I thought that the Backa Topola show was astounding, but this gig just left me stunned and shaking. The venue and its clear sound and acoustic came to aid the band, morphing their tunes into a incredibly strong thunderstorm of tones and emotion. Songs which were performed were the same as on the previous gig, but the sheer experience was increased a tenfold in the most positive of ways. Every drop of emotion that could have possibly been present when the songs were written was transferred to the crowd in the purest of forms, an impact hit that simply can't be forgotten. From the very opening sound and all until the end, I was standing as if on needles from the intensity of the music wrapping around me. The switch between "Prolog" and "Odium" was so powerful for instance, that it made me literally confused at what to do with myself at the given time, creating a wish to just meld myself with the sound and somehow aid it. Their entire set was such a pleasure to watch and it was definitely the best show for me in the duration of these four days. I was so happy with the reaction of the audience as well, everyone just sticking around and being entranced with the soundscape, releasing the deserved ovations toward the band after each song. In the end, the crowd cheered, but went silent quickly and it was so funny how after my initial screaming of the word "more" the audience rippled with more claps and yells, resulting in us getting one additional song.
All around, this was an amazing show, both for the audience and the band. I was really happy that the band was satisfied with everything and it is so nice that they went away with a great experience in their hearts. After the gig, we hanged out around the venue, grabbed the chance to talk to some more friends of mine and FINALLY grasped the chance to get a "Reflections of Internal Rain" shirt and once again being faced with the joke of Aleksandar and me being twins. The funniest thing was that Toni from "Downfall of Gaia" reminds me of Aleksandar, who also agreed on the fact when I told him, so now we are actually triplets! Later, the weary travelers went upstairs into the resting quarters where the possibility to finally take a shower emerged. Caterpillar mode again ensued and a night filled with rest.