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Live reportage

EXCRUCIATION

December 2nd - at Mascotte in Zürich - Switzerland

by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo_       

review © and photos©  by dalia di giacomo

"

Angels to Some, Demons to Others

excruciation                                                                                                                                                                  Twilight-Vertrieb 

Surreal passion.

The Swiss band Excruciation released in 2007 an album , "Angels to Some, Demons to Others", that impressed me because of its strong , gloomy and intelligent contents. The music is a renewed Doom Death, the lyrics express rage, melancholy, desperation and, till now, no text ever written has sounded more intense and provocative to me than the Prayer to Our Father, spoken by Excruciation in  Aramaic, which is placed as the outro "...Demons to Others" of the cd. Bands like Excruciation must be seen live and should deserve even international attention. Finally the right occasion to attend Excruciation live has come for me too, for me so deep enthusiast for this album. Due to many different reasons i had to wait months after the release ( i missed a.o. the concert  in Dietikon where Excruciation shared the stage with Samael; bloody hell!), but finally the concert in Zürich, at the beginning of this wintry gloomy December 2008, has been near at hand. 

For me Zürich is an ideal place to reach, and even more ideal when a venue is situated downtown in the city, in the beautiful Bellevue area, optimally connected to the railway station by public lines. This venue is called Mascotte, quite comfortable, intimate and elegant but still totally characterized by that unmistakable underground fashion typical for metal/rock locations. An excellent situation in order to attend a much awaited show. At 22.30 the concert begins and the numerous audience immediately internalizes the intense music and answers with different behavior: from mesmerized attention to headbanging. Just lightly histrionic, frontman Eugenio leads a circa 10 songs-concert with unbroken involvement and sense of implacable despair.  The songs themselves and the possession of the band were main thing, although a bit more contact with the crowd would have been appreciated . Slow tempo and pessimism cross with waves of mighty riffs and vivid melodies; songs like Golgotha or I am maintain their seduction, and Golgotha has been all in all one of the peaks of the concert. The band has been very solid and has brought on stage all the sorrowful anger of a surreal passion. The  support of the guitars underlines the impending doom with a heavy and diversified sound even because Excruciation work with 3 guitars and 1 bass (by the way in the line up there is the new guitarist Hannes) . Actually is not usual to see such a wall of guitars on a line; cool thing that each musician has its personality and style so that 4 strings don't appear boring on the stage , neither make it result as too crowded. Drums exalt the rhythmus with calibrated activity of double- bass and wholeness of support. 

The encore could have been followed by a second one. It seemed it was really the wish of the audience that has fully enjoyed the setlist . And i have enjoyed this concert too,  much more than the gig of certain "more famous" bands at the Metal Fest, three days afterwards.  

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