29.11.2005
KNÜPPELNACHT organized by
HOUR OF PENANCE
PUNISH
SHADOW'S FAR
MUILAFF
at DYNAMO WERK 21 - ZÜRICH - CH
19.11.2005
review by dalia di giacomo
all photos © by Stefan W. Vogelaar
[The public use of these photos is strictly prohibited without written permission]
Muilaff, massive and resolute, receive applauses from the bangers, vocally alternate grunts and screams, fast picking in Black style and agreeable melodies in good proficiency. They give that kind of impression that makes you eager to see them again next time around and to check the merchandise if available. So i hope and think that we will hear more about Muilaff in future. Not bad at all. Their compositions sound at times still very "underground" but it's good so, they have ideas, a satisfactory preparation and the necessary force united with the capacity to offer songs that remain in your mind, between fast pace and demolishing mid tempo, with some lead solos, backing vocals, and shattering riffs. Of course, a beer "prosit" with the fans is not missed as well as the greetings to Zürich and to Hellfire. At 20:45 Muilaff end a 8 tracks set which has brought songs like Let the Battlehyms chime, Smells like Death, Heidnisch Berserker Art...and the right kick!
21:15 Time for the second Swiss band to hit the stage: Shadow's Far carry on , with this second phase of the concert, what Muilaff have begun. Let's celebrate hate and extreme music with the meat grinder of heaviness. We have more Thrash tones now, though Death and American Heaviness are clearly included. The musicianship coming from Uri got inspired by the far yet omnipresent school of Swedish Melodic , but also by bands like Atheist, Napalm Death and Pantera. To tell the truth, their music is really enormously affected by Pantera. The pit is enslaved to motion and the crowd answer is nothing but great . Couldn't be anything else coming from a band whose mini CD "Lost in Contemplation" (2004) got Andy Classen's work at mixing and mastering? A bit cryptic, a bit ironic, and very merciless Shadow's Far start off with Tears from Below, characterized by screams belonging to a certain Swedish melo-register, powerful progressions and melo- staccatos indeed. Dubai by Night is then announced, the title makes us suppose oriental inspiration, and in fact there is some oriental/Middle Eastern shape framing the core, enriched by an interesting bass and a good drumming. We go on with Never Again, a true pleasure for a banging body, and the much awaited Defection Walk.
Celebrate Hate starts very aggressive and very hammering with a major Death influence. Needless to say that headbanging is creeping fast and shameless in the first rows. Well built loops give the definitive touch for ear-worming and suitable catchiness. The song that follows, G-Factor, initially wrongly approached , maybe confused by some members of the band with Tears from below, (indeed G-factor and Tears from below changed their reciprocal position in the set) appeals a lot, quite irresistible with its New Breed Thrash flair. Also Absinth provides for another highlight of the show. The band presents 9 tracks, three songs are excerpted from "Lost in Contemplation" currently sold out but available for complete download at their website: Absinth, Deflection Walk, and Dubai by Night.
setlist Shadow's Far
Tears from below
Dubai by Night
Never again
Deflection Walk
Celebrate Hate
G-factor
Absinth
From heaven
Pyroclastic Stream
The third Swiss band to support the Brutal "Pageantry" from Rome is Punish . And what an amazing support! This last half of the concert gets into a higher sphere: If Muilaff and Shadow's Far were really good on the whole, Punish and Hour of Page infect the evening with open skillfulness and malignant overpower. Punish, seed of dark charm and evil fear, lay down a class performance. Punish, formed in 1996, are one of the most meaningful emerging bands in Switzerland. On 3rd December they will play with the German BM Nordafrost and the Swiss Black melodic Atritas at Industrie 45 in Zug. Don't miss them! At any cost this group of fierce Newcomers, put together to grace us with hatred and darkness, must be attended.
Here Punish , who have supported acts like Belphegor and
recorded at Mastersound Studio with producer Alex Krumm their 2005
mini CD "Four Songs in morbid Lust", almost steal the show to the
Martyrs of Rome, thanks to their formidable lead guitar, their tight
rhythmic session and their obscure music. After all, they are a technical
band in my opinion, where each member has a definite role beyond the
mere apparent instrumentation in the musical phrases, but
fortunately their technicality is very fluent and expressive. Singer Chris Block's
hieratic stage - acting gets in balance with the violent, fast, lively
lead guitar of founder member André Mathieu. Tonight, the
band from Zürich will make us be disciples of its rite through 11 songs,
four of them brand new : Guiding
the wandering lost Souls
The Entity of immens Evil Dawn of the Martyr and Divinity falls, which
will be not published until the release of their next CD (a full length),
probably in middle 2006.
Around 10:20 the last sound check runs; five minutes later Punish start off, sinister and energetic and straight to the point without any intro ceremony, with the track Screams from misanthropic Town , which already reveals the talent of Mathieu's piercing guitar. Bassist Reto "Hardy" Hardmeier, also founder member of the band, provides for solid and elastic lines through its 6 strings, headless Basslab (www.basslab.de ) bass-guitar. A very technical unusual lethal weapon, light and comfortable (as Reto underlines to me), ergonomic. So i have before my very eyes a revolutionary product, if it's true that Basslab strings are developed through years of scientific-physical research on acoustic and modern material of construction. Everything positive for the vibration of the strings. Fact is that Punish can be bulldozing and bonebreaking as well as razor-sharp, making always good profit of a dark low-pitched backframe. Brutal and evil with angelic enchantment, they lay down a precise concert based on fast aggression, riffs-changes, plenty of Death, even some old school Black/Death scheme, American appeal, spiced up with a bit of Thrash and killing loops that allow our necks to bleed drops of pain. The compact mercilessly and the dry drumming are able to trigger many moments of moshing: the Werk 21 is again seat of tessence of metal for no posers. While the many eclectic lead solos rips off, Chris' deep growls, very impressive in the first part of the show, recapture force in the last part where also screams and almost clear vocals are delivered. The answer from the crowd is intense and i find the song Divinity falls, the one i prefer, a damned good one. Obviously , like always in these cases, the moment of the last song (Hall of Violence) comes always unwelcome, cause the crowd truly cannot get enough, but Hall of Violence closes definitely the show providing great loops, a dynamic bass sound and a brilliant performance of guitarist Andre Mathieu again. Mr. Mathieu is a talent, man!!
setlist Punish
Screams from misanthropic
Town
Suicide Warrior
Ground Zero
Guiding the wandering lost Souls
The Entity of immens Evil
Dawn of the Martyr
Punishment by the Veil of the dark Creation
Discouraging Calamity in mental Disorder
Suffering of the Enemies
Divinity falls
Hall of Violence
And now the wolves of the pit can be led by the ruthless demons from Rome. Hour of Penance: foreigners here on HeLLvetic soil? Not completely! Hour of Penance already brought their poisonous brutality to the mighty Mountains of Death one year ago. In fact they were on the 2004 billing of the Open Air that takes places in Muotathal, an open air without any compromise, one of the (few) really extreme Open Airs of the continent. So we could say that from The Mountains of Death, HOP land now on a lake, angry, hungry, ready for the battle. Influenced by acts like Nile, Malevolent Creation, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse, Visceral Bleeding, they are actually very near to the most tremendous brutal acts that Death can produce, and impacted already in other European countries like Germany and Sweden (they played the first edition of Gothenburg Deathfest). I simply cannot believe that HOP began their "career" as cover-band, ehi i mean...cover band..with all respect, but...and look now: they are able to unleash a true pandemonium, created by their own mind, in one of the most demanding lands of metal. Two points capture your attention immediately when attending this Rome-based band: a formidable and charismatic frontman, Alex "Necrotorture" Manco, whose grunts are simply killing, and a drumming who is kicking Christ and all Martyrs' ass. Well , their latest effort is the album "Pageantry for Martyrs", not forced into a strictly religious point of view, but meant in a wider extension. The inspiration for lyrics comes indeed from the terror that affects the modern society, their message is a struggle. Who is somehow not a martyr nowadays?
This evening, their concert however is not easy though acclaimed: one or two monitors end up to work not properly, rare thing in an equipped venue like this, but you know, crowds here eat monitors just for breakfast. However, with the right professionalism , after a short pause, singer Alex Necrotorture sets the still healthy monitors in a different position After the concert, he will tell me that it's the end when a singer doesn't hear himself. But anyway, nothing to complain cause the band is successful in delivering a relentless gig that unleashes a violent mosh in the first rows and magnetizes the rest of the pit. Yes, Italians can produce unrestrained Death and not only Power or Gothic. Guitarist Enrico delivers an attentive and valuable performance, after all this band really takes all his dedication, while the other members have also side projects. Attracted by the warmth of the audience , Necrotorture is commanding; and he is pleased in diving in the bath of flesh of the banging and moshing fans, till the climax of his long final crowd surfing. The songs proposed are taken by both albums: the new "Pageantry for Martyrs" (2005) and the previous "Disturbance" (2003), but the last song proposed is the cover of Hate Eternal's Spiritual Holocaust.
HOP themselves are headbanging a lot, bass player Silvano supports with determination the whole rhythmic section which is anyway propelled by Mauro Mercurio's erupting drumming. One of the best drumming i have ever appreciated live. My jaw drops, ...sorry the ignorance but who is this Mauro Mercurio, this blonde , slim and sardonic element able to manage supernatural powers behind the skins!! No massive body, he could be the "nice" guy next -door, nonetheless he lays down a performance worth of a manual, such an explosive and practically perfect Death drumming is uncommon. After Node's Marco Di Salvia, i enjoy attending the major percussion of another Italian badass, and tonight he is moreover the second musician that amazes me. Are drummers a race of their own? for HOP guitarist and mastermind Enrico Schettino yes, they are. After the gig, Enrico tells me laughing, that drummers should be all eliminated, annihilated: they are naughty, disorganized, sick, they just stay waiting for the band to turn around them ..."But we depend on them!" adds Enrico who, in spite of his friendly "hate/love" against drummers, composes the songs in a way that His drummer Mauro can have the proper shine and manifestation. Eh yes drummers are very important, that's true, but Enrico also treasures a little space, a little corner just for himself only and his passions. Huge Nile fan as he is, he was able to make a sudden long travel from Rome to Milan just to get the guitar he is currently playing. He says "You know, the biggest difference between children and adults is that adults take care of their toys!"
dalia di giacomo
setlist Hour Of Penance
Towards our Storm
Spires
Rise and oppress
Mystification as Law
Far beyond Humiliation
Celebrating collective Terror
End of Relief
Inhaling Disbelief
Shreds of Martyr
Life in a Pain Amplifier
Spiritual Holocaust (Hate Eternal cover)
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