herjansauga

On November 2nd, the Saturday just after Halloween, historic Italian black metal band Mortuary Drape holds a concert in Stockholm with the support of Black Oath: I must absolutely go. The concert takes place in the basement of a pub called “Liffey”, which is located at the heart of Stockholm; this cellar has been made into a place for concerts, also called “Pussy a go go”, which is really nice, but unfortunately very small and cramped and with a very bad acoustics. In principle, I do not love to see concerts in such small places because shows are usually penalized. But that’s it, I go to the concert; on my way to “Liffey” I see a lot of people with Halloween masks and dressing-ups going out to parties or discos, but I'm not, a black metal concert is more interesting and I'm happy. So when I arrive I find a few friends and immediately meet bassist SC and singer Wildness Perversion, the founder of Mortuary Drape, with whom I entertain a nice conversation. They tell me that they have all the scenography along but cannot use it for lack of space; a pity, it would have been nice to see it. It seems that the event organizers had previously showed them a picture of a much larger stage.

The concert starts around 10pm and is opened by Black Oath, an Italian band that plays a kind of doom metal with clean vocals and some short screams by the bassist in a few songs. They use a face painting in black metal style, play really well and the audience appreciate their performance. Maybe they need a little more personality on the stage, but they are much applauded.

Then it is the turn of Mortuary Drape. The scenography is very essential, in practice there is only a curtain or a drape with the band’s logo hanging on the wall of the up–stage: the place is very small and does not allow the use of bulky sets.  Anyway, Mortuary Drape steps onto the stage in their cassocks. Wildness Perversion is wearing a loose black shirt, complete with a purple sash, similar to those worn by bishops, but with a big golden inverted cross; in front of him he has a lectern from which a purple tablecloth with an inverted cross is hanging. The rest of the band is wearing red tunics with a black hood; the band also uses a face painting that together with the clothing is very aggressive and hard-hitting. The atmosphere reminds of a black ritual. The band has personality to spare and a great impact on the stage: their presence is impressive and it is a pleasure to see them, but they look too constrained and static because of the impossibility of moving around on the stage, unfortunately; I would have liked to see them on a real stage. The concert begins immediately with an old warhorse, "Primordial" from All the Witches Dance (1995), followed by "Mortuary Drape" from Mourn Path (1996) and above all the couple "Mother" - "Crepuscular Whisper" from Into the Drape (1992) that I adore. The audience are wild with excitement (sorry for the pun!!!), I'm taking pictures to the band and I am forced to scream and take pictures at the same time! What surprises me is the great participation of the audience: there are a lot of people and everyone wants to be close to the band, headbang and sing and shout together with the band; many know the lyrics by heart. There is much moshing and since the stage is low and is not separated from the audience, one can often see the microphone stands fall. When after “Vengeance from Beyond” Mortuary Drape leaves the stage, the audience call them loudly back on the stage, and the band comes back and gives yet another song, “Cycle of Horror”.

The band performs a lot of historic old songs from the 80's, such as “Pentagram” from Doom Return (1989) and from the 90’s; a special mention goes to “Beyond the Veil” that was released as a bonus track on a bootlegged reissue from 1998 of Secret Sudaria (1997). Of course the newest song “Where Everything Falls”, from the split with Swedish black metal band Shining In the Eerie Cold Where All the Witches Dance (2013), is not missing. Drummer M. C., a young guy who joined the band in 2012, delivers a very good job on drums; the rhythmic section is completed by bassist SC who plays a six chord bass and is impeccable; guitarists SR and DC play really well and also deliver blacking vocals, the latter shows a good command of solo technique. And then Wildness; he is very charismatic and his voice is unmistakable.

At the end of the concert I have a little chat with the guys of the band and ask them what they think about the reception received from the audience, and they are enthusiastic about it and tell me that it was very nice and they did not expect such a warm welcome, nor all that moshing. Too bad about the location! May be I am repetitive or too finical, but I believe that the band has been penalized by the smallness of the place, not only for the sake of the failed scenography, but also because of a constrained stage performance and above all because of the acoustics; but that is not their fault.

The band performed well, actually, I am glad, and after the concert I buy a souvenir T-shirt.

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Behemoth will release a new single in December, Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel both as a CD and as  a limited-edition 12-inch EP via Behemoth/New Aeon Musick. See the teasers from the link below.

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Satyricon have released a new video for the song "Phoenix"; the video was recorded at Oslo's Opera house; I was there and saw with my eyes.

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Thanky you very much,

Herjann