ABGOTT
THE CROBAR LONDON 27/05/09
I have to admit that it takes a fair bit to get me to the London’s most overrated alternative watering hole The Crobar. I have never seen a band play down at this tiny place and would have never thought it possible to fit one in there. Turning up I saw loads of people in the street and assumed they were going to something at The Borderline next door but realised they were here for the same thing as me too and wondered how the hell everyone was going to fit in. Tonight was to celebrate the wrapping of the new Abgott album ‘Godfather In Black,’ not exactly a launch party as the album had only just been completed and mixed. I left with a copy of the promo and very nice it is too in a steelbox DVD type presentation cover, but have decided to put it to one side and not listen to it before writing up my thoughts on the tracks they were airing from it at tonight’s exclusive show.
At about 9oclock we unceremoniously were ushered in from the cool street outside by what sounded like the gates of hell opening. It was however just the band starting without finesse or even a support act. I had the task of joining the phalanx of photographers at the front and not fall over or get too in the face of frontman Agamoth as the band charged into ‘Kronos Cosmic Throne’ from their last album ‘Artefact Of Madness.’ Since that era there has been some line-up change with new drummer Morgawr joining the coven. Vocals howled and rattled through us in a cavernous fashion and so did Robin ‘Graves’ Eaglestone’s hefty bass assault. With first of the new numbers ‘Obscure Renaissance,’ eyes were drawn to Thanatos dextrous guitar work which swept through with a prog laden air about it. The group have always been heavily technical in fact one of the most technical black metal bands out there and this was like the ghost of Frank Zappa had suddenly joined in and was jamming away.
With ‘Innocent Breed’ the crowd was urged to move forward and trample the photographers and space got tighter and the sound more empirical. The drumming was by now ricocheting off the walls and despite the claustrophobic proximity, everyone was enjoying themselves. None more than the frontman however who was in essence announcing ‘Lustmord’ as being a song about war. The complexity was certainly enough to leave us shell-shocked. Agamoth was trying to read the setlist strategically placed on a roof slat, not easy but I guess those tricky vamps have excellent eyesight and there was no faltering here as they furiously run riot with the amok sounding ‘Shining Insomniac.’ To prove there was a sense of humour, the locals were particularly enamoured by a cover of WASP classic ‘Wild Child’ which went down a storm. You could not imagine the singer conducting it from a motorbike though, hell you couldn’t fit a tricycle in here.
Things went into a blur after that, air was desperately needed and I missed the album title track grabbing some and another beer. Still the audience were not satiated and Abgott were forced into playing quite a lot of last songs. For all the complaints about the venue it was a canny choice really as it installed an atmosphere of excitement and tension to the tightly drawn throng and by packing them into such a small place they were easy prey. Job done, now to listen to the album.
www.abgott.co.uk
www.myspace.com/abgott
Pete Woods
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