GRAVETEMPLE AND ASVA
THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON 10/07/2008
One thing is for sure, Asva's My Space description is a rather strange concoction. Death Metal, Ambient and Grindcore? Where the Death Metal and Grind were I don't know, but the Ambient was certainly present tonight. They were devoid of vocals for this show which was a shame, as it probably would have helped elevate their performance to a certain degree.
The last time I saw a band of this calibre, it was Naked Shit, supporting Wolves in the Throne Room, who seemed to go on and on forever. I had a bit more patience this time, and although Asva's music did actually go in a few different directions, it still largely blurred into one continuous 45 minute slab of noise for me. The first section seemed to go on for a very long time; slow downtuned chords being struck every five or ten seconds whilst drummer B.R.A.D. swung his arms and sticks in the air in unison with the rhythm. After a considerable time, it became slightly more upbeat and eventually crept into a funereal sounding dirge. That's largely what I remember of it musically and it's probably obvious that I was a little way away from being transfixed by it. I find this style of music difficult to remember because nothing about it draws me in. Unfortunately though, Asva were definitely the more interesting act tonight.
Having no songs on My Space to sample beforehand, I kind of expected Gravetemple to be droning with Mayhem's Attila screaming over the top, but God, what we got was quite different. A blast-beated drum check was more than a tad puzzling, and was followed by all of England's dry ice being released onto the stage - wonderful! We barely noticed the band creep on, realising only when the first notes of the set were stuck that they had in fact started. I had been quite optimistic that I was going to enjoy this, especially due to Attila's presence. From the off though, they descended into an utterly dull 20-30 minutes of what sounded like Dr Who (as Pete shouted in my ear) meets the twilight zone, courtesy of bleating sound effects from Oren Ambarchi's keyboards/samplers (which filled a table!) and some bizarre chords from Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0))). Attila made strange rambling noises, some of which were akin to his work on Mayhem's latest record Ordo ad Chao, and within ten or fifteen minutes I'm sorry to say it had lost me.
Later on in the set - perhaps a couple of years on, or so it seemed - the drum kit came to life and for me at least, gave a small feeling of order to the din. It provided it with a kind of structure I suppose, after what had sounded like notes flying about without a care in the world. Never mind what I thought of it though, Mr O'Malley was getting quite carried away, headbanging as he let a torrent of suddenly shredded chords fly out, but regained his calm composure almost as quickly as he'd lost it.
Of course it came to an end drumless, but with cheers from the crowd and appreciative bows from the band. Shortly afterwards Pete deemed it as 'really pretentious' which is one way of looking at it. I just didn't get anything from it, whatsoever.
Review by Oliver Cass
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