“Singapore Abomination” took place the following day at Fort Canning. I made sure I got good directions to find it. The concert was scheduled to begin at the early time of 5.30pm and to last two hours. I was told that the reason for the early start was Impiety’s next tour commitment. This timescale was to prove extremely flexible. Singaporean band Impiety were headlining. I have described them as the world’s most extreme band on more than one occasion. I was equally looking forward to Impiety’s fellow Singaporeans Rudra and Absence of the Sacred, and God Send Death (GSD) from Japan. It was a great privilege to be here, sweating it out in the heat and humidity with the Metal enthusiasts of Singapore. I was greatly intrigued to see how many were going to be here for this concert and find out what the atmosphere would be like.

The White Studio is within a colonial-style building in a park. People walked by for their Sunday afternoon stroll, enjoying the surrounding botanic gardens. Calm was in the air. As Mike and the others slogged their guts out transporting equipment to the stage, a wedding couple had their photos taken alongside the van. Celine took advantage of a bench under a tree and fell to sleep.

The conversion to something darker was a gradual process. 50 or so people gathered outside the concert hall at the appointed time. There was no sign of anything happening but it was a great chance to meet the bands. Here, as you’ll find everywhere in the world, was a bunch of nice people sacrificing themselves for their art and looking to better themselves. The Hordes of Darkness waiting to witness the event chatted happily. There’s nothing unusual about any of this. What was unusual by our standards was that you don’t stand around supping pints. Celine spotted the odd discreetly held can or bottle, but there was no bar here, just a couple of soft drinks machines for refreshments.

At about 6.40pm, we were let in. The White Studio was surprisingly airy. Absence of the Sacred were the opening act. The spectators were slow to come in. Had this been Europe, the band would have just got on with it but Mike, who is Absence of the Sacred’s guitarist, vocalist and frontman, announced that he would wait. Then off we went with “Enslave Fire”, a fast and heavy number, bordering on Thrash Metal. Mike told me afterwards that Absence of the Sacred started as a Thrash Metal band. In my mind I clocked them up here as a sort of Death Metal Motorhead. As the show progressed, I was impressed by the balance of great energy, good tunes and constructions and fine technical skill. Moreover Mike has a great voice. The crowd nodded appreciatively but it wasn’t manic in the White Studio. “Dawn of as Dead Aeon” featured a great break into a powerful Doomy section. Mike issued the crowd with some polite guidance: “Those of you who want to mosh stay here, those you who don’t just move back”. Energetic Death/Thrash was back and the crowd followed their instructions dutifully. The place went mental and the moshing began. The dry ice came up. The first of the metal warriors had played. Absence of the Sacred were only able to play 5 songs but deserve credit for kick starting the concert and creating impact in such a short space of time.

Before coming out, Mike gave me a list of Singaporean bands to check out. The list included Absence of the Sacred of course and Rudra, who were on next. I was hugely impressed by the extracts that I heard of this band. The first person I met here today was the band’s manager Imran who introduced me to Kathir, the bassist, vocalist and lead member, and the rest of the band. I was struck by their open-mindedness of thinking and intelligence. Rudra came on stage at 7.25pm and opened up with “Aryaputra” (my thanks are due to Kathir for writing out the set list for me afterwards – the track titles are stories in themselves). The purple haze gave a mysterious air as they launched into an eminently digestible dark Metal riff. It was great listening. As the set progressed, it was evident that Rudra operate on many simultaneous levels. “Aryaputra” ‘s heavy rampage is balanced by sophisticated and exotic Indian-style yet ever Metal guitar work. In my imagination I could picture Rudra performing at a “Redefining World Music” festival in the company of Arkan and Orphaned Land. Meanwhile Kathir’s vocals are utterly black and forceful, punctuated periodically by mystical chanting. To counterbalance the Eastern influence, which is genuine but never overplayed and serves more to enhance the mystique and give added colour, the other conventionally orientated Heavy Metal guitarist enraptured us on “In the Fourth Quarter: Turiya” and elsewhere with a more Classical Metal style. What is so good about it all is that for all the styles, there is such flow and harmony. “In the Fourth Quarter: Turiya” is utterly exotic and magnetic in its rhythm. I felt this track going through me from so many different angles. I just didn’t want this set to end. In spite of the structural complexity, which seems to be made into a uniform explosion, there was joy and even levity when the guitarist knocked over a microphone stand, prompting the very present Kathir to engage in banter. The crowd were included totally in the experience. The lads and lasses lined up and headbanged to “Aham Brahmasmi” as the band mixed up the styles and delivered yet another deeply dark and impressive message. Clearly I wasn’t the only person to appreciate this performance as the crowd rose to demand “one more song”. We got our encore in the form of “The Pathless Path to the Knowable Unknown”. Earlier I had noticed that the drumming style had a power and softness, creating another angle of attack into my senses. It has a hypnotic quality, no more so than here. The vocals were dark and mysterious. We infused both the spice-laden and classic guitar styles. It was as hooky as ever. The crowd lined up, headbanged and moshed once more. “The Pathless Path to the Knowable Unknown” captured the richness, the colour, the dark atmosphere and the synchronicity of styles we had encountered throughout Rudra’s set. The band has been in existence for 19 years and the cohesion showed. At the same time ideas are still abundant. Kathir told me afterwards confirmed that it had been a challenge to put together a short 7 track set which is reflective of those ideas. I went outside into the balmy evening air to take it all in. I needed to recover from such a breathtaking performance.

It was 8.30pm. The room was hotting up. The corpse-painted members of God Send Death (GSD) were on stage. I knew nothing about this band. There was a time delay as the band struggled to sort out the sound. There was a lot of shouting in Japanese. Then there was amusical explosion. The set had started. Covering all parts of the room with violent clouds like a Japanse Behemoth, GSD somehow achieved a symphonic sound in amongst the darkly delivered fury. The drum sounded like a fire cracker. Before the show, I was introduced to the lead singer. He seemed a nice man. Not now though. At the end of this track, the histrionics over the sound resumed. The crowd amused themselves. As entertaining as the band’s antics were, the impromptu on-stage performance which followed most tracks interrupted the flow and the impact was lost. The highly technical Death Metal was good though and continued to remind me of their Polish counterparts, with the exception of the grizzly choruses which were a joint effort amongst the band members. It was thunderous, warmongering stuff but I started to develop the idea that substance was becoming inferior to appearance. The few faithful supporters at the front would disagree, but GSD didn’t seem to be getting their message across to the rest, myself included. It was good and heavy, and the whole thing seemed to be a bit of a “scenario” as my friend Wojtek would call it. The lads continued to join in unison, and there was a moshing school at the front. The set ended with a Slayer cover. It went down well, but my overriding impression was that the A1 image and presentation outmatched the musical output in this case.

During the next interval I met a guy called John from Shrewsbury. John, who lives in Singapore, is a fan of Impiety and explained that in spite of the appearance of chaos, they are particularly good at getting the subtleties of their point across. This was interesting as I have three of Impiety’s albums and “subtle” isn’t a word I’d associate with them. “The Mighty Impiety”, as they like to call themselves, trooped seriously across the stage at 10pm. It was boiling hot now, and after an earlier peak of about 100 spectators, there were now about 65 left in the room. The rest were outside. They would have no problem hearing this. The band started as if they were subjecting us to machine-gun fire and, barring a ten minute stoppage for guitar repairs, the assault from all sides and on all subjects was still as intense as ever an hour later. Our master of hate-filled preaching Shyaithan stood tall and introduced his fellow warriors Deimos and Dizazter. What was so different about this was that it wasn’t just for show. Everything was deliberate. The sound was as clean as a whistle and razor-sharp. This is another band who’ve been around for 20 years and Shytaithan preached the verbal and musical message of nihilism with clarity and confident authority. The timing was superb, starting and stopping clinically but always sweeping us along in a demonic wave. “Destroy” was the message. All-embracing violence and technical excellence abounded and was interrupted by The Master’s words. “Abominate, Fornicate, Desecrate” announced Shyiathan in the spirit of this event. The crowd joined in the message before the band launched into this track from “Kaos Kommand 696”. War had resumed. Shyiathan bent down and reappeared terrifyingly above the gloom. The relentless battle continued. “Fucking evil” advocated Shyiathan. “Let them burn, I say”, he continued. This was the introduction to “Carbonized”. Sheer noise mixed with a crisp and malevolent message. I often make the comparison between Impiety and Marduk, but for sheer power and impression Impiety win hands down on stage. Prolonged and horrible screams of death preceded the highlight of this set for me: “Dominator”. Shyiathan is the Dominator. The war now intensified. Triggering from Dizazter matched the twirling guitar rage. There were signs that the crowd were being worn down in the heat of battle. The brave moshed. “Dominator” was greeted with polite and tired applause. But Impiety weren’t for letting up, continuing the 110% intensity with “Escalate the Pestilence”. Shyiathan spat out his Black Metal Nursery rhymes. The pace switched down momentarily. After a thrashy Black Metal Celtic Frost cover, the band moved on to “As Judea Burns”. John was right. We got what I expected with this full-out assault but it was the crispness and clarity which impressed me most. It was clinical but above all this was a hugely impressive performance from the Mighty Impiety and a fitting end to “Singapore Abomination”.

Like the country itself which is the home to 4.8 million people, in other words just over half the population of London, the Metal scene in Singapore is small but vibrant. Finding Hell’s Labyrinth was the key to an evening of great riches, enjoyment and interesting and committed people. To Mike and the other event and venue organisers, the bands and all the people who turned out and supported “Singapore Abomination” , I say ...great job!

Andrew Doherty

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