KAMPFAR, VREID & ISKALD
LONDON UNDERWORLD - 16/02/09
In retrospect, heading down the pub at 2:30 wasn’t one of the smartest moves ever, and by the time doors had officially opened I was already blotto. Word was that tickets hadn’t exactly being flying off the printing press, theoretically speaking, and tonight is one of those nights when it could be seen either as venue half empty, or venue half full, depending on how much of a pessimist you are. On the bright side, it made a welcome change to get served at the bar more or less instantly…but then, giving my vile, raging hangover the next day, maybe that wasn’t such a great thing after all! For me, this was the first gig of the year (which means 2009 has only just officially begun in my books), and I had certainly been looking forward to what promised to be a good night of metal, but Iskald just didn’t seem to work for me. Completely an unfamiliar name to me prior to their appearance on this bill, I did the decent thing of checking them out on the Interweb to familiarise myself with their sound in time for the show, and whilst what I heard showed plenty of promise, I just couldn’t help but walk away from this performance feeling somewhat disappointed. Chained to their axes, the guitarists thrash out some cold and punishing riffs on ‘The Orphanage’ which packs a bit of a punch, as well as on ‘Ruin Of Mankind’ although on the whole I found their set passed me by without leaving much of a lasting impression. In places I was picking up on a bit of a death metal vibe, such as on ‘Eden’ with its bellowed chorus vocal output, as well as on some of the riffing on ‘Daa Gjallarhorn Song’ although this doesn’t pervade too much in the mix. It must be said that the poor sound really didn’t help matters, and I will most likely give them another shot if the opportunity should ever present itself.
The general vibe that I had been getting up until this point was that Kampfar were the main band folk were there to see, and so a switch around with Vreid was something I was partly expecting to occur. As it happened, the two bands had been trading places throughout their European tour, and tonight it was Kampfars turn to headline. Nevertheless, I was slightly taken aback as I heard the ‘Alarm’ sound out from the stage which I more or less instantly recognised as the opening track to ‘Milorg.’ By this point I am surprised to have not collapsed in a heap somewhere in the corner, and my notes look embarrassingly as though I had handed the pad to the toddler I had managed to trip up earlier that day and asked him to scribble over it as small, pesky children do. This squadron manage to blast us all back to the World War II era in an aptly militaristic manner, as they plough through such strident, callous war marches as ‘Speak Goddamnit’ and ‘Disciplined’ with guitars so goddamn gelid they make the recent snowstorms pale in comparison. Many of the tracks seemed to come from their most recent album, although there were a good few older tracks thrown in for good measure. Title track ‘Milorg’ was certainly a highlight with its mean, muscular swagger while the callous rasps sit nicely amidst them. A solid performance.
Still, this doesn’t quite prepare us for Kampfar, who don’t so much hit the stage as they do ravage it, like a hurricane leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. I must say that this was the main band that had ignited my interest on tonight’s bill, and they certainly didn’t let me down. They get straight down to business with the truly menacing sounds of ‘Inferno’ with its brazen march and beleaguering blackened guitars, while Dolks vocal delivery is laced with pure f***ing venom. ‘Dodens Vee’ mixes a certain slither of melody into the mix, not that this band could really be accused of lacking in this capacity. The guitars cut through the main backbone of ‘Ravenheart’ like a cold Northern wind sweeping through; truly biting, while ‘Gaman av Dromer’ slows the pace down a little with some nifty drum work and a melody that seems to trot along just nicely. Tonight they hardly can be seen as neglecting their back catalogue as they play a good mix of stuff including the incredibly Paganic sounding ‘Hymne’ which has more of an organic feel to it and ‘Troll’ from their 2006 album ‘Fra Underverdenen,’ which is every bit as ferocious and as hazardous as the spiked wristbands Dolk is sporting tonight; put it this way, I wouldn’t want to fuck with him in a moshpit! By the end of their set, I was well and truly out of it and after professing to have “Grown out of headbanging” only earlier that afternoon, I succumbed to the mighty metal and set about wrecking my neck to the final onslaught of ‘Norse,’ before leaving the venue on a drunken high.
Luci Herbert
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