KREATOR, CALIBAN, ELUVEITIE & EMERGENCY GATE
CAMDEN KOKO - 26/01/09
It’s almost four weeks into the new year before work commitments mean I finally get to my first gig of 2009, and with the return of thrash legends Kreator playing their only UK show of the tour, it promised to be a good start.
Opening to an initially small and uninterested crowd were Emergency Gate, a relatively new act hailing from Bayern, and one of the three German acts on the bill. Marching on stage in a uniform of matching combat trousers and black shirts, the 6 piece fired into a short, enthusiastic set of modern metal that mixed thrash guitar riffs with a vocalist that mixed a convincing roar with more melodic stylings. With the style that seems to typify many new bands, the choruses were screamed by the vocalist whilst his spare arm was firmly jammed up behind his back. This was a shame as he had proved time and again that he was indeed a singer, belting out the verses from where he’d jumped into the photo pit to work the crowd. Whilst the sound was unusually good for an opening act, the keyboard player’s efforts were lost under the two guitars and the rhythm section. A quick perusal of their website showed that they normally work as a seven piece, but appeared this time out with only one keyboard. For a four act show with only a £15 cover, Emergency Gate were a good opener.
Unlike the openers, next on the nights bill were a band I’d heard of, Eluviete. I’d only previously caught a single song of theirs live at Bloodstock, and had been impressed by their combination of metal and folk that had the soggy festival crowd dancing and singing along. My same enthusiasm to see a fuller set was mirrored by the audience at Koko, and as assorted flutes, hurdy-gurdies and fiddles were set up on stage there was a solid move towards the front.
When the seven members of the band made the stage (there was a later apology for the missing bagpipe player, something I never expected to hear at a thrash gig!), it was in a flurry of wind milling hair and pounding guitars, all tempered and raised to a new level by the inclusion of fiddle and hurdy-gurdy (yet another thing I never expected at a thrash gig). With a dark metal bark that matched the pagan themes of many of the songs, Eluviete had the crowd variably head banging or dancing mock shanties, the styles of extreme metal and traditional folk never jarring, just blending naturally. Presiding over this was front man Chirgel Glanzmann, who with his many forays from vocals to flute and penny whistle resembled the hellish offspring of Ian Anderson and a demoness. Tracks like ‘Song of Life’ were met by massive cheers and chants from the crowd, whilst the band managed to convey a massive level of energy, even though a stage cramped with too much equipment left them mainly static.
The final number of their set typified Eluviete’s style, starting with a gentle, acoustic Celtic theme, before guitars, bass, drums and vocals kicked in, again inspiring the crowd to dance to a sound that evoked invading hordes of Norsemen. This is definitely an act I would recommend to all.
Next to take the stage were Caliban, self-described on their website as “European metal-core veterans” who received a little mainstream fame for their cover of Bjork’s ‘Army of Me’. Everything that is metal-core was encapsulated in their first number: the instrumentalists seemed to be in a race with each other to finish the song; the vocalist screamed unintelligibly through the verses; and for the choruses one of the guitarists sang plaintively over a bass and drum break down whilst the front man bent over and clasped his head in angst as if suffering the world’s worst migraine. A respected musical journalist at the gig did say to me, “I wish they had a song!” That was unfair, as Caliban did indeed have one song, and they played it for the whole set. When the vocalist screamed in one of his few intelligible moments, “here we go again”, I couldn’t have agreed more. Undoubtedly some of the audience enjoyed the show, and when Andreas Dormer, a front man with hair so Emo it probably cuts itself, called for a wall of death, a small but enthusiastic portion of the crowd obliged. I couldn’t help but notice that throughout their set, the pit seemed composed entirely of people too young to buy a pint at the bar and uniformly wearing fingerless wool gloves. This seemed to be noticed by the band as the last three songs were all introduced as “this is for the metalheads out there, to bang your heads or whatever it is you do.” Opening for Thrash legends like Kreator, this statement was not likely to endear Caliban to the audience, and by the end of the set, there were far more people at the bar then at the front of the stage. Undoubtedly, Caliban’s sound has an audience, but they didn’t find it in Camden on a metal bill.
With a simple clean stage set of a single mike stand and the drum riser, backed by the banner of their new album ‘Hordes of Chaos’, Kreator took to the stage like the 25 year veterans they are, striding confidently to meet their audience. Blasting straight into the new album’s title track followed by ‘War Curse’, the band showed they were immune to trends and fashions, producing what they always have, skilfully crafted, eloquent, angry thrash. Even before they unleashed classic tracks ‘Extreme Aggression’ and ‘Phobia’ from their extensive catalogue, the audience had been whipped up into a mass frenzy, and the photo pit became filled with crowd surfers who had been passed forward. This mayhem was projected live onto a massive white screen that intermittently replaced the band’s banner.
When Mille Petrozza finally spoke to the crowd to announce “The Kreator has returned” he was drowned out by the chant from the fans, before dedicating a song to all who had travelled from all over Britain and Europe to join the band in being ‘Enemies of God.’ Unlike some bands who simply played fast for the sake of it, Kreator showed what it takes to be a lasting and influential thrash band. Every change in key and pace made sense and contributed to the song, whilst the lyrics were clear and intelligent, song after song carrying the band’s message. Each member of the band was on top form, from bassist Christian Giesler who seemed to be permanently bent in half from the waist and head banging, to lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirnio who fired off one blazing solo after another.
Even the stage set contributed to the sheer class of the show, ‘Violent Revolution’ being backed by a nightmare montage of projected images that seemed culled from a madman’s dreams; human bodies being processed at an abattoir, overseen by grinning fiends and laughing monkeys, all layered over the pumping fists and maelstrom of the mosh pit.
Finishing with an encore of ‘Flag of Hate’ and ‘Transgressor’, with drummer Jurgen Reil taking lead vocals, no mean feat with the power of his playing, Kreator left the audience a shattered mass, panting from the power of the set they had seen, and in no doubt of the massive ability and relevance of the band.
Spenny Bullen
Click here for photographs
MTUK HOME
