MAYHEM & DIMENSION F3H
LONDON ISLINGTON ACADEMY, 21/02/08
There were a couple more supports, the 1st were pretty much wrapping things up when I got there (but sounded like pretty standard death metal fare) and the 2nd were Artisian. Well you should only shoot a dog once to put it out of its misery and there is a review of them supporting Gorgoroth on these pages, which if you read and add the words but with better sound, you have my opinions.
Onto Dimension F3H who were unleashing their brand of ‘kickass Bladerunner thrash,’ which was a sort of style I fully expected to divide the audience. To be fair, there were those that neither liked nor wanted Morfeus of Limbonic Art fame’s futuristic cyber side-project but on the whole they went down well. Wearing a get up that I could have sworn I had seen before (then remembered and they obviously shop at the same place as Sabaton) they stomped into most of their debut album ‘Does The Pain Excite You’.
Nothing wrong with a dash of sadomasochism with your metal and this instantly bit as much heavier in essence on stage than it did on album. Once the sound started gelling from a rather chaotic whiplash on the 1st number, ‘Freakshow’ rolled into town like a very evil circus. Some voice effects were employed and it sounded a bit like the Cylons were invading from Battlestar Galactica. As for the album title track with its Dust Devil Simon Boswell soundtrack sample making it instantly recognisable, well it didn’t really excite me but provided good foreplay for the main event. A cover of The Prodigy classic ‘Breathe’ had lots of people dancing stupidly and not taking things at all seriously (it was indeed daft). Perhaps Firestarter would have been a better choice, what with all those Norwegian church burning connections and that.
Lucky nobody lit a match near Attila Csihar! Everyone had been wondering what the Mayhem front-man was going to be wearing as there have been some spectacular costume choices sported by the loon on this tour. Should we take it personally that he decided to turn up in London as the Trashcan Man? At 1st despite the fact that ‘Silvester Anfang’ was rolling into the seminal ‘Deathcrush,’ the music kind of took second place as everyone craned for a closer look. In the photo pit I was trying to actually take some photos around the dry ice and not crack up as he really had outdone himself (and several bins as well by the look of it) this time.
Mayhem live can be excellent as they were when I caught them at Wacken a few years ago. However they can also be utter errr Street Trash. Tonight’s performance was way better than the abortive last London one fronted by Maniac. I like both vocalists and found it interesting catching the likes of Grand Declarations ‘A View From Nihil’ sung by Attila. Before this, older numbers such as ‘Ancient Skin’ had been flung out with a squealing miasma of full on hate and really vicious coruscating sound.
‘Illuminate Eliminate’ brought things full circle with Blasphemer and Necrobutcher blazing away and throwing out convoluted riffs as the front-man added his deranged presence in the centre and everything was bathed in a blue miasma of light. The one thing missing was a view of Hellhammer, you could certainly hear him but he was barely visible behind his kit.
Freezing Moon sounded excellent and even had a very noticeable guitar solo coursing out of its mist. Obviously the sound here was a lot better than at previous outings. Some of Attila’s ghastly vocal tones really made you shiver, and although this was not the most atmospheric performance from the band as there are no animal carcasses to be hacked up onstage in the UK, it was certainly one of the better shows I have seen.
As we staggered out the gig located in a venue in a shopping centre I had to wonder if Attila might end up getting wrecked and passing out there in the morning, if he did I reckon he would have made a fortune in spare change.
Pete Woods
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