SHINING, CODE, SKITLIV & HELLSAW
A night of suicidal or in my case suicider black metal, this was a show I had been looking forward to from the second it was announced and after an afternoon spent watching sound checks and chatting to various interesting characters it was finally time for the doors and a very rapid start for opening band Hellsaw. This was the first time I had heard this lot and stage wise they struck up an immediate presence as it was evident a lot of time had been put into their costume and corpse paint. Luckily the Austrians backed this up with a feral tumult of filthy sawing riffs, gargled vox and hellhammer drumming.
Not too sure whether this lot were an unknown origin for many in the audience but they certainly got an enthusiastic response to the slew of numbers from new album Phantasm. Speaking of which, caught in icy cold blue lighting there was something very ghostly about the group. ‘Silent Landscape’ was the only track title I caught (on a night completely devoid of stage set-lists). Certainly a group worth checking out.
No pain no gain and amusingly Maniac and Kvarforth who was playing guitar in Skitliv had both popped into Camden in the afternoon and got matching tour tattoos. Apart from Myspace tracks nobody really new what to expect from the ex Mayhem singers new band and quite honestly even after seeing them I’m not sure exactly what the hell we got. Maniac looking like a cross between Johnny Rotten and Keith Flint was sporting what can only be described as an emo chav pink top, which was some sort of anti black metal fashion statement perhaps.
He was also quick to get in a strop, throwing his guitar on the floor a few minutes into the set, which started with an intro apparently composed by David (Current 93) Tibet. What I appear to have described as a transgressive morass of doomy riffs assaulted us. This was seriously messy stuff but in punk fashion that is exactly what it was no doubt meant to be and I quickly found myself getting into the music and the artistic type contortion act the singer was projecting, rolling around the stage. Unstructured, uncouth, unhinged and unkind could be a good way to describe the overall feel of what was going on here and you walked away feeling more than a little unnerved. I’m seriously annoyed to now discover that there was a limited edition 3 track tour CD on sale that I missed. Think the album is going to be worth the wait though.
Speaking of albums, Code ‘Nouveau Gloaming’ was one that I realised was very special, the second I heard it. I was interested in how it was going to be pulled off live and the theatrical way they replicated things was absolutely spot on. This was a strictly one off airing of the album and us Brits were very lucky to witness things. The band comprised various members of Dodheimsgard (including singer Khvost) as well as Heimoth from Seth and Dan Mullins (of many a band including My Dying Bride).
The atmosphere was decayed as were the group’s costumes and the dead looking wood that was used as microphone stands; it looked as though corpses were playing in a copse even. Songs like ‘Brass Dogs’ were downright eerie and the stuff of nightmares lurking in cobbled Victorian streets or perhaps a time when the building we were in was known as The Mother Red Cap. Others such as ‘The Cotton Optic’ bit in a vicious fashion and even had as impressive a death grunt as we would hear from the following band. In a way it is a shame that this show will never be witnessed again but as I was there, I won’t complain too loudly. Now it is high time for a new album……….
If anyone is more barking a front-man than Maniac it is Niklas Kvarforth who was actually (shattering illusions) a very pleasant and polite chap off stage. The Shining singer had told us before the gig he is destined for hospital after the following 13 nights of the tour due to polyps on the vocal chords, he also kindly informed us he had worms too! To clear another thing up, the band would have liked cows blood on stage but it was against health and safety regs, cutting was also strictly a council no, no especially after Theatres Des Vampires performance of a couple of years ago, so in all this was a bloodless display.
It certainly wasn’t an unadventurous display though, throughout the set which comprised of most of V Halmsted and also included ‘Eradication Of The Condition’ and ‘Claws Of Perdition’ the singer was in a manic mood. He proceeded to writhe around on stage, drain a bottle of Jack on his knees, thrust his crotch in audience faces, romp around on the floor with both a female member of the crowd as well as Maniac and hassle his band by biting and kissing them!
As for the rest of the band, well they had stage presence of wet fish, however that could have been due to the fact that they knew fully well that it was nigh on impossible to upstage the singer and as they were excellent musicians it mattered not. They were also probably pleased to get a night off from a bloodbath too. Highlight of the set for me was ‘Låt Oss Ta Allt Från Varandra’ (OOOOOOOOUGH) and the excellent Halloween themed ‘Svart Industriell Olycka’ and it was much appreciated that the band gave 100% playing well beyond the curfew. One can only wonder what debauchery will go down on the rest of the tour but they best make it back in one piece so the singer can get to hospital, sheesh!
Pete Woods
LONDON UNDERWORLD 13/12/07