ZEROMANCER, SCREAM SILENCE & ESSENCE OF MIND
LONDON ELECTROWERKZ - 11/04/09
After a disturbing and surreal experience where I was serenaded by a toothless man in a wheelchair with Nickelback, Queen and Meatloaf’s greatest hits as he wheelied around The Angel pub in Islington, I was quite keen to get to the venue before he started wheeling out (literally) the Bon Jovi. The Electrowerkz was an ideal venue for tonight’s show. Home to London’s premier Gothic and Alternative club, ‘Slimelight’, it was sure to draw a strong crowd for Zeromancer’s first live show in London for many years.
Openers Essence Of Mind took the stage to a sparse crowd and immediately set about generating an atmosphere with their brand of Nordic Electrogoth. Singer Erlend strutted around the stage with a menacing attitude, looking like a more androgynous Keith Flint, as they tore their way through tracks like ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Wicked Smile’. They manage to generate a big sound for a 3 piece band, and influences of Apoptygma Berzerk and Combichrist are very evident in their sound and performance. Definitely a band to watch out for.
I was quite looking forward to seeing Scream Silence, after their appearance on the Hellhounds Festival last month was cancelled, so I was pleased to see them added to this tour. The German 5 piece deliver a far more traditional Goth rock experience, in the vein of The March Violets and The Sisters Of Mercy, and they did not disappoint. Front man Hardy Fieting, whilst sounding like something a chiropodist would treat, paced his way around the cramped stage as they treated us to a mixture of material from their extensive back catalogue and new album ‘Apathology’. With their early 90’s, jangly guitarred traditional Goth sound, they provided a solid yet somewhat dated diversion from the newer breed of Goth bands on show. Regardless of this though, the room had been won over by the time they wrapped up their 50 min set.
By the time Zeromancer hit the stage, the room was filling out nicely, even so, with a venue the size of Electrowerkz, I would have expected the place to be packed out, given the time it has taken for them to return and the club night that followed. Opening with the rather pedestrian but moody title track from new album ‘Sinners International’, the crowd were rapt and loving every note. Whilst the new album featured heavily on tonight’s setlist, it was the older tracks that were clearly satisfying the locals. Highly energised renditions of ‘Clone Your Lover’ and ‘Need You Like A Drug’ had the assembled masses eating out of Zeromancer’s hands, however it’s fair to say that the moment that singer Alex Møklebust got his top off was the high point of the show for the primarily female front row. The sound was clearer and crisper than I was expecting given the usual quality at this venue, and new songs like ‘My Little Tragedy’ and ‘It Sounds Like Love (But It Looks Like Sex), were sounding sharp, energetic and dripping with sauce and suggestion, the latter especially benefiting from Dan Heide’s dirty guitar sound. Raising the crowd into an ever more progressive frenzy, Møklebust taunted the crowd in the traditional manner, challenging them to be louder than Sheffield. Such a simple trick, but one no London crowd can resist it seems, and by the time they wrapped up the show with a blistering version of ‘Doctor Online’, it was clear that Zeromancer were not only back, but back to their best. A good show and a great night…right up to the point on the way home I bumped into a toothless man in a wheelchair who then sang ‘The Final Countdown’ at me…
Lee Kimber
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