ABGOTT, EIBON LA FURIES, SKALDIC CURSE & CLOACA –
LONDON GAFF 23/01/10
Four bands on the bill tonight each with 30 minute sets and quick changeovers means that there is little time for dawdling by anyone at the Gaff. Some of the bands were very well known to us, others not so and the first of the latter were up early as punters began arriving. I knew very little about Cloaca (the meaning of the word I suggest you discover for yourselves) except they are fronted by Chris Naughton of both Winterfylleth and Atavist. As a review on the bands chicken infested MySpace states they don’t do songs and indeed they didn’t do any tonight, well maybe one, possibly two very long musical statements. They don’t particularly do genres either but you could throw words such as ‘post’ ‘blackened’ and ‘doom-laden’ into the mix to get an idea. One long note builds up into monolithic, mountain shifting riffing with vocals craggily roaring over the top. The singer spent a fair bit of the time facing the drummer due to long stretches of inactivity but was oft spurred into action to yell at those courageous souls gathered towards the front. Guitars shimmered into a possible second ritualistic onslaught and then strafed with volatile flailing, flowing ever heavenly through the roof. I was mesmerised as the drums galloped in a tribal fashion by the performance. I am not sure what exactly the guy on the laptop brought to it but the climatic sonic overload left the ears ringing and the groups 30 minutes had be utilised with maximum efficiency.
I didn’t know how Skaldic Curse were going to cram five numbers into their slot although suggestions of playing everything faster had been made. They were also unleashing two new numbers on us and it had to be said as ‘Worm’ uncoiled that the sound system here was far better than the chaotic sound they had to contend with last time I caught them. Furrowing out blasts of misanthropic hatred devoid of all humanity and counterpoising them with more sinister yet haunting fragments of acoustic disquiet they oozed out plenty of atmosphere. New songs were entitled ‘Last Humanoid Howling’ and ‘End Earth’ and such was the complexity behind the musicianship they are rather difficult to put into mere words on a first listen. Luckily the jagged ‘World Suicide Machine’ cut like a favourite sharpened blade. A touch of avant-garde sounding Norske prog was suddenly served, I believe in the second new number which caught me a bit off guard and I stood watching how effortlessly drummer Vermin seemed to deal out his parts of yet another sterling set of very mature and confident black hate.
This was the first London show for Eibon La Furies whose discs I have been covering from the start and I was keen to see them in action. They certainly made an entrance that was difficult to forget, coming on in monks robes and setting a book (well sure you can guess which one) on fire. As their intro and the stench of burning literally brought a shadow over London we were dropped into the first number ‘Tears Of Angels & Dreams Of Demons’ in all it’s resplendent gory glory. This was a bouncy fugue with the vocals rasping and drummer battering out his parts like he was breaking the bones of skeletons. As we went into the midst of dark Victoriana in the form of ‘The Devil Is An Englishman’ I did begin to realise that although the players on stage were working like furious furies that parts of this was being sampled specifically the female vocals of Lady Titania Blackwood. I was told later that she will not take part in live shows and think this is a shame as the presence was certainly missed here. That aside numbers such as the previously unheard by me ‘Winter Kings (Wicker Men and Her Infernal Magnate Brigantia)’ went like the proverbial clappers. This was all in all a good live assault with a spark and a flame about it and I can fully see why Code 666 have picked up the band
Abgott have had more than their fair share of exposure on this site and are getting another 30 mins worth prior to an upcoming tour in Italy. As always they are a visual spectacle and getting photos with the lovely red lighting of the venue allowing some great slow exposure shots took over from concentrating on the review. The sound coming off the stage during songs such as ‘Shining Insomniac’ was scything and coruscating with an angry feral bite about Agamoth’s vocals. For some reason I seem to have scrawled down the words, ‘black metal in the mouth of madness’ and that’s actually not a bad description. They are a bit like looking into a vortex out of some Lovecraftian nightmare and seeing something rapidly approaching and gearing up to rip your head off. The spiralling and eclectic deranged guitar parts only add to this and the likes of ‘Lustmord’ and ‘Godfather In Black’ illustrated their capacity to whip up a small London crowd but it really is time that further flung lands encountered this plague.
Pete Woods
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