DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER & ATTICA RAGE –
LONDON UNDERWORLD 18/02/10
It was a wet, cold and rainy night but it seemed to be one for going out and watching bands. Huge queues snaked around the Roundhouse and Electric Ballroom in Camden, no idea what for but it looked like more commercial fare. Elsewhere knuckles were dragged down to the Brixton Academy to see Machine Head and Hatebreed for the gazillionth time but those in the know were at the Underworld for a little known German band who although a million times removed from the popularity of Rammstein over here are musically in my opinion every bit as enjoyable.
First up though were Scottish band Attica Rage who I had heard of but never particularly encountered before. It was evident that they had a crew with them in the audience but set about quickly winning over the rest of us after coming onto the apocalyptic strains of the main theme from 28 Days Later. By the time they hit the groove of second song ‘One Minute Silence’ we were rocking out to some smoking licks straight out an arid desert. Singer Jonny’s vocals were rising to the rafters and the chugging guitars completed the picture nicely. However as I was quick to discover this was not a band who play one particular style as every song seemed to adopt a different mindset. With that one having been in firm stoner territory ‘Contradictions’ proved just as described by going for a metallic tumult with bludgeoning repeated chorus. Then we were off into classic doom with a riff that really reminded of The Lamp Of Thoth before further material had a real NWOBHM feel about it. I can only conclude that Attica Rage were jack of all trades and pretty damn good at them all too, it was kind of like a metal pick n’ mix and highly entertaining.
Lots of drums of various shapes and sizes were being placed around the stage and at the side of it a swing, what the feck, yes a bloody swing! I wondered what it was for but saw a keyboard being placed in front of it aha. Having seen Die Apokalyptischen Reiter at the Astoria and Wacken I knew they were going to be good and boy, even though there were only around 150 here tonight we got a good 90 mins or so of solid Reitermania. Bursting into ‘Wir Sind Des Licht’ from latest album ‘Licht’ they instantly had the crowd going mad with appreciation. Singer Fuchs commanded the front of the stage and was wearing a red military jacket opened up to reveal a rug on his chest. If that made you cringe a bit like me then stage left saw gimped up Dr Pest swinging backwards and forwards to his keyboards. I was surprised that despite the fact the songs are mainly sung in German people here seemed to know the words and were singing along, which was quite surreal. Fuchs announced it was time for a ‘Revolution,’ a flag was waved around and we were all caught up in the spirit of things. The new guitar player may not have been as foxy as his replacement but made up for that by flailing away and the songs were coming thick and fast. During ‘Riders On The Storm’ Dr Pest invaded the stage with a whip. I was so surprised and trying to get a photo quickly was rewarded with an extreme close up of his crotch luckily the second photo was far better and I am kindly sharing that one with you in the gallery, so it is quite safe to go and look.
With much needed beer I watched from a distance as the mad show continued with ‘Licked’ and ‘Adrenalin’ I particularly wanted something from my favourite album ‘Have A Nice Trip’ and was later rewarded with the passionate clamour of ‘We Will Never Die’ There were moments included amongst the set where people hit all the drums like Sepultura had never happened, there were also what sounded like Germanic sea shanties and of course with ale being quaffed along with it all we reached merry inebriated states, making the music perhaps make even more sense. ‘Reitermania’ was one of the last songs or so I thought but still they kept playing until we fell back out on the street with shit eating grins that even the weather couldn’t remove. Great fun.
Pete Woods
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