IHSAHN, SHINING, LEPROUS & XERATH
LONDON ELECTRIC BALLROOM 19/08/10
Wow, I may not have been to the Ballroom for a while but can only wonder if they have upgraded their PA as tonight it packed a powerful punch and made me wish there were more metal related gigs there. Shame the size is probably restrictive as it is a fair bit bigger than the likes of the Underworld. First on tonight were Xerath from Basingstoke. I had given their album the once over and noted it was not really my thing but that does not prevent me enjoying their performance which was formidably led by the mountainous presence of vocalist Richard Thompson. There was lots going on musically, this lot have garnered comparisons to the likes of Meshuggah and I could understand that as there was little in the way of standing still instrumentally here. Progressive flurries with clean vocals sprees were the modus operandi one second and the next the song was prone to change into a powerful thrashing torrent allowing plenty of head banging action. The real complaint was lack of live keyboards and reliance on backing tapes but I guess they had their reasons. This was a little bit akin to a musical jigsaw puzzle but once you got your head round it all the pieces all fell into place.
It was good to catch the Ihsahn ‘house band’ Leprous get a performance of their own as their last album ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ had illustrated they have a wealth of talent. Dressed up like old style cinema ushers they looked just as intriguing as they sounded. Einar Solberg as keyboard player and vocalist is very much the centre of attention here and the rest of the band dart about on stage around him. Again this was all schizophrenic although in a way I found easier to enjoy as it went from full on barking mad to crooning passages and musically what I refer to as ‘deep prog.’ This basically took you out there and a little bit beyond as well. There was an announcement that they were playing mainly new songs which was heckled with a loud shout of “old,” laughingly countered that they are not that old and indeed ranging in age from 19-24 they really had no right to be so damn proficient. The last song went a bit Pink Floyd towards the end and I stood there rather comfortably numb but all that was about to change.
I caught Shining (Norway) supporting Enslaved and since then have bought their excellent ‘Black Jazz’ album. For the next however long it was, (time seemed to stand still and then speed up) I was there with my jaw hitting the floor. Playing basically the first half of that album, this was an absolutely stunning display, manic, mental and totally deranged and I absolutely fucking loved it. They seemed to fire out everything at a million miles an hour at a velocity no slower than SYL City although musically they levelled it at ground zero. ‘Fisheye’ has Munkeby flinging out numbers at us as though invoking some sort of chaos mathematics and I wondered if the building or my head was going to implode and decided a beer was an absolute necessity to take the rest of this in. Of course when not yelling the crazed singer was busy with the saxophone which really helped bring the jazz by way of bastard ghost of Frank Zappa elements to the fore. Shining at times stomped like an army of marching androids and at others simply got in their starships and cruised away, destroying the planet behind them with a burst from rear thrusters. No time or even need to do that cover, this was schizoid enough without it. Excellent performance, please come again!
I had caught Ihsahn at Hellfest but must say tonight’s show was much better, possibly due to sound, more time at his disposal and the set itself. Of course in the photo pit he was right up close too. Starting out at ‘The Barren Lands’ he took us on a journey through the three albums and quickly had the audience eating out his hands. The place was by now very busy and the audience was, looking around, comprised of all sorts of people, sure the most common worn shirt may have had the word ‘Emperor’ emblazed on it but this was all about Ihsahn the prog wizard rather than the black one, or so we thought. Going back to ‘The Adversary,’ ‘Invocation’ sounded fantastic and the gleaming unmistakable guitar flurries really were spot on and this had the crowd going rather mental as it went into blast mode. Clean vocal parts mellowed it out and the singer sounded magnificent, indeed I am not sure I can remember his other band ever sounding quite this clear live. ‘Called By The Fire’ was the next to blaze out the hearth and was followed quickly by the scuttling ‘Scarab.’ Solos lingered like tomb raiding booby traps ready to surprise the unwary explorer and there was plenty of that to do in some of these labyrinthine numbers.
I had found time to listen to ‘After’ before (ha) I left home and so was very pleased with what we got off of it, with ‘Frozen Lakes On Mars’ a cold and majestic highlight. We had the Leprous singer taking over on ‘Unhealer’ which made perverse sense as if you get leprosy it’s pretty damn impossible to heal! Also guest appearance wise, Munkeby was the one to step up with the sax, the slower ‘On The Shores’ sounding completely bleak and melodramatic. Around this particular number, the penultimate one, we did get a surprise though as first we were treated to ‘The Tongue Of Fire;’ from Emperor’s swansong ‘Prometheus.’ I have to say it was not a high point for me from their career and I just was not into it and was standing there thinking some things should best be left dead. However I was forced to eat my words as Ihsahn finished with a blinding rendition of ‘Thus Spake The Nightspirit’ from my favourite album and I had trouble deciding whether to just bow or join in with everyone else singing along. A perfect ending to a brilliant night!
Pete Woods
Click here for photographs
MTUK HOME
