SATYRICON, SHINING, DARK FORTRESS & POSTHUM
LONDON ISLINGTON ACADEMY 20/12/09
Last show of the year and last show of this tour. Things had not gone to plan for all, originally Negura Bunget were meant to be playing but were dropped as apparently there were too many of them to fit on the night-liner. This made it a dream come true for the opening act Norwegians Posthum. The early opening of the venue caught me on the hop and they were already well into the swing of things when I arrived. They looked pretty young but made up for this with a proficient sound and an admirable rasper for vocalist. Only one of the group had much in the way of hair and it was left for him to twirl it around whilst the rest of the group had little in the way of significant stage presence. Sound was mixed nice and heftily with the drums thudding away and getting toes tapping along. Walking around with a £3.75 pint, which is outrageous considering the corporate brand name of the venue, I noticed there were quite a few youngsters here and not many of the more familiar faces from London gigs. The band announced last couple of numbers and the singer said he was emotional at end of tour. First one had a stubborn driving groove about it and jagged guitars before breaking down into more of a tranquil, sorrowful melody. Think this unknown to me band are worthy of further exploration.
The new Dark Fortress album had only dropped in a couple of days ago and only had got one spin. The band were never a favourite but I remembered them as soon as they came on stage due to the pirate bandana wearing guitarist. Thankfully the singer later reminded that they had played the Purple Turtle before and that they very much liked England. They were certainly playing to many more this time around, the venue had just a few tickets left on the door and was now heaving. I managed to get into the band and was impressed more with them live than on disc as they gave us an older one ‘When 1000 Crypts Awake’ which sounded as though it would easily have woken the dead. A new one from album ‘Ylem’ got an airing and I believe from singer Morean’s throaty rasp that it was ‘Redivider’ which had a slow and majestically oozing crawl about it. Looking around there was little movement from the audience although there was polite applause at the end of each number. With a much faster number ‘Cohorror’ coursing out the speakers I was pleased to have enjoyed the set but for me the main event was up next.
In an ideal world Shining would have been playing supporting Laibach who were also in town tonight and that would certainly have been interesting. Still there was an air of expectation as Kvarforth strode on stage clutching his bottle of Jim Beam, who knows what was going to happen here. First thing we heard was a mighty ‘OOOOOOH’ one of many of the performance before we were dropped into a musical gloomy doom and drenched in it’s abject misery. Most of the material tonight was from V and VI which was no real bad thing as far as I was concerned and the band had a nice long set rather than a brief one. I may have misheard the words from the uncouth hoodie wearing singer but it sounded like he was yelling “Sell your soul to me” and at the end of the song “I wish you’d all go home.” Although he was quite restrained he did surprise by giving bassist Larsson a snog and explained that it was due to the fact that this was to be his last gig with the band (I spoke with him on way out and it is due to studying). The tracks from VI sound excellent and the musicianship certainly shined through as they were played. Nik was on the red wine now and gave us a bit of a surprise by saying that we could hear a brand new number off forthcoming and already completed album number VII. Naturally its Swedish title was lost on me but it sounded great. It rocked, rattled and of course ‘ooohed’ before a fragrant chilled out passage meandered in before the number exploded into a frenzied section. Not done with us quite yet there was still time for more including a fantastic ‘Låt Oss Ta Allt Från Varandra’ Thumbs pointed down, negativity enforced, great show.
So onto the headliners and I have to admit was not really looking forward to this. Sometimes writers get accused of building bands up to knock them down again and this can happen especially if they change direction, bring out a crap album or simply outstay their welcome. Satyricon have done at least 2 of these things and this was I believe the third time I had caught their never-ending tour on the back of the latest album and some new material would have been welcomed from them. It was not all bad though and at least the band seemed in fine form and not the tired looking group I had watched going through the motions. If this show had as originally planned been at Shepherds Bush Empire it would have been half full but in front of a packed house obvious crowd pleasers from the last couple of albums stood up alongside the likes of ‘Repined Bastard Nation.’ The annoying thing was not being able to see Frost at work as he was literally encased behind his kit, completely hidden from sight.
This was I believe to be the end of days show for Nero and it was nice to get some real older songs from the black metal days such as ‘Forhekset’ amongst the rock n black groove of ‘Black Crow On A Tombstone’ and ‘Commando.’ I was rather surprised on going up to the balcony to try and get a few shots to have a black metal princess decide to put her hand over my lens every time I went to take a shot! Lucky she was a lady but she very nearly ended up going to get a much closer look at the stage teeth first. No need for acting like that. The surprise highlight for the set was Supersonic Journey and although it was a bit distorted with levels too high and keyboards too weedy it was not a song I expected to hear at all. I am afraid that I simply didn’t want to stick around for the clichéd crowd singing along encore, which of course was due to conclude with ‘Mother North’ so I took my leave back onto the frozen street with distinctly mixed feelings about the show.
Pete Woods
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