TAAKE, HORNA & ANGATYR –
LONDON UNDERWORLD 22/03/10
Just before the gig we discovered that Black Shore the German band who were meant to open tonight had been left at the shore and had not got on the ferry for this part of the tour. This meant more time for the two main bands who now had an hour or so to play extended sets. First up however were a band I did not know called Angatyr from Denmark. They blazed away with a violent swagger and gave out visually in equal measure with blood, bones and striking corpse paint. I was instantly impressed and a lot more so than when I had heard them on their MySpace early in the day. This was not quite as Vikingesque as I was expecting but more of a battering black metal sound that took no prisoners. There was a good nihilistic stage presence from the band and plenty of atmosphere about the show. With all the groups playing songs in their own language this was never going to be one of those ‘what songs did they play’ reviews but to be fair their singer did attempt to converse with us in English and talked about claiming the path to wisdom. Not a huge audience inside yet as many were still in the pub but those who had come in for the start seemed to like what they saw. Apparently this is normally the sole project of Ynleborgaz on disc but whoever he had with him made the group a strong live proposition. ‘The Dane Murder’ was one song title I did pick up here.
Lots of stuff was going on behind the scenes with this tour. Firstly a couple of gigs had been prevented from happening (Hamburg and Vienna) due to pressure put on promoters by Antifa. I have said what I think of Antifa getting bands political intent wrong in the past but Hoest of Taake is always going to be a target no matter how much he apologises for past silly indiscretions and Horna who although have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from politics did have members of Satanic Warmaster in their ranks at one time and that is simply as far as the idiots in Antifa are going to look.
Urgehal had pulled out of the tour and were replaced by Horna which I was quite happy about having only seen the Finns once. I was sure I had read somewhere Horna were going to split up but this appears not to be the case as they now have replaced Corvus on vocals with Spellgoth who came on stage barefoot and wearing a monk’s habit. The band have a huge array of material and I am guessing they picked bits from all of it. Only having a few albums I barely touch the surface of their recorded output and did not particularly recognise anything at all. There was quite a rank smell down the front and it fitted the bestial, unholy mass going on, on the stage quite nastily. There was plenty going on worthy of making a stomach already drowning in beer lurch at this pure black fetid filth. Bursts of gnarly punk laden noise flew out the speakers taking the tops off the heads of the now much busier crowd who reacted to it and started bouncing off each other. When I saw this lot at The Fridge with a better light show and bigger PA they sounded if anything too clean and polished. That was not the case here at all, gnarly and rancid were better words to describe the band as they lurched, crawled and suddenly attacked with vicious hate filled intent. This was an enjoyable and mesmerising performance but the best was yet to come.
Taake earned the headline position as well as the somewhat by now surprisingly busy venue. Those curiosity seekers and hipsters among the audience expecting controversy would perhaps have left a bit disappointed as there was none. All we got tonight was a tight, professional performance of an hour or so of classic Norske black metal. On the other hand it was good to see that the audience was made up of those whose interest was in watching the band and getting drunk and causing the occasional bout of havoc in the pit. There were no dubious goon parade, saluting idiots that I spotted putting a dampener on proceedings. It did seem that there was a bit of madness flowing off the stage from the second Hoest and his assorted players charged on and unleashed hell. The death grunts filled the air both from the stage and between each and every song.
I spent most of the set trying to take photos, clutch hold of my beer and not lose it and head bang to the tumultuous frenzy slewing out the speakers. I did recognise bits from the first couple of albums but which parts they were could not elaborate on, this is a band who divide their discs into chapters based around the title of the album so it is never an easy job doing precise reviews (in fact if you could you would probably be a complete anorak who never ventures out of their dark cave anyway). Chainsaw laden guitars from Tundra and Aindiachai sounded like they could cut right through us and the group looked like a well oiled machine on stage. Hoest was very much the figurehead of the game though, shirt off and occasionally draping the Norwegian flag around himself, the skinny tattooed figure darted about seemingly almost skeletal and evil and grunting at every opportunity of course. One point of the show that particularly got the excitement levels pumped even more was the cover of Burzum’s ‘Aske’ classic ‘A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit.’ Spirits were very much high on the way out of the venue after they had finished too. I think this is the third or fourth time Taake have played over here and with reactions like this I am sure they won’t be strangers in the future. Shame none of the UK festival bookers seem to have the balls to put them on over here though. This would be much more interesting than the safer options chosen at the likes of Bloodstock.
Pete Woods
Click here for photographs
MTUK HOME
