There’s few genres of music that give me the feelings that melodic death metal shows. Even though I have not seen that many, to me they are all unforgettable experiences and tonights was shaping up to be no different. I was most looking forward to seeing Wolfheart who I’d never seen before but as it turned out the gig was full of great surprises!
Due to interviewing the other bands on the bill, we sadly missed the first band, Nevalra’s, set. From what the crowd was saying after their set though, they seemed to hit the mark just about perfectly.
The first band we saw on stage was Thy Antichrist. I’d never seen a black metal band live before so I was rather curious as to how they would sound and deliver. Though the first couple of songs did seem a little repetitive, the performance from the band , in particular front man Andrés Vargas with his unique stage outfit, was very energetic and highly entertaining. The second half of their set, however, is where they truly started to shine. It was as if the little piece that was missing earlier finally slotted into place and the venue suddenly started to burst into life with headbangers and moshers galore. This is a band I’ll be checking out in the future and heading along to more shows of.
The time then came to finally see a band I’ve wanted to for a long time. Before the show, Jim mentioned to me that he’s never been to a bad Wolfheart gig and they seem to get better every time. Coming on stage to the now traditional triple shot of “Everlasting Fall”, “Aeon of Cold” and “Strength and Valour”, the band made the small Audio stage suddenly grow to the likes of a Hydro show with their fantastic use of lighting and stellar sound. They continued their set with a range of songs taken from both Shadow World and Winterborn with session member Vagelis Karzis doing a fantastic job playing the tricky down-tuned riffs and technical solos. The bands wonderful mix of melodic and heavy has always given me a certain vibe which cannot be replicated by other bands I found myself lost in the music, headbanging along and thoroughly enjoying myself. Ending the show with my personal favourite track “The Hunt” from Winterborn, I can only say that I regret waiting so long to see the band and am definitely not missing another UK date when they come again. Many love hearts for Wolfheart!
After a short changeover and the placement of a few interesting stage props, it was then time for tonights headliners to take to the stage. I was not too familiar with Carach Angren prior to the gig but I had listened to a few songs so kind of knew what to expect. The stage performance of the band I can only really describe as one word overall… Fun! And not a slightly amusing comical sort of fun, more of a “I-cannot-stop-smiling-at-what-I-am-seeing” sort of fun. The band put on a full-on horror performance during their set, and not only by their use of body paints but the many aforementioned props. Examples include the brilliant bloody doll carving, and a personal favourite, the mask/crown which as simple as it may seem just added so much and brought out the horror aspect even more to the overall show. Carach Angren were very interactive with the crowd as well throughout their set and showed great ion for what they did which never fails to get the audience going even more.Since the show, I’ve found myself listening to “Pitch Black Box” on repeat and I think that the band have found themselves a new fan! I will without doubt be attending their next shows in the UK, and I’ll be able to enjoy it that bit more now that I know some of the music.
Overall, the evening featured some fantastic performances and was yet another fantastic evening at Scotland’s greatest little venue.
All photos by Bukavac Photography.
Carach Angren: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | flickr | youtube
