The 31rd of
may – a date that was marked a long time ago in my schedule, as it should have
been in the schedule of all doomsters around Heidelberg. The first time that
such an event takes place in this romantic and picturesque city! As I have
already told Ronan (Huata’s singer) at HDDT in Copenhagen: “Huata and
Dopethrone are the first doom bands ever playing in Heidelberg!” (in any case
in the past few years)
Correspondingly,
the audience grew steadily until Dopethrone’s performance shortly before
midnight. There were a lot of faces I have already met at other underground
gigs at more or less farther locations indeed, but I have also seen unknown
faces and met people who traveled to this gig from other parts of Germany.
Small wonder, considering the great lineup and the surprisingly favourable
price of the ticket!
After some
fresh beer, the crowd gathers in front of the stage again. Soon, HUATA’s
powerful sound booms out of the boxes and an intense, rituous experience of
occult forces begins. For around 60 minutes
we, the audience, are made part of a ceremony clad in shivering vibes
and lead by the distinctive summons of Ronan’s unique voice. Like lambs, we go
slowly with the deep vibes – or are grabbed by pounding riffs and
straightforward, energetic drum sounds. Actually, I do not care how they do it,
but HUATA turn us all into their followers, infuse us with dark forces and let
us forget anything but the exclusive microcosm around the Halle02 in
Heidelberg. Yet, their sound offers great variety – although there is great
diversity in it, the elements are arranged very creatively, so that they create
something as a whole. The same it is with their performance – it does not
matter if Ronan stays on stage playing the devotional chords on the hammond
organ or if he descends and continues his prayers among the audience. In either
case, the entire experience is intense without exceptions and this is not at
least due to the well-chosen projections above the stage.
Their
setlist includes the songs “The Retaliator” and “Hercolubus” from their recent
split with Bitcho (which has a stunning cover artwork, by the way!), as well as
songs from Atavist of Mann (Lords of
the Flame, Thee Imperial Wizard, Operation Mistletoe) and from their EP Open the Gates of Shambhala (Alchemist
Reborn).
Right after HUATA’s last song, the merchandise corner fills up with excited attendants, so that there is only little time left to catch a great LP or T-Shirt until DOPETHRONE’s first heavy tones reverberate through the quite ample location. Soon, the first rows are drawn nearer to the edge of the stage and
the space
in front of the stage fills up. It does not take long and the dark energy
flowing out of the boxes and rolling off the bandmembers seems to seize us all.
You see hair and fists cutting the air and you feel how everyone becomes part
of the same experience: heavy, suffocating sludge mixed up with the right
portion of fast, straightforward parts and a huge pinch of destructive, latent
aggression that seems to have been suppressed for too
long – a beast, longing now for its release, ready to demolish, full of filthy
dark energy. The lighting of the stage and the plain Dopethrone-logo on the
wall underscore this atmosphere – no additional projections or light shows are
needed (actually, the drummer even asks for dimmer lighting). Just the pure,
oppressive, blackened mix of sludge and doom without compromise.
Without compromise are the vocals as well – crushing, harsh and with eyes shut sounding like some animal’s menace out of the dark. It is really stunning, what a big force can be built up by only three guys hauling the most grimy, pulsating grooves out of their instruments. With songs like Porcelain God, Reverb Deep and Storm Reefer they start their mean, but groovy crusade through Heidelberg’s night. Their setlist is a perfect mix of older songs, such as Demonsmoke or Zombie Powder and the title track from Dark Foil, and powerful new ones like Devil’s Dandruff. Of course, we do not want to let them go after a good hour of being exposed to their great and solid perfomance – as a thank-you, we get our bonus song, the very unique version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine”.
Without compromise are the vocals as well – crushing, harsh and with eyes shut sounding like some animal’s menace out of the dark. It is really stunning, what a big force can be built up by only three guys hauling the most grimy, pulsating grooves out of their instruments. With songs like Porcelain God, Reverb Deep and Storm Reefer they start their mean, but groovy crusade through Heidelberg’s night. Their setlist is a perfect mix of older songs, such as Demonsmoke or Zombie Powder and the title track from Dark Foil, and powerful new ones like Devil’s Dandruff. Of course, we do not want to let them go after a good hour of being exposed to their great and solid perfomance – as a thank-you, we get our bonus song, the very unique version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine”.
Although it was hard to let them go and to
realize that the whole gig is over, I remember this evening as an
extraordinarily great one. Thus, I have to say many thanks to my friends of
HERB concerts, who do their best to organize a couple of underground concerts
with great bands in the rather dead region around Heidelberg! It was a perfect
line-up and a pleasant atmosphere – and, finally, to conclude: a fucking huge
evening with great bands who definitely did justice to other doom-infected
events and made this first gathering in this region a solid foundation for further
ones.
Thanx a lot to Melinda for this cool report, more pictures of this gig will be soon posted watch out for this soon through her FB page :
https://www.facebook.com/labilis.photography
Thanx a lot to Melinda for this cool report, more pictures of this gig will be soon posted watch out for this soon through her FB page :
https://www.facebook.com/labilis.photography
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