Performing bands: GRIMFAITH — gothic-doom F.A.I.T.H. — melodic death (cancelled) TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION — thrash/death INFERNO — gothic metal NATURAL SPIRIT — pagan black metal WITCHHUNTER — power metal LITTLE DEAD BERTHA — doomy metal APOCRIPHAL — sympho black/death (cancelled) FLESHGORE — brutal death
A pleasant Saturday evening — I wanted to spend it somewhere outside the house. And this day happened to coincide with the nearly traditional "54 Tons" festival. The venue was already somewhat familiar — DK Svyatoshyn. Not the best location, but a good hall and, as I thought, good sound. On approach to said DK, a skirmish was spotted — as always, a gang of about 20-25 gopniks chasing 3-4 metalheads. I barely dodged getting caught in the crossfire myself. But having safely reached the venue, I squeezed inside. The hall wasn't very crowded yet; they were still letting in press and friends of the organizers. Onstage, a soundcheck was underway — Kyiv's goths INFERNO were "tuning up." In short, this fiddling with sound took about an hour (can never start on time), and then the crowd poured in — they opened the doors.
The evening was opened by the already well-known Kyiv band GRIMFAITH. Gothic-doomsters with a heavy lean toward gothic. The sound was mediocre, but you could make out the individual instrument parts from the overall musical picture. The crowd wasn't warmed up yet, but was gradually approaching the stage and starting to move. The band's repertoire was already known — compositions from the demo "Sex on Heaven," including "Jack is Back" and "Sex on Heaven" itself. Ivan (vocalist) surprised with quite good growling. And the guitarist pleased with his solos. Worth noting is the keyboardist's outfit, executed in the finest gothic traditions — a lacquered costume in which Natalya looked absolutely stunning. The band didn't play long, as concert time was cut (due to the delay), and having finished their set, the musicians departed.
Oh, I almost forgot — the concert was hosted by the (un)beloved MC Crocodile. Of course, can't do without him — as always saying nasty things and trying to get the crowd going. So MC announced the next band, THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) — notably, this band wasn't listed on the poster.
THD took the stage — interesting to see what they'd play. Well, they started, and the musical picture immediately took shape: a blend of death metal and thrash with some psychedelic moves (especially in the vocal parts). They played reasonably well, even pleased me a bit, and you could see it from the crowd's reaction — people kept gathering under the stage. After the very first song, the bassist broke a string, so the vocalist and bassist left the stage to find a new instrument. Meanwhile, both guitarists and the drummer played a couple of instrumentals. A bass was found and things moved on. But here's the interesting thing — the vocalist communicated with the audience and even the sound engineer in English (posturing). If it were FLYING, fine, we're used to that, but here's a new band talking to the audience in a foreign language... Though their music does merit a good score.
Oh, MC Crocodile again — walking around, saying stuff, then decided to ask THD's vocalist about the reason for communicating in English. The response: "English is good for rock'n'roll." Well, Crocodile wouldn't be Crocodile if he didn't say something nasty. Quote: "...well, this is the band's first interview, and most likely their last." Anyway, the MC announced Kyiv's goths INFERNO. Fritz and his crew took the stage, spent about 5-8 minutes tuning, and started playing. Under the stage, a bunch of poser-goths and similar metalheads gathered. The band's repertoire didn't surprise — all the same familiar compositions. Yana (vocalist) crawled across the stage, gothically contorting (a la EVANESCENCE). Fritz gesticulated like a concert conductor. Toward the end, Yana announced the next song was dedicated to WITCHHUNTER, and then the well-known cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" rang out — the crowd went crazy and people rushed to dance!!! And after the band finished, the audience called for one more song as an encore.
La-la-la, MC Crocodile back onstage, announced NATURAL SPIRIT and departed. And out came the well-known Ukrainian masters of pagan black metal, NATURAL SPIRIT. What can I say — these guys always perform well, and this time was no different. The band was joined by their female vocalist, who first appeared onstage at Metal Heads Mission 2005 (shame they didn't do a fire show). Nothing bad to say about the band's performance — everything was competent, technical, tight. By tradition, they didn't skip the hit "Oyra," to which the crowd went absolutely wild. Then they were called back for an encore with the same "Oyra." In short — thanks to the guys, great performance. Crocodile reappeared and announced WITCHHUNTER.
The entire lineup climbed onstage, except for vocalist Oleg, who burst out on the first chords of the opening number, grabbed the mic, and started singing straight away. What can I say — power metal as power metal, quality, resonant, just the sound was a bit lacking — guitars sounded muffled. Oleg, as always, ran around the stage getting the crowd going. Between songs, he chatted with the audience and said a new album was planned for this year. Funny fact: during the band's set, one young man sat calmly reading a newspaper. The last song was a cover of old pop act ARMY OF LOVERS and their "Sexual Revolution," first performed again at Metal Heads Mission 2005. Having played a short set, the band departed.
After WITCHHUNTER, MC Crocodile came onstage and said there was an announcement from MENTAL DEMISE. The whole crowd fell silent — turns out that three days before the festival, drummer Evgeny had left the band. Under the weight of this news, the audience grew a bit somber. But moving on — the MC announced the next band from Voronezh: LITTLE DEAD BERTHA.
As advertised, the band plays doom, and I was very much hoping for that (being a huge fan of the genre myself), but was slightly let down — let me explain. The whole band appeared onstage, and one girl in a concert dress was somewhat surprising — as it turned out, she was the vocalist. The male vocalist gushed from the stage about the audience, saying they'd never performed before such a crowd. To call it doom — no, more like death with small sprinkles of doom, though some of their compositions did carry a bit more of that hopeless doomy atmosphere. I especially liked their third composition (can't remember the name, sadly), executed in the finest death-doom style of bands like MOURNING BELOVETH, SWALLOW THE SUN, OFFICIUM TRISTE. The amusing sight of a female vocalist in a concert dress going wild onstage was an absolute win. Yes, her voice deserves mention — I haven't heard such a powerful voice among metal-gothic bands in the CIS. Very strong, beautiful — clearly the girl spent years in vocal lessons. To sum up, the band is good — lots of different stylistic elements in the music, powerful vocals both male and female.
A 15-minute intermission was announced, and the whole crowd went to "culturally" smoke, drink beer, chat with friends, and just catch their breath. Returning from the smoke break, I noticed FLESHGORE was already performing onstage.
So, the headliner onstage — one of the best brutal bands in Ukraine — FLESHGORE. The guys, by tradition, hurled tons of meaty riffs and dense blast beats at the crowd. Thrashing, so to speak, like grown-ups, and as always — with quality and technicality. The crowd was already "destroyed" and going all out — all you could see were "flying" hair below the stage, not people. Even a small semblance of a mosh pit formed. And so another solid metal-action ended, and the audience — slightly (and sometimes considerably) tipsy, exhausted, and satisfied — headed home. For the record: about 400-450 people attended the concert.