Kolovorot Fest
So, I think there's no particular need to introduce the Kolovorot festival. It's been held in Kharkiv for the seventh time now, and across the entire former CIS it's well known. We arrived at the club about an hour before 4:00 PM, the announced start time, hoping to snag table seats. In general, I don't know how typical this is for Kharkiv, but the entrance was organized in the finest Kyiv traditions: the process of getting in uncannily resembled a soviet wine shop in the mid-seventies. A large crowd trying to get in as fast as possible through the club's extremely narrow doors. Yeah, the entrance at Fort definitely left something to be desired. But the club itself, of course, outclassed nearly every similar Kyiv venue: decent-sized, two floors, the second one with tables, a proper stage. The downsides: terrible ventilation, unable to handle any reasonably large number of visitors, and bar prices — well, we're used to those.
By the time we got in and settled, KHORS had already appeared onstage. It's hard to say anything concrete, since most of their performance was spent in attempts to find a good spot with a decent view. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. Oh well — KHORS delivered a charge of black metal, not of particularly high quality or originality. Everything was moderately dirty and furious, but absolutely nothing stuck in my head.
Following them, DISSIMULATION took the stage. Now that's the stuff! Hard, headbang-worthy music, though it sounded chaotic and sloppy. And the sound left much to be desired. They messed up a couple of times and showed it themselves — you can't do that though! On the contrary, if you mess up, you need to make it as unnoticeable as possible. But overall, I think the band has a decent future — they just need to work more.
To everyone's surprise, TEMNOZOR came out next. They were expected closer to the end of the fest — a serious band, after all. I'll say right away that I expected A LOT from them — after all, one of my favorite bands. The deeper my disappointment turned out to be. I'm genuinely baffled how this could inspire admiration. The sound was mush, the clean vocals — it felt like the vocalist attended music school for maybe two lessons at most. I understand they were missing the second vocalist (the first one was pulling double duty), but that's how they absolutely disappointed me. Yes, older material like "Did-Dub-Snop," which is less clean and less instrumental, sounded better than on CD — more aggressive and powerful — but everything else was one blunder after another. Even old warhorses like "Werewolf" couldn't change my opinion. They also played covers of VANDAL, SKREWDRIVER, and DARKTHRONE. In short, TEMNOZOR — the festival's disappointment.
Against that backdrop, the Balts OBTEST looked far more appealing. Maybe I wasn't expecting anything remarkable from them, or maybe the style is just a bit different. Their music is certainly much simpler, but it won with its fast, quality, solid, and aggressive delivery. In a word — an excellent, full-throttle thing that fired up many people and pushed them into at least some semblance of a mosh pit. Though moshing in that temperature and humidity was hardcore. Total respect — after TEMNOZOR, it felt almost like a revelation.
And then came the most anticipated band — NOKTURNAL MORTUM. These guys set fire to everything that could still burn. The sound was adjusted separately for them, which isn't surprising, so they didn't disappoint after all. Besides older tracks like "Black Raven," "In the Fire of Wooden Things," and "Glory to the Heroes!" — which the entire hall sang along to — they played the much-advertised "Ukraine," set to appear on the new album. Honestly, I didn't hear anything special, but then I recall my impressions of "Weltanschauung" were similar.
Overall, the fest was a success. The audience was overwhelmingly adequate and behaved properly. The only thing unclear was the black-and-red banner behind the stage. After all, the ideas voiced at the fest were quite different from the ideas those colors represent.
P.S. Huge thanks to "the sect" for the organized meet-up, accommodation, and photo report.
Photos from the fest can be viewed here