If I had told someone a couple of months ago that metal events would be taking place in my own neighbourhood of Vynohradar, I would definitely have been laughed at ;), and then suddenly here we are — the second session in a month. This time the venue chosen was the Oriana club. A bar with billiards and a disco, known to local alternative types for the number of... less refined individuals who frequent the establishment. I don't know what the organisers were guided by, but what had previously been considered "a dead place where culture rarely treads" turned out on inspection to be a very decent hall, with very good equipment for a club of this level, and disco lighting. The club is better than Torba — firstly by virtue of the larger hall, and secondly by the absence of an idiotic column in the middle of the hall that obstructs the view.
So then, the following capital formations were represented at the session:
DIONIS CONQUEST WITCH HUNTER
The announced "Bila Vezha" was absent for unknown reasons (from unverified sources it emerged — due to the illness of one of its members). Counting on the session being delayed as usual by at least half an hour, and having waited at the stop for Crow, who didn't know where he was going, I rolled into the hall on the second floor of a former grocery store. The hall was hot, smoky, and very stuffy. DIONIS had already been performing on stage for about twenty minutes. The audience was responding somewhat sluggishly. Some people were trying to headbang, but mostly everyone was just standing and watching... directly into the musicians' eyes ;). The stage in the club was low and very small, so the performers simply didn't fit on it in their full lineup. The club was packed with people, and so the musicians were in close siege. Now as to the performance itself: the sound was good — in clubs, at least our ones, you don't encounter this often. The material presented was no different from before, except that the song "Zvir" was dedicated to Vynohradar =). In general they played better than last time, though perhaps that was due to the club's driving atmosphere. Among the shortcomings one must note a certain "Soviet-era" quality to the sound. The impression forms that the band arrived from somewhere in the early-to-mid 1990s.
After them the stage was taken by the long-established Ukrainian underground band CONQUEST. This band was performing after a very prolonged absence from the Ukrainian power scene, and it was their performance I had been looking forward to most. And I was disappointed :(. No — none of that drive that is felt in the recordings (which, one would think, should be the other way around) — the sound was flat, the material uninteresting. The one thing I liked was the well-known heavy arrangement of "Chervona Ruta". I don't know, perhaps this was all due to the updated lineup, but respect can only be given to the guitarist — he played interestingly, there was something to listen to; and anti-respect to the drummer — during the choruses the kick drum sounded too "dirty"; the impression formed that for the rest of the time he was not hitting at full force, but in the choruses was hammering as hard as he could. Though in fairness it should be noted that I was probably the only one who did not enjoy their performance — the audience received them very well.
And then WITCH HUNTER appeared on stage — the organisers themselves, who were supposed to be presenting their new album. Ha, a new album — right. In my view there were only two compositions that hadn't been heard before; the rest was more or less familiar to the audience. They played well, the sound was excellent, the crowd was already fully fired up. The last song was a cover of "Warlord" by MANOWAR. At this point MC CROCODIL decided to organise a mosh pit. It worked. Even I took part, though I earned a bump on the head =).
In general one can say it was a good concert in a good club. I hope it won't be the last one at this establishment.