1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman, 5 "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
"Look at the crowd. What will it be like for SAMAEL?" — I overheard two bald security guards chatting as I collected my winter coat from the cloakroom. And this is what 28 April brought. The concert began for me back at the music store "Delikatesy Stereo," where I had wandered in to get autographs and spend some time with the band. The first thing that struck me was their "smallness" and refinement, because in photographs, music videos, and other video snippets they had always seemed like tall, imposing men to me. Not to mention that Vorph — for all his role as the fearsome and terrible Wizard — turned out to be a quiet, modest, and very polite person, which put me into a complete stupor. The guys were signing CDs, booklets, postcards, and didn't even mind leaving their names on ordinary white notebook pages with lines (specially for schoolgirls). The musicians happily posed for photos with fans, shook their hands, and simply enjoyed communicating with their russian friends.
Evening fell. And then only a few minutes remained before the concert. People wandered through the Tochka with a sense of anticipation of something special — legends surround Mr. Vorph and company's concerts. You'd search long for such unrestrained and uninhibited "stars of foreign stage."
Our warm-up act, however, performed at best to a C-minus grade. The band SLOT, try as they might, failed to ignite the crowd. Everyone stood with sour expressions watching the guys bounce around the stage and wail into microphones. I'll say it straight away — all their songs for some reason (curious what might cause that?) reminded me of various variations on one composition called "Nebo" by the unforgettable collective I.F.K. But as a finale they "kind of" wanted to please the public (they'd have done better not to) with what has already become a classic: "Say Just Words" by PARADISE LOST. It would have been interesting to hear it without their vocalists.
Approximately fifteen minutes later our second local band INSIDE YOU appeared. Throughout their entire set the guys were tuning their equipment. A "technical" collective, and nothing more. Their music was a mixture of such sources of inspiration as DESTRUCTION, DEATH, and SAMAEL — which, under the circumstances, was not surprising; and in one song one could clearly hear ARIA's "Zhanna." But everything ends sooner or later, and having played their set they departed.
To the sound of fanfare intros, they appeared — the stars of the evening. The crowd greeted their idols with cheering and chanting "S-A-M-A-E-L." I had heard much about Mr. Vorph's trousers that strongly resemble a skirt, and now I could see them — though certain not especially well-informed citizens were sniggering that he had come out wearing a female garment.
To simply say they set the audience on fire one hundred percent would be to say nothing. The crowd was rolling in waves in rhythm toward the stage and back. Mass was ripping it up with his bass, behaving like a wound spring — his jumps were simply astonishing. It seemed unbelievable that such a small person could contain so much energy; and with each new song he grew more wound up. Throughout the entire concert he simply never stood still. Marco was the calmest (if such an expression can apply here) compared to his bandmates — he simply played guitar. Mr. Xy was delivering crushing rhythms on the drums and returning to his electronics. And finally Vorph himself — to describe his actions in words is very, very difficult. He is simply an endless battery for charging the crowd, which keeps working, working, and working. His facial expressions, gestures, and movements were so fluid, beautiful, and mesmerising that one could simply forget about the music and watch him with fascination. At times he reminded me of a serpent hypnotising everyone present with his unique voice — perhaps that is what was happening, who knows. This impression intensified particularly when he sang a couple of songs without his guitar. The emphasis was naturally on the latest album, from which a very large number of songs were played. During "On Earth," Vorph specifically emphasised a couple of lines with his intonation — for the uninitiated, I refer to "moscow to Mexico..." and "Hong Kong to st. petersburg." Between songs he delivered standard phrases like "SpasibO"; occasionally he even managed to pronounce them without an accent. A couple of times he had problems with his guitar, but these faded into the background as everyone was absorbed in the charge of energy emanating from the entire band.
All my expectations were fulfilled. I had thought this concert would be insane — and it turned out even better. But to my regret — and I think this concerned many others as well — they did not play "Together," which I very much wanted to hear. The guys came back out for the encore only once.
Whatever one says, it was not quite enough — barely over an hour in total. Everyone failed to get their fill of SAMAEL live. Now all that remains is to wait for the musicians to pay us their third visit.
Setlist: Intro Rain Shining Kingdom Inch Allah Reign Of Light On Earth The Cross Oriental Dawn Telepath Nautilus And Zeppelin Black Trip Baphomet's Throne High Above Moongate Infra Galaxia The Ones Who Came Before
Encore: Jupiterian Vibe My Saviour Outro