This time we had a trip beyond the limits of our native capital — to the historic city of Chernihiv, where we arrived to witness the action event "The Wind of Change," organised by the local youth centre Apelsin. Well then, let us begin gradually...
Due to the unreliable transport connections between Kyiv and Chernihiv we arrived at the city's open-air summer theatre a little late. The concert had started exactly on schedule (take note and learn, gentlemen organisers of Kyiv concerts), and we missed the performances of the first two bands (I hope they won't hold it against us).
When we entered, the band UNERASE was going full throttle. These are, one might say, titans of the Kyiv metal scene, and for as long as I can remember they have been constantly experimenting with styles. This time they had promised to show us some kind of progressive-core. The guys are undoubtedly playing professionally, but I could not find anything particularly progressive about them. Standard hard-core with a heavy dose of nu-metal (in places their compositions were a bit too reminiscent of SYSTEM OF A DOWN and LINKIN PARK). Though by the middle of the set it became clear where the "progressive" prefix came from — sometimes the guys executed transitions so intricate that you needed fifteen seconds to work out what had happened to the song and why it was now continuing in a completely different rhythm with a completely different melody (well done, guys!). The vocalist handled both extreme and near-clean vocals with skill, but personally for me the necessity of the backing vocal remained a mystery — the vocalist was coping perfectly well on his own.
Next onto the stage came NATURAL SPIRIT. One immediately noticed some minor lineup changes (as it turned out, illusory): standing on stage with a guitar was none other than Alexei Orlov (F.A.I.T.) — had Kirik finally realised it's easier to sing without a guitar? Concert organiser Stas, together with the audience, spent a long time trying to coax Kirik (the Naturals' vocalist and leader) onto the stage; and when he finally made his appearance on stage, everything fell into place. As it emerged, Mr. Orlov had simply come out to tune his colleague's guitar (curious that Kirik had forgotten how to tune one). I constantly have the feeling that some curse has been placed on NATURAL SPIRIT — however often I listen to them, the sound is always a little muddled (whereas if they were properly mixed they would simply tear any hall to pieces). But even poor sound didn't stop them setting the crowd on fire — and the powerful girls with their fire-show certainly contributed to that, almost literally. The home crowd received the guys with open throats — the hall sang practically every song along with Kirik.
Finally the moscow band BUTTERFLY TEMPLE took the stage. This year they arrived with a second vocalist, who took on all extreme vocal duties, leaving the clean vocals to specialists, and devoted himself to working with the audience. He barely left the edge of the stage, in constant communication with the crowd. The somewhat unclear guitar sound was compensated by simply battering vocals that, in the literal sense of the word, made everything around tremble. This was one of those rare occasions when a band sounds a whole order better live than on record. Songs were played predominantly from the new album Vremya Mary, though the musicians also delighted the audience with old hits such as "Volki Odina." I'll be frank: after the BUTTERFLY TEMPLE performance I had no desire to listen to anyone else — but I overcame that treacherous urge to leave, and I must say it was very much worth it.
A small surprise for the audience came in the form of a performance by legendary guitarist Sergei Chanturiya — he cooled the audience down slightly with a short but very substantial set in the style of JOE SATRIANI. One gets the impression that Sergei has simply grown into his guitar, and it is an inseparable part of him. He derived no less pleasure from his performance than the audience in the hall. Predominantly quieter pieces were played (music more for women, as the performer himself said). After such a relaxing performance the audience was ready for further musical jolts, and they were not long in coming.
Another celebrated Chernihiv band appeared on stage: CRYSTAL SWORD. They presented the audience with something like Melodic Death of the Chernihiv variety. Solid, technical, undemanding but sufficiently heavy music wouldn't let the audience stand still — it pulled people toward the stage to go absolutely mad there. Playing with one guitar, bass, and drums, Crystal Sword produced quite a dense sound from the PA; the guys demonstrated by their own example that one doesn't have to burden oneself with complex parts and super-intricate transitions to play solid, quality music.
The visitors from the glorious city of Homel, ZVIK, need no special introduction (we have seen them before, since they had come both to the Metal Heads' Mission festival in Yevpatoria and to Chernihiv directly). Though it personally seems to me that the guys are openly copying their music from KORN — nonetheless people like it, and so they occupy their niche in the world of heavy music. They themselves characterise their music as nu-metal or alternative. In my view the music is a little primitive, but this is compensated by its drive and, undoubtedly, by the band's behaviour on stage — the musicians put all their skills into acrobatics and headbanging. ZVIK delighted the audience with a cover of Zdob și Zdub. During the performance one of the guitarists got so carried away that he managed to snap the seventh string of his guitar — but this mishap didn't stop the band from continuing. The band fulfilled its mission on this stage and departed to the shouts and cries of the heated crowd.
MASTER... what a wealth of meaning in that name. For the second year running the "masters" have delighted us with their appearance on the stage of the Chernihiv summer theatre. These gentlemen have been delighting us with their music since we were in nappies (since many of us were indeed in nappies back in 1987). But let us return to the present day... MASTER didn't keep us waiting long and launched straight into high-speed stage movements from bassist and guitarist. I won't even mention Strayk's acrobatic numbers with his guitar. Songs from the latest albums were interspersed with the immortal hits we knew from the ARIA days ("Vstan, strakh zdolay," "Volya i Rozum," "Tut kuyut Metal") and hits produced under the MASTER name ("Khresty," "Berezhys," "Ruky het"). Though personally their set seemed a little short to me. But no one was complaining — because it really was a masterful performance. The final song ("Volya i Rozum") was sung by the entire hall at full volume alongside Lex. I think there was not a single person in the hall who left dissatisfied with MASTER's performance.
Well... the ball was over, the candles extinguished — and we set off on a long journey through the early-morning Chernihiv, since the last train had left long since.