Lost Memories blog (in English): X-MASS NOIZE NIGHT VIII - BLINDEAD, BELZEBONG, THAW, THE DEAD GOATS 27.12.12, Gdynia, Poland (review + photo & video)

X-MASS NOIZE NIGHT VIII

at UCHO Club (Gdynia, Poland)

27.12.12.

with BLINDEAD, BELZEBONG,

THAW, THE DEAD GOATS

Прочитать эту статью на русском языке можно здесь: http://lostmemories-art.blogspot.ru/

The annual festival X-Mass Noize Night VIII was held at club Ucho in Gdynia on December 27th.

Here already for eight years at the end of the year the most interesting bands of the Polish metal-scene gather on the stage of this club and this concert is one of the brightest events of Tricity musical life (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia), constantly drawing attention of a great number of fans of this type of music.

Annually the festival is organized by efforts of the guys from the famous post-metal band Blindead, who thus finish the year, summing it up and inviting to the concert friendly groups from all over the country.

During the festival X-Mass Noize Night a considerable quantity of excellent groups featured performances on its stage, among which were: Tides From Nebula, God's Own Prototype, Broken Betty, Psychollywood, Octopussy, Merkabah and many others.

This year the entry list also looked very impressive. In the program took part: The Dead Goats, Thaw, Belzebong and also Blindead, traditionally finishing the show. Thus, in one night there was a chance to see on the stage the excellent representatives of different heavy genres from penetrative death'n'roll/death metal performed by The Dead Goats and a furious mix of post-black metal/sludge/noise by Thaw, to stoner/doom by severe guys from Belzebong and doom/sludge/post-metal by Blindead. That is why we could not overlook such an event and went to Gdynia to be in the heart of the action.

It was our third trip to X-Mass, but this time we were lucky to get to club by the time the gear were being loaded on the stage before the soundcheck and we had a chance to estimate the excellent organization, teamwork of technicians and musicians, perfect sound and light in the club.

Thaw at Blindead's soundcheck

The first band appeared on stage were The Dead Goats, blowing up the silence by powerful riffs, shattering rhythm section and the strongest power. In spite of the fact that the group is young enough, their first album Path of the Goat, released in July 2012, had been perfectly accepted by critics, got 5 out of 5 from the Terrorizer magazine. The guys play the most energetic music, which is implanted in death-metal and is not afraid of punk rock, and this mix sounds really powerful, boldly and rustle. The live performance of the guys was very strong and left excellent impression, having become a great start of an incredibly cool night.

The Dead Goats on Facebook

The Dead Goats Bandcamp

After The Dead Goats the gloomy guys from Thaw climbed the stage. As it has already been told, the group performs an edgy mix of post-black metal, sludge and noise. At present the guys have some releases: full length album decay [MMX], EP - advance [MMXII], and a single Ancestors from the forthcoming album.

The music by Thaw instantly dips into the gloomy nihilistic atmosphere. The extreme moments shining in its fury are replaced by atmospheric transitions with the hypnotic chanting, which prepare the listener to the next stage of an acoustic genocide in which you are brought down into a chaotic, brutal, agonizing clot of destructive sound. Alive Thaw sounded even more powerfully than on records, and the set ended by long improvised drone, which became the excellent contrast to their shattering performance. Thaw were magnificent.

Video: Thaw at X-Mass Noize Night VIII:

THAW on Facebook

THAW - Bandcamp

The performance of two excellent bands in a row let us think that something no less and even more powerful awaits us further. And our expectations met when Belzebong had got up on the stage.

Smoke shut down the stage slowly, green light filled the hall, long-haired guys picked up their guitars, turned on their vintage amps and the time of doom finally came. The guys blasted and it was really heavy. Literally bending under almost physically felt weight of their own sound, they brought down on heads of the listeners a slow and inevitable stream of rumpling bones riffs. Clouds of smoke curled on the stage and the thundering Belzebong did their rituals. The guys did mad stoner/doom, perfectly getting around without a vocal as such. Powerful riffs keep the listener not giving a chance to pry away from the shamanism on the stage, fat, fuzzy, rumbling sound enters into minds together with the greenish fog spilling out into the hall from the stage, the drooping heads of musicians are covered by long hair, their figures are almost dissolved in a ghostly green mist and from the very first chords of Bong Thrower you understand - these guys know what real doom is.

Video: Belzebong at X-Mass Noize Night VII:

Belzebong on Facebook

Belzebong Bandcamp

http://belzebong.8merch.com/

http://belzebong.bigcartel.com/

http://www.myspace.com/belzebong

In 2011 Belzebong released their debut album Sonic Scapes and Weedy Grooves which was perfectly accepted both by public and critics and which is one of the heaviest albums on today's stoner/doom scene, combining perfect riffs, powerful fuzzy sound of low-tuned guitars, and drive, drive and once again drive.

And the time of the last set of the night has come. Blindead changed stunning Belzebong on stage. Blindead possess original sounding and create so unique atmosphere that immerses the listener in its own reality at once, no matter who performed before them. And this sensation is worth to visit their show even for once. Blindead’s music is really versatile — it varies from rigid, stunning sludge-metal riffage, to slow doomy riffs and long, laid-back ambient passages. Two guitars, bass, keyboard and effects, free vocal and drums create perfect magic of a sound, and live visuals in parallel complement perfectly a sound canvas created in front of the listener. Six persons on stage are great masters: guitars - Mateusz Śmierzchalski (also known as Havoc), earlier having played with the Behemoth and Marek Zieliński, perfectly supplement each other, bass — Matteo Basolli, who moved to Poland from Italy specially for working with the band and already has become its integral part together with incredible drums which Konrad Ciesielski is responsible for, vocal — Patrik Zwoliński, possessing a unique timbre and equally uses the scream and the clean vocal, being original calling card of the group, and Bartosz Hervy, who is responsible for keyboards, samples and effects, without which the music of Blindead would lose the lion's share of expression.

The Blindead’s shows – are each time a new experience bearing the opening of their music from a new part. It was our fifth visit to their show already (once we even visited the excellent performance of the group before the great Ulver) but, it seems, this set was one of their best performances ever. The atmosphere in Ucho throughout the night was just cool — it was a feeling of meeting of all friends united by passion to music and the Blindead’s performance was the culmination of this night — here they belong and have set of fans who greet them warmly.

Blindead began their set with trance epic track Impulse from their EP of the same name (2009). This composition which lasts 16 minutes perfectly sensitized the listeners to the right wave-length. And then the guys did their best sets from the albums Autoscopia/Murder in Phazes (2008) and Affliction XXIX II MXMVI (2010).

The performance of the last album’s song Affliction... was the end of the main part of the set and after the encore the guys were back and finished the performance by great track from the same album My New Playground, where the backing vocals were done by Matteo Basolli. It was the excellent set and it was clear that the performance delivered pleasure both to musicians and the listeners. Blindead were leaving the stage accompanied by loud applause and by the unexpected accompaniment of music by ABBA.

The eighth X-Mass Noize Night passed perfectly and we are very glad that such great metal-fest annually is passed so close to Kaliningrad.