A review from the gig in Rotterdam by Loek
Sick like a dog, drowning in unfinished business and aware of the upcoming hangover from this night, but hell; misery is what I live for!
That de Baroeg was the correct place when looking for that became immediately
clear as I heard the first notes of Pantheïst already from way outside.
The baroeg-website told me the first band was supposed to start at 20.30,
and so 20.30 was when I entered. Sadly, Pantheïst had already started
their set before my entrance, and therefore I only saw ‘Envy us’,
and the song which title fully matches with my own feelings when waking
up the next mo(u)rning, ‘Curse the morning light’. On the
contrary to the previous gigs the keyboards where now sampled, which resulted
in the fact that vocalist Kostas now had all the freedom of movement to
express his feelings, that come along with Pantheïst’s funereal
doom. As far as music like this can grow big, Pantheïst sure has
all the potential and I can’t wait to see ‘em again on the
Skepticism-tour!
Second band, The Prophecy flew in from the United Kingdom to perform
on this ‘Doomination of Europe tour’.
Their doom is less extreme as Pantheist’s is, and I think this explains
the overwhelming crowd reaction. All songs came from the bands first 2
demo’s, and can obvious be labeled as DOOM. However, the material
is really diverse and therefore very attractive as it is influenced by
death metal, but quite some black as well, which is quite unusual but
very appreciable! Of course influenced by that other British band (no,
not Sabbath) but certainly original enough to justify their spot on the
bill.
The Prophecy ‘s live performance was really entertaining too. Good
sound, good presentation and above all; good songs, such as ‘Dawn’,
‘Ashes’, ‘Killing fields’, ‘Blackened desire’,
‘The prophecy’ and new song ‘Cascades’!
Third band, third country of origin. Ireland’s Mourning Beloveth
have just released their second full-length release, ‘The sullen
sulcus’, which I hadn’t heard before this gig. Too bad, since
half of the ‘huge’ setlist consisted of new songs.
Opening song however, was of the by me very beloveth ‘Dust’
release; ‘In mourning my days’. Despite the band being on
the road for nearly 2 weeks, the quality of the clean vocals still was
amazing. After this song it was time for some new stuff. Two songs, that
together lasted almost half an hour and were called ‘Narcissistic
funeral’ and ‘the words that crawled’. Stirring, rousing
and above all heavy! After this M.B. announced to my surprise their last
song, but I kinda forgot that these three took ‘em about 40 minutes
already.
Back to the old days, back to The mountains! (are mine)
After having heard ‘The sullen sulcus’ a couple of times now,
I can say that the songs were greatly brought to life on stage!
Despite the qualities of the first three bands, most people seemed to
have come for/only knew the American heavyweights of Morgion! New line-up,
new chances. After having been around for 10 years, and having faced way
too much bad luck, it was about time they crossed that fucking ocean to
doom our European asses off!
And so it happened; 9 songs, including one coversong were nearly enough
to tear down the walls of the Baroeg. Just as the with the previous bands
was Morgion’s focus on their latest (unrecorded and unreleased)
album ‘Cloaked by ages, crowned by earth’; Mourner’s
oak, Cairn, Crowned in earth & A slow succumbing.
The epic doommasterpiece ‘Solinari’ was good for two songs
in tonight’s set; ‘All the sorrow...all the loss’ and
‘Nightfall eternal’. You don’t hear me complaining,
but this did mean there was room for only one ‘Among majestic ruin’-song,
and since that is by far my favorite album, I would have liked more songs
of it. Luckily that one song was the groundbreaking heavy ‘Invalid
protigee’.
Both newcomers handled their task really well, esp. ex-Mindrot vocalist
Adrian put himself in the spotlights (which of course also had something
to do with him being the vocalist..)
The coversong was about as original as a deathmetalband covering Slayer’s
‘Reign in blood’, but hell, who doesn’t like to hear
Candlemass getting covered by Morgion?!?