The Moshville Times - Review: Kataklysm / Septic Flesh / Aborted

[avatar =”Martin” size=”100″ align=”left” /] Glasgow has had some really great gigs recently. Indeed there are so many that it’s difficult to get along to all the ones that I would like to. Tonight there is another big name band in town, at another venue, and I wondered if this would split the crowd and how many people would be along to this show tonight. When I arrived at the Audio on what turned out to be a horrible gloomy, freezing, Glasgow evening the place was absolutely packed. It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many people turn out so early to catch the whole bill.

Belgian based Aborted are first up tonight. The band formed back in 1995 and have recently released their latest E.P Termination Redux which s a back catalogue of eight studio albums. Their brand of hard-hitting brutality seems to have quite a fanbase here in Glasgow and right from the off there’s a few in the crowd moshing away. “Meticulous Invagination” sets the tone for the set and the intensity level never really lets up. “You guys alive out there!” shouts singer Sven De Caluwe and I have to say I was wondering the same thing.

While the venue is packed, and most people have turned up early to see this band, the crowd isn’t moving much. I wondered if they were saving their energy for the following bands but eventually with some encouragement from the band a small pit finally gets going. Sven makes good use of the stage and is an impressive frontman, his voice sounds great, indeed the sound in general is excellent. Termination Redux is one of the highlights of the set for me, Ken Bedene’s ridiculously fast double bass drumming is amazing, and the slow doomy section complete with guitar solo sounds awesome. A slightly tame wall of death, encouraged by Sven, takes place during “Bound in Acrimony” and the crowd seemed to be warming up a bit. There’s even a few crowd surfers in the latter part of the set. “Saw and the Carnage Done” finishes off an impressive set from these guys. Aborted will be releasing their new album Retrogore in April so make sure to check that out.

Aborted: official | facebook | twitter | myspace

Setlist:

Meticulous Invagination
Parasitic Flesh Resection
Necrotic Manifesto
Hecatomb
Coffin Upon Coffin
Termination Redux
Expirgation Euphoria
The Holocaust Reincarnate
Bound in Acrimony
Sanguine Verses
Threading Prelude
Saw and the Carnage Done

It’s been over 20 years that I’ve been waiting to see Septic Flesh. I buying Mystic Places of Dawn back in 1994 and then being completely blown away by Esoptron in 1995. As far as I’m aware this is the first time the guys have been to Scotland and to be honest I never thought I’d get a chance to see them live.

After the short orchestral intro we’re into “War in Heaven” from their latest album Titan. Christos Antoniou, on guitar, is a mass of swirling dreads as his hair windmills along in time with the music.

Spiros looks like he’s stepped off a Dracula movie set with his black rubber armored top, his bass slung impossibly low around his knees. The sound is pretty much perfect and with the backing track in the background it sounds absolutely epic. “Scotland are you ready my friends?”, I’ve been ready for over two decades and it’s amazing to finally see these guys. “My friends are you ready for Communion”, Spiros is very chatty throughout and I think he pretty much introduces every song. While the crowd clap and cheer at the end of each song when I look around there’s quite a few that look slightly confused and I have to say I’m disappointed that Glasgow doesn’t seem to know their material. There’s a few moshing away in the first couple of rows, but no pit or stage divers during the set. The band themselves however are awesome. Probably the highlight of the set for me was “Pyramid God” from The Great Mass, the hairs on my arms just stood up and it was very much a goosebump moment. Like most of their material tonight it’s just such a powerful song full of creeping darkness and evil. The musicianship and songwriting skills are just awe inspiring, there’s so much more variety in their songs than a typical death metal band. All the songs tonight were taken from their last three albums; I would have liked to have seen some of the older classic tracks being played but i’d also have liked to have seen a two hour set from them rather than the forty minutes that they played. I could have listened to them all night and I hope one day I can catch a headlining show from these legends. It was worth the twenty year wait but I’m now just left wanting more. I hope we see them again in Scotland.

Septic Flesh: official | facebook | twitter | youtube

Setlist:

War in Heaven
Communion
Order of Dracul
Pyramid God
Prototype
The Vampire from Nazareth
Anubis
Prometheus

“You say that you didn’t… cause all this. Your God did. I am the God! I am the God! So let’s just see who’s more effective at killing: You, this God, or me”; it’s a great line, and a great intro which will be familiar to those who have the new album Of Ghosts and Gods. It is of course the spoken introduction to “Breaching the Asylum”. Again I’m surprised that it’s only really the first couple of rows that are moshing along to this one. “Hey I know it’s Tuesday….let’s get some fuckin’ movement”. At last the crowd wakes up a bit and a bit finally get’s a pit going during “As I Slither”. “I can’t hear you, are you here? us at the edge of the fucking world”; this has to be one of my favourite songs from the set “At the Edge of the World”. Of course as you would expect from Kataklysm their playing is tight and faultless.

Drummer Oli Beaudoin doesn’t seem to break a sweat and makes it all look so effortless. Jean-Francois Dagenais (Guitar) and Stephane Barbe (Bass) never stop moving throughout the set and for the most part their heads are down with their hair flailing. Singer Maurizio Iacono often s the other guys at the front in synchronised head banging. Maurizio enjoys chatting to the crowd throughout the set, conversing with some Italians in the crowd, in Italian, and also showing real concern for a girl who, standing at the barrier, unfortunately suffered a burst nose after a crowd surfer accidently banged into her. She got up on the stage and waved her fist defiantely with blood dripping down her face. “She’s fine….she’s a trooper” remarks Maurizio. It’s always a hazard at this kind of gig, accidents happen. Not everyone tonight took these incidents in good humour though as I found out when a girl, standing blocking the door and with her hands on a metal barrier, trembling angrily said she’d punch me if I bumped into her again. Apparently I’d accidently backed into her hand. If you can’t handle the crowd moving around a bit and people bumping into each other then, to be honest, death metal gigs propbably aren’t for you.

I have to it that I came along tonight mainly to see Septic Flesh but Kataklysm really impressed me too. They put on a great performance as did all the bands tonight. It’s a line-up you don’t want to miss and if you can get along to a show near you then don’t hesitate to do so. Great night.

Kataklysm: official | facebook | twitter
Setlist: