Grá - Serpent Noir

Another great black metal evening. I didn't expect that much, but actually it was one of the best shows this year!

When I arrived at Kyttaro the greek band "Serpent Noir" were playing. They play very enjoyable black metal with occult touches. This was a promising start into the night.

After a little delay, finally Grá came on stage, sporting a complete white make up. So not the usual black metal corpsepaint with black highlights, just pure white. Very impressive on a dark stage when their faces are lit up now and then. The greek audience needed only one song to get into the mood and start being really active. What a joy to see!

There could have been just a little bit more people tonight and I was afraid that there would be a lack of enthusiasm, but this fear was swiped away immediately. Grá features on vocals Heljarmaðr who also sings for Dark Funeral. Of course his main band will attract people, but Grá definitely deserves it.

(following two pics from Facebook friends, the last is my own)

Grá are doom influenced black metal with a lot of references to death but also occultism. The show was spiced up with a satanic (?) bible that Heljarmaðr showed us pages of, later ripping them out and handing them to the people. The show also featured some nooses, that were used for dramatic effect and also were handed to the people afterwards! Very cool scenes there..

I want to also point out that their mini tour with some 7 or 8 shows around Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece was printed on an extra shirt and shirts were only 5 euro. woah nice! ok, maybe they didn't want to carry them home to Sweden, understandable, but still! I got their CD and the tour shirt and was overwhelmed with joy, haha!

A great evening thus, with a band that I had only once listened to previously, deemed it good and then got surprised so much! Also Grá named the tour "A coin for Charon" and I loved it how he pointed out that finally Charon is coming back to where he belongs to, to this ancient country we are fortunate to live in. 

Jag står nu mitt i elden, med ett leende, medan världen runt omkring mig tystnar. 

- Daedin

Батюшка - Batushka

Finally more shows after the summer break! So it was time for Batushka. The concept is crazily good. Polish Black Metal with orthodox liturgy, kind of the black metal pendant to Ghost, masking their faces and staying anonymous. And it works so well for both bands.



The stage features an icon of Maria and baby Jesus, with wiped off faces, liturgical candles and a three piece choir for the liturgical chants. Let the blasphemy begin then!



The band, as far as I got it, played their whole debut album, so some 45 minutes of music, and that was it. Some might say this was too short, but hey, going to church would be about the same, haha!



It was fascinating how well the chants work with the singers black metal screams. The music was driving, energetic, very enjoyable indeed! It's thrilling to see some bands with a completely new idea how to work with black metal. And how come no one thought of this earlier, since it works so well in a beautifully blasphemic way! Well done Batushka and thank you for the mass!



Come together, together as one
Come together, together for Lucifer's son

Daedin