Ulver

this band needs no introduction to fans of norwegian black metal. their black metal trilogy bergtatt/kveldssanger/nattens madrigal is something that will stay cemented in black metal history. also because of kveldssanger being so different and already showing glimpses of what Ulver would become.

Ulver moved away from black metal then and turned towards basically everything. there is nothing these guys cannot do. from dark electro, to more straightforward EBM, to jazz, classical, prog, avantgarde, everything. this makes them so remarkable.

so arriving at gagarin for the show in my varathon shirt i quickly realised that we, the black metal community that was here because we know Ulver from back then, are actually rather a minority. most people looked like they discovered Ulver later. not that this is a bad thing, this band deserves recognition from all kinds of people! it surprised me nevertheless. because Ulver is a band that has to be mentioned when talking about the norwegian second wave of black metal.

but now to the show. they concentrated on electronic sounds. this was amazing and their lightshow was something i surely will not forget. the sound was thriving, full of energy, captivating! i was dancing and enjoyed it very much. of course this has nothing to do with black metal anymore and i was there to bow before this mighty band, actually enjoying this a hell lot, too. i had no idea what to expect and they surprised me positively!

my favourite song must have been "so falls the world" as well as the last monumental song, which i have to find the name of. thank you Ulver for this experience! yet another example that you do not have to stick to black metal to be legends.

as colossus stands
so shall rome
when colossus falls
rome shall fall
when rome falls
so falls the world

- Daedin

Mayhem

have i been waiting for this a lot? OH YES! the show had been scheduled for mid-april and then was changed to end of may. this made me really anxious, but finally the big day arrived! mayhem are a band you simply cannot miss. they were the first band of the second wave of black metal, kick starting the norwegian scene.

of course mayhem have had some changes in personnel as we all know. but the core of the band is still there.. hellhammer, necrobutcher, teloch and also attila. the only new "face" is ghul. especially after i read necrobutcher's book "dead archives" i really was excited to see him perform.

the evening started with ravencult, a pretty good greek black metal band. they were enjoyable and got a lot of headbanging going. almost on time, at 10.30, the lights went off and we were greeted with a lighted up nidarosdom, the cover picture of de mysteriis dom sathanas. (above pic is mine, the others are not and i grabbed them from Facebook)

the band played the whole album from start to finish, in the correct order. we of course expected that and you can imagine how i went wild when it was freezing moon's turn. what a perfect song! this was oh so good. mayhem were amazing, attila keeps the mystery alive, not speaking to the crowd at all, creating a quite fascinating bleak, cold and mysterious aura. awesome.

i somehow expected them to play some more songs after the album, just as apocalyptica did, but after one hour they were finished. it was short, yes, but exactly what they had announced to do. and that was awesome. people got into moshpits, i was on the edge of those and a lot of people grabbing was involved, haha, to keep upright! awesome night, still somehow in the mood of this masterpiece of norwegian black metal..

when it's dark and when it's cold
the freezing moon can obsess you

- Daedin

Diamanda Galás

well, you might think what is a opera singer doing in a black metal blog? sounds like a relevant question. but let me explain why Diamanda belongs here like no one else.

Diamanda has, from the beginning, been a big influence on the metal scene, particularly the black metal scene. her style is not comparable to anyone else. her songs, her voice, her performance are full of grief, menace, even despair. she is part of darkness and darkness is within her. she is exceptional.

Sakis Tolis of rotting christ has followed her since her beginnings and is a huge fan. rotting christ collaborated with her for their album "aealo" where she sings "oder of the dead", a really fantastic, touching song full of pain and misery. Frost, or Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad of Satyricon and 1349 names her as one of his beloved acts. Diamanda even headlined Roadburn Festival, a pure metal festival in Netherlands.

so she is much respected in the whole metal scene, especially the black metal scene. when her concert was announced there was no way i would not go. i took my mom-in-law and my friend Giota with me. the night was an experience i will not so easily forget. she is formidable in her range of voice. she will growl, scream, do unbelievable things with her voice. and let me tell you, she is avantgarde, this is not easy listening! this brings you to the edge of what you can endure!

this is the setlist i have gathered from another site: fernand, shAkwoman, la llorona, προσφυγας, a soul that's been abused, die stunde kommt, ανοιξε πετρα, o death, artemis, i've got someone to kill, let my people go. the crowd was enthusiastic, the last three songs were all encores. and yes, there were a lot of metal people present that evening. diamanda is quite a phenomenon, coming from such a different musical scene and still attracting so many (black) metal fans. 

i was sure that Sakis of rotting christ would be there to see her. but i didn't expect him to linger around outside the trianta hall at megaron mousikis after the concert. but there he was, talking enthusiastically to some people about what we just had witnessed. i politely asked him for a picture and we chatted a while and guys, from interviews i have seen i knew what a great person he is. but in reality it's one thousand times better! :D after a quick chat about germany and my home and rotting christ's last shows in athens, we called it a night. fantastic, really. i'm so very happy :D 

o lieb solang du lieben kannst,

o lieb solang du lieben magst!

die stunde kommt, die stunde kommt

wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst

- Daedin 

Aherusia - Prometheus

This one needs some explanation. this band is a folk black metal band and they exist since 1997. they have three albums out and are quite interesting indeed. the name of the band is actually the river that leads to the underworld and it exists in reality in greece and is called 'Αχερουσια.

A friend of mine told me about the band and i really wanted to see them live. their release gig of the new album was in the day i spent in manchester to see ghost, so i could not make it. they played another show to open up for rotting christ, but i actually saw the rotting christ show the day before that. so i missed both opportunities and was sad about that. so when i heard that they will combine their new album with theatre, i knew i was going to go.

i asked my mom-in-law to go with me and she did! i did not tell her that this is a black metal band, but ok.. haha! i do roughly know the story of prometheus, but this was more about the people and how they reacted to the gift of fire. a very good concept and interesting idea to have the whole band present, playing the whole album while actors would sing and dance.

on account of the music it was perfect. i loved it. the music was fantastic and i had to tap my foot now and then and shake the head, a bit. just a bit, haha :D great performance. now the acting and the play was something else. it was written in the ancient greek dialect of the alexandrians, in nowadays egypt. this was very hard to understand and we got subtitles on screens, but still it was tough.

well, i knew i was in for something like an ancient greek tragedy, so the acting, dancing etc was in that style. this is of course something you either like or find it terribly boring. i would have enjoyed this much more, if i actually understood what is going on. this was a bit sad. but i must say hats off to the band for this great idea, the awesome concept and their truly magnificent music. i wish more people would learn about this and go see it.

into the deep, down falling, even to eternity down falling,
and weep

- Daedin

Zeal and Ardor

This was a show I was quite impatiently waiting for. I had only heard about this because three shades of black promoted this and I checked the band out. At that point there are only three songs publicly available but they already blew me away. It was something never heard before.

Zeal and Ardor is one guy, Manuel, who is half swiss, half afro american. He was working as a DJ and got as a challenge a mash up of black metal and "nigger music" as it was called in the challenge. what he made with it is amazing. It's slave music, chants and working songs, that were sung on the fields. And he combines this with driving, quite straight forward black metal. amazing.

the main theme is about slaves who are working on the fields. after years of praying to god, they see that he does not help them so they turn to the devil for solace and for relief from their pain and oppression. the songs have so much soul, they have a amazing feeling to them. and then there are the devil's screams, the dark and satanic side to this music.. wow!

the show happened in ilion plus and the place was packed. it was awesome to see that many greeks have heard about this amazing music. this is something quite unique and i think this man is the only one in the world who plays this kind of music. what a thrill! it truly was an experience that i will never forget.

the above picture is my own from the show. the second guy on vocals was fantastic, too and the band seems to really feel it and form a unity. mind-blowing evening.

devil is fine - he go by many names
devil is kind - we gonna go home to the flames

- Daedin

Ghost

yes ok. you might not agree that this belongs to a black metal blog. ghost are not black metal musically, but they are spiritually, lyrically and through their image. in that sense they are more black metal than many bands. ghost are the pope, not for above, but for below, and his ghouls.

i must admit i regretted it bitterly when i didn't go see them during a festival in greece in 2015. just a few months later i got to know them and fell in love completely. so i decided to go to the UK to see them, together with my sister who has become a huge fan, too. and this was such a good idea! a club gig is anyway better than a festival performance.

ghost started playing at 9.15 pm sharp and started the night off with square hammer. after that one  great song followed the next, from all of their three albums as well as the popestar EP. my favourites were year zero, monstrance clock, ghuleh/zombie queen as well as the most anticipated Cirice. we were massively headbanging there!

what a joy it was to see this band live and scream or sing along to the blasphemous, satanic lyrics, what a joy to get emotional with "he is" and praise satan, papa, the ghouls, all the demons and devils! hail darkness, hail satan! it's something special when one entire concert hall screams at the top of their lungs those blasphemous words! wonderful.

i'm in love with ghost and what they have created, their vision and their genius idea. i hope that we will have them for many more years still. i feel more than happy to have been able to see them live and enjoy their ritual.

the world is on fire - and you are here to stay and burn with me
a funeral pyre - and we are here to revel forevermore

- Daedin

Rotting Christ

Finally the big day was here.. the day of the rotting christ concert! and i say it like it is a really big thing, and it is. i have been waiting for this so long, ever since i got to know the band, and i couldn't wait to see them!

Actually the show sold out early enough, with 2500 tickets gone, so they added a second show on sunday, where rotting christ play the whole thy mighty contract as well as some other songs. as tempting as it was, i decided to only go on saturday, and that was more than ok.

i arrived late, but this was my choice. i just left my coat at the garderobe and bought a girlie shirt, entered the hall and the opening tune began. perfect! i found a decent spot, all the way in the back but with good view on the whole band. also enough space to headbang, great!

they played 2,5 hours. only think about this. a black metal band, nearing their 30 year existence, playing for so long without a break and selling out a 2,500 venue, twice!! wow. just.. respect! they played songs from rituals, which i was really happy about, as well as other songs i knew from older albums, like nemesis and in lumen xibalba. great great songs! i didn't know all of them, but there was no need. i got so into it and went along with all, haha!

sakis is such a great frontman. he is cheering the crowd on, he is grateful, always enthusiastic, full of power and of course headbanging, like all of them! awesome to see that they enjoy it as much as we do. my garmin vivosmart reached twice the daily amount of steps needed because of all the crazy jumping, haha! what a night indeed.

the last song was of course non serviam and we all screamed it at the top of our lungs. fans stormed the stage on sakis request and the place went nuts. what a great end to this long and so satisfying night. thank you rotting christ. they are number one in greece and they showed why they are. no one can reach this level and i love them. very much!

-Daedin

with the face of angel, in flirt with sin, his voice in eternity, NON SERVIAM

Mortiis in London

well, what can i say.. Mortiis tours again and of course I'm there! :D as soon as the dates were announced I couldn't get my thoughts straight. i had to go! so as you know from my previous entries i have seen mortiis live two times, in Finland in 2004, in Dublin 2016 and now in London.

I arrived early morning on saturday and met my sister as well as a good friend. this was awesome, too, and made the trip even so much better! at 6pm i lingered around the venue for the VIP meet and greet. me and another guy were picked up and brought inside.

this was simply fantastic and the memories will stay with me forever. we sat backstage relaxed with Levi, Tim and Håvard and chatted for about 45 minutes. we also got stuff signed, pics and just overall the nicest treatment you could think of. i love those guys, ok! i love them so much :D

after this i stayed with the other VIP guest and we chatted until the first band went onstage. they were called stereo juggernaut and were.. loud! some really catchy songs, though and a good start. the next band was seraph sin and the guy knew how to scream his anger out, wow!! i'd say both bands could be called industrial, but i'm not a real expert here.

so finally Mortiis was up! the setlist was so great! i'm gonna post here pics of the setlist from dublin and london.

 so in london we had 6 from the great deceiver, 3 from the grudge, two from smell the rain, one from perfectly defect. in dublin it was 7 from the great deceiver, 3 from the grudge, one from smell the rain and two from perfectly defect.

i was dancing, headbanging and singing along massively, got a stiff neck the next day, haha! what a great show! the crowd was active and cheering a lot, that was awesome, too.

after mortiis were finished we had one more band to go. this was Pig and they had some really good songs. i would have enjoyed this more, but actually i was absolutely dead. because of just a few hours of sleep due to the early flight, i decided to call it quits. bought a mortiis hoodie and shirt, got my VIP package stuff (my first 12inch vinyl, haha!) as well as flyers for street team work and headed happily to the hostel.

the next morning i got up after a quite good nights sleep and participated in a street art and graffiti free walking tour, which was awesome, too. some yummy curry and off i went to the airport. so i spent about 34 hours in london, and what kind of hours those were!! so glad i did this :)

La ikke livet ta din sjel,

sjelen tilhører døden.

Finn ingen glede i livet,

for der er ingen.

vi har intet sikkert,

bare døden.

Livet holder oss borte,

fra det eneste vi har.

Døden er vår egen,

la oss finne vår død.

Selvmord...

Selvmord...

-Daedin

Virus / Hail Spirit Noir / Turia

This event called Arcane Angels Festival actually happened end of October last year, but for some reason I did not talk about it then. I decided to do that now then.

This event featured three dutch black metal bands as warm up, then Greece's Hail Spirit Noir and as headliner Norway's Virus. I arrived in time for the third black metal band called Turia. They feature a female vocalist and she was actually really superb. Their style was quite depressed black metal and I remember that I enjoyed it, although this is not easy to play live and have people get interested. The style is anyway so very underground..

Next up was Hail Spirit Noir. They play some strange mix that I found was called psychedelic rock/ black metal, although I wouldn't really call them black metal. To me it was more like ritualistic or dark magic dark metal or something. Not easy to put into a category! They were really good live and the crowd got really warmed up with them.

The last act of the night was Virus. Now they are avantgarde rock and they are thus not easy at all. I must admit that they were difficult and then also not metal at all, something that set them apart very much from all other four bands. But they should be mentioned anyway, and if only because of Carl-Michael Eide. He has played in such huge black metal names as Satyricon, Ulver, Dødheimsgard and Dimmu Borgir. For this alone he is a legend and worth checking out.

He sits on stage due to an injury that left him partly paralysed. He is a very good frontman though and it was a joy to see this band play. I left a bit before the end of the show, though, since this style tired me a bit and I wanted to get away from the probably sold out place in time.

All in all a very interesting evening with a very diverse lineup and great moments. It was awesome to see that so many people attended the show and how metal fans get together for such an interesting and quite different from pure black metal event.

Οι Μάγοι, Για δώρο φέρνουν τον θάνατο επί γης. Οι Μάγοι, Τα παιδιά, θα τα σκοτώσουνε-Daedin

Typhonian black metal

finally some more black metal shows! this is greek black metal underground, does not get more underground than this, i guess! as explanation first: The Typhonian Order, previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (TOTO), is a self-initiatory magical order based in the United Kingdom that focuses on magickal and typhonian concepts.

the evening started with Heretic Cult Redeemer. the picture is somehow misleading, they were not dressed like this, sporting corpsepaint instead and although ritualistic, it was more the classic kind of style. really good to rock out to, nice vibe going on, a good start into the night.



next up was Nox Formulae. they were really interesting. six men enter the stage, drummer, rhythm and lead guitar and bass and two singers! heard of another black metal band with two singers? interesting! they also wore ski masks to hide their identities and on their Facebook page they reveal nothing about themselves. i liked them the most. they had some crazy changes in their music, lots of good passages to headbang and a very obscure air surrounding them. nice.



the last band was Acrimonious. They wore corpsepaint (red black, the guitarist only white, interesting!) and were half as many members as the previous band. they were good and i also liked their occult stage presence, but they were really fast. there were enough good riffs that i enjoyed massively headbanging to, but some songs were blasting fast and i don't enjoy that as much.



this was a great evening, a true celebration of the greek black metal underground. it was a good idea to come and witness this and to support the scene.


- Daedin

Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon

Mgła - The Dead Creed

New year and finally new concerts!! I was not planning to go to this one and decided it last minute. Very good decision, that one! There were four bands on the bill tonight and I was interested in three of them.

First of all The Dead Creed, whom I had seen before already. This was one of the main reasons why I went, actually. I bought his t-shirt now and got a sticker :) So happy, because I kind of regretted not having bought the shirt last time. The place was already filling up when he performed and there was enough enthusiasm. Very nice! The kind of music that can get you into an almost trancelike state..

Next up was Temple of Evil. Quite traditional occult black metal. The band sported corpsepaint and flowing robes. I did like some of the riffs and mood of the songs. But the intros were so different and should have set the ambience for this band, but their style was anyway too brutal for this kind of obscure atmosphere. Too bad, they show a lot of potential.

Next band was the main band for me, polish Mgła. They were superb. They play an awesome style mix, black metal for sure, but with so much self-destructive energy, darkness, self-hate, and still powerful, screaming their pain out into the world.. brilliant. They wear always their masks to hide the faces and this creates even a more impressive picture, of four faceless figures, in their torment, voicing their disappointment. I really fell in love with them and I need to listen to their back catalogue now.

After Mgła there would have been Akercocke, but I left before they came on. The place was sold out and we were all sardines, and then I had already gotten the band I wanted, Akercocke is melodic death metal and not really my cup of tea. So I left with great memories, lots of headbanging, two posters and a good start into the new black metal year!

And there is despair underneath each and every action,
each and every attempt to pierce the armour of numbness

- Daedin

Dark Funeral / Carach Angren

What a combination! What a promising lineup! When I saw this one advertised, I was ready to go crazy. I had been impatiently waiting for Carach Angren anyway, and since I saw Grá live, I knew that Heljarmadr is a great frontman.

But first up was Carach Angren. The place Kyttaro was super full and it was great to see that many fans actually came mostly for the Dutch band and not the following Swedes. Carach Angren did an awesome job. They played songs from all their albums and even one demo, they got a massive death of wall going and people went nuts. They played my favourite song "Spectral Infantry Battalion" too, and that had me headbanging massively, haha!

Up next was Dark Funeral. They recently got quite some press because of the new album and Justin Bieber twittering about liking the new album, which prompted Heljarmadr to invite the youngster to their next show.. as sacrifice!! HAHA! well, if that does not make Heljarmadr your hero, then I don't know what would!! :D I don't know their songs really, but they also had enough slower passages for me to headbang and enjoy it. I loved every minute of this. A great evening came thus to an end, a true celebration of black metal and its diversity. 

There will be more shows, soon. I might go to see Belphegor end of January and already got my ticket for Mayhem (YES YES, the true mayhem!! playing the entire de mysteriis dom sathanas! i will die!!) in April, as well as Ghost end of March (not really black metal.. not musically, but in image, haha!) and Apocalyptica, playing their whole first album. So yea.. more crazy stuff coming up.

Daedin
- This ... is the sound of death!
Death! a military haunting!
Death! Battle formations!
Death! still marching ahead!
Death! Battle formations! DEATH DEATH DEATH!

Archgoat

Finally back for more shows! :) It was about time! This time there was a real gem on the agenda. Finnish black metal legend Archgoat. There were also two other bands playing that night, but I did not see them and just arrived in time for Archgoat.

I read about this band recently in Pirunkehto, the recently published history of Finnish black metal. It was a great coincidence now that I would see them live, too.

Archgoat play a enough fast black metal style, but to my delight there are enough passages that drop the speed and give me room to headbang, which I did quite a lot that evening! They have a ritualistic, obscure mood about them and this is exactly what will get me excited.

The show was at MODU and I had seen that place rather empty last time, so it was also a true joy to see that this time the place was packed. This band really deserves the recognition. It was not easy, because the very next day Dark Funeral and Carach Angren were on the bill, about this one later.. But this made me even more content, to see that despite the big gig the next day, Archgoat filled the place. And our black hearts with blasphemous thoughts..

It's good to see these pioneers, who might have been black and no longer thrash/death even before the Norwegians, to still go strong!

Daedin
- Spread the flame, crush christianity