This gig, which took place in the very end of March and arranged by C.D.M. (Moscow organization, including such bands as STONEHENGE, DREAMING SOUL and MENTAL HOME), perhaps was one of the most impressive concerts this Winter / Spring season (I mean Moscow underground, of course).
I came at Camelot exactly at 16. 30 (that’s when the show had to begin), but as well as all other fans had to wait for about an hour before ORTHANC, first band to play that evening, appeared on the stage. Their performance was very good for a beginning, although fans were still quite calm - there was no headbanging people, no insanity near the stage which the music seemed to provoke, however it looked like ORTHANC left noone being disappointed. Most of the songs they played appeared as the new ones (unfortunately, I don’t remember the titles now), but despite that, all of them were quite similar to what this band did before - no revelations, nothing surprising - but on the other hand neither I, nor others expected any great innovations from them. ORTHANC is still interesting and original band with their splendid mix of power / speed and black metal. Expect second full-length album from this band soon!
After Vadim and co. left the stage, I also left the concert hall in order to buy some beers and talk to Victoria (ORTHANC’s female bassist), and due to this rather dragged on conversation I almost missed MENTAL HOME. I went back to the hall when they had only two songs left to play - and I can’t say anything good about their performance. It didn’t impress me at all, being too much dull and boring... And here I also have to mention some shortcomings of Camelot Club - first of them goes for the light. Various forms of extreme music demand various forms of show and illumination, while Camelot’s stage can’t suggest anything exciting. Lighting was all the same + total lack of any kind of show - and this may be the reason why f.ex. MENTAL HOME’s music left me utterly indifferent that evening.
Next were DREAMING SOUL, one of my favorite Moscow bands now. I didn’t hear this band’s music before coming to «Apocalypse» gig, although I remember that someone described them to me as undoubtedly original and outstanding band, playing some kind of a cross between dark, doom and black metal. And I guess I have to agree with that person. Definitely, DREAMING SOUL’s style can be defined as dark / doom / black metal; featuring elements of each of aforementioned styles in their sound, these guys create something very interesting - and this band is one of those few who have their own face, no doubts. Surely, vocals appear as one of the strongest points of DREAMING SOUL. I mean maybe not exactly vocals (i.e. timbre, etc.), but the variety of voices possessed by the band’s frontman. Deep, dark growling, harsh screaming and surprisingly good-sounding «clean» singing... Musical accompaniment is also worth mention - making emphasis on melancholy and depression, DREAMING SOUL also pay attention to the atmosphere... And do I need to say that all the band’s members are very good and skillful musicians...? Unfortunately, until now I haven’t heard their latest demo, but even without listening to it, I’m already eager to do an interview with them. And ah, their cover of legendary «Black Metal» tune was wonderful, much better than the one performed by HYPOCRISY in 1993!
After a break of approximately thirty minutes, STONEHENGE occupied the stage. I don’t feel I need to tell you anything about this band - they already gained the popularity they deserve, and since STONEHENGE’s birth in 1994, they unleashed three efforts so far - «Victims» demo in 1995, «Victims Gallery» album in 1997 and the second one, entitled «Tales Of Old Britain», in the very beginning of current year. All of these releases prove that STONEHENGE are one of the best contemporary doom metal bands in Russia. Fans near the stage became mad (although the same thing happened already at DREAMING SOUL’s apperance), and needless to say that just as the previous band, STONEHENGE’s performance appealed to me really well. Among others, they played songs like «Black Swans Of Dark Paradise» - old but still unreleased in the shape of «official» album, however as far as I know, this tune together with some others will be included in this band’s next effort, entitled «Sense Of Doom (Victims Gallery, part II)». All in all, if I had to rate their performance, the mark would be «6» of «6»...
STONEHENGE were followed by THRON’, which surprised me most of all! If you read a review on their «Here Lies Paganism...» tape in the first issue, you should know that I dragged it into shit - this demo had absolutely nothing to offer, appearing as total crap, lacking any atmosphere. But the new songs... Erh, I had the strong feeling that I see another band, moreover - I liked what I saw (and heard)! New compositions are much more complex, memorable and complicated, atmospheric and well played. Volkodlakh also improved his vocals, so... I couldn’t find any shortcomings, except for the lack of originality - but who cares anyway?
REQUIEM, the next band after THRON’, didn’t capture my imagination. They play something which can be described as slow and gloomy doom / death metal with definite atmosphere, but I just didn’t like it. In my opinion, REQUIEM play somehow boring and uninteresting music - probably they have a certain number of fans, but I’m surely not one of them. REQUIEM is not my cup of tea, and that’s all I can say about them.
The last group at that gig was NOKTURNAL MORTUM from Ukraine. They seem to be quite successful now - their new CD, «At The Gates Of Blasphemous Fire» will be released by American The End Records very soon, while Nuclear Blast (!) licensed their works in order to distribute it in Europe, however... I don’t know... Their new songs sound very similar to EMPEROR’s music and that’s not the kind of thing I like. Once I considered them as very original band, maybe the best of the kind coming from Ukraine, but now my opinion has changed and suddenly I lost my interest in NOKTURNAL MORTUM. They’re good and worthy band, but being «good and worthy» doesn’t mean being «great». As to their show, it also didn’t feature anything intriguing - I was slowly falling asleep and after ten minutes or so passed, I decided that’s it better to go home instead of staying at Camelot and trying to get into NOKTURNAL MORTUM’s new stuff.
Too bad that their performance turned out as a disappointment to me, because the whole gig was very good and despite NOKTURNAL MORTUM I was impressed in a kinda positive way by most of bands which played there on 29th of March; speaking plainer I didn’t feel pity for wasting my time and coming there.