Actually, it wasn't such a good idea, to arrange this fest at such a crappy place. Expensive beer, crappy sound and a room too small for arranging this kind of ventures. Nevertheless, the fest I'm seemingly (?) going to review at the moment, wasn't the worst one in my life. More likely, quite impressive.
I can't recall who was the first and who was the last one at the moment, so please forgive me for such a mess, and just read on.
SHADOW HOST. Well, nice performance, rather tight and fortunately with a good singer this time (who acted like a fag, though).
Nevertheless, in contrast to music (power metal), visually it was a disaster. Looked like some fucking BON JOVI, y'know.
RADIGOST. Well, I know these chaps for quite a long time, and I always liked the stuff they were coming up with, however it was a bit different kind of thing this time. In fact, it was the first time they played live, and... well, it could have been successful if only they'd pick up a good keyboardist. Alice (a.k.a. Amoneth) obviously couldn't handle her instrument the way she had to (and aye, she looked like a virgin who's going to be raped by a couple of apes), that's why I wouldn't say I was really pleased with RADIGOST this time, even though, in the whole, their performance was enough enjoyable.
Ok, the time has come to talk about ABSURD for a while... However... it seems like I've already said enough on this subject, whilst composing another report (check out "ABSURD, EDELWEISS, SAMHAIN etc.,
live at U2 (Moscow), October 2000 a.t.b.b." in order to figure out what ABSURD is all about), so off to NEOTRUTH. Well, it seems like NO gig in Moscow is being held without NEOTRUTH. "Atmospheric doom / death", if you're wondering what is it, stylistically. And yes, check out the review on a CD of theirs in "doom / gothic / dark wave" section... In fact, they sound a bit different live, by adding few blackish elements and increasing the performance's speed, thus sounding a bit more impressive (if we'd compare this gig to their latest CD).
Finally, FORGIVE ME NOT. I always liked this band, even though it's not really metal, but pop / dark wave, memorable, cheerful yet melancholic, and undoubtedly impressive, being a bit similar to the latest works by PARADISE LOST (FORGIVE ME NOT's sound has a guitar basis, though).
Generally speaking, good bands, fine performance, and not really well organized fest.