Today we eventually made it to the bar at around three and were looking forward to an interview with Abbath which was due to take place in the hotel. However, word soon went around that due to “unforeseen circumstances”, this had been cancelled. Little did I know this was a glimpse into further problems with the former singer of Immortal. Undeterred, we stayed on in the bar and enjoyed some of the tunes played by the Inferno DJ before heading back to Rockefeller.
Insidious Disease are something of a supergroup, fronted by Marc Grewe previously of Morgoth, with Silenoz (ex-Dimmu Borgir) on guitar, and Tony Laureano (ex-Nile) on drums. An extremely heavy death metal outfit, I wasn’t immediately taken with Insidious Disease but they had some stand out tracks such as “Boundless” and “Rituals of Bloodshed”.
Much to the security guards’ horror, Anaal Nathrakh had barely hit the stage when they started to invite people up to stage dive. This was a little unfortunate for the guy who threw himself into the sparse crowd during “The Lucifer Effect”, as it took Rockefeller a while to fill up for the UK grindcore band. Anaal Nathrakh were a refreshing change of style at this point in the festival. Singer Dave Hunt, introduced “Depravity Favours the Bold” by saying he got to impersonate Rob Halford and urging us all to “Stick it wherever you can stick it”. They gave the crowd a choice for the last song, between an old or new track, and after plenty of suggestions from a crowd they went with “Do Not Speak” to end their set.
Formed in 1987 in Switzerland, this was a 30th anniversary show for Samael. In this thirty years the band have produced music in a range of genres. The entire band were enthusiastic and animated during the entire set, but I could not take my eyes of drummer/keyboardist Alexandre “Xytras” Locher, as at times he appeared to be on a trampoline whilst hitting the drums and taking care of the samples. This was my first time seeing Samuel live and I thoroughly enjoyed their set; I will be making an effort to check out some of their vast back catalogue before Incineration Fest in May, especially new track “Rite of Renewal”.
This was to be Gorgoroth‘s 25th anniversary show. Since the departure of Gaahl in 2007, Hoest, front man of Taake, has taken up live vocal duties. There was a lack of stage props for the normally shocking Satanic band but the red stage lights helped. The drums, whilst extremely impressive were far too loud, unfortunately drowning out the guitar and vocal. I’ll be hearing that snare in my sleep for weeks to come.
Photos by Exposing Shadows Photography
