PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
.@Kvelertak , @woundsband and @empressad show in Glasgow reviewed by @AnybodyBC for @Planetmosh
Tuesday, the 22nd of May, the day just after the long Easter weekend, when everybody’s getting back to work and still not feeling in the mood for the return to the grind. Oh well, Glaswegians had a chance to be back in weekend mood this evening. They just had to come to The Cathouse club and get crazy together with Norwegian black’n’roll punk rockers Kvelertak, who are on a UK tour with Empress and Irish upstarts, Wounds.
The Cathouse doors open at 7 pm, and there is a decent audience for the very first band of the evening – Wounds. The more they played, the more listeners were coming up to check them out. Although the beginning of their show wasn’t that cracking but in the end it was really great experience to hear and to see. Aidan Coogan was a very emotional vocalist caressing the mic or hiding behind it, headbanging jumpy bass guitar player (Jonny from Baby Godzilla, filling in for Aaron) and James an intensely concentrated guitarist, oh and don’t forget the drummer, Craig. This four piece from Ireland had something very ‘kvelertakish’ in their music and immediately caught the audience’s attention. They closed with the insanely catchy ‘Dead Dead Fucking Dead’. With their raw punk swagger, it’s not going to be long until Wounds is the band everyone knows.
Wounds setlist:
1. The Pile
2. Trouble for the Sake of it
3. No Future
4. Binge
5. Killing Spree
6. Dead Dead Fucking Dead
The second band of the evening – Empress, was something quite different from the first one. It was more a progressive and a neat music break in between Wounds and Kvelertak, less emotional yet still enjoyable to listen. Both opening acts played not more than half an hour each, so time was flying and quarter to 9pm, the stage was getting prepared for evening stars – Kvelertak.
The first time I saw these crazy guys live, was 5 years ago, in 2009, when they were an opening act for Kylesa and Converge in their gig in Budapest, Hungary. And believe it or not, I was there actually because of them. And now they are in my sights again, as the headlining band of the tour. Instead of short, 30 minutes long show, there was a 90 minute bone-cracking and no less energetic show on the stage. So when the lights went out, the first thing everybody could actually see was the pair of two shiny eyes coming up to the center of the stage. And when blue back light shed on the stage it became clear – it was Erlend Hjelvik (vocals) with the huge owl on his head. Big bird with shining eyes and wings spread wide open. Oh what do you know – it is the Kvelertak trademark! Impressive start and in the next minutes after the intro the six piece energy ball began destroying the stage. They started their show with songs from their new album, called ‘Meir’ (2013) and mixed it up with the songs that everybody knows from their debut album ‘Kvelertak’. The audience went crazy during the entire show because there is no such thing as a boring song from the Kvelertak camp. Although older songs meant that people know them better and can sing along. In Norwegian! ‘Fossegrim’ was the trigger of this miracle, which don’t see everyday: Scottish rockers and metalheads screaming in Norwegian. The more sweat and heat there was in the club, the better it was: half naked Erlend threw mic stand on the ground and went to crowdsurfing several times, keeping the security guys busy. And for the dessert, of course, three songs for the loudly encouraged encore: all of them from the debut album as well. Odin ga oss, Suttung sitt mjød!
Kvelertak was like storm – too short to realize that it’s over and long enough to make it memorable for quite a long time.
Kvelertak setlist:
1. Åpenbaring
2. Spring fra livet
3. Sultans of Satan
4. Bruane Brenn
5. Ulvetid
6. Offernatt
7. Undertro
8. Månelyst
9. Nekrokosmos
10. Ordsmedar av rang
11. Fossegrim
12. Evig Vandrar
13. Blodtørst
14. Kvelertak
Encore:
15. Sjøhyenar (Havets herrer)
16. Mjød
17. Utrydd dei svake
Links:
http://kvelertak.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Kvelertak
https://twitter.com/Kvelertak
http://empressad.com/
https://www.facebook.com/EmpressAD
https://twitter.com/empressad
https://www.facebook.com/WOUNDSBAND
https://twitter.com/woundsband
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