People at least a little familiar with my musical taste should know that this show was simply a must for me – INCANTATION were of course the reason to be there and this was definitely one of the better concerts at the Zeche Carl lately… First up was the Norwegian Black Metal outfit RAGNAROK featuring the vocalist of the fantastic TAAKE and though the sound was not really perfect, a bit too muddy and lacking transparency, the band’s energetic performance and the charismatic singer (with a “stylish” SS-skull belt-buckle, sic!) were an excellent compensation. Corpsepaint, blood, hateful screams, fast and hellish aggressive music, a merciless drummer – this was a really good start! Though the band was certainly misplaced on the billing it received very positive reactions from the people at the venue. Live RAGNAROK are definitely a rousing, tight and intense horde something their material does not always mirror on the albums, but nonetheless they are a respectable force onstage I’m glad to have seen! But where were the songs off “Arising Realm”? Seeing INCANTATION again meant a lot to me, but I was a bit shocked when I heard they would play without Kyle and a “replacement”, namely the drummer of French BLOODY SIGN, had taken his place on the “Clash Of The Demigods” tour. The consequence was that INCANTATION did play a rather short set (after wasting some minutes with a rather superfluous intro, doing ‘Blissful Bloodshower’ instead would have been a better idea) and it was obvious at first that this isn’t a line-up that had the chance to rehearse often. The trio definitely made the best of it, John McEntee growled intensively and like his comrade Joe Lombard, who  delivered an incredible performance on his huge red B.C. Rich bass, banged furiously, moved around a lot between his vocal parts and summoned the dark and blasphemous spirit this band embodies like no other. The sound was ok and improved during the gig. Some songs played were ‘Shadows Of The Ancient Empire’, ‘Ibex Moon’, ‘Forsaken Mourning Of Angelic Anguish’, ‘Profanation’ and even some new ones like ‘Thorns Of Everlasting Persecution’, the doomy ‘Horns Of Eradication’ and ‘Feeble Existence’. Unfortunately the band did not play any encores, but did a “short but sweet” gig I really enjoyed. What grew obvious was that INCANTATION need to tour Europe much more frequently, since their status is by far not fully acknowledged over here, too few people are familiar with this mighty act and it depends on their label to change something about that. Eliminating some drinks and talking a little too much, I’m awfully sorry to say, kept me from seeing BEHEMOTH who received, according to the people I talked to later, the best reactions on the evening. From the photos I’ve seen they delivered an intense performance, but – shame on me – I can’t tell you more of it…but if you should need pics of the show, I’ve got plenty of them. Then the headliner Brazilian Death Metal titans KRISIUN entered stage and especially the younger folks seemed to enjoy them a lot. Meanwhile the band does not emphasise blasting throughout the whole set anymore, but tries hard to add more variation by doing some mid-tempo tracks off the newer releases now and then. That worked quite good for the musical diversity, but the static performance and distance between singer / bassist Alex Carmago and guitarist Moyses Kolesne did not create any intensity or tension. The Brazil warriors are definitely over-the-top skilled musicians and have a charismatic aura, but in my opinion their material still lacks the certain something and has way too few rousing “magic moments”. It’s brutal, it’s mostly fast, but it is spiritless and lacks expressive force. I’m sure the show at Essen was great for the many fans filling the place, the sound was powerful and transparent, but in direct comparison to INCANTATION I know exactly what I have with the latter and what I haven’t with KRISIUN… Well, to sum it up, this was definitely one of the better shows I lately witnessed at the Zeche Carl and it was cool to see INCANTATION again after a bit disappointing show at this year’s Fuck The Commerce, RAGNAROK really surprised me and KRISIUN weren’t bad, too, no shitty band this evening, no crappy sound…what else can you want? Links of interest: www.metallysee.com; www.incantation.com; www.ragnarokhorde.com; www.krisiun.com.br; www.behemoth.metalkings.com

Live report: Stefan Franke
Photos: Daniel Horlbogen 

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