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Archive for October 2016

Rites of the Black Mass (review of the first night)

  



On the night of 14th October we had the pleasure to attend at the very first edition of the only festival in Romania that mainly concentrates on Black Metal and yes I am talking about Rites of the Black Mass Festival that occurred in Club Fabrica,Bucharest.First of all I would like to congratulate Live Nation Promotions for taking the initiative to organize such a festival.Now regarding the lineup for that night,it was made of the following bands:

Dimholt
Selvans
Outre
The Stone
Inferno
Infernal War

Bolzer

  The first band to hit the stage were Dimholt,a bulgarian  Psychedelic Black Metal band but with a special guest on the vocals,Déhà the man behind projects as Aurora Borealis,Sources of I and C.O.A.G. .First of all I would like to say that the idea of doing the full set with two vocals was a great one,Woundheir and Déhà managing to deliver both an very dinamic show and an excellent perfomance,successfully opening the first edition of Rites of the Black Mass Festival.

The second band was the italians of Selvans,an atmospheric black metal band hailing from Abruzzo.This somehow mystic band managed to send the public towards an surreal experiance,but unfortunately their set had to be stopped at a certain moment due to a faulty header.As soon as the header was replaced,the band successfully continued their set without any other issue.
Outre were the next band,a very fine quartet from Krakow,Poland,the band successfully delivering an outstanding show but with less dynamic compared to the first two bands,although this didn't stopped the crowd to enjoy the whole set.So the next band was The Stone,one of the oldest bands on the lineup,hailing from Belgrade,Serbia,a band which hails nihilism and misanthropy ,their vocalist,Nefas,managing to deliver a very dynamic show both due to his performance and his stage gear,as he boldly just crushed the scene,but unfortunately they had to deal with the same problem as Selvans,that leading to a delay in the presented schedule.

The show continued with Inferno,one of the oldest band present at the fest,hailing from Czech Republic.Their setlist was mainly composed by tracks from the latest release,Omniabsence Filled by His Greatness,that combined with the somehow dark and mystic appearance,resulted in an excellent performance.As the evening came closer and closer towards the end,one of the main headliners hit the stage and yeah it was the time for some blasphemy coming from the almighty Infernal War,one of the oldest and fiercest projects of war black metal hailing from the lands of Poland.

With their latest release,Axiom,being received as one of the best albums on the worldwide scene,the expectations were high and let me tell you,they didn't disappointed us at all! With a very strong scene presence and with a crushing,raw and unforgiven attitude they simply ripped apart both the scene and the crowd with their war chants.The time passed amazingly fast during their show and before I even realized it was the time for the main headliner,the black/death metal duo known as Bölzer,hailing from the icy lands of Switzerland.Before I actually start to talk about the sho w I must say that I was quite amazed by the whole festival so far even with the technical problems and the delay caused by them.Now even if I am not such a big fan of Bölzer I have t o say that I was impressed by them,the fact that only it takes usually four or five people to actually create an atmosphere and they succed that with only two members,and yes they pulled a hell of a show even if it was already late enough and people were tired.With a steady and very accurate performance they managed to keep the crows hooked up through the whole set.

     Now,we came to the end of this review and let's settle down the positive and negative sides:first of all the location itself is not a bad one even if an event like this would be more suitable in an open venue.Now for the staff,I can only say one word about them:outstanding,from the people at the entrance to the technical staff,by the way congratulations Green Sound Team for the effort and quickness in solving the problems that occurred.Concerning the bands,a big and loud hails for all of them and respect for the professionalism shown on stage.Again many thanks to Live Nation Promotions for the initiative and for making all of these happen. In our opinion this first rite was a successful one even if not flawless,but the effort put in making was fully seen and by the way things are moving,the second rite announces to rise up at least to the standards of the first one.Hails!

review by Balent Adrian. 

for more pictures of the first night visit: https://www.facebook.com/DinIntunerec/?pnref=lhc

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Interview with Vanhelga


1.Hello J. Ottosson,first of all I would like to thank you on the behalf of Din Intunerec staff for accepting this interview,so to start things up how are things going over there?


Regardless of the circumstances everything is positive over here. A lot of stuff happenening for us and we have a lot to do.

2.For the start,can you tell us how things started with Vanhelga and what means in general and for you especially?

Vanhelga started out as a one man project in the early days. Basically I was tired of compromising with other musicians and felt that this was the natural next step for me. As a one man project I could do the stuff exactly the way I wanted them. Over the years I met other like-minded people and decided to abandon the one man concept, mostly  to be able to perform liveshows but also to expand Vanhelgas creative horizons. Vanhelga is about saying fuck you to the world and walk your own path by questioning and rebel against the morals and rules of society. For me personally it is about enlightenment.

3.Concerning your public statement,"positive music for positive people",how did you came up with it and what is it's meaning?

It is a very ironic statement. Our art is a lot about contrasts and irony. Basically the meaning is the total opposite of the statement.

4.Also,can you give us some information about your upcoming release,"Ode & Elegy",about it's artwork and the ideas that come with it?

As with all our releases we try to explore new areas and we try not to repeat ourselves. For this release we describe the deteriorating state of a young woman who is slipping further and further into depression and darkness. We worked closely with her and she provided her insights in the shape of diary entries that she wrote while being hospitalized and commited to various asylums.


5.By the way,as you already confirmed some dates for 2017,do you have some plans on touring?

Yes, in December 2016 we go on tour in Russia and Belarus.

6.To sum things up,do you have anything to share with your followers?

Remember that life is overrated.

7.Thanks once again J.Ottosson for taking the time to answear my question,cheers!

Thank you.


Interview by Balent Adrian. 

https://soundcloud.com/vanhelga-official

https://www.facebook.com/officialvanhelga/?fref=ts 



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Interview with Nephente ( Netherbird )



1.Hello dear Nephente ! It is a real pleasure for me to have this chat with you. Congratulations for the new song ! So, tell me a few things about the album The Grander Voyage you will release next month on 28th. It will be a tour? (hope Romania is included on the list)  

Salutations Miruna, the pleasure is all mine! Glad to hear you like our latest offering “Pillars of the Sky”, it is the second single from the album, the first was “Windwards”. So far the response has been very good I must say, so I a pleased so far. The album is new chapter for Netherbird and we are all excited about having it out so we can do some gigs and try the material out live on stage.

We were scheduled to return to Romania already in November 2016 to perform at the November to Dismember Metal Fest but since it got cancelled we have not made any decision yet on when we can return to Romania, but we will since it is always great to perform in your country, awesome crowds, good people and fantastic parties. So we will return but it might be in 2017 as it seems right now.

2. What was the main influence for this album? I guess there is a story behind it

This album is somewhat a reflective journey I guess which actually evolves during the songs, so it starts with the confusion of realizing that the world is a big and strange place and with time we find, or rather take, our place and find perspective and motivations to go out and make our own contributions. So lyric-wise it is a bit introspective but hopefully still something that is open to interpretation so each listener can find his/her own story in it. I see this album as our most diverse yet also the most honest we have made, but we shall see how it is received once it is out. 

3. Which of all songs is your favourite? 

This is a hard question, but I really like the last three since they are very dynamic and also quite fun to sing, so “Pillars of the Sky”, “The Silvan Shrine” and “Emerald Crossroads”.

4. Lets get back in time. Which band was the first you listened to and has a strong influence upon you and who was your "model"?

The band that made me a metal head was W.A.S.P. since I saw the video for “I wanna be somebody” on Swedish television in 1984. They looked cool, seemed to have a lot of hot girls and played brutal music. In time I discovered more extreme metal and what shaped me as a musician are the bands from the early 90:s black and death metal scene. To name a few extremely influential ones Bathory, Unanimated, Vinterland, Marduk and Dissection. I have been an active performer of black and death metal since 1990 so it is hard to say exactly which bands I get influenced by these days, I would say other artforms play an important role, and I find photography and paintings to be very powerful, like our previous album “The Ferocious Tides of Fate” which actually got it’s name when I say the painting we later used as cover art. So I draw my inspiration from a lot of sources like art, movies and people I meet and converse with.

5. Tell me about the lyrics. Do you write em? 

Yes I write all the lyrics, and they are very important to me and Netherbird. We have three pillar that build the band: music, lyrics and artwork. They all play an important role and we take them very seriously. I could of course sing words written by other people, but to really “mean” what I am singing it really helps when it is my own words.

6. Can you pick something nice that you remember having with Netherbird? 

Every time I have a conversation with a person who has somehow been inspired or motivated by the music we make and the words I write. That is the highest honour for me and that I treasure tremendously, so I must say that the best aspect of Netherbird is the chance to tour and to meet people whom I would never had the privilege to meet otherwise. That is also what me and the rest of the band like so much about Romania: all the great people we have meet there on our trips. You guys are amazing!

7. Thank you for your time! Is there anything you would like to add for your Romanian fans?:) 

We are very proud of the great support we have in Romania and we do never take that for granted, we will return and we look forward to it. Support your local scene and see you when we come the next time!
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the lyric video for “Pillars of the Sky” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184VUV5ECDY)  and the video for “Windwards” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emXzcWbs-7U)
Noroc!




Interview by Miruna Vitriol. 

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