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
