GORGOROTH, TAAKE - 04/04/03

Live at "Garage", Bergen (Norway)
 

The hostilities began with TAAKE that I never really have listened on album, but whose I was a bit curious to see on stage, as I read a lot of positive reviews on them in the zines, and as Stéphanie (guitar), and Tormod (drums) are quite sympathetic people. And I must say that I wasnīt disappointed.It sounded fresh, well played, and one could feel that these dudes play with conviction. The singer has a good voice rotten as hell, and sometimes makews maybe too much posings, and tries to look more evil than enough, but itīs OK, and put some tension between him and the audience. The other members are quite discrets but still manage to move a bit, not much because their music has some complex riffs, and because the stage is as small as a common Norwegian brain (ha!).

I was quite positively impressed by the performance of the drummer who does his playing quite efficient and interesting, still with a lot of aggressivity and brutality, but without playing a 15 minutes blast beat, and it was totally fine with me. And it was cool to watch the band getting more and more the appreciation of the audience during the gig. Usually the Norwegians are quite statics, but here, you could see some of them who were really into the music. This is rare enough to be mentionned. A friend of mine told me that he found the band better on cd than on stage... Maybe itīs true, in which case, I highly recommand to you to get an ear on TAAKEīs production. As for myself, I will try to listen a bit more seriously to their stuff, even if itīs not my favorite kind of metal.

  

	Then, after 20 minutes came the beast called GORGOROTH. A lot of people were eager to see this concert, as the band hasnīt played in Bergen since 2 years, and is proposing a brand new album. To be honest, I didnīt get into their music or attitude at all. I already saw them in Strasbourg two or three years ago, and as I remember, I found them as bad as this time. Yeah, Christian the vocalist just went out of jail since december (he tortured and killed a guy and managed to be caught by the cops...), yeah "Pentagram" is considered as one of the most evil albums of the norwegian wave of black metal, yeah, GORGOROTH plays raw black metal, but hell, when you deliver so few convistion on stage, then please do like DARKTHRONE, and avoid the fact to play gigs. Then youīll give a better image to your fans. It was actually boring as fuck to see the singer totally static, singing without conviction, just like someone doing his job without being into it, and chewing a chewing-gum when he didnīt sing (!). As for the other members, nothing was particularly interesting. The bassist felt maybe a bit like Gene Simmons of KISS, because he tried to look evil, and showed his tongue quite often. But I donīt get the point to have a fretless bass in order to play such a boring and simple stuff... Wanna look technical??? One of the guitarist use to wear a monk dress... I still donīt get the point when you pretend to play true raw satanik black metal... And it doesnīt help him in anyway to play good riffs. The sound was actually bad, and one could not always get which song was played. Still the audience seemed to appreciate the "show", but believe me, nothing extraordinary hit me while seeing this pathetic band performing live. Even though the last album seems to be a bit better than the previous one, I still need some more convinction and efficient riffs, and also not such a pitiful attitude to respect this band. Having a cult name in the scene doesnīt make all, and itīs so true for the actual norwegian business men playing in bands like the true GAYHEM and SATYRICON. I advise you to rather follow bands like CARPATHIAN FOREST, TSJUDER, URGEHAL, MYRKSKOG, TAAKE which are far way more interesting nowadays than their big brothers.
Nathaniel.