Sunday 21 December 2008

Last gigs of the year

I was able to go to some of the gigs planned for the last months of the year

  • The Paris date of Heidenfest on November 9th, with Eluveitie and Primordial . Both were great (Alan of Primordial has an incredible impact on stage). I was less impressed by Finntroll, but maybe it is because it is too far the kind of music I like the most

  • Primordial
  • Enslaved on November 18th, very powerful as always, I really would have missed something great if I did not attend to their date in Paris. Plus they really master light effects in their shows... but the music would have been really excellent by itself, even without these light effects.

  • Enslaved
  • The Satyricon show on November 23th. I must say that I needed several listenings of their new album to really appreciate it, but after that.. I must say it is really a great album, less accessible to their previous one maybe, but superior IMHO. However, the ultra-clean quality of the CD casing do not make it justice, the album is much much better than that. For the record, they began by Commando and ended by Mother North, of course.

  • Frost
  • Morbid Angel + Keep of Kalessin + Marduk on November 28th: Marduk as powerful as ever; really I know a lot of people that were coming only for them. However Morbid were the main act of the night and they were very good too. Of course they ended by The God of Emptiness

  • Cradle of Filth + Gorgoroth on December 2nd: It was the second time I saw Gorgoroth on stage, and they were as good and evil as the first. This time they put wooden crosses and crucified models on stage. It is a band that has no problem fulfilling what you light expect from their music after seeing this kind of props on stage. They are far, far from being ridiculous, trust me. Hmm it was not the case with Cradle of Filth (however I was not there for them but for Gorgoroth). Apart from the songs from their last album which I found very good on stage (as I felt also good on album), the rest was really ridiculous.

  • Gorgoroth

I was not able to see Asphyx and Hail of Bullets on 11th and 12th December near Amsterdam, too much work in Paris to be able to take some days of to Amsterdam. That's bad, because these are really two f*** great bands !! I hope to be able to see them next year !!!

And for next year ? There's Deicide / Samael / Vader on the 11th January. There's also a Shining tour around May (but not coming to Paris), and there's next Hellfest in June. And maybe a lot more ? Gorgoroth's Infernus side just anounced that Pest will return as vocalist, 1349 is recording a new album, Pantheon I will release a new album mid 2009, and maybe Carpathian Forest will tour before the release of their next album, in December 2009...