Winter cold and gloomy sounds: HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY in Erfurt

Zur deutschen Version geht es hier. 

When the snow covers the barren landscape and your own breath shows in pale clouds, it’s the perfect mood to lose yourself in Black Metal for a few hours. Last Saturday fulfilled all those conditions and so it was actually no wonder that the upcoming show of HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, SCHAMMASCH and GROZA was also sold out in advance. 

To anticipate one aspect: There could not have been a better start into the concert year!

Once more lightinmirror.de provided amazing photos for an article! Huge thanks for that!

Those who have followed my blog a bit during its existence will have noticed that I don’t focus on Black Metal and the only relevant post so far has been the album review of PERCHTA’s debut album Åtem. To this it has to be said that it is always my goal to depict the music that moves me. For better understanding, I always try to put the music in a genre context somewhat, but I would not submit to that in my day-to-day enjoyment of music. I listen to what I like and that can be virtually everything, with the exception of music that is motivated by right-wing ideologies. It is therefore a special pleasure and honor for me that I can start this year with three expressive bands!

GROZA

Opener of the evening was the Bavarian band GROZA. I had come across the band beforehand through various algorithms on Spotify and social media, but unfortunately I hadn’t had the chance to see them live yet.

Musically I would describe GROZA as the intersection of HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, DISSECTION and maybe DARKTHRONE. The performance shown was characterized by the night-black gloom of a winter day and the melancholy that one feels when significant goodbyes are said. It really touched me deeply from the beginning.

My impression was also that they themselves maintain a deep connection to their music, which manifests itself, above all, in the fact that all band members did not show their faces on stage. The distance thus gained between the person and the music inevitably brings the latter further into focus and prepares the actual work for a much greater scope.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this gig, not least because it again evoked some feelings that I can reflect on a bit in the days to come. The confrontation between the self and the reality of the psyche is one of my personal quintessences of Black Metal and this band has handled this tension exceptionally well musically.

SCHAMMASCH

Completely unknown to me was the Swiss band SCHAMMASCH. But ignorance can be quite helpful, because you can experience the music without bias. And who doesn’t like to discover new music?

I would describe the band’s style as a mixture of Black metal, Ambient and Doom and I was very enthusiastic about the stylistic profundity of the music played. At times, the drumming struck me as especially hypnotic and I also caught myself getting lost in the music while listening. It’s impossible to convey in text how it truly felt. It was as if the band created a kind of dark undertow that forced the listener to pay close attention.

My impression of this band was furthermore that they put a lot of emphasis on the detailed arrangement of their music. You could hear a lot of details and helpful here was also a kind of incognito fashion of the band. By making exact facial features of the band unrecognizable, the music inevitably became the sole focus of attention. The whole thing was also supported by an enormously good mixing of the sound, which was noticeable throughout the evening. 

Overall, the line-up for this evening was really impeccable. I think it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a Black Metal concert that made me so blissfully happy!

HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY

The  HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY gig began for me in December. The confirmation for the concert came exactly on my birthday, which I somehow took as a sign, because something like that can simply not be a coincidence!

For me, there is hardly a band that can depict the darkest emotional abysses so skillfully. Each song evokes very specific feelings in me and can thus earn a very special place. On this basis, it was an absolutely special situation for me to be allowed to accompany this concert for this blog.

Stylistically, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY break the boundaries of Black Metal for me. There are some stylistic Black Metal elements, that they incorporated,  such as screaming and rather distorted guitars, but on the whole the songs are more clearly characterized by melodies and are also more versatile.

Versatile was also the set presented, which opened directly with the song Sing For The Damage We’ve Done from the album Maere. Coincidentally, this is also a song I could listen to for hours. It feels like half of the streams on Spotify are from me as well. So from my point of view, this couldn’t have gotten off to a better start!

The presented set was well mixed and also carried the audience well through the moods. It was just at the right places a little quieter and at others more assertive. You can tell how all the musicians in this band are deeply connected to the music. Singer J.J., in particular, puts the feelings conveyed in the music into the world with every fiber of his body, which only makes the performance all the more real.

But like everything in life, this gig had to come to an end at some point. HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY also made the absolutely perfect decision to end their set with Song To Say Goodbye, which really pleased my inner Monk! Overall though, it felt like the set only lasted 10min. It was over so quickly, even though the playing time was factually very long… In that respect, my only criticism of this evening is that it could have gone on longer!

If you are out there thinking about attending this tour or seeing one of the bands reviewed here live, then by all means do so! It’s worth it!