Modern, but not primitive – Modern Primitive Tour stops in Leipzig

Zur deutschen Version geht es hier.

When we made our plans for the fall and winter months at the end of August, the concert we attended last Friday was admittedly at the bottom of our hit list. Other things were somehow more exciting when we were planning. But as is so often the case in life, things always turn out differently than planned. And to be honest? I wouldn’t have had it any other way! Specifically, it was about SEPTICFLESH’s Modern Primitive Tour, which was supported by EQUILIBRIUM, OCEANS and SCAR OF THE SUN. What the evening was like for us, what we experienced and why I really need to stop predicting certain things for myself, you can read below!

Thanks again to lightinmirror.de for the epic pictures!

SCAR OF THE SUN

The first set of the evening went to the Greek band SCAR OF THE SUN, whom I hadn’t heard of before. With a mixture of Modern and Groove Metal, which in parts sounded to me like an attempt at a modern interpretation of MOONSPELL, the band from Athens set about inspiring the audience. I really liked the idea of incorporating enthralling but also slightly melodramatic elements! You also can’t help but notice special references to the current political situation. Unfortunately, the spark didn’t really catch me that evening. Compared to the performance energy of the other bands of the evening, SCAR OF THE SUN didn’t do so well. But you also have to say that after four weeks of touring all over Europe, you can just run out of steam!

OCEANS

Hardly any band embodied the saying “You should leave when it’s best” as much as OCEANS! At the point where I thought it could go on forever, they simply ended the set! The audacity!

Their mixture of Modern Death Metal and Metalcore, interspersed with occasional Nu-Metal influences, simply blew me away from the first second they played in front of me! The opener PARASITE from the current album HAPPY quickly set the tone and this was only reinforced with the second song SPIT. But not only the current album found its moments in the set, earlier releases were also represented. The songs Icarus (my personal highlight here) and Shark Tooth were also included. 

Despite the stage being very narrow for them, the band around frontman Timo gave every single fiber of their artistic ability to tear the Hellraiser apart. The band managed to excite the audience and fire up the crowd with songwriting that was deliberately uncomfortable in places. Deep guitars, occasional double growls and absolutely sick drumming create a theatricality that drags you down into unimagined depths and skillfully holds up a mirror to the individual. The best example? BREED CONSUME DIE aka the sole purpose of our lives. A song that I really enjoyed live.

Of course, I had listened to OCEANS beforehand and was familiar with the songs. In the overall context of the line-up and my knowledge of the live qualities of EQUILIBRIUM and SEPTICFLESH, I didn’t think it would be so strong. Compared to these strong bands, OCEANS have absolutely nothing to hide! Even if some people claim that OCEANS, like Steve Buscemi, are mourning a lost youth, I have to counter that: There is no mourning here, they use their own experiences to create an absolutely brilliant sound world that has it all! 

EQUILIBRIUM

Back in the summer, I claimed that if I went to see EQUILIBRIUM again, I would do so at one of their future headlining shows. Yeah well… didn’t quite work out…

As in the last few shows, there were more drum interludes at the beginning, in the middle and towards the end, which for me also contributed a lot to the atmosphere. I think it’s very good that they’ve kept this up! The first song was also a new one, Legends. I generally don’t comment on songs that I’ve only heard once, so I’ll withhold judgment on this one. In addition to Renegades – A Lost Generation, the last single release, Gnosis, also made it onto the setlist. For me, this song works much better live than in the stream, because for me it is largely carried by Fabian’s performance. 

The latter has increased noticeably for me. Due to the long duration of the tour and the past summer of festivals, I think he has been able to gain a lot of experience, which turns into a kind of self-confident routine on stage. The energy he draws from this has been very infectious for me.

The set also included songs that you would expect to hear at an EQUILIBRIUM show as a longtime fan, namely Born to be Epic and Blut im Auge, which encompassed the second new song, Awakening. I was especially happy about Cerulean Skies, which has worked its way up to my personal favorite song of the band over the last months. The show was enhanced by a thoroughly impressive light show, which was the best of the evening. 

Overall, however, I have an ambivalent view of this gig: EQUILIBRIUM perform with an electrifying energy that really infects the audience. It’s simply fun to watch. But for me, that can’t hide the fact that we still haven’t had a major release about 1.5 years after the release of Shelter and Fabian’s debut. It feels like there should have been a date for a bigger drop with the release of Gnosis. It also made relatively little sense to me why shirts with the inscription Equinox Pt.1, i.e. the title of an upcoming release, were being sold when said release was neither named nor announced beforehand… Whatever is causing this delay is also causing them to lose a momentum they easily could have had. In the end, the evening answered a few questions for me, but it left me with a big one: Quo vadis, EQUILIBRIUM? Where is EQUILIBRIUM heading?

SEPTICFLESH

Sometimes it’s good to be able to rely on certain things! And if there’s one thing you can be sure of, it’s that SEPTICFLESH will deliver! I can’t remember the last time I saw the Hellraiser so full and in such an exuberant mood!

So far we have only ever seen SEPTICFLESH at festivals and it was a welcome change to be able to see a full headlining show. Their unmistakable mix of Death Metal and Gothic Metal in combination with the dramatic orchestral parts they have in many songs makes them truly special live. However, this musical feeling doesn’t come across so well at festivals, so I took full advantage of the evening to immerse myself in this world of sound. 

When the band around singer and bassist Seth opened the show with The Vampire from Nazareth, it was clear that we were in for something monumental. The songs from Modern Primitive, the band’s latest album, were placed in exactly the right places in the set and fit in perfectly with other classics from the band’s own discography. Musical highlights for me were above all Pyramid God, Coming Storm, Martyr and Prometheus. The latter song was also the highlight of the concert in my opinion. 

The band knows how to interweave history with Metal and the right amount of drama. Somewhere between a black mass and a history lesson, you have to ask yourself why all the old deities are no longer worshipped! Perhaps a SEPTICFLESH concert is also a kind of worship service for all those deities that have been lost in the darkness of history at some point. By involving the audience, or rather the brothers and sisters, as Seth likes to call them, this thesis almost becomes inevitable. 

As is so often the case, everything that starts has to end at some point. The Leipzig edition of the Modern Primitive Tour was no exception. SEPTICFLESH bid their audience farewell into the cold November night with an encore that included Anubis and Dark Art .

Even if this is the end of this article for now, you can be sure that there will be something else from this evening coming soon. But I’ll leave it open as to what exactly that is!