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Every now and then I get the criticism that we only deal with big and established bands. I disagree, but it’s about time we went underground again! We actually wanted to see PRAISE THE PLAGUE, but unfortunately they had to cancel due to illness. That didn’t stop the rest of the line-up, A SECRET REVEALED and ORCALE OF WORMS, from rocking the VL Ludwigstraße in Halle anyway.
Thanks again to lightinmirror.de for the fight against the fog!
ORACLE OF WORMS
ORACLE OF WORMS kicked things off. In a room without a stage, between a disco ball and an Israeli flag, a small group of local Metalheads had gathered to listen to the band from Giessen.
Musically, we’re dealing with Death Metal with a Black Metal twist, which really packs a punch! With nasty vocals and dissonant guitars, death and destruction are invoked here. All in all, a mixture that I found fitting as the evening’s opener!
I would have liked to have seen a bit more audience interaction. This Metal genre is always a bit tempting to just play the songs down, but especially at small shows I think it’s super important that you repeatedly announce songs, animate the crowd and get in touch with them. I missed that a bit here. During a guitar change, there was (inevitably) a bit more conversation with the audience and that made the song better for me afterwards. But this is something that can be worked on and if the songwriting becomes a bit more imaginative, ORACLE OF WORMS will definitely become a band that can make the relevant Metal stages unsafe!
A SECRET REVEALED
When I shared the event on Instagram the day before the concert, I was surprised by how many people wrote to tell me that A SECRET REVEALED was so good and that we could really look forward to it! Of course, that made me very curious!
From an organizational point of view, the evening wasn’t easy for the band from Würzburg, because in true bassist fashion, the bassist had forgotten his bass guitar in his car in the Park & Ride parking lot. It’s a mystery to me how this can happen when you’re on your way to a concert weekend, but luckily ORACLE OF WORMS were able to help out!
With an extra large portion of fog, fortunately accompanied by blue light, the first song Empty Throne was played. I found the musical mixture of post-metal with elements of hardcore and black metal to be a really successful one! I’ve rarely heard anything so interesting and it really got us going! By placing the microphone in the auditorium, the audience was directly involved in the show right from the start and had an immediate connection to the band. The emotional musical journey takes you deep into a sad world of feelings that wash over you, but in which you don’t drown. The song As I Watch You Perish in the middle of the set, in particular, perfectly prevented you from sinking without immediately spreading too much positivity.
All in all, our last concert evening of the year was a surprising success, which I hadn’t anticipated due to the unfortunate cancellation of PRAISE THE PLAGUE. But it’s probably like so often in life: Things always turn out differently!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 