Last week-end, The Dignity Complex launched their first album, Accede, in what turned out to be a great gig in Quantic Club, Bucharest. I knew about this new project because I’m following the underground scene in Brasov (and some other cities in Romania as well), and its members are involved in other bands I already listened, The Thirteenth Sun, Days of Confusion, Black Water, to name a few. The album was streaming on bandcamp, so I was able to have an idea about what they were about to perform on Sunday. It’s a solid and complex album, and maybe we will get back to it more in depth, in another article. Going back to the concert, their performance was good, with few problems on the sound part (the guitar was too loud), but we were aware the sound system there has issues. The vocal, Tudor Costea, is very good, it’s a voice for deathcore but the band succeeds to blend many styles, I noticed progressive or post-rock / ambient parts, and it does that surprisingly well. My favorite songs from Sunday evening were Transference, For Those Who Dared and Introspection.
Before their concert begun, I visited the merch stand which was very generous. You can not only find the cd, but t-shirts, stickers, cards, even two books the guitar player at Negative Core Project, Mihai Alexandru Dinca, wrote, so both of my obsessions, for music and literature, were fed. I recommend you to purchase the cd, besides the good music it comes with an excellent artwork Mircea Vlad was responsible for, but not just the cd, every items looked impressive in terms of quality.
Before The Dignity Complex, two bands stepped on the stage to warm up the show. The first was Ropeburn, a hardcore / sludge band from Bucharest. Their music reminded me of some bands from The Church of Ra, in a good way. The vocals here were worthy of being remembered as well, Mihai Petrosel has a lot on energy, he also performed some songs with the following band, Negative Core Project. NCP entitled their music ‘gangsta rock’, I’d still go with metalcore though. This band was very entertaining, complex in term in composition, and knew how to speak to the audience and to start a party. Even after they left the stage, people were still humming their last song M*ie la lume, I was surprised to hear it even at the stand merch in the back. Metalcore has never been my piece of cake, but both opening acts were well chosen and an overall pleasant experience.
