Quantic, the club where the event took place has become in the past months a hot spot for any type of events from concerts to festivals. The club has a separate room from the one with the stage. The room being ideal to get a snack, being open during concerts for those that just want a night out in a nice pub, and not there for the event itself, adding to this 2 places is an outdoor stage, perfectly for a nice hot September night. Axa Valaha Productions and Final Step Productions collaborated wonderful and manage to make an amazing event out of a early, Monday concert. The 2 productions are well-known in Romania for the high-quality events that they manage to do. Lately, they are the ones that bring the most long waited bands to Romania, winning over the public with their professionalism and nice staff.
Dagorath was the first band of the day, saying day since it was still light out. They are mostly a traditional Black metal band, a bit strange since they are Polish, and Poland has change the Black metal gender in the past years. First time seeing a Black metal band in bright daylight, luckily the weather was kind enough to make the sky Grey. Since this was an outdoor concert we were a bit worried it was going to rain, no rain just enough darkness to help out with the mood for Dagorath. I did enjoy the band, they have complex songs and the intentional broken record sound did give a smooth classic Black metal vibe. I was really into the instruments, nicely blended together providing a heavy gruesome mood. Really an interesting band to see live, but I do feel they may need to experiment a bit more with their sound. A lot of potential but they are holding themself back. The vocals most of the time are too simple and in some part of the concert we could hear the vocalist change completely the tempo of his voice. The talent is there, no doubt! First time listening to them, can’t make a detailed picture of what they want to achieve or where they want to go, but they should consider implementing more complex hash-shrieking vocals, it will go wonderful with the rest.
Martwa Aura was next to take over the stage, a Funeral Black Metal band in between 2, in a way classic Black metal bands, strange combination, but a very good asset for the night. Formed in Poland back in 2010, Martwa Aura is a good follower of what is known as the Polish black metal “gender”, this was a good opening act for Mgla. This band sound is very vivid and in the same time slowly takes you away to pagan battle, powerful silent funeral. The band manages to capture the exact elements that people enjoy in this sub gender. The sound was perfect and we could really feel the evil spreading along the concert. This band has the same album structure as Mgla but not the same sound. They stand out by the echo effects, was surprise to see this live. They are a delightful mix of pure grim and aggressive heavy riffs. The vocal style is charming, it’s like hearing a narrated horrible story, murders and pain, this is for sure the band main attraction.
Time flies when you are having fun and the moment of the night has come. Next in line was MGLA, a Polish black metal band from Kraków, formed in 2000. They are well known for the classic black metal sound that includes fast tempos, a hash vocal but with a clean sound and interesting combination of distorted guitars and intensive drumming.
After 3 years since the last visit in Romania, Mgla made the headline for a big festival, Rockstadt Extreme Fest, only to come back a month after the fest in Bucharest. I was a bit disappointed about this, since I went to the festival mainly to see them live. After last night concert, I have zero regrets , this is a band that with their simplicity manage to deliver a breathtaking show. I love the band for it’s punctuality, they are not divas that make you wait an eternity for them to get on stage. Probably, the best recipe of success, get on stage , sing perfect, get off! 3rd time seeing them live, same album, all 3 events they delivered the same energy. The thing that impress me the most about Mgla’s live performance is the overall show, they make a show, without interacting that much with the public. The faces of the band members are covered, no expression not a single human gesture. A group of masked robots singing about deeply maddening aspects of life, they are the kings of nihilism. The distorted guitars are so nicely introduce in the songs that they feel like part of the vocals, every song is a “karaoke” song for the public. The almost soft way of singing make the lyrics stand out even more. The public joy of singing along with the band is most present when the song Exercises In Futility VI is performed. The creepy moment when the entire crowd yells, while expressing so much joy, smiling and laughing :
“At least have some dignity” or “Dreams don’t come true for people like us” is the perfect proof that this band has the most devoted fan base. The concert is all about the public, the artists are so neutral that they just induce a sense of empowerment over the fans feelings and overall mood. I feel like no matter how good you are with words is really hard to express how intense Mgla’s concert are. Their music speaks too well to the time we live in and by just letting the focus be only on the music and not on what is going on the stage they create a safe space, a place were you can feel the sad lyrics and be proud that you are still able to enjoy life despite the shit going on in the world.
If I have to describe the event in some words it will be “The perfect Monday”. Poland is truly the new mother of Black metal. We started off with some classic Black metal moved up to some funeral and ended with the Gods of the new wave.
Thanks again Axa Valaha Productions and Final Step Productions this is a night none of us will forget.
Photos by : Gheorghe Paraschiv
