UNDER THE BLACK SUN FEST
Live in Basdorf, Germany (06.07.2002)
Setlist:
1. Walls of Life Ruptured
2. My Fists are Him
3. Rabid Death's Curse
4. I am the Earth
5. In the Shadow of the Horns (Darkthrone cover)
6. On Horns Impaled
UNDER THE BLACK SUN FESTIVAL
Date: July 5 & 6, 2002
Location: Basdorf near Berlin (Germany)
Bands: Imperious Malevolence, Lugubre, Morrigan, Root, Sammath, Saxorior, Skalder, Taake, Tsjuder, Trimonium, Unpure, Urgehal, and Watain
I finally had the opportunity to go to the biggest and most brilliant black metal festival, UNDER THE BLACK SUN, with Dunja (Nocturnal Hall), Equimanthorn (The Audial Essence Of Evil), Darkwood (The Audial Essence Of Evil), and Lukas. Unfortunately, BLASPHEMY had to cancel their gig at UTBS, just like their tour. They unfortunately cannot control their drug use and are currently unable/unable to play live. After about 11 exhausting hours on the train, a few beers, and little sleep, we arrived in Berlin at around 8 a.m. After a quick tour of Berlin and a quick snack at McDonald's, we took various public transport options to Basdorf. Once there, we just had to cross the street and we were at our accommodation. A youth hostel filled with weird stuffed frogs, plastic ones, and the like, but otherwise very comfortable and perfectly adequate for a two-night stay for the price. After resting a bit, we set out to explore the village, buy some beer, and find something decent to eat. We were rather disappointed with the food; the Germans just can't make a proper Wiener Schnitzel. Feeling sick, we headed toward the festival grounds, where there were already a few drunks wandering around and a few tents had been set up. The reason for our early arrival at the venue was the various booths from Drakkar, No Colours, Merciless/Breath Of Night, and Folter Records. We probably shouldn't have visited them, as I alone had already spent around €200 on a few vinyls, CDs, and tapes. And Darkwood had accidentally spilled beer all over a box of No Colours vinyl, which Steffen wasn't particularly happy about, and the records had to be bought. Anyway, after a lot of shopping, we headed back to our accommodation to get some sleep and prepare for a great evening.
FRIDAY
We arrived at the venue around 6 p.m. Beforehand, I met up with Eva from Arkana Music, who was so nice and handed over the order to me right away. (Thanks from all of us, Eva!). Okay, but now to the first band... when we got to the stage, the German band SKALDER were already playing. I'd only heard two live recordings of theirs before, and I really liked them. Well, what can I say about these guys? In my opinion, they played their songs quite well, but they still need to work on their live performance. A band that's impressive, and despite the sunshine, they created a good atmosphere.
But I was surprised, because the Dutch band LUGUBRE were already on stage. After a few songs, despite the sunshine, they brought out a torch. Unfortunately, the spitting didn't amount to much. The first time, the singer almost burned his hair, and the second time, the piece of torch, full of gasoline, flew out, right where I'd been standing a minute ago. I had expected a bit more from them, but they still played well and fired up the crowd more than SKALDER.
Next up was a band I was really curious to see: the German band TRIMONIUM. I already knew some of their songs, all of which are very good. And they were also completely convincing live, playing all of their more melodic songs perfectly. A fantastic live band that deserves to play more shows abroad!
Recently, they were in Vienna and really got the crowd going... the band UNPURE. UNPURE was the first band to really get the UTBS audience going. There was a reason for that, because they were even better than in Vienna and created a great atmosphere. Even WATAIN couldn't stand still and were rooting for their Swedish colleagues.
After the Swedes left the stage, the Norwegians TAAKE came on. TAAKE is a household name by almost everyone, so I was really excited to see them. They put on a very good, but almost over-the-top show. The singer completely lost it, just couldn't stand still, and was constantly running around. Musically, they didn't really impress me. It's better to listen to TAAKE in peace at home and enjoy the atmosphere, because they almost didn't manage to create that live. A guitar even choked a woman, who you only recognized after several looks because she was wearing corpse paint and banging constantly. But they still created a great atmosphere and were the last band of the day to really get the crowd going.
The Norwegians TSJUDER were the first band I wasn't really interested in. It was a useless, constant thumping gig that lasted about 30 minutes, and almost all the songs sounded the same. A few people joined in, but most just stood there, probably trying to hear something meaningful. The Darkthrone cover was interesting, but I just couldn't figure out what song it was. I was then told "Transilvanian Hunger," but I only recognized it from the vocals rather than the rest.
Next and last to perform was the Czech cult band ROOT. When they took the stage, everyone probably laughed or at least looked at them. Singer Big Boss, who is around 50 years old, was wearing a black robe/cape, a pentagram shirt, and strange hairpieces on his arms. The other members didn't really fit into the UTBS environment either. Well, I can't really describe the style. Big Boss mostly sang in an operatic style, and occasionally croaked a bit. The rest sounded more thrashy with a bit of black metal influence. Finally, the song I'd been waiting for the whole time... "Pisen pro Satana," which NARGAROTH had also covered. Unfortunately, I was too happy too soon, because the front speakers were simply turned off. (Note from Jörg/Folter Records: The cops were already waiting; 10 more minutes and they would have cleared the place!!!)
By now, we were all pretty exhausted; it was already very cold, and we could barely feel our legs. So we returned to the hostel exhausted. The next day, I was told that our roommates, TAAKE, who were sleeping next door, were throwing and smashing chairs in the hallway and were very loud. But apparently, I didn't really hear much of it.
SATURDAY
After a restful sleep and a bearable lunch, we headed back to the venue around 6 p.m. to see the first band, the Brazilians IMPERIOUS MALEVOLENCE. They played death metal more in the vein of KRISIUN, and I wasn't particularly impressed. Unfortunately, there was a power outage that lasted about 30 minutes, which delayed the gig a bit.
Next up were the Germans SAXORIOR, who interested me even less than TSJUDER. So I took advantage of the time and hung out at the merchandise stands. Unfortunately, it had started to rain harder, so I couldn't buy any records, so we went back to the accommodation to rest a bit.
After we got back to the venue, SAMMATH from the Netherlands were playing. Another band that didn't really excite me, and was more focused on death metal.
From this point on, it could only be a great evening. WATAIN from Sweden took the stage covered in pig/chicken blood (no one really knows for sure). And right at the beginning, singer Erik spat blood into the audience; that wasn't enough for him... so he took a cup full of blood and poured it into the crowd. WATAIN played a very good gig, but unfortunately, the crowd wasn't as upbeat as it had been in Vienna. It wasn't until they played "In The Shadow Of The Horns" by DARKTHRONE that the crowd started to get into it. But then it was smart, because many people sang along to the lyrics and really got into it.
Now it was MORRIGAN (ex-MAYHEMIC TRUTH) from Germany's turn. I've been told they were pretty bad at the last UTBS. But that's in the past. MORRIGAN may have only been a two-piece, but they were one of the few bands that created a great atmosphere. The sound was very good considering there were only two of them on stage. The singer alternated between anthemic Viking battle chants and croaking vocals. For me, they were one of the best bands at UTBS!
The last to take the stage were the Norwegians URGEHAL. The band that most intrigued me from the package. Unfortunately, I only know their album "Arma Christi," where they're a bit more "calm." They played a lot faster live, but that didn't bother me. It was a bit of a shame that they were last on the night, and apparently most people thought so. The audience really let loose at the end, and TAAKE couldn't stay still either. Several TAAKE members stormed the stage, sang along to a few songs, banged their heads together, and singer Høst really let loose again. Then someone came on stage who seemed to be imitating Maniac from MAYHEM. He took a knife and slashed his stomach open. A beautiful conclusion to the most brilliant black metal festival there is, and hopefully always will be!!
CONCLUSION:
The 5th UNDER THE BLACK SUN was a great experience; almost all the bands played very well and thrilled me. Kudos to Jörg from Folter Records for busting his ass for such a powerful festival. I'll definitely be there again next year, and I hope there will be enough people coming in the future, more people who still take Black Metal seriously, and hopefully never any unnecessary posers or trend busters, because they are out of place!!