Bands: Negura Bunget (Rom)+ Kathaarsys (Spa) + In Element (Arg)
Place: La Fábrica de Chocolate (Vigo) - Spain
Price: 15€ (18€ entrance)
We arrived a bit late, so we missed the first band, In Element. I think it wasn't that late, but maybe the fact that it was monday made it a bit faster than usual for concerts here.
After the show we met one guy from In Element and bought him a CD so it's here ready to listen when I can (I have still loads of albums of this year to listen XD).
So, we arrived just in the starting of Kathaarsys, a great band from Galicia, maybe one of the 3 best. And probably in my top ten of the Spanish bands. They will start a big tour around the world and I guess not so many metal bands from here are able to say that.
Well, going on with the show, I saw Kathaarsys many many times, and they never disappointed me, even with bad sound they can recreate a great atmosphere. This time sound was also quite good for both bands and that helped to involve public more in their ambient.
It's amazing that just being 3 people they are making so much noise and giving so much to the audience. Everytime I watch one of their concerts I am astonished, hypnotized... I cannot look other place but the scenary... this is not happening so well when I listen to their CD at home, so I cannot explain very well what they have when playing in live... not appereance but hmm power, mystic contact, forcefulness and atmospheric moments...
The bass player has a lot of visual power and attitude, she is not stopping moving nearly never XD but their bass lines are as well quite complicated, like the kind of music they play in general. This time bass was a bit lower than guitar, but it was a not so big mistake. Drummer line is amazing... complicated, fast sometimes, joining perfectly... I think he is probably one of the best drummers we have in this land. The guy singing and playing guitar is unbeliavable, he is doing ALL the guitars, lead, rythm, clean, solos... and rythms of Kathaarsys are not characterized for their simplicity... Moreover he is singing in several tones even some clean voice.
They played few time in this concert (I guess around 1 hour) and 4 or 5 songs (yes, they are quite long XD) They played mostly about their last record Verses in Vain, but also offered a new song from their upcoming release. A good song in the "vein" of Verses in Vain, long, lots of rythm changes and maybe more variety in voice? Let's see when they launch it :P
Few public, by the way, but it also matters we were on monday, but still... somehow I was sure we wouldnt be many more if it was weekend...
Few moments of relax and Negura Bunget came.
My expectation was total about that band, I recently listened to Om, which is a good album, but couldnt imagine how they would be in concert. At first they sounded ok, but not very impressive, I'd say, but little by little we started to come inside their world... and just when 2 songs the ambient they were creating was surrounding my mind, with mystic, epic, folkie melodies, harsh moments... seemed we were being introduced into some old foggy forest in a lost part of Transilvania.. (in fact Negura Bunget means "Dark Foggy Forest", a very proper name for the style of the band). They used quite strange instruments as well, not very common for Metal bands but really effective for recreating such a dark-epic-folk surrounding atmosphere.
Pan flute, flute, xylophone, kettledrum, and even one piece of wood that they played with 2 small wood hammers!! I have never seen before someone playing .. hm with a plank, even couldnt imagine XD
Worth mentioning the huge horn the singer took, maybe 3 meters!!!
Cannot say too much about the songs because I couldn't understand any song names since they sang in romanian... but the matter is that the environment, the ambient was great, good songs, atmospheric sometimes, folkie or raw and angry others... with a good taste in the changes, I simply enjoyed a lot their show.
Sound was in general ok for both bands, and people were few as usual in these concerts, more even being monday, but it was really worth.
I took a pic with the singer of Negura Bunget that you can see down here, he was really sooooo polite and this is something really strange to see in metal bands that it was almost funny, like everytime... thanks, sorry, could you make lower the sound of.. thank you very much ... sorry.. XDD
We recalled when seeing him sometimes a famous cartoon character in Spain lots of years ago... Ulises 31 :D
Worth also mentioning when Kathaarsys were playing there were 2 or 3 guys making headbanging as none, first thing I thought... "huh!? they are not from here!!XDD" they were people from Negura Bunget!! :)
So hail to Negura Bunget and good luck for Kathaarsys in the world tour! Sure they will find more warm ambient abroad Spain and Galicia!
Negura Bunget - Bruiestru
