I reach the venue straight from work, with jacket and shirt still buttoned up.
A heat wave welcomes my arrival, with people coming out from the concert zone for a smoke or to buy a beer.
I’ve lost Vitriol e Omophagia, the first two bands, but luckily enough I’m in time for Hate Eternal and Nile, the leading acts of the night.
The americans come up on stage quite stealthily, without any big scene. After all, the daily menu offers bands with a refined technique but quite bare if we watch the scenic side of the show.
Hate Eternal manage to execute a perfect but traditional performance. The strong rhythm is perfect, the various tracks succeed each other with high level riffs, but the only big motion on stage is the one on instruments fretboard.
The songs extracted from the band’s last album are two: the title-track “Upon Desolate Sands” and “Nothingness of being“, which calls to mind a sound influenced by Morbid Angel.
What I enjoy the most about them, is the ability to realize a perfectly working setlist. The start is relatively relaxed, while the climax is reached with the last two tracks: “I, Monarch” and “King of all Kings“.
Everybody seems benefit this “warm-up”, as this great conclusion is combined to the headbanging of the first rows.
Setlist:
1. Bringer of Storms
2. Behold Judas
3. Catacombs
4. All Hope Destroyed
5. Powers That Be
6. Haunting Abound
7. The Stygian Deep
8. Upon Desolate Sands
9. Nothingness of Being
10. I, Monarch
11. King of All Kings
The set change is very speedy, even if the drum has to be disassembled and carried from the front size of the stage (Szene has got a limited area).
Even for a structural matter, Nile‘s entrance is basic and fast.
Karl Sanders smiles cheerfully, a sort of trademark. He would not hand over the feeling of a musician able to offer an astonishing and extremely technical concert. But in fact, he is. His riffs are able to donate a rock touch to the union of heavy arrangements, rough growl and tireless drumming.
Their new album will be out in november, and I have to admit that the highest peak of the concert has been reached by “Long Shadows of Dread”, its opening track. It’s aggressive, of course, but it also offers a sense of rituality thanks to the resonant rings of a bell. As this element is way more well-defined during the live execution of the track, I prefer this version of the song, compared to the one recorded in studio.
Even with them, most of the time it’s dedicated the most popular songs, selected from various albums, such as “Kafir!” e “In the Name of Amun“. Then, it’s time for “The Fiends Who Come to Steal the Magick of the Deceased“, with the cymbals that vibrate in the brain.
Everything ends with “Black Seeds of Vengeance“, for which some members of the previous bands cooperate with the americans, such as Vitriol’s singer. Here I regret not having arrived in time for their show, how he attacks the microphone while singing is wild and electrifies even more the public.
Some greetings and a couple of selfies with their listeners, then the show is over. A simple evening, but for connoisseurs. The only flaws are some fingerprints that somebody delivered to the lens of my camera; reason why I’ll be very pissed off during the following days…
What about you? Have you attended one of the italian shows?
Setlist:
1. The Blessed Dead
2. Sacrifice Unto Sebek
3. Kafir!
4. Call to Destruction
5. Long Shadows of Dread
6. In the Name of Amun
7. The Fiends Who Come to Steal the Magic of the Deceased
8. Kheftiu Asar Butchiu
9. Vile Nilotic Rites
10. Snake Pit Mating Frenzy
11. The Howling of the Jinn
12. Sarcophagus
13. 4th Arra of Dagon
14. Black Seeds of Vengeance
