Venue: Colchester Arts Centre Location: Colchester Date: 13th July, 2013 Genre: Black Metal < Jotnarr set the tone for the evening, shrieking black metal On what many perceived as a hallow night in the abyss of Colchester's back streets, three bands were tuning up their apocalyptic sounds to unleash a blast of ghastly horror on the attending crowd. Summoned first to the graceful stage in the Colchester Arts Centre was home-boys Jotnarr with their gnarly mix of crust music with Black Metal. However as much as they tried they did not seem to pip the crowds reception as much as they had hoped, much is the case when big bands play but when bands like Jotnarr explode with a rapturous sound that ironically did catch the attention of the other bands performing that night it seemed all too good to be true. Sure this was my first time actually watching the lads and so judgements were retracted to no availing conclusion, putting it into simple paraphrasing: yes they were good and delivered a stellar performance, but they need to improve on stage presence, it's fine playing the music but without any movement the performance is near enough dead. However referring back to my point about catching others attention, this is something Jotnarr will do in the near future as I feel they could go far. As soon as their set was over and the atmosphere died down, a new form of Black Metal was being woken up and as Jotnarr left the stage to the sound of applause, Eastern Front were shining up their shells and manning their anti-aircraft weaponry. Nagant's 'playing dead' impersonation did not go down well > War-Torn Black Metallers Eastern Front were the next ensemble to blast holes in the glass-stained walls of this historic church, how fitting is it that churches were bombed on the Eastern Front and yet come nearly 70 years later Eastern Front do their own bombing. Fueled by the unrelenting crowd and a dousing of kerosene in the form of a nuclear beer cocktail, the lads from Ipswich murdered senses mercilessly and with their full commanding assault bearing down upon the crowd, the even stronger line-up featuring the band's new members Zeichen and the unknown and yet illusive drummer of whose name remains a mystery, so who is this mystery person? No he is not a descendant of Georgy Zhukov although he certainly had the drumming velocity of said war veteran. Eastern Front did not disappoint on what could be considered their best performance in a major venue to date. Already in transit in creating their second album, this performance was a sure sign that the band are going to keep the furious side of the music flowing freely whilst the lyrics do the job of setting the scene for the crowd to cower at. As for the stage presence, Eastern Front nailed it through the use of barbed wire, an illuminated gas mask, military style clothing and search lights, developing a dark and bitter feel to their presence, something that would set the headlining band up well for, but with a little twist in it. So as soon as the battle cries fell silent, it was time to kick off the folkloric atmosphere that Winterfylleth bring with them. It was time for Chesire folk-influenced Black Metal ensemble Winterfylleth to grace the stage and deliver the punters their just reward, a full on face-smacking punch of old English black metal, my only hope was that they didn't get apprehended by the green party, mind you it does justice to sing about traditional English heritage (well the Norwegians sing about Norway, so). No sooner did the lads board the stage did they unleash a ferocious barrage of unorthodox Black Metal, I say unorthodox in the sense they they like Jotnarr did not dress in the basic Black Metal way, no corpse-paint, just insanely epic music. With that firmly set in stone and the ballads flowing lusciously over the crowd and into the night sky, it was justified that tonight was without a doubt the best Black Metal concert that Essex has seen for sometime. As soon as the last riff of the night let rip did the crowd disperse to leave Colchester well and truly annihilated.
By Rhys Stevenson [6.5] + [8.5] + [8]
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