kill eat exploit the weak: enslaved

Showing posts with label enslaved. Show all posts

Monday, 17 October 2011

fall concert going is limited: thoughts on enslaved

I had never heard Junius before I saw them open for Enslaved at Toronto's Opera House. I was impressed enough to peruse their merch table but a few weeks later I find Reports from the Threshold of Death less inspiring than their live performance.

After missing Alcest headlining in 2010 (for various unfortunate reasons) I was excited to see how they come across in concert. I enjoyed their set - they sounded good - but felt the atmosphere wasn't quite right: too big, too bright, too rock'n'roll? The stage-front fan raising a single leaf in emblematic tribute amused me (unanticipated entertainment). Am I misremembering, or did people try to get a bit going during the heaviest of Alcest's songs?

I was thoroughly wowed by Enslaved's set opening for Dimmu Borgir last December (and kicking myself for missing earlier performances). They were my main motivation for this Friday night run to Toronto and I was not disappointed. Grutle Kjellson's bad puns are no match for the stand-up comedy routine of Opeth's frontman but the jokeyness was cute. (in fact, I'm thinking there's a research project here on Scandinavian metal humour) And Enslaved, as a group, are fantastic performers, playing persuasively to a diverse crowd (including the guy yelling, "play some black metal!" behind me). There was no pyro or blatant theatrics beyond the charisma and talent of the band members themselves, but there might as well have been in terms of dramatic effect. Enslaved have secured a place near the top of my list of favourite live performers.

If you want a more coherent review with some excellent visual documentary evidence, check out the killer Walschots-Wills combo over at Hellbound.ca.

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

more agalloch. more live black metal.

Every once in a while I somehow keep managing to get something written.

Like this Agalloch Q&A (already a few weeks old), now posted at exclaim.ca.

And this Dimmu Borgir / Enslaved /Blood Red Throne / Dawn of Ashes live review (with a delightfully green photo by Adam Wills).

A few more sentiments on the show that didn't make it to the exclaim site...

Cold rain creeping into ice and snow seemed like the right kind of weather to welcome Dimmu Borgir and their “Darkness Reborn” tour mates to Toronto, and the early blackening of the skies complemented the blackened sounds within. The line-up wasn’t an obvious match-up but fairly well rounded, revealing at least three different takes on extreme metal. Performing before and after Enslaved wasn’t really fair to any of the other bands and, in retrospect, the others might have been more impressive without that overshadowing presence.

(I also tried to say that Enslaved's 45 minutes might as well have been show-stopping, not that it might as well have been Enslaved...)