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This is one gig
I’ve been looking forward to for a veeery long time. Fans congregated to this
northern part of London from countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland,
Germany and of course other parts of England and I chatted to a some of these
outside and inside the venue. Many were devoted Doom Metal fans of
a…well…‘not-so-young’ age. All seemed to share my anticipation for this, the
first-ever UK gig of Pentagram.
Supporting slots
were assigned to Horisont and Purson. As the event is about to kick off, I find
myself trying to guess their style (maybe Doom?) because as such I’ve never
heard either of them. We’ll see what they’ve got to offer, starting with Purson…….
PURSON
It turns out that
Purson play a psychedelic Rock with a vibe that seems rooted in the 1970s. Think
Renaissance meets Hawkwind for a rough picture of their style. To be honest
Purson’s show failed to get me over-excited. I concede that the band did seem to
have some good ideas, as evidenced in their set’s closer ‘Twos & Ones”.
I couldn’t help
notice the unusual stage layout, with the drummer in the middle-foreground and
lead vocalist/guitarist Rosalie Cunningham to his left. Lack of confidence? I
don’t know but the band also seemed to have trouble connecting with the
audience, beyond the throng’s occasional polite acknowledgement.
Set-list:
Wool
Spiderwood Farm
Contract
Fast One
Rocking Horse
Twos And Ones
HORISONT
Next band is
another throwback in time, stylistically speaking, but this time it verges on
the point of parody with their sideburns and retro-attire. As one might deduce
from this assessment, Horisont specialise in 1970s Rock in the vein of Led
Zeppelin, Bad Company and Deep Purple. The music also has strong hints of Stoner
Doom. All this is homely enough but Horisont rarely venture beyond what old
farts such as myself have heard time and again and again and again.
It wasn’t all
gloom though. The band was clearly determined to put on a dynamic show and did
seem to be enjoying themselves. The guitars sounded great especially when
belting out some catchy riff and the main singer had a decent voice for this
genre of music.
To recap my
thoughts until this point, however, I felt both acts could have been more
adequately chosen.
Set-list:
Visa Vagen
Skorprök
Spirit
The Unseen
Krusader
High Time
Mano Warrior
Nightrider
PENTAGRAM
Seeing the guys of
Pentagram walk onto the stage was for me one of those unique moments in life,
like when I saw the original Black Sabbath perform live or the first time I saw
Kiss. Emotions certainly ran high for this sell-out show – it beggars belief
that this was Pentagram’s first UK show in the band’s 40 year existence.
Ironically, as
soon as the band’s set took off it was as if they had always lived here – such
was the strength of the bond with the audience. The set-list was perfectly
crafted and the band had large parts of the audience chanting along to most of
the songs. Vocalist/band mentor Bobby Liebling was visibly taken when the
audience responded so strongly to songs such as ‘Death Row’, ‘Call The Man’ and
‘Relentless’. Towards the end of the show he expressed his intention to return
to British shores before long – thus inciting an ecstatic audience response.
Yep, this was a
truly memorable gig – that may be a cliché but it’s also the goddamn truth.
Set-list:
Forever My Queen
Treat Me Right
Review Your Choices
Sign Of The Wolf / Sinister
Vampyre
Into The Ground
Death Row
All Your Sins
Call The Man
Relentless
Nothing Left
Dying World
Wartime
When The Screams Come
Weblinks and
ratings:
PURSON (www.facebook.com/pursontheband)
- 58/100
HORISONT (www.myspace.com/horisont)
- 55/100
PENTAGRAM (www.myspace.com/thepentagramarchives)
- 85/100
© 2011 C. Galea |