Event: Vengeful Scapegoat European Tour
Bands
: Incantation, Hate, Divine Eve, Noctem, Nerve.
Venue
:‘Elektrowerkz’ – London, England.
Date
: 16th January 2010.

 

Besides serving as a vehicle to promote their recent “Scapegoat” EP, the ‘Vengeful Scapegoat’ tour was an excellent opportunity for Incantation to revisit Europe after a long absence from the continent. Divine Eve joined the ride, seeking to consolidate their active return to the scene. Despite this band having been formed back in 1992, they have yet to release one single full-length and even their live activity had been relatively sparse. The presence of label mates Hate in the bill gave the tour a welcome sense of musical diversity. Likewise, with Noctem also aboard, the project seemed to be all the more sinister. Nerve, from Italy, had the unenviable task of opening the gigs on most of the dates. 

Interesting mix of bands, therefore. To be totally honest it was only the music of Incantation that I was really familiar with. So it was with both an eager anticipation as well as an incipient curiosity that I braved the cold to make my way towards the ‘Elektrowerkz’, in central London.


Nerve 

Without doubt, the members of Nerve are able musicians who know how to write good songs. Their music is aggressive but I’d hesitate to call it Death Metal. An apparent reticence to stick with one style got me reminiscing about their co-nationals Sadist. All this was reflected in tonight’s performance. On the other hand, I didn’t really dig their style of singing and at times I felt their guitar sounded a bit too hollow.

Meanwhile there was no denying that theirs was a tight set and one that was hard to fault on a technical level. Within their set were numbers such as: ‘The Threat’, ‘Black Fades’ and ‘My Inferno’.

www.myspace.com/nerveofficial 

My Rating:   76/100


Noctem

Visually speaking, Noctem put on a striking show – coloured contact-lenses, tooth appendages, costumes, masks, make-up…the band certainly made sure they would be noticed. In a performance, the visual aspect of a band is important and this is something that many otherwise great bands are reticent to admit. Having said that, in the case of Noctem I couldn’t help feeling that should the imagery have been stripped away, the performance would have come across as unremarkable. In any case, their set-list included: ‘Atlas Death’, ‘Under Seas Of Silence’ and ‘Religious Plagues’, the latter closing their show.

One other thing - if anyone wonders why there are no photos of Incantation and only a couple of Hate pics, credit must go to Noctem’s vocalist who, during the band’s last number, decided it would be really cool to throw fake blood at the audience…and my camera. That he didn’t earn my admiration for that is a mild understatement.

www.myspace.com/noctemofficial 

My Rating:   70/100


Divine Eve

Divine Eve are what one might refer to as a cult band and it was only in the days preceding tonight’s gig that I became familiar with their music. However, after bearing witness to their show it became obvious to me that this is a band with copious amounts of talent and professionalism. And it wasn’t just because Incantation’s Kyle Severn was standing in as their drummer.

The music of Divine Eve mixes Doom Metal with furious Death Metal….a bit like Incantation but with a more even-handed focus on these two genres. Any way you look at it, the band was convincing and it was striking how their sound remained the same and yet hovered brilliantly between the aforementioned two genres. The set-list was also very strong – in particular I thought ‘As The Angels Weep’ was a great song that sounded even more convincing than its recorded version. The show of Divine Eve was far from perfect and occasionally their tightness experienced a few hiccups. There’s no doubt however, that if this band comes to a venue near you, I strongly recommend that you, the reader, go and check them out.

www.myspace.com/divineeve2008 

My Rating:   88/100


Hate

The Polish Metal community of London are always very supportive when bands from their country of origin come over to play in their adopted homeland and you have to admire them for that. Tonight, of course, is no exception. Donning corpsepaint and costumes not very different in concept from compatriots Behemoth, Hate gave a performance that was met with a widely consensual approval from the audience. Their Death/Black Metal sounded raw and intense but, despite that, I found myself struggling to warm to them.

The set-list was as varied as practically possible when selecting tracks from an already extensive repertoire. All in all, I thought they were definitely convincing albeit not ‘brilliant’.

www.hate-metal.com 

My Rating:   77/100


Incantation

Incantation provided a template for brutal Death Metal that persists in being a valid pool of inspiration for many bands. Sure enough, after having seen the band perform, I understood that this is from where many great bands, such as Beheaded and Dying Fetus, laid the foundations of their own sound. The distinctive riffing of guitarists John McEntee (also the band’s vocalist and founding member) and Alex Bouks (of Goreaphobia fame) was nothing short of impressive. It had been ages since the band performed with 2 guitarists and this really seemed to have made a positive difference.

No matter what release Incantation was revisiting in their show, the band was relentless and tight, without foregoing any of the songs’ brutality and rough edge. The spirit of Death Metal has never appeared stronger than tonight.

www.incantation.com

My Rating:   94/100

Nerve

Noctem

Divine Eve

Hate

< Pictures from the Event >

Attending: Chris Galea