SATYRICON, ZONARIA

Live diabolical

08.12.2008 Wrocław (POL)

As 2008 slowly comes to an end, it is right time to sum up . Fans of metal sounds in the capital of Lower Silesia may consider this year asquite successful. We've had an opportunity to bang our head along with: DEATH ANGEL, BRUTAL TRUTH, DISFEAR, NAPALM DEATH and SUFFOCATION. Fortunately Santa Claus also didn't forget about metal maniacs - and although it was a little late gift - the fact that after two years we had another chance to see SATYRICON playing at well known among metalheads W-Z was a nice finish to this year's concert season in Wroclaw.

When I arrived in the fornt of the venue I've seen a long queue of noise lovers waitin' before the club. At least 400 fans decided to spend this cold, december evening in the company of the Norwegian legend. Nowadays it's quite impressive result. Unfortunately few days earlier british thrashers EVILE were forced to pull out of the tour. So the only remaining support ast was a Swedish ZONARIA. They started their 40 minutes log gig at 8 P.M. and after two minutes I've started to regret that we didn't have a chance to see one of the best young, european thrashin' acts.

Dressed in leather uniforms with a light make-up on their faces Swedes presented a mixture of songs taken from their two albums. It was my first contact with ZONARIA. And I'm sure that I won't desperately look for their CDs at the local record stores. This kind of average death/black metal with some melodic interludes is nothing different from what so many did before with much better results. The show was definitely less attractive than the possibility of long conversations with friends or drinking a cool beer served at the bar.

After 35 minutes long break the gloomy introduction sounded in dark. And the evening's main actors appeared on the strage. Frost hidden behind his drum kit decorated with metal horns - the installation known form the last band;s video. Satyr with short black hair combed back with a gel - wearing a black shirt with silver chains around his neck - proudly standing with a solid size metal mic stand decorated with horns copied from the letter "Y" in band's logo. They started with "Possessed" taken from the "Volcano": album. I must say it was a little surprise as I rather expected one of the new songs. The crowd immediately reacted to the energetic sound by shouting the song's title together with the vocalist. Fortunately initial problems with vocals were the only technical failure during the entire performance and after a few minutes without we could enjoy the show without any problems. The sound was really, really good. The second stroke was "Wolfpack" - the first representative of the new album "The Age of Nero". This powerful anthem was also very warm received by polish fans. It was obvious that they already know and love the new songs. Satyr was definitely pleased with crowd's response. But also he wasn't surprised. "I remember Wroclaw from our tour two years ago, It was really amazing. Let's do it again! - band's leader encouraged people. We weren't forced to wait long for the reaction. As Satyr conducted the crowd from a height of the stage, polish fans followed his instructions. They screamed and sang the choruses together with SATYRICON's vocalist. The master of ceremony seemed to be really pleased, so he bowed to the the audience between songs. Band continued on with such a killers like: "Now, Diabolical", "Havoc Vulture" or "Black Crow on a Tombstone". The air was almost boiling. It's an undisputed fact that long series of concerts established band's form at a very high level. SATYRICON is today really wild and untamed beast. "Forhekset" and especially "My Skin Is Cold" were full of energy and power. But when the band started to play "Die By My Hand" I couldn't ask for more. This is one of the best songs from the new album. It starts really wild then transforms into something dark, eerie and disqueiting. An interesting fact was that at the end of the track Satyr not only sang but also played guitar, Maybe some people still remember that when SATYRICON as one of the first Norwegian black metal band's decided to play live shows, there were some voices accusing him of not being able to play and sing at the same time. Now we know that it's not true - Satyr played two more songs including "Pentagram Burns". But frankly speaking with guitar in his hands band's frontman was more static. As an encore we were regaled with three hits: "K.I.N.G.", "Fuel For Hatred" and black metal song of songs "Mother North". It was a great finale of this 90 minutes long and successful performance. SATYRICON confirmed the status of one of the best live acts coming from Norway.

Pictures by Aga Krysiuk
Pictures from SATYRICON's Warsaw show are available here.