photo courtesy of Southern Lord
One of my favorite records this year is Heavy Breathing by Black Breath. The band has grabbed hold the sounds of Motörhead in ’80 and Metallica in ’82 and fused them into an incendiary cocktail. So, when the band visited Oslo this cold November night, I was in the front of the line waiting to see this amazing band live on stage.
The venue Garage is sadly closing doors in less than a month, due to poor ticket sales and increased costs. Ironically, it happens at a time when their programming is at a all-time high with great bands such as Wolves In The Throne Room, Kylesa and Coliseum. Well, at least they go out with a bang—not a whimper—and Black Breath did what they could to help. Even though the venue was less than half full, the American band managed to set the crowd on fire with a great selection of songs including a cover version of Sepultura.
Before Black Breath took over, however, two Norwegian hardcore outfits did their best to warm the crowd up. Redd is a young band playing screamo who sadly, even with a amazing drummer, felt a bit too one-dimensional for my taste. I feel that singers in these kind of bands should go for shrieking the way Tetsuya Fukagawa in Envy does; making the voice a part of the band’s soundscape and not just float on top of the rhythms and guitars. Hopefully, I’ll think better of them next time.
The second band of the bill, Okkultokrati, is a rising name in Norwegian hard music, having released their debut record on the indie label Fysisk Format. They also seem to have a background in screamo, but i feel they have supplemented this core sound with inspirations from Celtic Frost, dark doom and Khanate. Unfortunately their set only lasted 25 minutes; they are certainly able to entertain the black masses for longer than that.
But the third and final band of the night were in a league of their own. Having been given heaps of praise since the release of their debut earlier this years, it was no surprise that most of tonight’s audience were here to witness the power of Black Breath. They did not disappoint.
They opened their set with a powerful version of “Black Sin (Spit On The Cross)” and exploded onto the stage; N.T. McAdams was in great voice throughout the concert, guitarist Zack Muljat stalked the audience like a young Jello Biaffra, lead guitarist Eric Wallace dressed the songs with tasty licks and the rhythm section of Jamie Byrum and Elijah Nelson delivered the thundering foundation for the rest of the band.
photo via myspace.com/blackbreath
N.T. dedicated songs to both Redd and Okkultokrati and “Unholy Virgin” went out to the crowd (“thanks for showing up tonight”). The mood both on and off the stage was great during the band’s set. When he, after a fan has cried out the title of his favorite song, replies “your request has been answered!” the fan rushes towards the stage, headbanging and screaming, locking fists with N.T. as the band rush into yet another crushing tune. During the last third of the set, a moshpit appears in front of the stage, and in the end, even N.T. joins the fun.
Truly, a good night out on the town!
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