27-05-2013

The Winged Dragon of Amenra

Went to see Oathbreaker and Amenra last night. At STUK, Leuven. Sold out. Lotsa people. Most of them older than me. Most of the wearing black clothes. Most of them hating life, probably.

So Oathbreaker started and THEY STARTED VERY LOUD THEY ARE A VERY LOUD BAND. But sometimes they kick it back anotch as well and create musical intermezzos to leave to audience eagerly awaiting that one moment WHEN THEY GO INTO FULLBLAST MODUS AGAIN. And then DO THING like this WERE YOU don't realloy know WHEN to exPECT what they're GONNA play and it really cool. They Played a new song which started out with a quiet part and even some actual singing as opposed to the COSTUMARY SCREAMING THAT IS HABITUAL FOR SUCH BANDS and they pulled it off. Album's gonna drop this summer apparently. I've only heard snibbets of MAELSTROM THE LAST ALBUM THEY PUT OUT, but from what I've heard live they've definitely developped their own sound now. Whereas the first TIME I HEARD THE THEY KINDA SOUNDED LIKE A RISE AND FALL RIPOFF they now sound like a proper band, which is cool. Insane riffs, they share their guitar player with Amenra and he's pretty damn amazing.


Big up for the Dutch guy who said "Wat een lam publiek hier, 't lijkt Nederland wel" for making me laugh.

Amenra is the scholar example of a cultband. They have everything figured out, from the music, to the artwork, the aesthetics, the live performance. It's all perfectly tuned together to create a band the like of which the world has never seen the like of which*. A guitarist starts playing. Immediately the crowd is focused and Amenra is in the picture. Suddenly, EVERYTHING IS SET ABLAZE, THE SONG BURSTS INTO THE LOUDEST SONG EVER AND THERE'S HEADBANGING PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many short-haired people headbang, I think. AMENRA CONTINUES UNDISTURBEDLY AND PLAYS A SET OF all kinds of songs that I don't know cause I rarely really listen to them. But they sure AS HELL CAN WIN ME OVER FOR A LIVE SHOW once in a while. It's been a couple years since I've seen THEM PLAY, SO IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE ONCE AGAIN. Even though tickets were 16 euros. As I've said, perfect cultband, no talking in between songs, no thankyou's, no we'reamenra's, no buyourmerch's. They stick to their shtick and they do it extraordinarily well. Of course, the main attraction is THE MUSIC, WHICH WAS SLUDGY GOODNESS THAT IS DIFFICULT TO NOT BANG YER HEAD TO.

Although I must say I totally zoned out for the last 2 songs, like unconsciously watched them but with my head in another place. So yeah, I thought it was a bit too long but I'm not used to this kind of music. I like 2-minute pop punk songs and 1-minute hardcore songs. 7-minute sludge songs are harder for me to focus on.



*Thumbs up for who got that reference.

1 opmerking:

  1. Fijn te lezen dat ik niet de enige ben die last heeft van zoning out bij dit soort optredens.

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