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Krisiun/Belphegor Live In Ottawa

By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 @ 3:00 PM


At The Rainbow Bistro

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To start off, is it possible to be overcome by so much rock and metal that one ends up forgetting to review the show that they had set out to see in the first place? That’s exactly what happened to me when I last saw Krisiun about a year and a half ago with Into Eternity opening up for a rather lukewarm-sounding Hate Eternal. It was extremely hot – one of the hottest summers on record – and both bands completely punished the crowd with their molten supply of brutal metal and rock. While hanging out with the band the topic of reviewing their show that day came up and again, because of the overwhelming amount of the metal and rock that was on display that night I was…well…overwhelmed (not to mention somewhat dehydrated, sore from moshing and half-recuperating from Strapping Young Lad, Anvil and 2 government French exams back to back the week before) and forgot to review the show altogether. So if the bands haven’t had the chance to see my previous apology for not submitting the aforementioned review on time here it is again:

I’m sorry, my bad. It won’t happen again, and if it does I promise to use more credible excuses for forgetting to review a show in the near future. Hope this brings closure for both parties involved and let’s close that chapter in our lives and move on from here.

And so we did.

Fast forward then to the bone-chilling evening February 5 at the Rainbow Bistro (see, Los Angeles? We have one of those here too!) in Ottawa’s Byward Market on the third night of Winterlude where the majority of the population would be literally chilling to the sounds of Randy Bachmann’s 1,657,908th rendition of “Takin’ Care Of Business”. Thanks to the -25 degree windchill which made a casual trip down the hill from my neighborhood library feel like a descent from the northern face of Mount Kilimanjaro I fell asleep, woke up and arrived just in time to have missed the set of local band Deamon by about 5 minutes and spent the time watching the co-headliners Belphegor set up their gear and struggle with a faulty PA system during their soundcheck. It was the Austrian death-dealers’ first trip to Ottawa and Canada in general and despite the aforementioned piece of shit PA system and the bitter cold the band let none of these setbacks curtail their performance. Given that this was my first time seeing these guys I wouldn’t have known if their performance would have exceeded or at the very least met the levels of hype I’ve been hearing about them but their delivery of brutal Teutonic death metal with a hint of Scandinavian black metal in parts never caused the moshpit circle to waver even for a second. Even when the PA system conked out at least a dozen times during their set – notably during “Seyn Todt In Schwartz” and “Lucifer Incestus” twice alone – the band maintained their composure and few in the crowd seemed to notice that the PA took out the band’s amps half the time. And for every 5-second glitch with the PA during “Lucifer Incestus” vocalist/guitarist Helmuth channeled the Anti-Christ tenfold during “Diabolic Virtues” and “Swarm Of Rats” and pretty much most of the other songs from their recent CD Pestapokalypse IV written in English. Sometimes it just seemed unfair for Belphegor that the PA system would cut out their sound during the songs sung in German and Latin because it did rub some of the dramatic luster off of the songs but the musicianship compensated for it. Helmuth and lead guitarist Sigurd had some pretty impressive riff trade-offs particularly on “Hell’s Ambassador” whereas bassist Marius and drummer Lille Gruber (on loan from German death metallers Defeated Sanity for the band’s North American tour) provided a rhythm section that dispensed a rumbling background cacophony with riffs and backbeats as thick as their accents. Overshadowing Danzig on his recent Blackest Of The Black tour probably wasn’t that much of a challenge for Belphegor as they got the crowd hanging onto almost their every word and sporting several bruises from the circle at this show. Helmuth may conjure images of all that is grim and evil onstage and in the studio but in real life he’s as humble and down to earth as the next trilingual person. So humble and able to relate to the fans (albeit really hammered from consuming several bottles of Heineken and Molson from the stage-turned-mini bar) he managed to write down the setlist of that evening’s show for this new fan who now keeps the list as a souvenir along with the half-dozen bruises and welts sustained in the pit. Thanks for the show and try not to be strangers in this part of the world in the near future, guys!

http://www.myspace.com/Belphegor

Headliners Krisiun wasted little time in taking the stage immediately although with a band line-up consisting of just 3 people that goes without saying here. But what they lack in numbers they make up in kicking the living shit out of almost everything their countrymen Sepultura have been releasing for the past decade or so (sorry, folks but the comparisons were inevitable here). The band’s mélange of unholy death, black, thrash and progressive metal was still as tight and crowd-enduring that night as it was a summer and a half ago when I first saw them live. From the recent CD AssassiNation, “Bloodcraft” featured punishing drumwork and guitar tonality that would put a high percentage of most up and coming tr00 kVlt black metal bands to shame, “Murderer” was as ferocious and violent-sounding as its namesake, “Vicious Wrath” brought out the real hardcore moshers with its not-too-subtle nods to early Morbid Angel and “Suicidal Savagery” simply punished the aural senses. Without any anesthesia I might add. They also delved a bit deep into the vault for a significant duration of the show, playing some of the older material such as “Soul Devourer” and “Messiah Of The Double Cross” and could likely have delved even deeper if vocalist/bassist Alex Carmargo didn’t have the incessant need to thank everyone for supporting the metal scene in between every song for the last 15 minutes of the concert. Which is really the only nagging complaint about the whole show as those last 15 minutes could’ve also been spent trying to work around a faulty PA system. Or even worse, an extended version of “Takin’ Care Of Business” in sub-Arctic climatic conditions long after the chip wagons have shut up shop for the night. After all, Krisiun would prefer to share their apocalyptic visions of hell with you rather than expect you to experience it first hand.

But whether it’s shared or experienced, that concert shredded and will continue to make for good conversation around the water cooler at work for years to come from my perspective anyway. And while I couldn’t do anything about the weather this time around I at least can claim I helped do something in getting Krisiun’s name some much-needed exposure with this review.

http://www.myspace.com/Krisiun666



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