LIVE REVIEW: DODHEIMSGARD - Naer Mataron (21/10/2007 - Gagarin 2005, Athens, Greece)

When I heard, about two months ago, that Dødheimsgard are gonna visit Greece for 2 live shows, the first thing that I did was to “be launched” from my chair and to jump around my room like a crazy. Dødheimsgard except from being one of my favorite bands, I believe that they are pioneers to the Black Metal genre. Their composer and mastermind Vicotnik (or Mr. Fixit) is one of the two, most gifted musicians in the Norwegian scene (the other is Carl-Michael Eide, ex-DHG drummer) and in parallel that the whole band consists of top musicians, was a guarantee for a magic evening. Finally, I think that my initial estimation confirmed, but let’s take the whole thing from the beginning.

The doors opened at 20.00, as stated to the ticket, but the show didn’t start at 20.30 as it was arranged. Naer Mataron was the support band and they started at 21.04. The Greek blacksters appeared on stage with their typical corpsepainting and some stage scenery, such as two big inverted crosses and a big textile on right of the drumset. The Greek band was unlucky, since their guitarist had an accident and they were forced to play with one guitar on the show. The sound, at the whole duration of the live, wasn’t an ally to the group since the bass was too loud and as a result the guitar wasn’t easy to be heard properly. Despite this, Naer Mataron proved why is a big band, since they performed very well their songs, which were a selection from all their albums, and some of them were “Faethon”, “Steppe” and “Skotos Aenaon”. They also performed a song from their forthcoming album and they left the stage after one hour, with a warm applause of the crowd.

After a long wait of about an hour, the time was right for the first appearance of the “Norwegian Innovators of Black Metal Anarchy”, in front of the Greek audience. The band entered the stage after the sound of “The Dushman” song, and when this ends, the dream, or better…, the “nightmare” begins. The band starts the show with “The Crystal Specter” song and the venue is on fire. The sound is very good from the beginning and it is very clear that the band is in great shape and ready to offer us great moments. They were painted in different colors, with a highlight the new frontman of the band, Kvohst, who was painted with red color and he was dressed with a, like from the winds, torn cloak and a hood to cover his head. Kvohst hails the crowd and he states that DHG came to their "spiritual home", Greece. The audience goes crazy and DHG performs “Vendetta Assassin” and “The Snuff Dreams Are Made Of” songs from their latest album, "Supervillain Outcast". It’s pretty clear that the band doesn’t use on their live shows all the electronic elements, included to their two last albums, with a result the songs to sound heavier and nearer to their black metal basis. Continuing to that motive, they performed the “Starcave, Depths and Chained” song, from their first album. “Apocalypticism” was next, before the time for the “Final Conquest” came right and for us to understand that Khvost is a worthy substitute of the talented Aldrahn, ex-singer of the band. Except from his unbelievable vocal virtues, he had an imposing appearance on the stage and with his movements and expressions, he gave another dimension to the show. Back to the first days of the band and “En Krig å Seire” song, before the “Oneiroscope” intro and the following “Traces Of Reality” song, which was dedicated to Aldrahn. “Monumental Possession” and “21^st Century Devil” were next in line, until the final song of the show which was the “Supervillain Serum”. The band finishes the show thanking the audience for coming and leaves the stage. The lights are kept turned off and in the middle of the screams of the crown, asking for more, DHG retuned to the stage in order to satisfy our demand. The band plays two songs as an encore, with “Ion Storm” to be the last one. It is worthy to say that despite the high level of the sound, during the show, it was very hard to discriminate the lead melodies from the guitar at the last song (also in “Traces Of Reality”), since the guitars seemed to sound somewhere in the back, comparing with the other instruments. Anyway, the show comes to the end after 80 minutes in the about, and the audience applauded the band for the magic show they offered us.

Despite the fact that DHG were absent from live shows for over seven years and being a completely different band from then, they proved that can offer special moments to their fans and not only. Their music can be supported excellent from their special stage appearance and they are able to perform their music on the stage, precisely as it can be heard on their albums, which is a difficult matter. Ending, I wish DHG to visit Greece again, since their live show is a monumental experience for the fans of extreme music. All hails!!!