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Hof Ter Lo, Antwerpen, Belgium
9th March 2007
Kreator, Celtic Frost

Two European metal giants, Swiss Celtic Frost and German Kreator stopped by Belgium as co-headliners for their second gig of a long tour of 25 concerts across Europe, ending on April 5th in Hamburg. Both bands have been around for more than 20 years and are considered as masters in their style, respectively black/doom metal and thrash metal. This explains also why in the audience we could see two generations of Metal Heads attending the grand anti-mass of dark music. It was Friday evening and Hof Ter Lo was definitely sold out. We arrived late and unfortunately could not see the support bands Watain (Sweden) and Legion Of The Damned (Netherlands), but we were not the only ones as more people were still arriving.

The metal crowd counting something like 1000 heads was already warmed up by the support bands and the atmosphere was at the same time dark and festive because everyone seemed to be happy to start the week-end in such a grandiose way. For those who have still the possibility to attend one of the gigs of this tour, we can only strongly recommend to get a ticket because you won’t often have the opportunity to attend an event of this magnitude.


Celtic Frost

Celtic Frost founded by the Swiss Thomas Gabriel Fischer after Hellhammer had a huge success on the European metal scene with their first albums Morbid Tales (1984), To Mega Therion (1985) and Into the Pandemonium (1987). They have influenced more than one, including Therion and even Nirvana. In 2006 Celtic Frost, the Swiss Gods of Extreme Metal, have released the album Monotheist after 16 years of silence, which is well received after the difficult moments faced by the band in the late 80s and early 90s. After various experimentations, Celtic Frost have reconciled with what they do best: the atmosphere is more doom and morbid than ever. The line-up is Tom Gabriel Fischer (Voice, Guitars, Programming), Martin Eric Ain (Bass, Vocals), Franco Sesa (Drums, Percussion) and V Santura as tour guitarist (of German black metal group Dark Fortress). www.celticfrost.com / http://www.myspace.com/celticfrost



Music
After the Totengott intro from the new album, the Swiss group walked the audience in a nearly chronological order through the darkest songs of their three first albums. After three black metal songs of their first album, transitioning with heavy sounds in crescendo through The Usurper, from To Mega Therion, the rhythm is accelerating into the excellent Ain Elohim from The Monotheist, evolving from doom to trash, with angry vocals and fast drumming. The show continues through two songs of “To Mega Therion” until Ain announces that he will bring the audience “Into the Pandemonium”, capital of hell, with Mesmerized which, with the slow paced bass, reminds of the sound of Nirvana (it is actually Celtic Frost who inspired Nirvana). The pace is accelerating with two older songs to bring the audience to the most intense moment of the concert with the longest track of The Monotheist: Synagoga Satanae. The atmosphere has now reached its paroxysm, the morbidity is becoming hardly bearable, it’s sticking to your skin, penetrating deep into your flesh, consuming your stomach while Ain is praying in Latin and German. The end of the song is becoming instrumental and the guitarists and the bassist are forming a circle around Franco Sesa, standing behind his drums. It’s a great momentum! It is incredible how the music of Celtic Frost, which is more than 20 years old is not aging, instead it is becoming more actual than ever. Not a wonder that their music was often qualified as “avant-garde”.


Performance
Celtic Frost does not need to do much to create a show: the atmosphere is in the sound. The décor is rather simple and the same as for their 2006 tour: in the middle, a black banner with the name of the band in their so characteristic font and, on the sides, the logos of the band, with the skull. The four musicians also have their typical make-up of the death: beautiful black signs on a whitened skin. The bassist Martin Eric Ain has also an impressive look. With his long hair and beard, and wearing a black toga, he looks like Hagrid in Harry Potter. At several occasions he is haranguing the audience with “I went to the church for the last time. It was the last time I have prayed because there is no God. There is no God” or “Do you respect the death? Do you respect the death? You are the future of the death! So, do you respect the death?…”. Finally as words are sometimes missing to express this dark atmosphere, I would like to quote Pascal, the bassist of Skeptical Minds whom we met after the gig: “You imagine yourself lying in your coffin… That’s exactly what you are going to hear…”



Setlist
00. Totengott – Intro
01. Procreation (of the Wicked)
02. Visions of Mortality
03. Circle of the Tyrants
04. The Usurper
05. Ain Elohim
06. Necromantical Screams
07. Dawn of Meggido
08. Mesmerized
09. Sorrows of the Moon
10. Dethroned Emperor
11. Into the Crypts of Rays
12. Synagoga Satanae
00. Winter - Outro

Rating
Music 10
Performance 10
Sound 9
Light 9
Total 9.5





Kreator

The popular thrash metal band from Essen, Germany, has been active since 1985 under the name Kreator (actually since 1982 before, under the names Tyrant and Tormentor), with a rich repertoire of not less than 11 albums, the last one, Enemy of God, released in 2005 and re-released in 2006, being considered by some as one of the best, if not the best. Kreator has strongly influenced the metal scene in Europe and is very particular in its brutality and speed. Kreator is Miland "Mille" Petrozza (Vocals, Guitars), Sami Yli-Sirniö (Guitars), Christian "Speesy" Giesler (Bass) and Jürgen "Ventor" Reil (Drums, Vocals). http://www.kreator-terrorzone.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/officialkreator 


Music
The quartet from Essen guided the audience through a mix of their rich repertoire, playing more than 80 minutes of heavy music through their rich repertoire, with 16 titles amongst which 4 from their last album. After the intro they played “Violent Revolution” which had marked the come back of the band in 2001 to their pure thrash roots, followed by the famous “Pleasure to Kill”, title track of their second album and extremely fast. The technical ability of the band is demonstrated! The fifth song is the title track of their latest album Enemy of God, with beautiful guitar riffs and melodies. The show continues with a succession and alternation of older and new songs, but with a continuous incredible speed and energy. While the aggressive and screaming brutal vocals are typical from the thrash scene, some of the guitar melodies are quite interesting and impressive. Here also it is impressive how this music while finding its origin two decades ago remains so actual and Mille is well aware of this situation when he welcomes the new fans and thanks the faithful from the early days.


Performance
The décor is inspired from the artwork of the two releases of the album The Enemy of God. On the sides, large panels represent women with skull heads and nice breasts, but also showing some elements of a metal structure and a foetus in the belly. More in the back of the scene female heads with a metal structure in the back of their heads, together with the others all have their look converging to the centre of the scene where a video screen is showing dark pictures and, at the end of the show, videos of the early gigs of the band. The speed of the guitar play of the band is in itself impressive. Mille is also extreme in exciting the audience haranguing with “Are you ready to kill? Are you ready to kill? Are you ready to kill each other?....” to introduce Pleasure to Kill, or also: “ I want you to destroy this fucking place! All the fucking people from the back come to front, now!”… The ambiance was also in front of the stage in the audience with intense pogo and bodies literally flowing over the arms of the crowd to end up in front of the stage in the firm arms of the security who did not seem to be surprised by the phenomenon and were gently indicating the exit back in the crowd. Kreator live is undoubtedly an extreme intense thrash metal moment unique in its kind. Sensitive souls to abstain.



Setlist

00. Intro: The Patriarch
01. Violent Revolution
02. Pleasure to kill
03. Some Pain will last
04. Enemy of God
05. People of the lie
06. Europe after the rain
07. Suicide Terrorist
08. Awakening/Behind/Renewal
09. Extreme Aggression
10. Phobia
11. Betrayer
12. Voices of the Dead
13. Reconquering the Throne
------------------------
14. Impossible Brutality
15. Flag of Tormentor

Rating
Music 10
Performance 10
Sound 9
Light 8
Total 9.25







Photography by Stéphane Odent (http://www.stepix.be/)
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