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Leipzig, Germany
21st - 25th May 2010
Wave Gotik Treffen Day 4: The Golden Apes, Voices of Masada, Morlocks, Zeraphine, Trial, In Strict Confidence, The Klinik

Final day of this year’s festival had come. So far, we had no rain except during the night and early morning. When I made my way to the Moritzbastei to meet some friends there, sun was shining and we were sitting in the sun. Looked promising for a start of the day outdoors at Parkbühne, where I wanted to see some Wave bands. But well... it just looked promising, as we learned later...




The Golden Apes - Parkbühne [Carsten Leopold]

THE GOLDEN APES were founded back in 1998 by Peer, Christian and Eric. The guys can already look back on seven albums by now, latest being ‘Denying the Towers Our Words Are Falling From’, released in April 2010 on their new label Echozone Records. So far, the band was playing several festivals and also supported bands like CINEMA STRANGE. THE GOLDEN APES are Peer Lebrecht (lyrics, vocals), Eric Bahrs (guitars), Christian Lebrecht (bass), Ika Mamrikishuili (keys), Dirk Wildenhues (guitars) and Joe Finck (drums). http://www.goldenapes.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/goldenapes



Music & Performance
Monday afternoon! Right in time GOLDEN APES opened the stage in the day at "Parkbühne". Two hours ago the rain had stopped and when the show began the weather was just right for open air, but unfortunately during the show the dark clouds and the rain came back and dislodged the people to save corners, under roofs and umbrellas. Only a very few of them were standing right in front of the stage. What a bad timing since the band presented a nice show with great Wave gems. But the rain did not prevent the guys of GOLDEN APES doing a good job on stage. Well, and right in time for the end of the show, the rain nearly stopped. I hope for more luck next time!

Setlist
01. Liberation [Hieros Gamos]
02. Digging Towers
03. And thus He spoke
04. Ferryman
05. The Sea Inside
06. Remedy
07. Snow

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 8 / 10




Voices of Masada - Parkbühne [Carsten Leopold]

VOICES OF MASADA took shape in autumn of 2002 and after assembling a proper line-up started crafting material. The first release, the EP ‘Prelude’, came out in May of the following year. It’s also the month when the band played their first ever live gig. At the end of October, and following a seemingly endless period of work the debut album ‘Four Corners’ was finally released! The second, and according the information I found, still most recent album ‘Another Day’ was being released in 2006. The following time saw the band touring a lot through all possible corners of the world. VOICES OF MASADA are Raymon (vocals), Sam (bass) and Rob (guitar). http://www.voices-of-masada.co.uk/ / http://www.myspace.com/voicesofmasada



Music & Performance
The rain had stopped almost just when VOICES OF MASADA entered the stage and the people came back to the space front of stage. During the show, slight the rain came back, but despite of this the people enjoyed the show. VOICES OF MASADA did a solid performance during their 40 minutes lasting set. They did not re-invent the Dark Wave wheel, but presented solid Wave songs.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 7.2 / 10




Morlocks - Parkbühne [Carsten Leopold]

God help me I tried, but except a few bits and pieces I wasn’t able to collect any substantial information as to when the Swedish band was founded or how many album’s they’ve released this far. MORLOCKS are Logos (keys, guitars, back vox), Innocentius Rabiatus (lead guitars, back vox, keys) and J.Strauss (Lead vox, keys). http://www.morlocks.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/morlocks23



Music & Performance
MORLOCKS from Sweden started their show immediate after the sound check - that was quite funny btw and as I learned from some Swedes, they usually do funny sound checks - and impressed the crowd with a powerful rousing performance. Meanwhile the clouds had given way for the sun and the rain finally stopped. The crowd quickly was infected by the pushing sound and the temper was good. Sadly I have no idea which songs have been played since there is so little information about this band. Presenting a heavier kind of music influenced by Industrial elements, they would have better fitted to bands like MINISTRY than to the Dark Wave bands during this afternoon at the Parkbühne. Nonetheless, people enjoyed the show.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 7.5 / 10




Zeraphine - Parkbühne [Daniela Vorndran]

ZERAPHINE has been formed by Norman Selbig and Sven Friedrich after their former band DREADFUL SHADOWS quit in 2000. Together with producer Tommy Hein, the first album 'Kalte Sonne' was recorded and then released in 2002. It was completely sung in German, contrary to second album 'Traumaworld' comprising of mixed German and English lyrics and a nice cover of the DEPECHE MODE track 'In Your Room'. The third album 'Blind Camera', released in 2005, left confided territory and turned to heavier guitar riffs and harder arrangements, still the dominating factor was Sven's charismatic voice. Their fourth and current album 'Still' was the first album, release by their own label, which the band founded after their previous record deal ended. ‘Whiteout’ is the name of ZERAPHINE’s comeback album, released in June 2010. ZERAPHINE is Sven Friedrich (vocals), Norman Selbig (guitar), Manuel Senger (guitar), Michael Nepp (bass) and Marcellus Puhlemann (drums). http://www.zeraphine.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/zeraphine



Music & Performance
We knew already before the show that we could not see it totally, one, because the train back home was waiting, and the other one because of duties at Kohlrabizirkus. Anyway, we wanted to see at least a little of the show that started with some minutes delay. When Zeraphine entered the stage to start the show, one thing was surprising: Norman was missing. We learned later why… Sven told us, that Norman stayed at home because his wife was going to give birth. And indeed, the baby came just a day after WGT [Congrats!]. ZERAPHINE started their show with ‘Die Macht in Dir’. The sun still was shining and meanwhile the venue was filled up very well. ZERAPHINE pleased the crowd with their emotional performance and the temper was good, even though during the show the “electronic keyboarder” refused to work. The set ran about 45 minutes and included 3 songs from the upcoming album ‘Whiteout’ and of course many classics.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: - (daylight)
Total: 8 / 10




Trial - Kohlrabizirkus [Daniela Vorndran]

TRIAL from Germany started their victory march back in 1991. They’re said having been an influential factor in the development of Dark Electro in the early 1990s! In the year of formation, the project released an 8 track tape called ‘Conflict’. The duo to this day has released 3 regular albums, latest one being ‘Fate’ which is out since 2008. Also they contributed to a plethora of compilations. TRIAL is Torsten Schröder (vocals, live drums) & Erick Miotke (music, programming). http://www.trial-force.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/trialhannover

Music & Performance
Rushing over from the Parkbühne where I had to leave the ZERAPHINE show much earlier than I wanted to, I arrived just in time for the TRIAL show, rushed into the hall and right into the photo pit. The stage design of TRIAL was pretty easy. Screen in the back displaying the band logo in huge size, keyboard on the right where Erick was standing all the show pretty motionless and left, there was an electronic drum set placed which would be used later in the show by Torsten to add some live drums.



TRIAL’s show was surely something for the old-school electro lovers with classical pure EBM advanced by hymnal elements and the brutal voice of Torsten. The audience was pretty mixed though because already lots of people were here for ISC’s show later. All the electro heads seemed to love the show which was presented without any scrolls but at least Torsten added the powerful element to the show with his stage behaviour.

Setlist
01. Diabolic
02. Ultimate Power
03. Obey
04. Brothers in arms
05. Blut und Eisen 2010 RMX
06. Is it worth it
07. Deeper
08. Feels like
09. Für Zwei
10. Dreamstalker
11. Zero

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.2 / 10




In Strict Confidence - Kohlrabizirkus [Daniela Vorndran]

IN STRICT CONFIDENCE are surely not a new name in the Electro / Industrial scene. Mastermind Dennis Ostermann creates his own vision of dark electronic music since the early 1990s and with various collaborators he produced massive genre hits such as ‘Zauberschloss’, ‘Kiss Your Shadow’ or ‘Englesstaub’. IN STRICT CONFIDENCE turn out to be more of a live band than one might expect from their Electro-dominated studio material. With a fully-fledged acoustic drum kit and a guitarist they sound much more organic than many of their colleagues who rely too much on pre-recorded music data. ‘Exile Paradise’ dated back to 2007. The EP 'My Despair' brought the final end of a long hibernation period, followed up by the release of the new album 'La Parade Monstrueuse' in February 2010. ISC is Dennis Ostermann (songwriting, lyrics), Jörg Schelte (songwriting, programming, keys), Steve Vesper (rhythms, programming, drums), Antje Schulz (vocals, lyrics), Nina di Lianin (vocals) and Haydee Sparks (guitar). http://www.instrictconfidence.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/instrictconfidence



Music & Performance
With IN STRICT CONFIDENCE, we got now a total contrast program. The electronic music was now enriched by organic drum sounds and heavy guitars added by Haydee. Since the band has two female vocalists, they are alternating during the shows and in Leipzig we again had attractive Nina di Lianin on stage drawing attention, especially of the male attendees, with her tight red latex dress. The set had a good mix of new songs, like the starting song ‘My Despair’ or ‘Silver Bullets’ accompanied by a fantastic video, and old classics, i.e. ‘Promised Land’, ‘Forbidden Fruit’ or the closing song ‘Herzattacke’, to offer. Not only ‘Silver Bullets’ was underlined by a great video, also other songs were enriched by fantastic visual being displayed on the big screen. And besides that and attractive Nina, the show had another visual highlight: Haydee presenting a fire show during several songs.



With two of the biggest hits, ‘Zauberschloß’ and ‘Engelsstaub’ as encore, the band finished their show. Even though it was a good show, several people told me afterwards that the spark of older shows was missing. And it seemed as several people thought like this because enthusiastic applause was missing.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. My Despair
03. Promised Land
04. Seven Lives
05. This is all
06. Forbidden Fruit
07. Set me free
08. Away from here
09. Silver Bullets
10. Closing Eyes
11. Herzattacke
---
12. Zauberschloß
13. Engelsstaub

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10




The Klinik - Kohlrabizirkus [Daniela Vorndran]

THE KLINIK is a Belgian Industrial project that was formed at the beginning of the 1980s by the only constant member Marc Verhaeghen. In 1985, he brought Dirk Ivens (ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL, DIVE, SONAR), Eric van Wonterghem (ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL, MONOLITH) and Sandy Nys on board. After several line-up changes, Ivens and Verhaeghen remained as a duo. After the debut album `Sabotage´ (1985), THE KLINIK released full-length milestones such as `Face to Face´ (1989) and `Time´ (1991) that established its reputation as a groundbreaking formation in the Electro / Industrial genre. Rumours have it a new album of that project is in the works, but nothing definitive is known until now. The stage line-up of THE KLINIK currently consists of Dirk Ivens and Borg (VOMITO NEGRO) on keys. http://www.myspace.com/dirkivens



Music & Performance
This was the perfect final of my WGT and a show I was eagerly waiting for. I always loved THE KLINIK and Mr. Ivens always has this charismatic stage appearance adding the pinch salt in the soup to THE KLINIK’s shows. The second highlight of the band’s stage performances are the great visuals usually displayed on a big screen and I was not disappointed this time either. The visuals during the show were fantastic and always fitted perfectly to the presented songs. The setlist during the evening did offer all big hits of the band; I did not miss anything. Starting off with ‘Surviving in Europe’ and ‘Braindamage’, Ivens - btw dressed up in a leather coat and his head in gauze bandages, the same way Mr. Borg was dressed - had the audience in his hands right from the start. The venue was boiling... and to turn the hall into a boiling pot there was no need of high bpm rate. Slow and powerful, that was the motto of the show. In the course of the show, hit followed after hit, just like ‘Quiet in the Room’, ‘Black Leather’, ‘Sick in your Mind’, ‘Moving Hands’ or final song of the main set ‘Lies’.



When the band left the stage after ‘Lies’, it was not only because of the usual break for the encore, both men also removed the bandages to exchange them for white masks to return for three more songs starting with ‘Hours and Hours’. After ‘In your Room’, Dirk not only removed the mask, but also performed with bare body. Guess he was not the only one feeling hot having the reactions of the audience in mind. People screamed, clapped and danced their asses off. With ‘Go back’, the show finally ended and I felt this was the perfect ending of the festival. Great!

Setlist
01. Surviving in Europe
02. Braindemage
03. Murderer
04. Walking with Shadows
05. Quiet in the Room
06. Black Leather
07. Pain and Pleasure
08. Mindswitch
09. Obsession
10. Sick in your Mind
11. Moving Hands
12. Memories
13. Lies
---
14. Hours and Hours
15. In your Room
16. Go Back

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 9.3 / 10



Well, this was the WGT 2010. All in all, I had the impression there were less people than in the years before. At least big venues (and photo pits in the big venues!) like Agra and Kohlrabizirkus were not as crowded as I knew it from previous years. A big compliment I have to give to the security which I felt was very kind and helpful. All in all, it was a really nice festival with much luck according the weather. I just feel a bitter taste when I think of all the over-styled people who forget that Goth is much more than styling and posing in front of the uncountable number of cameras. But well, one can avoid the “catwalk” in front of the Agra or the Moritzbastei and enjoy the pleasure of the dark family’s meeting in Leipzig.

All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
Written by Daniela Vorndran and Carsten Leopold
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