Matrix, Bochum, Germany
5th May 2006
Garden of Delight, His Masters Voice, Buried Time
Friday night is usually a good day for a concert evening. And if there are three bands playing for just nine euros there should be lots of people coming to the show. Unfortunately not that many decided to make their way to Bochum to see ‘Garden of Delight’ together with two more bands. Anyway I was really looking forward the headliner because I’ve never seen them before. After ‘Lutherion’ in 2005 the band recently released ‘Lutherion II’ - a good reason to visit the clubs for presenting the new stuff on stage.
Buried Time
‘Buried Time’ has seen the light of day in 1998 and enjoy ever growing popularity and success. Musically they range in-between the modern genres of Rock. Additionally they add a pinch of electronic and so they don’t meet the cliché of a certain scene. Goal of the band is independent and catchy music as well as showing that you can have success without a well-paid major deal. And the stars look promising for the guys around front man Alex Thelen this time: some record labels are showing their interest. The band just had the honour to play on stage with bands like ‘Anathema’, ‘Darkseed’ or ‘Clan of Xymox’ and anytime they could convince the audience with their show. The recent album ‘Innocence Gone’ was just released on 21st April and at the moment the band is planning the sales of the album as well as a tour through Germany. ‘Buried Time’ are: Alex (Voc), Dennis (Guitar), Martin (Drums) and Lars (Bass). http://www.buried-time.de/
Music
‘Innocence gone’ is the fourth album of the band. Their style was often called Gothic-Rock in the past but that’s only a part of it. Catchy and characteristic chant meets harsh guitars together with sometimes flat, sometimes incisive synth sounds. They sound fresh, modern, rocky and diversified. The voice and the look of Alex reminded me several times of Nick Holmes of ‘Paradise Lost’. Even though there were minor problems with the keyboard in the middle of the set the interspersed synth sounds added a certain note to the guitar based music. With seven out of ten songs the focus of the set was on the recent album. The last song of the evening and just released EP was ‘Expect’ which also could be bought at the merchandising stand as singer Alex stated. 
Performance
When the band entered the stage at eight it still was quite empty in the venue. The stage was filled up with drum set on a podium, keyboard and guitars while the back of stage was decorated with a band-banner. Just at the beginning Alex thanked the audience for appearing that “numerous” – what was answered with a big laughter. The show was just a pure rock performance with a from time to time head banging singer. Only for a more “shallow” song in the middle of the set he was taking some rest and a seat at the drum podium. Surprisingly there was a quite cool light show was lots of additional bright back lights and colourful front light. Towards the end of the show singer Alex alluded to the ‘Krupps’ concert on 16th June at the same place where ‘Buried Time’ will perform as support again. We’ll be there! 
Setlist
01. Innocence gone
02. L` This
03. Wings
04. Different
05. Fading Future
06. Swallow my Pride
07. Take a Look Behind
08. Hypanovae
09. Cage of Blindness
10. Expect
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 8 (7.7)
His Masters Voice
It’s quite hard to find any information about that band. The band website doesn’t tell much and also CDs seem to be hard to get. But anyway here is some information about the band called like a huge CD warehouse chain. The band calls their music “polymusic”. The brand new album is called ‘Spiritual Maze’ and it shows quite well how electronic elements meet alternative rock. ‘His Masters Voice’ are Peter Renaud (vocals, guitar, keyboards, electronics), Lars Schwittay (drums, percussions, electronics) and Tom Mikus (bass, keys, vocals). http://www.hismastersvoice.de 
Music
Singer Peter seems to be some kind of multi talented. During the whole show he’s switching between guitar, keyboard and just vocals. Bassist Tom adds a certain note to the music when singing the second voice. His chant was clearer and not as dark as Peter’s. So both voices were a very good combination. With their music they mix aggressive guitars, fast grooves, frantic soundscapes and charismatic vocals. Faster songs with harsh guitars alternate with spherical keyboard sounds. Most of the songs were intonated with guitar/bass and keyboard. Only the first encore ‘Save me’ was an acoustic song where Peter just played keyboard as melody line for his chant.
Performance
The first noticeable thing was a film team that recorded the whole show of the band. That was also the reason why the audience stood back two metres from the stage – not very conductive for a good mood. So the audience applauded after each song and cheered a little, but that was all. Some of them even left the concert hall to have some drinks at the bar. But anyway the band did not get distracted by that and went through with their performance. And that was very energetic at least by the singer. Soon he started sweating and put off his black jacked. When he was playing the guitar he hit it like a maniac. Due to some little problems with the guitar they changed the planned set list – at least you can say that they know how to improvise – even though sometimes the breaks in-between the songs were a little too long what caused a break in the mood within the audience. The lights were well adjusted and fitted the whole mood of the songs.
Setlist
01. Tonight
02. Living on the Edge
03. Dream on
04. No Destination
05. Confession
06. Shelter
07. Chamber of Distress
08. Fire
09. Salvation
10. Maybe
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11. Save Me
12. Out of Live
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7 (6.7)
Garden of Delight
The original plan of ‘Garden of Delight’ (GoD) founded in 1990 was to release sever albums in seven years with seven songs on each – the first release saw the light of day in February 1991 and was the single ‘Necromantea’. The first full album ‘Enki’s Temple’ was released in December 1991 in the especially for GoD founded label Dion Fortune. The lyrical concept of the gothic band dealt with the reaching of different levels of consciousness where each of them was dedicated to a Sumerian god. So after those seven albums the history of GoD was finished… for a while. But then in 2000 there was a new sign of live with releasing the CD ‘Radiant Sons’ and so the history continued. The band consists of Artaud (vocals), Jawa (bass) and Niels Herbig (guitar). http://www.garden-of-delight.com
Music
As you could expect when reading the concert announcement – “Garden of Delight feat. Lutherion” – the show was standing under the star of the two ‘Lutherion’ albums. After the ‘Apocryphal’ trilogy “high priest” Artaud is back on stage with ‘Lutherion’ released in 2005 and ‘Lutherion II’ just released in February this year. “Lutherion” is a word construct combining the name of Martin Luther and Mega Therion – the beast 666. Songs like ‘Black Mass’ or ‘Play Dead’ are unique in style with a harsh mysterious touch; they are dark and powerful. Besides the played songs out of the ‘Lutherion’ albums not many older songs have been played… just ‘Angelwhore (epilog)’,’ Levitation’, ‘Deeper we Fall’ and ‘Northern Skies’ out of the ‘Apocryphal’ trilogy as well as ‘High Empress’ (from the album ‘Dawn’), ‘Necromanteion’ from the same called album and one song from the very first album ‘Enki’s Temple’ called ‘Ancient God’. Most of the albums from the first seven years have been left out of the set list. Characteristic for the whole music as a mix of sounds, powerful guitars and occult themes presented with a clear deep voice. ‘Necromanteion’ for example develops a relaxed mood with its floating keyboard sounds. Some songs remind more of American Gothic as i.e. the ‘Field of the Nephilim’ are presenting it. Most of the presented songs were dominated by fast guitars and bass play. They carrying keyboards lines were not played live.
Performance
The stage looked quite impressive. In the middle in front of a podium there were two black flags placed on stands. Besides the podium there were big black banners with the band logo hung up. The logo appeared in a metal sign also mounted on the microphone stand of singer Artaud. When the intro sounded from the speakers, all three logos were enlightened by bright light and the stage was flooded with smoke. The silhouettes of the three musicians could be seen within the fog all wearing long black coats while Artaud additionally wore sunglasses and a black hat. The whole situation was the same as several years before. Artaud entered the stage holding another black flag with white signs on it. The show was imparting an occult feeling and reminded a bit of a black mass. The whole show lots of smoke dominated the scenery only burst by bright and mostly fast moving lights. The appearance of the black dressed musicians and the well composed light effects constructed a mystic scene. Artaud was using his flag and his microphone stand as a stylistic element. His play with symbols and metaphors fits very well to the appearance. Bass player Jawa was really cool during the whole show hardly ever moving while guitar player Niels stressed his instrument.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. From Heresy (Lutherion II)
03. Levitation (Apocryphal II)
04. Earthbound (Lutherion II)
05. Angelwhore (epilog) (Apocryphal II)
06. Deeper we Fall (Apocryphal II)
07. Northern Skies (Apocryphal I)
08. Play Dead (Lutherion II)
09. Runechild (Lutherion II)
10. Stigmata (Lutherion)
11. Alice (Lutherion)
12. Bleak Horizon (Lutherion)
13. High Empress (Dawn)
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14. First Confession (Lutherion)
15. Confession (Lutherion)
16. Necromanteion (Necromanteion)
17. Ancient God (Enki’s Temple)
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18. Black Mass (Lutherion)
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 8 (8.2)
More pics at Black-Cat-Net
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