Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Live Review: Spektakulum

Details: Written by: Fee Wundersee; Published: 06 November 2014

Rockfabrik, Nuremberg, Germany
24th October 2014
Spektakulum with Seelennacht, The Invincible Spirit, .com/kill, The Eternal Afflict, Suicide Commando

As there were a lot of Pre-Halloween Parties in October, there was somehow an electronic version of it in Nuremberg. With bands like SEELENNACHT, .COM/KILL or SUICIDE COMMANDO. Celebrating Johan van Roy being back on stage after his knee surgery, the night brought a lot of surprises and an answer to the question “Is having a club hit years ago enough to still be a good performer on stage?”. But read…

Seelennacht

I must admit I had never heard of the band before, so I first had to research a bit who or what SEELENNACHT is. The band consists of Marc Ziegler, who looks a bit like a mix of Chris Pohl and Sven Friedrich. He does all the band work from writing to producing. The band started in 2008 and is doing live shows with the help of guest keyboarders. http://www.seelennacht.de / https://www.facebook.com/seelennacht

Music & Performance
When Marc Ziegler appeared on stage he look a little lost there. The stage looked way too big for this small man and his keyboarder. The sound of the band was a bit like dark wave with the typical romantic lyrics and a well-dosed amount of heartache. Not that bad. At least the songs were dancy and sung with a good singing voice. As this band was the opener on a Friday evening not many people were there to watch them. Sad, cause if you’re into dark wave music they might be a new highlight in your CD collection. I must admit, that I don’t think this band fit well to the other bands playing that evening as they were too soft and romantic in comparison to band like ‘The Eternal Afflict’ or ‘Suicide Commando’. Mark Ziegler should really work on his live performance. Most of the time he was standing there on stage, looking like a little lost school boy, leaning back and singing his songs.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 5
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.5 / 10

The Invincible Spirit

Are you still having ‘Push!’ on your MP3-player? Then you definitely do remember ‘The Invincible Spirit’. Thomas Lüdke (vocals, keyboards), Ralf Schauf (bass), Andreas (drums, keyboards) and Marion Küchenmeister (vocals) founded THE INVISIBLE LIMITS in 1984. Leaving the band ,Thomas founded a new project, under the name THE INVINCIBLE LIMIT. But it was soon re-named into THE INVINCIBLE SPIRIT. After releasing ‘Showdown’, the band disappeared in the mid-nineties just to play live again six years later. http://www.invincible-spirit.de / http://www.myspace.com/theinvinciblespirit

Music & Performance
The EBM band is still invincible. Maybe they have always been. Still not a lot of people appeared at Rockfabrik, so it was still a bit empty in the front of stage area. Some old-school fans sung along and danced, while Thomas Lüdke was giving his best on stage. I usually like such old-school EBM bands as there’s always a lot of party and people pushing each other around. There was nothing like that on this Friday evening. Not sure why. Maybe the audience was not warm enough to party or still lost in the romantic sounds of SEELENNACHT. Finally the audience woke up a bit, when the band played ‘Push’, their biggest hit. So maybe this was the little push the audience needed.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 7.75 / 10

.com/kill

.COM/KILL is described as “a second musical universe, a second home for the redirected and unfiltered words and sounds from the unconsciousness” rather than just a side project of Adrian Hates and Gaun:A from DIARY OF DREAMS. Experimenting with a side project since years, Adrian and Gaun:A now find a way to bring their electronic sound on stage. The style of music differs definitely from the style of DIARY OF DREAMS. It’s more club-orientated, electronic and full of danceable beats. www.comkill.me / www.facebook.com/comkill

Music & Performance
With shouting their band name Adrian Hates entered the stage and the audience looked really fascination to the stage. Still there were only a little amount of people there and they were standing there, sipping beer and watching silently what was going on or they were dancing. Adrian’s performance was quite good and inquired everything a good performance needs: good music, an interesting and special sound, catchy lyrics and a singer who is able to catch the audience's attention. I really liked their music and I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Maybe next time with a more active audience.

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.25 / 10

The Eternal Afflict

Founded in 1989 as ROMANTIC AFFLICTION, the band released three demo tapes. Two years later their debut album ‘Atroci(-me)ty‘ followed by the EP ‘(Luminographic) Agony’ in 1992 were released. Both include their well-known track ‘San Diego’ which is still played in clubs today. The band split up in 1994 but the band member didn’t stop making music. Singer Cyan and Mark had several music projects such as :CYAN KILLS E.COLI or INSIDE were both of them were working together. Years later, in 2001, the band members were working together again. https://www.facebook.com/theeternalafflict

Music & Performance
To keep it short: It was horrible. Not sure what went wrong there but the vocals sounded really horrible. It was neither singing nor screaming, just something between both and it didn’t sound well. If there would have been only the melodies of the tracks it would have been way better. The band left me and the rest of the audience with huge red question marks above our heads and I was really happy when their performance was over. I mean extremely happy.

Rating
Music: 4
Performance: 3
Sound: 6
Light: 8
Total: 5.25 / 10

Suicide Commando

“Bind, Torture, Kill”. This is what mostly comes to peoples’ mind, when they think about SUICIDE COMMANDO. The music project of Belgian Johan van Roy is active in the music scene since the 1980s. After releasing several cassettes, van Roy released his first album named ‘Critical Stage’ in 1994, followed by ‘Stores Images’ one year later. In 2006 SUICIDE COMMANDO released ‘Bind, Torture, Kill’, the album reached #1 on several alternative charts all over the world and was voted for album of the month by German Orkus magazine. The latest album publication of the electro band was released in 2013 and is called ‘When evil speaks’. www.suicidecommando.be / https://www.facebook.com/IIXIII

Music & Performance
Thank God THE ETERNAL AFFLICT was over and SUICIDE COMMANDO entered the stage. Seems the audience shared my thoughts and was thankful too. A lot of people converged in front of the stage to celebrate Johan van Roy getting back on stage for the first time after his knee surgery. My ears recovered slowly from what they got to hear before and enjoyed the bands songs. I expected it to be a bit more static but Johan was moving around like nothing ever happened to his knee. They also played my all-time favourite song ‘Dein Herz, meine Gier’ and of course ‘Hate me’. I’m not quite sure what was wrong with that audience on that Friday. To be honest, they were lame. Everyone was dancing on their own, nobody jumping around or pushing each other. Maybe I’m too spoiled by concerts in Leipzig or Berlin where people always freak out more. I missed to be pushed around, to end up in bruises and always asked myself why people were dancing instead of really celebrating the electro band.

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10