Essigfabrik, Cologne, Germany24th July 2015
9 Years Empire Of Darkness with Unterschicht, Accessory, Phosgore, Haujobb & Frozen Plasma
As you all might have noticed, the Empire of Darkness (EOD) in Cologne was taking place at the same time as “Call the ships to port” – the Amphi Festival kind of boat thing with concerts on it. To my surprise the Essigfabrik was quite full of people, waiting for their band to come or just to come over and dance. Unterschicht, Accessory, Phosgore, Haujobb and Frozen Plasma delivered a very good alternative to the Amphi pre-Party at Alter Wartesaal that Friday night.
Unterschicht (Josie Leopold)
Hard to describe this band. They are doing some kind of industrial-harsh-electro mix. Looking as spooky as GOD MODULE and AGONOIZE but the vocals sound a lot like Johan van Roy. Not sure what went wrong there. I was overly disappointed cause I expected something new or different. I mean, the sounds and synths were good, quite a good music to dance to and the keyboarder girl looked pretty awesome, but the vocals killed all the positive things. UNTERSCHICHT do danceable Industrial kind of music but should re-do their vocals. I don’t think they will have a great future in this scene as I really miss the difference to other bands. They have this “We do what is hip“ kind of problem. Okay, some cyber people ( yes, Cologne still has them) danced a lot cause the beat was ok and the music too. And maybe this band had the same problem all opener bands have: no one is there or drinking or is just coming later to see the more famous bands. Good luck UNTERSCHICHT and maybe listen to my words. I don’t want to sound mean, just saying. // http://www.unterschicht-band.de / https://www.facebook.com/Unterschicht // Rating: 7 / 10
Accessory (Alex UltraRiot)
ACCESSORY were the second band to play at the EOD and many fans and keen people were waiting for the set. ACCESSORY make smart, danceable electronic music, taking the best parts of all existent sub-genres and recomposing it into their very own thing. Another thing I really appreciate is that they do not hesitate to take elements from popular dance music like other bands do because it would make them sound like ''sell outs''. ACCESSORY are a far cry from that. The crowd was dancing enthusiastically to their ''uplifting electronic music'' as the band calls its music. The good thing about the Essigfabrik being not too overfilled was that everyone had enough space to dance the way they wanted to without fearing to bump into their neighbours. ACCESSORY's set was accompanied by two screens showing projections of industrial sites and other creative outlets and their charismatic singer did a good job at animating the crowd to clap their hands or dance along. My colleague Josie and I have been wondering why they didn't get a later spot since musically, they would have fitted much better with Frozen Plasma but also because they were one of the more original bands playing. I did not know them before but I am sure it was not the last time I saw those charming guys from Chemnitz live. // http://www.accessorymusic.de / https://www.facebook.com/accessorymusic // Rating: 7.5
Phosgore (Alex UltraRiot)
It's a difficult job to create original industrial music and PHOSGORE did not fulfil that job in my opinion. It's danceable for sure because PHOSGORE use many hard beats and the Cyber Goths which were visibly present in the Essigfabrik had their fun obviously which was quite an interesting sight for someone who hasn't been to an industrial event in a while. Aesthetically, PHOSGORE's performance wasn't appealing either. The duo was mostly hiding behind their huge mixer covered in a camouflage net, from time to time Flo took the microphone and screamed some words in order to animate the crowd – successfully. I am personally tired of industrial acts which sound all the same and who always use military aesthetics and images. But maybe I just don't get that part of the scene. PHOSGORE made many people happy during that night nevertheless and that's what counts more than the opinion of one person. // http://www.phosgore.de / https://www.facebook.com/phosgore // Rating: 6 / 10
Haujobb (Josie Leopold)
To be honest, I didn’t expect HAUJOBB to be the co-headliner of this mini festival. But surprise, surprise – they were. And so Daniel Myer took us on a trip into the HAUJOBB world. I missed the EBM guys, jumping around and singing along like crazy. It was more or less calm there in front of stage. Some were dancing. Sorry, I’m still confused by having so much space to dance at an electronic music concert. I’m used to go crazy and to end in sweat, but well, I think I will have to cancel this from my things to expect in the western part of Germany. The sound was still pretty bad when HAUJOBB were playing which made it hard to listen to. It all sounded too loud and more like noise than music. Pity, I would have enjoyed this band with a better sound much, much more. In the end Daniel introduced Felix and Vasi to the audience and got a lot of applause for it. // http://haujobb-music.com / https://www.facebook.com/haujobbmusic // Rating: 7.5 / 10
Frozen Plasma (Josie Leopold)
When Felix Marc enters the stage the sun starts to shine immediately. I still think that he is one of the best entertainers in this scene. And yes, I want to complain once again that I would have loved to have ACCESSORY as a Co-headliner. The band was playing several tracks from their latest release ‘Dekadenz‘ including ‘Stare at the moon‘ which entertained my colleague Alex a lot ( Don’t tell anyone but this is her favourite FROZEN PLASMA song). The band came up with new videos for their live shows and Vasi had some struggles with them as a cable couldn’t get fixed. But hey, they solved all of this like masters. While some girls were nearly dying cause of Felix sending entertaining and positive vibes through the whole room, I saw some guys dancing and singing along like crazy. I guess FROZEN PLASMA succeeded once again in making a crowd really happy. And the band once again played ‘Tanz die Revolution‘ with as much applause as can be. Not sure why, I was never a fan of this track, but for some strange reasons it is the FROZEN PLASMA anthem. Everyone knows the lyrics. To end my few lines about this band: Frozen Plasma were the best thing to headline a pre-Amphi festival thing. // http://www.frozenplasma.com / https://www.facebook.com/FrozenPlasma // Setlist: 1. Age after age / 2. Foolish Dreams / 3. Earthling / 4. Maniac / 5. Stare at the moon / 6. Irony / 7. Saving this moment / 8. Murderous Trap / 9. Crazy / 10. Living on Video / 12. Tanz die Revolution // Rating: 9 / 10
All pictures by Alex UltraRiot
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