Endless (CZ)

From the arriving to the venue, it was obvious that Metalgate Season Enclosure will be anything but a remunerative show. An hour before the beginning the venue was still depopulated, which is very unusual for shows in the Czech Republic and at 6 p.m. there were only few fans. Those who arrived in advance could listen to the sound check of the first band, Public Relations from Czech town Ostrava. Not more than few minutes were needed to find out that the double-decked space with classic triangle ceiling makes no good for the sound, which was already very weird because of some technical troubles.

The sound check was a small show on itself. You could listen to imitation (I would have to swallow all my judiciousness to call it a cover) of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and some of the band’s own songs. With half-hourly delay, when there were more than only about 10 people under the stage, the show itself began. As I already mentioned, the sound was despite all the band’s effort very bad and neither lead vocals nor backing vocals were laudable. Public Relations, calling their style “artcore”, showed a rather boring performance and maybe a smaller venue would fit them better.

The following crossover metal band Endless was slightly more entertaining. The problems with vocal loudness were still the same but the energy that radiated from the band members was more capturing. The vocalist’s moves and style really reminded me of Jonathan Davis’ style. However I must still admit that being just a little better than the first band wasn’t enough for me. Endless earned some applause and even moshing from the fans but that was rather politeness than real excitement.

Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy

The third band of the evening was more attractive for the public. Silent Stream of Godless Elegy is very popular in the Czech Republic and even in countries outside with their folk-doom sound, violins and combination of male growl and female vocals, however personally I’ve never been into this band. Luckily for them there were only few people like me and most of the fans were under the stage and with pleasure sang old well known songs like Slava and listened to the first live previews of the upcoming album. The stage was already small for four or five members and when the eight-member band played, it was literally crowded. But finally played a band that most of the people enjoyed and even wanted some addition. And even though I’m not one of them, the whole lethargic atmosphere was finally heated up.

Septicflesh

Not only for me it was, is and will be a mystery why the most famous band of the night, Septic Flesh, was playing next to last and not the last as everyone expected. It hadn’t happened to me for a while that I was really looking forward to see some band playing live so much but problems with sound were still there. The band took its time to do a proper sound check once again but the staff was busy with repairing during the whole show anyway. This wasn’t the band’s fault anyway so from me there’s nothing bad I could point out. Septic Flesh still keeps on promoting their latest album Communion but from the very beginning they showed that they never forgot about fans’ devotion to their older works. Apart of tracks from Communion like We the Gods, Communion and by everyone loved Anubis there were also the opening Behold… The Land of Promise and Unbeliever, Sumerian Daemon, Red Code Cult and Virtues of the Beast from Sumerian Daemons as well as DNA from Revolution DNA album. As the band finished, the crowd kept on screaming for more and got what it wanted. A bonus Persepolis was a climax for every fan there. But unfortunately everything good has to come to an end.

Corrupted Melody

According to the schedule now was the time to the highlight of the night. But seriously only according to the schedule. I’ve never seen so many people leaving before the “headliner” of the gig. Slovakian Corrupted Melody is a high quality band, unfortunately known only for few people and the most of the fans left after getting what they wanted – Septic Flesh. I admit I didn’t spend much time watching this band as well because of some other obligations and I didn’t mind it at all.

So what to say about the whole action? In general the club has its pros-and-cons and my disinclination to the other bands was caused by the anticipation for the only one band. Apart of the unusual playing order of the bands I can’t say anything bad about the organizers who were actually very willing to help and took their task really responsibly. So big thanks goes to all who made this possible to make an ordinary Saturday evening worth remembering.