Sunday, November 17, 2013

Review: GIG Satyricon + Chthonic @ O2 Islington Academy, 14th Nov, London

So Satyricon and Chthonic. Lachryma Christi got to the venue early enough to get a very good spot just on the front, which was a very bad idea. Cthonic is a great band, full of energy, full of good tunes.  and the vocalist is such a great frontman. It had everything to be an amazing show, if it wasn't for the sound that was almost terrible. The drums were just too loud, really perturbing, after two songs it was completely impossible to stay on the front. Just too much trepidation and everything else was very bassy. The voice at the beginning was really low as well, so it was all lacking balance, was really really disturbing. Lachryma Christi went a bit back, it was not very easy to walk around because the venue was packed, the show was sold out. It was easier a few rows back but still not good. Sadly, because Chthonic deserved much better than that.
Satyricon wasn't much  better in terms of sound, only on the third song the sound was sort of OK, but only really in the back of the venue, almost on the exit door. Everything was too loud, especially again the drums, just horribly loud. Guitars were hard to hear.
Sadly Satyricon didn't play many classics, they didn't play many songs from the first albums, which is a pity. As a "cult" band that they still are, this was a shame. They still have it in them, they still manage to keep up a good show, very lively, very interactive, public was mostly satisfied, Satyr is still great, all his jokes, his posture, all his performance on stage is just awesome and the rest of the band keeps up with it, but the hits were missing. It is easy to accept the bad sound when a band plays all the songs you want to hear, and it is easy to accept the lack of hits when you can hear everything perfectly well. Now when both things are missing, it is really bad.
The encore had three songs, two of which Mother North and Fuel for Hatred, which were really the two only songs that made 90% of the public to react. And even with three guitars, it was hard to hear the riffs and melodies in Mother North, due to the confusing sound and due to the loud drums.
Hard to understand how the sound could be so wrong, Lachryma Christi has been in this venue in other situations, for pleasure, not for work, but still, and it wasn't this bad. Hopefully next time Satyricon and Chthonic will be more lucky on their shows in London, with hits or not, and hopefully next show in O2 Islington Academy will have a better sound, regardless the bands.
Lachryma Christi has no pics for this. If you have some, and if you wish to share them, you can always leave a comment with a link, or if you want to see them posted together with this article (they will be credited of course), you can e-mail lachrymachristizine@gmail.com

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