Live Reviews : Behemoth, Watain & Bölzer @ 170 Russell, Melbourne 04/10/2015

Images: Rebecca Houlden
Words: Mitch Alexander

Click here to view the full gallery.

It’s not often that a band has my jaw literally agape, gawking like a moron at their sound, musicianship, passion and fury, totally unable to comprehend how the hell an experience like this is being crafted live, and how I’d never managed to hear about it before. But tonight I got to have that experience. And it wasn’t from Behemoth; they were fine and tight and good and whatever. But Bölzer. Holy hell Bölzer. Maybe I was so blown away by this two-piece because they were a fucking two piece, able to produce a sound huger than Sun0))) drag racing Neurosis. I understand the technical side of things; split channels into different cabs, liberal use of reverb, open and resonate drums tones, yadda yadda yaddda, but it takes a certain level of musical genius to craft music that is equally so clear and yet so overwhelming, so musical and so noisey, and so challenging but so accessible.

Maybe this band hit me because I hadn’t heard of them until the day of the gig, and had zero expectations. This is what live music used to feel like; being 15, going to a gig to see the headliner, and finding a previously unknown treasure, an underground sensation like Fear Factory or Static-X at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Watching Bölzer, I was alternating between goosebumps, chills, adrenaline, and lust. This band live is moreish. They set the bar exceedingly high, and I was doubtful the other bands could match it. Which was unfortunate, because even if Bölzer had dropped the bar on the stage and poured goat piss all over it, Watian still would’ve found a way to fall below it, probably playing in the basement loading dock and thinking the sound was “trve and grvm.”

Fuck this band. You can like them, and that’s fine. I’m clearly missing something because a huge amount of those in attendance absolutely loved this set. Maybe it’s because I was never into punk and/or traditional black metal, maybe it’s because I’ve always loved groove and riffs over thrash and chords, or maybe it’s because I like my music to sound like more than a midrange white noise soup with boring drums and inconsequential screeches played by svper seriovs fiends. I can’t say. There were a few moments that shined through, really interesting and creative uses of their regular formula that possibly would’ve made up for the rest of it, were it not for the fact that Bölzer just played an entire set of those moments.

If you enjoyed them, that’s rad; you got something from a band that does nothing for me, and I’m happy they do something for someone. But they’re not for me. Or anyone with taste. Behemoth, on the other hand, were a Headliner. If you can remember any of my other reviews (how fucking conceited of me is that!) you’d know that I think there’ a Headliner Phenomena – it’s like the X Factor but TV Executives haven’t found a way to make a profit off it yet.

Behemoth are among bands like Cannibal Corpse and Neurosis; not only have they been around for decades, not only are they playing meticulously written songs tighter than bands half their age, and not only do they put on exciting live shows, but there is something “headliny” about them. These bands headline shows around the world because they could only headline shows around the world; they’re tight, entertaining, and playing really mature and thoughtful rah rah screamy music (as my mum would say).  Seeing Behemoth live also helps them make a bit more sense; they are theatrical without being contrived, and grim without being serious. Nergal especially is a captivating frontman, switching between Satanist actor and grateful musician having a ball on stage. He seemed to fucking love each and every one of us, and I couldn’t help but fall a little in love with him too.

Hearing “Slaves Shall Serve” live, one of the few songs I can pinpoint as a “game changer” in my musical taste, also showed how much better they’ve gotten at song writing over the years. Slaves is good, but the tracks off the newer albums, with their tight-as-fuck stop start rhythms, their lingering melodic sections and their huge-but-delicate progressions, really show that Behemoth are a world class band.

If there were any more shows on this tour I’d recommend you go see them. But there isn’t, so if you missed this show you just done fucked up instead.

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