Live Reviews : Abbath, Ruins & Hybrid Nightmares @ Max Watt’s, Melbourne 17/10/2015

Words: Jonathon Besanko

Images: Mark Hoffmann

(Click here to view the full gallery)

Here was a show I was most looking forward to. It was the final night of Abbath’s exclusive east coast Australian tour and I am most happy to say that it delivered in more ways than one. Getting the chance to see one of the key pioneers and founders of the Norwegian second wave of black metal was a rare and exciting opportunity for me, especially given Abbath’s last time in Australia was seven years ago.

Hybrid Nightmares

Tonight brought in good numbers, with the crowd steadily filling out more of the venue as the night went on. Opening proceedings was Melbourne’s Hybrid Nightmares. With Obelisk banners standing tall either end of the stage, red and green lights bathed the stage as frontman Loki and the others stepped out mightily. “Good evening, Max Watt’s. This one is ‘Emperor’”, he announced.

Wearing new attire separate from their white robes, the band now wore black cloth shirts (in relation to The Third Age), rimmed with red lining. Fluro-corpsepaint still ran up their arms and bodies like fingers of lightning. One of the best aspects of Hybrid Nightmares set was that their sound was enormous, and in the best way possible. It was quite clear from the offset how excited the guys were to be playing here tonight. Their performance tonight was one of the strongest I’ve seen, with each member of the band really giving their all to this show. Not only was Loki’s vocals as strong as they’ve ever been, but you had great moments where guitarist Michael ‘Gummas’ Gumley and bassist Jonny Helwinter played alongside one another, and further to Adam ‘Batty’ Chapman’s standout drumming that included him impressively windmilling at parts.

Playing a key collection of songs from their series of albums entitled The Ages, we in the audience were given the chance to hear live entries from the first and third albums including “Illumination” and “The Obelisk” (where Loki personally brought out his Obelisk-shaped sceptre), and, telling the “fable” of the ages, were given the chance to hear live for the first time “The First Heretic”; off their forthcoming album, The Fourth Age.

Ruins

Being convinced it was the likely the fact it was a black metal crowd that the audience seemed mostly quietly during songs, when Ruins came out on stage, it further reaffirmed this for me. While Tasmania’s Ruins were excellent, the crowd largely fell quiet during their songs; only really chiming up at the end of songs, where they applauded. To be honest though, if this was to happen at any show, it made the most sense for it to be this one. In many ways, black metal is best experienced in silence. That may sound cliched given the tropes of the genre, but it has always been – at least from my way of viewing it – music designed to be absorbed and felt on another, more harsher emotional level. Not necessarily just to headbang to. And to its credit, this sullen, quiet malignancy only heightened the impact Ruins’ music had on me. This was my first time experiencing this band live, and I’ve got to say, I was quite impressed. I was not too overly familiar with them before hand, but to discover it was the co-creation of Dave and Joe Haley of Psycroptic, alongside Alex Pope formerly of the Sea-Scouts, was pretty interesting.

Given Pope’s largely awkward and shy stage-presence, he spoke very little during their set and many times so low it was a tad difficult to make out what he was saying or who he was offering thanks to. Regardless, his actual performance was solid. Given that Joe Haley was the only guitarist in this band, I was very impressed by how dynamic Ruins’ sound was, and this was only furthered by Pope’s vocals that at once felt familiar (as if channelling early Mayhem), yet remarkably different at the same time. The riffs were mournful and the harsh vocals pierced the air, filling the room with an unknowing dread. Dave Haley’s drumming was as intense as ever, and with samples from what I believe was Anneliese Michel and The Exorcist, it added another realm to their live performance; coupled by these two great mirrored banners either end the stage of a satanic witch drawn in a wood-carving esque style.

Abbath

It had come time for Abbath. As the Norwegian crab-shuffled onto stage to the uproarious applause of the audience, smoke encircled the stage; almost instantly obscuring drummer Creature from view. I’ll admit, to some, this may have put them off; since he in particular was largely unable to be seen for the majority of the set, but I personally was of the other mind. I quite liked that you could never really see him clearly. All you ever heard was the precise tolling of his drums, with the horns of his demon mask misting into view beneath the golden lighting every now and then. It added another layer to Abbath’s performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. With King ov Hell and Per Valla rounding out the rest of Abbath’s lineup on bass and guitar duties respectively, the quartet made quite a team.

“Melbourne, I am returned!” Abbath proclaimed, standing tall like a god and soaking up the worship of his disciples. Opening with the I track “Warriors” before leading into the likes of “Nebular Ravens Winter” and “Battalions”, Abbath then announced the band’s new album set for release in January before a combination of mist and nigh-epileptic inducing lighting engulfed the stage. It was awesome to hear these Immortal and I songs played live – especially with the added addition of another guitar in Immortal’s case – and with crowd chanting in the lead up to tracks like “One By One” it only made the engagement and interaction between Abbath and the crowd all the greater.

“It’s great to be fucking back here,” Abbath cried out. “About fucking time, hey!” Moving into “Tyrants”, the ecstasy levels in the crowd only continued to rise, with many in the audience headbanging rapturously, singing, or moshing about. Abbath fed off this well, stopping at certain moments to kneel, place a hand to his ear, and coax out greater screams and chanting. The man is a natural-born performer. You could lose yourself in Abbath’s performance, and I give kudos to the light and sound guys working tonight. The lighting was some of the best I’ve seen from a show in quite a while, and the sound never became a wall of noise. You could always make out the crisp and precise notes of the band, and that was to the credit of each of Abbath’s members also. Those that make up this group are the consummate professionals and masters of their craft. To make black metal or any form of extreme music sound as great they did is not an easy feat. And everyone tonight put in their all.

As the encore broke, we were treated to “The Storm I Ride” before the night closed out on a high-note with “Withstand The Fall Of Time”, proving even after 27 years, the Norwegian still has it.

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