Beyond the Gates 2017 - Thursday

Thursday started with Whoredom Rife, they released out with their first full length Dommedagskvad last May. Intense, tough and aggressive, great presentation, again; from a band that has settled themselselves in short time. A ship head in the scenario, blood corpse-paint makes the harsh K.R. vocals to rotten in their raw old school black metal.

Followed by Czech Cult of Fire, Rokeriet changed completely from a harsh scene to an occult place, incense, dark lights, candles part of their black altar.. blowed out the expectations of everyone. Cult of Fire simple does a great presentation every time. The lights were nicely match to their esoteric temple and melodies. Their performance is indeed a ritual lead by their darkened black metal, low and fast tunes hidden behind their black tunics - stunning and magnificent. 

 

Kaosritual/Dark Sonority is a band from mid-Norway (Trondheim), the band re-organized as Kaosritual and changed named in 2012 as Dark Sonority (after unfortunate miss of Mehimoloth). They have one release as Kaosritual, Kaosrekvie. Although they don't perform alive as frequent as other bands from Trondheim, they do indeed a great occultist performance. Wearing black tunics, and a down-lighted scenario they performed a darkened mass flowing their hymns as preaching satanic verses to the audience. I never saw them before live and I do recommend everyone to check the band and even more their performance. 

 

It was not the first time I have seen Mgla performing, and I still got blowed with their fast, old school aggressive and misanthropic performance. Mgla has taken polish black metal to another level, not only with the quality of their music, melodies and lyrics. They are fast, aggressive, dark and tough they really know what they are doing and behind their black battle clothes with faces hidden behind blackened fabric - they manage to bring alive the nihilism of their songs. They made a set with a mix of their best songs  from their 2 lasts albums With Hearts towards none and Excercises in Futillit and burst everyone one brains in a performance of about 45-60 minutes... just a great concert to receive day 1 headliners "Master's Hammer", who indeed closed Beyond the Gates first night with a golden concert.

 

So Beyond the Gates had the honour to held Master's Hammer first concert out from Czech lands, the band that started in 1987 and had developed an unique black metal sound with some experimetal bits here and there blowed everyone one with a long set... if I am not wrong their performance was of about +/- 80 minutes, bringing old memories to those who have followed the band from the late 80s in their initial and more raw phase.
Clear sound and great vocals in the voice of Franta, as seen in the performance done in Praha - two naked women on baphomet customized head stood during Master's Hammer performance. Harsh, fast and old school with a hint of traditions and of course their traditional symphonic elements. Nice interaction Franta and audience in between the songs, most of Master's Hammer lyrics are about occultism and Czech traditions - sang in czech language of course, they brought their old material alive. The audience was impressed and I will guess everyone present was having a concert experience - sort of not many will ever thought Master's Hammer will do their first live performance, out their homeland; in the Norwegian lands - gotta say that the band has inspired many Norwegian bands in the late 80s / early 90s.
From the galleria at Rokeriet I could see the hall packed and people headbanging to Master's Hammer, which just before the end of their concert - vocalist Franta thanked the audience and the festival and presented the band's members...