Manning Bar, Sydney
Sunday September 15, 2013 :
Sunday night in Sydney and Kvelertak hit the stage, lead man Erlend Hjelvik wearing a beautifully ludicrous headpiece made of an owl with glowing red eyes and taking his six man wrecking machine to task with latest album opener ‘Åpenbaring’. The sound takes a few songs to level out, finding room for all three guitarists and blast beats always a challenge but comes together beautifully, fleshing out a sound that is way more rock n roll than black metal.
The venue’s not packed but a healthy pit loosens up as the band dive headlong into their hour long set, giving a healthy dose of current album Meir. On record the band sounds like a black metal playing with rock and roll dynamics, on stage they are an absolute rock n roll band, flirting with blast beat flourishes and rasped vocals. The stage show is great fun, guitars are whirled around the air (like you just don’t care) with gleeful abandon, the whole frontline of the band quite adept a windmilling the guitar around their bodies given the slightest chance with a gap in the music to do so.
It’s impossible not to have fun with these guys, the sugar sweet singalongs of ‘Bruane Brenn’ and and the death metal touches on ‘Nekrokosmos’ meshing beautifully and delivered with supreme passion. Kvelertak are a band who brings aggenuine joy to the traditionally blackened and grim extreme metal they colour their palette with, a great show by a great band.
Reviewer: Roger Killjoy
Photographer: Lilen Pautasso
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