29 March 2024

04-10-2019 Trail of Blood/Hexadar/Catalyst/Asator

Featured Bands: Trail of Blood, Hexadar, Catalyst, Asator
Location: Bambi Galore, Hamburg (DE)

Text by: Basak Günel
Photos by: Heavy Harlequin

Hamburg’s small but intimate club Bambi Galore was in for a treat as the venue welcomed four metal bands from the local/underground scene for a night full of extreme metal!

Our night started with Asator. It’s hard to describe the style of these guys but one categorization would be a mix of post-metal, doomgaze and black metal. Having heard the band’s name many times, we were beyond excited finally see these guys from Bremen and experience the music. As expected, the band’s show was impressive from the start. The music has a certain darkness to it with the vocals and the instruments accompanying each other pretty well. The band has been actively touring as well and this showed; they were quite professional in this underground scene. As for the ones missing this band on this night, plenty of chances are there to see them live, with one of them being Black Fall Fest in their hometown, Bremen.

Up next was Catalyst. This Hamburg-based formation’s style could be described as a mix of extreme and melodic death metal. We weren’t familiar with this band and so the presence of the powerful Vanessa Krockow surprised and captivated us in an instant! Another highlight was seeing Leon Rubinstein (Craving) on bass duties; one could tell that the overall atmosphere and dynamic in the band was pretty chill and cool.

In the middle of the set, the band had a little unfortunate accident; the guitarist’s guitar strings broke and so the band had to make a pause for a while. But thanks to the cheerful audience, there was no awkward silence but killing the time with a “bass solo!” which was requested by the audience as well as a drum solo that followed. With a little help from the guys from Hexadar, the band could get back on track again deliver some nice tunes. Overall a great show despite some ups and downs!

By the time Hexadar was about to go on stage, I gotta admit that I was feeling pretty tired but these guys managed to catch my attention in an instant. You might ask how… Well, the sound of the accordion in all that chaos and black metal caught my attention in an instant. I mean accordion in pagan/folk metal is common but black metal? That’s another level of crazy but these guys pull it off somehow. They may need more practice and structure in their live shows, and the sound was also not the best but their sound is definitely interesting, in particular for the ones who are not familiar with them. During their set, the band gave news of an upcoming release next year as well (or “the year after the next year” as the guitarist joked) so we might get to see them more often.

The last band for the night was Trail of Blood. These German guys delivered the ultimate thrash metal, which was the perfect finish for this evening. While some of the people from the audience were rather chilling and taking a break, the others were headbanging to the songs. I could say that they were possibly the most professional band on the stage with respect to their stage persona and the show; the front-man’s presence was especially powerful and energetic!

Overall, it was an interesting evening with different bands delivering different styles. It was especially great to see such an intimate atmosphere full of loyal and passionate metalheads!

Links:

Trail of Blood Facebook
Hexadar Facebook
Catalyst Facebook
Asator Facebook