04-02-2011 Combichrist

Supports: Centhron, Mortiis; Venue: Tivoli Oudegracht, Utrecht (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren & Nina Mende

Combichrist was coming to the Netherlands and with them they brought Mortiis. The known festival hold in the city Utrecht called Summer Darkness arranged them to play in Tivoli.

The first act of the evening was the Centhron, an Electro band from Bremen. The man behind this act is Elmar Schmidt who founds its inspiration in Metal. This formation started in 2002 and got themselves on the road soon enough with the very first releases “Lichtsucher” and “Gottwork”. At the end of 2009 the band came with their third release “Roter Stern”. On stage the band makes themselves visible with attributes like a mask and waving a flag around. The music really divided the audience. Some liked it and danced a bit, while others turned their back to the stage to show their disinterest.

Mortiis is known for bring various sorts of music. One album never sounds like the other and this makes their gigs always surprising. The band released their latest album “Perfectly Defect” (review) in 2010 and is still freely available at their own website. Obviously this album was the main part of their show and this one seem to take some time before the audience picks it up. Besides that, the band had to suffer from sloppy sound. After a few songs the band get to convince the majority of the crowd with its intense sound. Still has to be said that their show seems more entertaining while you have heard the album already. A few older songs were played as well, but totally transferred to the style that comes with “Perfectly Defect”. The show was accompanied by an impressive lightshow, which totally matches the atmosphere of the music. Mortiis may not have had their best show ever tonight, the sound was not that great, but at the second part of the set things improved a lot and there seemed to be a lot of people that were quite impressed with what the band brought. The words of the crowd were various but mainly in the positive direction and this seems to be a show that somehow got people’s attention.

Combichrist got started with somehow the same sound problems as Mortiis, but luckily they improved it soon. The band took their show quite easy in the beginning, for those who have seen the band before, it might have been like the band took it easy. It seems like the Dutch audience enjoyed themselves anyway. The Norwegians have released their album “Making Monsters” in 2010. Some of the fans were clearly shouting for that album while others did not seem to mind whatever they played. Vocalist Andy LaPlegua clearly left the climax of the performance for the very last. While drums were flying all over the stage “This Shit Will Fuck You Up” made not only the band, but also the audience wild. The band had its reputation already in the Netherlands, they know and that seem to made them take it easy at first, but when the party was going on the whole venue was partying along.