Supports: Act of Reprisal and Blood Runs Deep, Ihresgleichen; Venue: Werk21, Zurich (Switzerland)
By: Al Fiori (Bad Toro)
Tonight it was the time for Hämatom the quartet from Germany to play at a small venue in Zurich, the Werk21. Hämatom has a recent history since they began back in 2004 releasing few EPs and more recently in 2010 when their second album Stay Kränk came out.
 The band plays a peculiar genre called NDH short for Neue Deutsche Härte (lit. New German Hardness). And tonight hard they were not only with their sound but with their lyrics and visual effects. The night kicked off with two small Swiss bands called Act of Reprisal and Blood Runs Deep and a German group called Ihresgleichen. The latter effectively woke up the audience and got them involved with their mix of heavy metal and NDH.So now it was the time for Hämatom to come on around and start battering the crowd with their NDH. Hämatom found a very young audience waiting for them. The frontman Nord (vocals), has a clear and deep voice and because of the genre his lyrics were all sung in German. The band’s stage presence served as the perfect catalyst to warm up the crowd and prepared them for the the rest of the evening. |
| Nord (vocals), Süd (drums), West (bass) and Ost (guitar) these are the names of the members of Hämatom each hiding their real identities behind a mask which made eyes stare and intrigued the crowd. Hämatom’s performance grabbed the public and created an intense mood and the atmosphere grew with each song played. The head banging of first just a few soon spread to the rest of those present. The singing along was just perfect and Nord knew which buttons to press to get the crowd on board. He even had one of his back-line techs come on stage during “Schau Sie Spielen Krieg” with a board with chorus lines printed on it just to make sure nobody missed the opportunity to sing along and enjoy the evening. The music was enjoyable combining industrial metal with elements of electro / techno and hard rock. Hämatom involved the young crowd very much, they had fans come on stage and sing with them and take photographs. It was really nice to see some in the audience having their faces smeared in white paint, leaving no doubt there had been audience participation. A major high point in Hämatom’s performance was seeing singer Nord taking during “Spieglein” an inflatable doll on stage with a name impressed on her chest, Heidi. Unfortunately, I personally did not get the joke but I can gladly say that all the Swiss in the audience were quite amused and I think Nord got away with it and in fact made quite a visual and memorable impact on all of us. As a side point, it appears that Süd (drums) was not in the band and was substituted by another drummer. Incidentally there was no intention to hide this fact, literally since he was not wearing any distinguishing mask. NDH music is generally not my cup of tea and although I may change my mind in the future I think Hämatom will not appeal to a more mature heavy metal audience. |
 Setlist: Friss oder stirb Stay kränk Kiste Schau sie spielen Krieg Butzemann Spieglein El Mariachi Sucht Das schwarze Schaf Eva Ihr kotzt mich an Leck mich |
More photo’s of this event can be found at Blastofashutter.com
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