10-03-2009 Sonic Syndicate

Supports: Deathstars, Sapiency; Venue: Batschkapp, Frankfurt (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Many many black dressed were waiting in line outside of the Batschkapp to see Sonic Syndicate and Deathstars live. Inside it didn’t seem as crowded but maybe because many people stayed close to the bar.

Up front you could fine female teenagers and die-hard fans as well as us photographers since there was no photopit. The first band was a local support band from Frankfurt called Sapiency. A hard name to remember for a metal band that is very unknown. They had two singers, or rather one shouter and one singer. The singer was very hyperactive and squirrelly, maybe out of nervousness, maybe he just is that way, I didn’t know. But it looked rather silly: a metal band with a school boyish looking squirrelly singer. The other one, the shouter, seemed more confident in what he’s doing and the rest of the band seemed to get their confidence from him in moments of insecurity. The band played a super short set of about 20 minutes, talked a little with the audience and kept on telling them how great it was to play. Their music consisted of hard riffs, lots of shouting and jumping. Not my favourite type of music. But looking around in the venue proved that many people seemed to enjoy it.

During the change over it was getting nice and cosy in the front, so next must be Deathstars. Slightly confused because I expected them to play last, I tried to get an ok spot from where I could take pictures. Deathstars is an industrial metal band formed in Sweden in January 2000. The band currently consists of Whiplasher Bernadotte (lead vocals), Nightmare Industries (guitar and keyboards), Skinny Disco (bass guitar, backing vocals), Bone W Machine (drums) and Cat Casino (guitar). They have released three full length studio albums. The latest was released this year. Deathstars came on stage with fog and darkness but had great light and not too much fog during their show. They played songs off all albums including Blitzkrieg, Synthetic Generation, Syndrome, Cyanide and Death Dies Hard as well as many others. The audience sang along, danced and jumped, simply enjoyed it. Whiplasher got a hat from the audience which he wore and a red feather boa after taking off his jacket. His shirt was totally soaked already after the first couple songs. The band had lots of fun posing and playing with the audience as well as performing their music on stage. Whiplasher said a little something about every song before playing it. Skinny was singing backings and also thanked the audience every once in a while. Cat got the girls to scream and Nightmare got the guys to bang along. It was an amazing show which lasted for an hour only, unfortunately. But they came back for an encore of two songs.

Change over. Several people left now though and it got quite empty, it wouldn’t stay that empty though. Sonic Syndicate is a Metalcore band from Falkenberg, Sweden. The band was formed in 2002 under the name “Fallen Angels.” In 2005, they changed their name to Sonic Syndicate. They have three studio albums released so far. As Sonic Syndicate entered the stage I was surprised that they looked so young. Two singers were there again and a female bass player. The audience which was crowding the dancefloor now seemed to have changed almost completely. But the band style has changed quite a lot as well: From dark yet glamorous rock to almost metal, but at least very hard rock. Both singers kept on requesting a circle pit in the audience which the always got. There was lots of moshing and crowd surfing as well as stage diving going on during their show. The band rocked the stage and their fans powerful and without a break. Well, one break they gave everybody as they played a ballad. They played for about an hour as well plus encore where they parted the audience for a wall of death which worked out very well. Sonic Syndicate performed a very energetic show, everybody was exhausted afterwards and went home happy.

Links:
Sapiency MySpace
Deathstars MySpace
Sonic Syndicate MySpace