The first band to open the evening was the Austrian black metal quartet THEOTOXIN, which is promoting its latest studio album “Fragment: Totenruhe”, released in 2022. The band was formed in 2016, which was a surprise for me to learn as their maturity and charisma extends all expected as the band is composed of experienced musicians which together went through the transition from black/death metal to pure black metal band.
NORDJEVEL, from Norway are representatives of the then newer generation of the underground black metal scene. They have three albums, the last of which “Gnavhol” was released in 2022.
Nordjevel were a VERY MUCH the nicest surprise of the evening as majority of the people I’ve talked to were amazed by the highly energized performance, musical skills and the atmosphere the band created! We will surely follow the band very closely in the future!
TAAKE, the cult band of the Norwegian black metal scene, came to Croatia for the first time last night, although the crowd was filled with those that saw the band many times before, but luckily also many youngsters came which was a great surprise. Taake started a tour as a celebration of thirtieth anniversary of their career and present their latest, eighth studio album “Et hav av resakt” released in 2023.
In addition to the new album, the band took us through their discography and presented the very best of the dark and cold black metal spirit we hoped for and got! Regarding their career, between 1999 and 2005, Taake released three albums which are a trilogy of concept albums connected by the themes of “death, Norway and the devil in man”. That is the leitmotif that remained constant and visible thought out their career and the last night’s concert also! The mentioned themes became a cultural phenomenon that can be viewed from psychological, philosophical, musical, existentialist and all other angles but the fact remains that it all resulted in a magical, dark abyss that throws you in without any possibility of escape. And all that darkness, despair, screams and horror do feel good as they resemble life so much. They represent life itself and the eternal fight of man over despair. So, in another words:
The concert was great, magical and unescapable abyss of darkness that embodied all we hoped and feared it could be!
