A massive three band package hits German concert venues at the moment – Behemoth‘s ‘The Deathless Summer Tour 2023’ with Spiritworld, and Hypocrisy. It got hot as hell, literally!

The evening is opened up by Spiritworld. There is no need to warm up the crowd on that day as it is one of the hottest days so far this summer in Germany, and the Substage in Karlsruhe is an old industrial hall with no rooftop windows or other air-conditioning. But these guys should know to handle the heat – the Las Vegas originating band comes out of the US desert. Probably the world’s only band with a country music influenced death western metal style. Vocalist Stu Folsom and his crew hit the stage in best of class western glam rock outfits and have blown the audience away. Definitely a unique but highly recommendable experience.

Second on stage were Hypocrisy.  Unfortunately and very dearly missed was guitarist Tomas Elofsson, who suffered a heart attack just to days before the concert. All our best wishes go out to him, and we all do hope he’ll get well and back on stages soon. For this gig, his tracks came from tape, where his live performances have been recorded. Kudos to the Hypocrisy sound engineer who mixed it all in perfectly. Despite being a missing a band member that is part of their life performances, the gloomy and dark atmosphere created by the band on stage was perfectly set in the scene, well fitting their musical themes of the mysteries around alien life, UFOs and potential encounters on earth.

At last, it was time for Behemoth to make the night even hotter than it already was. Demonic music intro…. Kabuki drop… Here we go! With their massive stage production, that had to be reduced for this smaller venue (no pyro!), they fulfilled the audience expectations to the fullest. Playing songs from old and their current album ‘Opus Contra Natvram’ the presented musical variety and creativity showed the band’s full potential. Death and black metal in a well orchestrated way came over the venue like a thunderstorm – which was happening at the same time outdoors. Everybody was just pulled in; simply everybody was all in for this show. Lights, sounds, and stage action were top-notch.

It was a perfect night without death – a truly deathless summer night!