Photo Reports
On their current European tour, The Sisters Of Mercy stop in Belgium no less than 5 times! Their first Belgian stop was in Antwerp last night and GRIMM was there to provide you with a photo report of that show! After half an hour of warming up with psychedelic fusion band Hugs Of The Sky, the sold-out Trix hall fills up. At 21h00 It’s time for the Sisters Of Mercy!
“We are a rock’n’roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine.
We are intellectual love gods.”
… That’s how they describe themselves. For most of the attendees though, they’re still that early New Wave band they grew up with.
The year is 2022, lock-downs seem to have ended… Fuck that, we’re going back to 1998! Janez Detd have just released their debut album, so let’s throw a big punk-rock party!
I even came on my skateboard.
On a one-off event, the band played their debut album from start to finish, followed by a set of their greatest hits. Judging by the broad smiles and happy eyes, I was far from the only one that was looking forward to a good party, which Janez Detd more than delivered.
Gwyllions came before to get the crowd in the mood and a surprise performance of a dance troupe linked the 2 bands.
All Belgian night tonight in Trix Antwerp! Co-Headliners Hippotraktor and Cobra The Impaler set the place on fire. They both released a new album recently and were tonight supported by warm-up band Divided. When entering the venue, we were welcomed by warm-up band Divided on the small stage right across the bar. After they wrapped up the night proceeded on the bigger stage inside, where both bands played impeccable shows. Even though Hippotraktor‘s guitarist Sander Rom wasn’t allowed to carry the weight of a guitar due to a surgical procedure, he still attended the show as a purely vocalist.
With only 4 more shows to go, the ‘Euro tour 2022’ of french black metallers Celeste in support of the release of their latest album ‘Assassine(s)’ is running to its end. They’ll have played 30 shows throughout most of Europe of which 2 stops were in Belgium. We were in Antwerp this week to witness their signature “red headlight in the dark” performance. Little light, a lot of heavy smoke and heavily pounding drums throughout the entire show. That’s what was on the menu with both Celeste and support act Conjurer…
Last year, the Danish band VOLA released an impressive new album with ‘Witness‘. An album that was received by many people as one of the best albums of the year 2021, including us (check out “Albums of the Year 2021” list here)! Now they were in the neighborhood to play their new music live for the very first time and we knew we couldn’t miss out on this. Support came from the Swedish Port Noir who was about the release their new album and the Finnish “Northcore” outfit Atlas. For one of the first shows after the pandemic craze, a whole lot of people showed up at Jäähalli, filling up the Brewer’s Street part of the big building quite much for what ended up being a stellar night!
Another one of those packages that got delayed time after time again due to the pandemic… Bloodred Hourglass was supposed to play in Helsinki with MyGrain, Oceanhoarse and Balance Breach for a couple of years and now finally is the time! Oceanhoarse had to drop out still after all, but got replaced by the doomsters of Marianas Rest, completely a really solid line-up of up-and-coming greats of the Finnish metal scene! Place to be was Vanha ylioppilastalo (or the “old students’ house”), a fancy old building in the center of Helsinki that hasn’t really been the home for metal shows before. And here is how the night went…
The Norwegian misfits of Kvelertak were supposed to go on tour in support of their latest release ‘Splid’ back in 2020, but like we all know, the pandemic intervened quite a bit. And it seems they didn’t get rid of that curse completely yet, because they had to postpone most of their 2022 European tour again. Luckily they managed to keep their Nordic dates and even more lucky for us, that included their stops in Finland. So finally we were able to catch this powder keg of a band live on the legendary Tavastia stage in Helsinki!
While winter and spring fight over who has the regiment here in Finland there were not so many shows. So when I saw that Frosttide after several years announced a live show again I decided to go and check it out even though I hadn’t heard of the other bands before.
It was a solid show of all bands but lacked just the last little extra excitement. I think Olympia-kortteli was not build as a concert venue and this reflects a bit in the light and sound quality they’re able to provide. But overall it was a very enjoyable evening and it was nice to finally see some friends and solid bands again.
The Saint Paddy’s Day bash at The King of Clubs in Columbus, OH consisted of 4 Ohio based bands and headlined by NONPOINT. The local Ohio bands all did an amazing job getting the crowd warmed up for NONPOINT.
NONPOINT was an extremely fun band to photograph. They bring a vibe and electricity to the stage that extends to the fans below. They have this way of making you feel like they are playing just for you and allow you to be fully in the moment of what you are experiencing.
Last Friday, we hosted in our very own Asgaard 5 Belgian bands who are traveling around together under the title ‘Infected Weekends’. To be able to put 5 bands on stage in one evening, the first band Triagone had to kick things off early. Everyone who arrived late, missed a quite impressive performance from this Brussels based band with Brazilian vocalist Lorena Moraes. Second band of the night was Incest Analfest. I think you can best describe this show as a sex obsessed carnival act. No shortage of humor with these guys! Immediately after that, our Gent local boys of Serial Butcher treated us to a set full of brutal death metal. For the penultimate band of the evening, it was certainly not the first time they played at Asgaard. Brutal Sphincter did what they’re known for: they threw a party! Headliner and closing for tonight was the legendary act Leng Tch’e. Singer Sergeï had the audience in his hands and he even called Triagone vocalist Lorena Moraes back on stage for a surprise duet! General impression: amazing atmosphere all night long!
