On 19th September 2007 a respected mini-festival “Metal Swamp” took place in Brno. It has already earned growing reputation. That night was in a black metal spirit and there was really a lot to hear and to see. In contrast to most of the previous metal swamps this one took place in, literally, musical circus in Brno’s Faval, instead of the classical Svatoboj as before. I am not sure if promoters are going to displace this action completely or if it was just an occasional choice, anyway, I must admit this choice of the place was better.
The first band that started the 30th volume of this event was the only Czech performer – black metal band Sekhmet from Decin. I have seen this band several times so far and it seems to me like they have improved a bit, compared to their previous performances. Anyway, the music is more or less still quite monotonous and the songs sound similar. But for sure this band is going to surprise us in the future.
After a short break the Italian devils Tundra started to drift their instruments. At that moment I felt like standing underneath a huge rotating turbine. Well, sometimes it is good – quick pig-sound like music but sometimes it would be quite helpful to recognize a tone. By this I mean that those guys should decrease their sound effects to a bit more recognizable ones.
In my opinion, to link metal music with France is a bit strange. Furthermore, my knowledge of French scene almost equals to zero. Anyway, Vorkreist and the following Blacklodge are small sparks of success that France has got in this area. Black to Death metal playing Vorkreist comes from Paris and it has already released 3 albums and it really shows that this is not just a casual band. The music is very life alike and rolling.
The evening was slowly passing through. Another group from the list was coming and, again, from a land of cheese, wines and love – French black metal Blacklodge. To be honest, I almost didn’t realize they were already playing. Technically good, I believe they have a lot of fans but they didn’t catch my attention, maybe some other time.
Whatever the previous groups had performed, the majority of people came to support the last band – Finnish black metal Horna, what was the main attraction of the whole Swamp. Horna has released a lot of albums so far and has performed a lot of gigs. It’s been playing since 1993 and it’s recognizable by the continuous change of members up to now. At the moment, when their performance started their experience was obvious. Ears-cutting melodic guitars were changing into sometimes almost depressive riffs and this all was accompanied by daemonic shriek vocal of Corvus. The whole band was empowered by well coordinated drums and bass. When Horna’s performance finished there was a big difference in opinion among the fans. As usually, there was some enthusiasm on one side and some disappointment on the other side. I, personally, belong to the first part of fans. Horna was really worth it.
What else to say? Metal Swamp gets more and more listeners but not just from south Moravia. For that reason there is something to look forward to in the future volumes and I think that it really is.
