Electric Wizard at Club Seata, June 15th 2018



“This dying world gasps its last breath as we turn off our minds. All hope is lost, there’ll be no new dawn and all of your dreams will die… Die”. That’s the chorus for See You in Hell from Electric Wizard’s latest album Wizard Bloody Wizard. On paper this misanthropic sentiment might look depressing, but actually on record, and especially performed live, it’s quite exhilarating. The bass and guitars that went in unison up to this part of the song, open up with different lines, inducing in the listener the unavoidable head banging motion.

It’s paradoxical how sometimes in art and entertainment these moments that embrace humanity’s impending outcome end up being uplifting. This reminder of one’s inevitable fate is a source of pathos. Electric Wizard is full of these kind of moments. They’re not to be confused with cheesy power metal, their stuff lies deeper, it’s way sludgier, slower and darker. It resonates stronger.

It was cool to prove that in a live setting, as I suspected, they wouldn’t disappoint. Another cool thing was the fact that the venue was not so far from where I live, which meant a 10 minute train ride to get there. The club was small, so I tried to get a spot up front to the side, as I usually do for metal shows, to avoid the pushing, shoving and potential mosh pits in the middle. I found a decent one on the right side, about 3rd, 4th row.

The opening band was Nox Vorago, from Sweden. They played death metal sparkled with a bit of industrial and wore masks and black robes on stage. They were actually quite good, the audience were really into them. Personally I think that lowering the volume would have benefitted their set, they were way too loud, exhausting at times. Overall, it was a nice opening to the show

The second band was not my cup of tea. Church of Misery has lots of fans, some people were even chanting their name before appearing on stage. I found them to be a bit too gimmicky for my taste. The tunes were not memorable, mostly sounding like rehash riffs from The Stooges, Sabbath and the band they were opening for tonight.

After a twenty minutes wait and with the curtains still drawn shut, lights were dimmed as Celtic Frost’s Procreation (Of the Wicked) blasted through the sound system in its entirety. They couldn’t find a better way to set up the mood. Afterwards the band walked on stage, the audience pumped to the max.

For the following ninety minutes they handpicked and played some of their best songs from their catalogue. Behind them a screen projected some throwback evil imagery from a time when Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing would show up in satanic softcore porn. The Hell’s Angels, Anton LaVey and a half naked Ann Margret shaking her hips, were all part of the montage projected throughout the show.

Humor is an intrinsic part of Electric Wizard. I think what’s brilliant about it is that it’s not ironic or self-deprecating, they seem to be somewhat committed to their occult leanings and seventies fetishism. If their approach would have been bloated and serious, they could have turned into a joke. Being funny makes them authentic.

And the tunes are there, each lasting no less than five minutes, the minimum length allowed to let the doom driven riffs pound and expand into that unique epic Electric Wizard sound. Interlaced with Jus Oborn’s solos, the band will usually locked into a tight groove at a steady pace, ensuing constant head banging. Songs like Witchcult Today, Return Trip and The Chosen Ones were among my favorites performed at this show. They closed with an over 10 minutes rendition of Funeralopolis from what’s considered their magnum opus: Dopethrone. They walked out of the stage and the audience clapped for an encore that didn’t come.

Like Celtic Frost was played at the beginning, we left the venue with Slayer’s Seasons in the Abyss being played through the sound system at full volume. What a way of closing an amazing show. 

Thank you for reading. Please follow me on Twitter at @ConcertTokyo. You can also click the Like button and get notifications at https://www.facebook.com/ConcertTokyo/




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fruezinho 2024. Mulatu Astatke, Juana Molina, Masakatsu Takagi and Yuta Orisaka at Tachikawa Stage Garden, July 6th 2024

Image
  Festival de Frue has taken place at Shizuoka every November for the past six, seven years. Unlike most other festivals, this one explores the fringes of experimentalism and World Music. They’re outside the mainstream, true; but their lineup throughout the years has included some truly legendary heavy hitters. Headliners have included people like Tom Ze , Hermeto Pascoal, Terry Riley , The Master Musicians of Joujouka, among others. They also have been looking ahead and have invited some of the most interesting boundary pushers from the current scene. Names like Billy Woods , Angel Bat Dawid, Tim Bernardes and Carlos Niño. I haven’t had the chance to do the pilgrimage there, but one day I would love to More accessible in term of location is, in my case, the offshoot that takes place every July in Tokyo, Fruezinho . This year was the third edition and my first time there. Once the announcement was made that Mulatu Astatke was going to headline, I didn’t have to wait to find out who els
Read more

Mr. Bungle at Toyosu Pit, February 28th 2024

Image
  I think I already mentioned that I used to host a couple of radio shows more than twenty years ago when I lived in Los Angeles. They were on KXLU, a station that broadcasts from the campus of Loyola Marymount University, my alma mater. One of them was a jazz show that went on the air on a weekday, I think Wednesday or Thursday. My co-host Joseph came up with the title ’The Gift of Jazz”. It followed an instrumental show that was hosted by DJ Ned. Ned’s show was one of my favorites, he introduced me to a ton of music. Two releases in particular, that he personally recommended while music played between the end of his slot and the beginning of mine, ended up being among my favorite albums of all time. One was the Ethiopiques 4 compilation with music from Mulatu Astatke -we’re talking years before the movie Broken Flower exposed these songs to the world. The other was a new release at the time, the album The Director’s Cut by Fantomas. That album, a four-piece rock band reinterpretat
Read more

Jim Gaffigan at Nissho Hall, March 29th 2019

Image
Stand up shows by international comedians are rare in Japan, when this one was announced I didn’t hesitate to get a ticket. Seeing stand up live, delivered from a true comedian, is an experience unlike any other when it comes to entertainment. I would say that is similar to watching a horror movie in the sense that your body will respond in ways that it’s not used to. Adding to that, the live aspect of it makes it even more unique and exhilarating. I enjoy watching the specials on Netflix, but the few opportunities that I’ve had of seeing stand up live have been a whole different thing altogether. You’re in a room laughing along with a group of people for over an hour or so while reflecting on the absurdity of most things. That’s hard to beat. I was looking forward to this show so I got there early. It was my first time at Nissho Hall which is a serviceable appropriate venue, not far from the fancier Suntory Hall. Once inside it felt like if I was in another country with lots of
Read more