By Lisa Burke
June 11th 2016, The Regent, Los Angeles CA: Black metal is where my Saturday night metal story begins and ends, but before it even begins, it’s important to understand that while there are many different styles within black metal as well as ritual practices and beliefs behind the tunes, one ideology of this genre is always clear, and that is to invoke evil upon the soul. While this may sound satanic and humanely incorrect, it is actually a practice that can purify the soul by exposing oneself to all that is evil and becoming free in a way that actually releases the hate and negative thoughts out into the open without harming others. In other words, listening to black metal, if used properly, is a peace offering and alternative to murder despite the number of churches burned, animals sacrificed, or murders that the band members may or may not have committed in the past. On Saturday June 11th 2016, I visited the Regent Theater in downtown Los Angeles for the aftermath of The Sound And Fury Fest which had taken place earlier that day as well as the previous day. This was a very special late show featuring headliner Taake making their first ever Los Angeles appearance, with support acts Young And In The Way, and Wolvhammer.
Doors were scheduled to be opened at 10:30 PM which was about when I arrived, yet there was a massive line formed all the way around the corner already, and no signs of anyone allowed to enter in the immediate future. I’ve never had to deal with a line at this venue before and the staff definitely handled it well by splitting up and scanning tickets from the back of the line first then heading towards the front while other staff scanned at the door. Even though this expedited the process, there was still a time crunch to deal with having three bands in three hours time. By the time they started and people got in the doors, it was past 11 PM. Nevertheless, they pulled it off well, and all the bands had a decent set length. One small side note of the joys of standing outside after 10 PM at this location and practically anywhere in downtown after dark is that the homeless come out in waves and generally mean no harm to a bunch of metalheads as they see them all the time, yet some like to try to scam off them and sometimes they just need to entertain themselves, so as it happened I got cat called for about 10 minutes at one point from a homeless dude on a balcony who was clearly bored.
Anyway, once inside, Wolvhammer was already on stage and blowing people away with their flavor of blackend death rock. The sound for all three bands at the late night shenanigans here was exceptionally clear and balanced, and while it is usually good at this perfectly sized venue and stage set up, it has never achieved this level of quality to my knowledge for an entire show. This band is five talented men who play at a very interesting sludgy tempo to what is otherwise blackened melodic death metal. The rock n’ roll part of it starts with the tempo and shoots into other elements as well. The vocals were clean yet tough and masculine, and had just the right touch of evil splashed in. They played two very interesting and well thought-out Misfits covers that they cross fit into the style of Wolvhammer, and the vocals again were great, as were the guitar players’ gothic and melodic back up vocals. The drumming was appropriately creative and refreshing, while the bass and guitar could have risen the dead with their talents and flair. I was very comforted by the uniqueness this band possesses, that is difficult to express in words and really must be seen and heard in a live setting to fully appreciate. They were all in all the most original and perfect start to a great black metal filled show.
Next on the bill was North Carolina based black metal band Young And In The Way which definitely weren’t either of those qualities, and what’s more, they were definitely the most modernized black metal band in the line up. They compromised the newest style of black metal vaguely similar in style to Watain into their mix of hardcore old-school crusty punk that puts them in a category of their own. While that’s quite an out-of-the-box idea for a genre mix, it became a little muddy to me. The crowd was super into them and my conclusion is that it’s an acquired taste, but with their fairly recent formation in 2009, I can’t trust nor judge their direction as a black metal band at this time. They started out with mysterious backing track dialect and then jumped into crust punk drumming and black metal singing with punk rock stage presence and somewhere in between riffage. Either you loved the wildness of the concept or you said “what the fuck are these guys trying to tell me?” They followed through, however, with a strong and perhaps slightly too lengthy set considering the time crunch, and paved the way for Taake who sadly did not start their set until 1:11 AM.
Finally, Norwegian black metal band Taake suffocated the stage with their tactful black metal face paint that they pull off and wear very seriously. From the moment they started, my eyes widened and my soul breathed evil until it had no more evil to breathe. They are very serious about their black metal and in my eyes, it is the perfect mix of old school versus new school. The old school is reminiscent of Mayhem style and the new school is reminiscent of Behemoth style, and together while all sung in Norwegian, which is a beautiful language in my opinion, it comes across as just slightly above perfection. The vocals were the perfect evil pitch and the drums were on fire like a church on Sunday. The guitars were fast and brutal and the hair whipping commanded the evilness quite well. At certain moments, the crowd was so engrossed with the purely evil ambiance of it all that they forgot to even mosh, until that one guy crowd surfed, and instead of the venue enforcing their signs that say something along the lines of ‘no stage diving, or you will go home’ they just let him dive into the portal to hell never to resurface. These are the key elements of a fantastic black metal show right here, and even though they ended the show after 2 AM, it was worth the wait. For the last song at around 2:07 they brought out the singer of the previous band ‘Young And In The Way’ to sing a duo with Hoest, the genius behind all that is Taake, because that’s what non ego maniac headliners do on a tour which if you don’t know is commonly referred to as a collaborative effort by both parties involved.
Basically, the more I dive into black metal history the more I discover new and old bands that I enjoy for one aspect or another, and I have yet to hear a black metal band that I absolutely do not like, although I definitely have my favorites. In the case of Taake I died and went to black metal hell, and it was a wonderfully exquisite time that I hope I get the privilege of reliving again in the near future.
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Remaining Tour Dates:
6/15: Portland, OR @ Dante’s *+
6/16: Seattle, WA @ Highline *+
6/17: Vancouver, BC @ Covenant Festival +
* = w/ Young And In The Way
+ = w/ Wolvhammer