tuesday night, i attended a concert by the chilenian progressive doom metal band mar de grises, the islandic viking metal band sólstafir, and the finnish death doom metal band swallow the sun, held in the matrix in bochum. i went to this for two reasons: first, to see swallow the sun another time; last time i saw them was last year before christmas in leipzig. the second reason is mar de grises. i was really glad to finally have a chance to see them.
i arrived slightly late, due to bad weather, which was no problem since the concert was opened by two local bands i didn’t really wanted to see. the first one seemed to be a doom band, and i didn’t really like the second band’s music style. they both were ok, but i would have rather not seen them and heard mar de grises playing longer ;-) both opening bands were pretty much ok though, compared to many other openers i’ve seen so far…
while the openers were playing, i checked out the merchandizing booth. there was nothing new of interest in the swallow the sun section, so i inspected the mar de grises section. they had a special edition of draining the waterheart (including a 16 minute bonus track called unconscious passenger), the new album, some t-shirts, and two albums from other chilenian bands, one of them a funeral doom band called lethargy of death, a project of one of the band members. i bought the digipack, the new album, the lethargy of death album as well as the last available unconscious passenger t-shirt. some money invested well, i hoped. (and so far, i’m right about this :-) )
after the two openers, mar de grises started playing for 45 minutes. i was in the front row, which was no problem since the location wasn’t exactly stuffed, and nobody tried to be at the very front. in fact, i was like two meters away from the stage. unfortunately, the audio quality was really bad. i don’t know whose fault this was, if it was the mixing, the location, or whatever, but it was just bad. i was happy that i knew many of the songs they played, so i knew what it was supposed to sound like, so it was more a problem for sólstafir, since i heard them the first time…
well. despite the poor sound quality, mar de grises‘ performance was great. i really like this band. following mar de grises, sólstafir entered the stage. at that point, i wasn’t feeling very well, thanks to all the fucking bastards smoking inside the location. you can’t really enjoy a concert with itching eyes and having a headache. i really miss the nonsmoker protection laws i experienced in canada and other parts of europe…
i didn’t like sólstafir‘s performance too much, but i’m not sure whether this is just related to the horrible air and the awful sound quality, or if it’s their music. some time ago i listened to a couple of songs of them, and i don’t remember being disappointed back then. so maybe i have to give them another try…
finally, swallow the sun started playing. they played songs from all over their albums, which was really nice. some of my favorites, such as the giant, were played as well!
unfortunately, it seemed that the crowd got thinner and thinner. when they went off the stage before the encore, luckily enough people were still there to make some noise. they came back pretty fast, before the people started making noise and launching an awkward silence. they played descending winters, and after that the concert was over.
well. if the sound and air quality would have been better, this concert would have been really great. but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case… (but that’s not the bands’ fault…)

the thirtythird video is alle gegen alle by the nsk band laibach. it is actually a cover of a deutsch-amerikanische freundschaft song, which you can find here. the lyrics can be found here.

this is martial industrial music. don’t get it wrong.

i like it because… it is a very strange and fascinating piece of art. provoking. ambiguous. mesmerizing.
the original by d.a.f. is different, but i also like it, at least when combined with the video.

the thirtysecond video is teardrop by massive attack. the lyrics can be found here.

this is trip hop. you can try it.

edit: this also cannot be embedded. the video can be seen here. here’s the song without video:

i like it because… it is another earworm from my youth. i just like this plain, repetetive song with this cute melody. its perfect for dreaming…

the thirtyfirst session actually consists of three videos, excerpts of the concept album yeah! yeah! die! die! a death metal symphony in deep c by waltari. this album combines mainly classic with death metal, and also a lot of other styles. it’s almost one hour of music. here are three excerpts.

the first part is mainly death metal vs. classic.

the lyrics for this part can be found here.

the second part is mostly techno with classic and metal.

the lyrics for this part can be found here.

the third part is mostly rap with classic and metal.

the lyrics for this part can be found here.

i like it because… it is such a creative, great blend of various music styles into one big symphony.

the thirtyth video is raven land by lake of tears. the lyrics can be found here.

this is gothic/doom metal. you might like it if you like metal.

i like it because… it somehow managed to become an earworm of mine back then when i listened to the headstone album the first time. it’s really hard to say much about this. one thing i like in particular is its ending. don’t ask me why, i just really like it without being able to describe it.

the twentyninth video is hurt by nine inch nails. another very sad, very depressing song. and one often covered; the version by johnny cash is also very good. i saw the song first with this video, which unfortunately is not available on youtube. the lyrics can be found here.

this is very slow and depressing rock. you can try it if you’re not feeling too bad.

edit: this one neither works. looks like it is one of the songs you just cannot embed. here‘s the video on youtube. if you want, you can also download the version i saw first (choose ftp.de.scene.org or some other mirror near to you).

i like it because… the song manages to express so well the thoughts of someone who hurt a loved one.

the twentyeighth video is everything dies by type o negative. a very depressive song, from their darkest album, world coming down. the lyrics can be found here.

this is gothic/doom metal. try it if you like metal.

edit: another one which cannot be embedded, in no way apparently. the video is here. i’m sorry, again.

i like it because… it’s hard to say, i just like it. together with everyone i love is dead, these are two songs about dying friends, dying family members, of staying back alone.

r.i.p., pete.

the twentyseventh video is coin-operated boy by the dresden dolls. the lyrics can be found here.

this is punk cabaret. you can listen to it.

i like it because… it’s such a fresh, intelligent, somewhat ironic and cute story, put into a nice punk cabaret song. just so beautiful! i learned about this from a gothic sampler. this was one of the best tracks on that album. it was only later when i saw the video, but that made the song even better.

the twentysixth video is wünsch dir was von die toten hosen. the lyrics can be found here.

this is punk rock. and it was on the radio as well. so you can try it.

i like it because… another song from my youth which i still like.

the twentyfifth video is path by apocalyptica. featuring four amplified cellos, nothing more. this is one of the songs which got me into apocalyptica.

this is cello rock. with just amplified cellos: no drums, no lyrics, nothing else. try it if you want.

i like it because… it’s powerful, dark, melodic, intensive, beautiful. and played only by cellos. i fell in love with it when i first heard it, and i still love it.
the first time i saw the video was when putting together this series. i must say that the video is as good as the song itself. and interesting interplay between shadows and reality, in black and white. really fantastic.
(which reminds me, i haven’t seen them live for some time. what a pitty…)