Death Metal Thursday

Illdisposed, Shade Empire, Soulline, Ignea

Presented by The Flaming Arts Agency, Viper Room Vienna, Austria 20180503

Thursday night, time for another Death Metal blast. This time the way leads to the Viper Room again, where the Flaming Arts Agency presents a very great tour package including four bands.

Ignea from Ukraine starts the evening with their modern Symphonic Oriental Progressive Metal. It is their first European tour. Yet their musical performance is outstanding. The solos of guitar and keyboard perfectly match each other, plus the voice of Helle is impressive in clean and extreme shouting. Compared to more famous acts like Epica, this formation doesn’t have to hide itself.

From Symphonic to Melodic Death, Soulline from Switzerland pursue the craft of the Gothenburg school from (earlier) In Flames, showing how much fun this music can be. Huge riffs and the switches between rhythms on point are their trademarks. Speaking of switches, Shade Empire from Finland switch between genres like the heroes of their country Stam1na. Only in a even more brutal way, as they go from Black Metal parts to even a Pink Floydish solo. All in all they manage to create a spherical wall of sound.

The headliner of the night is Illdisposed, Denmark’s Death Metal figurehead next to Exmortem and Hatesphere. The band is motivated and the audience is in a good mood too. So the heads are flying, as the midtempo tunes are just made for this kind of sport, the pain in the neck therefore is preprogramed. Not only the amazing sound and the pain are for sure, but also so are the gay jokes, that the people are demanding for. And as the final “Now We’re History” resounds, the whole Viper Room is with the band, and all hands are up in the air. Guess it is a nice picture seen from the stage.