Into The Dark: Chapter One

Amnyon, Zerleger, Ghidrah, Parental Advisory and Graufar

Szene, Vienna, Austria 20250524

After living for some time in Vienna, It is clear that there are many activities all year. As you well know, we in SoG, love going to concerts of all kinds, this time, we can say that there is no better way to spend a Saturday in Vienna than an evening listening and enjoying the show of a carefully-curated lineup of Austria’s Metal. Starting with Amnyon, an Austrian band which is from Vienna, made it very clear what this evening was about to be. With an absolute blast of energy, Amnyon mixes a lot of different styles of metal and opened up the pit for what was to come. The predominant sound would be hardcore, deathcore and metalcore. If you like bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Falling In Reverse, Motionless in white and I Prevail, you will definitely like Amnyon.

This evening, they were playing mainly songs from their Album : A Scapegoat For A Throne – 2025

AMNYON – Echoes Stay

For the following act of the evening, we had Zerleger. As stated in their website, “What do you get when you form two pharmacists, an Old Germanist, and a brewery owner into a band?” well, Vienna native, original death metal! With Tom brutally destroying the drums, Johannes jamming the bass, Stefan deafening vocals and Tom “Riffmaster” on the guitars, There was nothing but an amazing death metal blast. During the evening, the band presented the latest Album: Zerleger. The only song missing from the album was “Frost“, maybe it will happen next concert! We will for sure stay tuned!

„The band’s musical influences range from Death Metal to Pantera, from Judas Priest to Triptykon.”

Very short after they started to play, it was very clear why the band named Tom the “Riffmaster”. There are some things that are truly appreciated in the death metal scene. And this is having sick solo riffs. There is nothing like it. Hats off, Tom, thank you for including this in the music you guys are doing and keeping it alive. Specially in the song “In Menschlicher Gestalt“.

Although brutal guttural vocals were always there, Stefan had a lot of energy and was interacting often with the crowd. This energy is always appreciated.

The setlist of the evening was:
Raubritter
Holzweg
Kyrill
The Night The Dead Came Back To Life
In Menschlicher Gestalt
Aufstehn
Labor
Herbst
War Machine
Death In The Pontine Marches

Zerleger – Labor

Presenting their new Album Repulse (2023) and directly from Wiener Neustadt, Austria, we got the chance to listen to Ghidrah. We absolutely agree with their self description: „Brute riffs, catchy hooks, atmospheric melodies and powerful drums meet fierce vocals. GHIDRAH is presenting raw modern metal at it‘s finest!”. We just do not agree with the powerful drums. they were more than powerful; they were abusively outstanding. As somebody who did not listen to Ghidrah before, I got to say that if you like bands like DevilDriver, Chimaira, Enterprise Earth or Fit For An Autopsy, you will for sure become a fan immediately.

GHIDRAH – Juggernaut

Within the metal scene, it is well known that T-shirts mean a lot. Mainly to support ideologies, to show bands that one is fan of, or to show what one is against something, like the controversial “kill the kardashian” T-shirt “Tasteless merch” against “empty celebrity culture” by Gary Holt. In this case, The lead singer of Ghidrah was dressed uo in a very specific way. He was dressed up in what one could say was very similar to the Suicidal Tendencies Cholo-Like style, With the squared Shirt and a Cap, the only thing missing was the bandana. Still, to finish the look, he was wearing a Korn T-shirt. And although it would sound like they are far away from a sound similar to any of these bands, I can assure the bands appreciate to keep the culture of showing the bands one is a fan of. It is always a different way to connect to people. There is no need for words.

Ghidras’ setlist of the evening
This Dying World
The Hunt
Juggernaut
Bleed with Us
Mountains
Recovery
There is no Hell
Not Good Enough

GHIDRAH – There Is No Hell

Right after, we had the pleasure to see Parental Advisory perform an incredible show. At this point of the evening, the metal evening had been changing slowly to not let Into The Dark: Chapter One become a single genre evening. Parental Advisory brought extreme metal to the evening. The latest album they released in 2023 is Soundtrack of an upcoming Apocalypse. Still, they also played several songs from the album Aetas Anthropophagorum.

Setlist:
Dead rising
Femur masturbation
My darkness
Slice
Reanimator
Human piñata
78.9%
Fallout
The Devil wears my face
Cannibal Family
HFC

As Stated in their Bio:

The Viennese extreme metal musicians have been involved in the international and national death metal scene for almost thirty years. Brutal and brachial vocals round off the skilfully technical riffs. The four musicians can look back on a long career and have already performed on stage at several international concerts with well-known bands such as DYING FETUS, BENIGHTED, MISERY INDEX, ASPHYX, PESTILENCE and BENEDICTION.” From our side, we suggest to listen to Parental Advisory if you like Hatebreed, Cannibal Corpse and/or Aborted. We are looking forward to hear the next album!

The formation, consisting of Ramiz (Drums; ex- Locus Nemenis, ex- Pekari), Marathon (Bass; “ex-The Negative Bias (live), ex-Seeds of Sorrow”), Otto (Guitars; ex-Punishment, ex-Reanima) and Sic (Vocals, Guitars; ex-Punishment)

Parental Advisory – Slice

Ladies and gentlemen, for the closing act, presenting their album Scordalus (2024), Black/Death Metal directly from Linz, Austria, Graufar. With Gernot G as Lead-Vocals and Guitar, Mike H. as Growls and Guitar, René H. playing Drums and Thomas S. as Backing Vocals and Bass, they performed a high energy show. The mosh pit was a quite alive for the closing act. With familiar beats and attitude like Exodus, Decapitated, Obituary Sepultura, and makeup similar to Finntroll, we recommend to listen to Graufar and get ready for their second album which is set to be released on spring 2026.
They were performing headbanging simultaneously in the same way the members of Cannibal Corpse do it. It is always amazing to see each member playing their instrument perfectly while doing this maneuver.

Graufar‘s setlist:
Lies
Vendetta
Intrusive Thoughts
Buried In Flames *
Authoritarian Scum
Foltertrog *
Nyctophile

From their Bio:

Graufar (an old German word for the color “grey”) was founded in Linz, Austria at the end of 2020 and had the chance to stand on the stage of various concerts and festivals since 2022. The band complements Black-Metal with Death-Metal parts and also with melodic elements. Therefore, the common Black-Metal screams occasionally switch to low growls. On April the 13th 2024 Graufar have released their first album “Scordalus” which covers different subjects. The English as well as German lyrics vary between socially critical topics, the dark sides of humanity and personal experiences. The debut received several great reviews and ratings. In June 2024 the band won the Austrian Wacken Metal Battle and therefore played at Wacken Open Air 2024 to compete against other 29 Metal bands from around the globe, making it into the top 10.

Graufar – Lies

This event was nothing but a magnificent demonstration of what Austria has to offer to the metal scene. We are very excited and looking forward to Into The Dark: Chapter Two.