Candlemass and Saturnus- The Rock, København, Denmark 9/1/07
From Aural Innovations #38 (Jan 2008)
No one I knew wanted to or could go so I went by myself. Meet the drummer from Black Succubi but that was the only person in the whole place I knew and there was a good crowd of 200+ people. IT was so nice that there was no smoking downstairs. Wow. I did not go home smelling like an ashtray!
Anyway, at 22 (10PM) Saturnus started their 45 min set. They are a local, melodic gothic doom-death band. They have been around for years and have their local following. Two guitars, bass, drums, singer and keyboards. I thought they were terriblely boring. All the songs except the last one were slow, melodic (a very similar style of melodic lead guitar on nearly ever song) and these atmospheric or piano lines and combined with the death vocals. Not my cup of tea.
It was only 20 mins or so before Candlemass started and they had a really cool stage set up with the white light crosses and huge skull backdrop. They played a pretty classic Candlemass set but quite a few different songs from 2 years ago. Rob Lowe from Solitude Aeternus sounded great but as this was only the 2nd gig on the tour, he was reading all the lyrics from a notebook on the stage and his phrasing was a bit awkward at times and he had to be in the same place. He rolled his eyes back in his head like I remember seeing him do in Solitude Aeternus, which is pretty far out and evil looking. Not a bad front man but never that really into it. Band plays amazing but the sound guy was way off. The kick drum was way too loud and so was the voice but it was ok... I like the new songs a lot as well. Great show…. Classic doom………….for about 90 minutes.
Setlist: Intro, The Well of Souls, The Gallows end, Solitude, Emperor of the
Void, Devil Seed, Mirror Mirror, Bells of Acheron, Under the Oak, Clearlight/Of
stars and Smoke, Sorcerer’s Pledge, Embracing the Styx, Black Dwarf, Edgar
Grey, Samarithan
Check out the club web site at: http://www.the-rock.dk
Reviewed by Scott Heller