AHAB / The Prophecy23 / New Born Hate / Dagor
The Metal Club Odinwald invites to a collective going-ballistic and subsequent chill-out for a mere 10 euro fee, at the old power station Neckargemünd near Heidelberg. I drive by the location only twice, because it is indeed very poorly lit, and as I enter the venue, Dagor have already begun.
That does not really matter, not bad what the play, but nothing special either. Dagor remind me of the Apokalyptischen Reiter somehow, with some modern metal aspects. The singing guitarist should rather concentrate on playing guitar, because he cannot sing. Anyway, he sings two octaves simultaneously.
After a short break, New Born Hate take the stage with their Thrash / Deathcore. The six boys from Heilbronn seem to be no blank slate in the Heidelberg area. The Pit is raging and you even occasionally see stage divers. I for one am not so keen on core stuff, but New Born Hate do their job really well. There is still enough space for a variety of melodies, they rarely fall into dull Core routines. In between New Born Hate play a very cool cover of The Prodigy´s Breathe.
Next are The Prophecy23, where also one of the two New Born Hate singers appears, taking over the death metal vocals. The Prophecy23play pure Death Thrash which remind me of Death Angel and Destruction. Both on as well as in front of the stage all is hell, and the band animates the audience even to a mini wall of death. As a gimmick someone in the crowd is chosen as the meat distributor to throw mini-salamis into the audience. With such obscure-humorous titles like “Ice Road Truckers. Vs. the Sun”,”No Beer – what a mess” and the very cool stomper “Green Machine Laser Beam” they keep the crowd going. Very cool show! Three thumbs up!
Time for AHAB. The transition from humorous Slam Metal to the nearly meditative sound of AHAB is of course extreme, but it works correctly. Two months earlier AHAB had inspired me with their nautical funeral doom. Just a pity that the set list was not changed since then. I already had doubts as to whether this could be somewhat boring, but was taught a lesson very impressively. AHAB start with “The Divinity of Oceans”, the title track of their second album, dealing with the sinking of the whaling ship “Essex” on the basis of the ship´s boy´s diary, which also formed the template for Melville’s “Moby Dick”. With “Deliverance” and “Antarctica” from their latest album “The Giant”, it is already (for me) the highlight of the set. The gravity and atmospheric density which AHAB convey are absolutely briliant. For me they could also play the entire “The Giant” album, that would be a really nice thing! “Old Thunder” from the first album, the excellent “The Giant” follows, then the official part of the evening ends. As encore they play “The Hunt”, also from the first album, before the audience is dismissed into the cold Odenwald night. For me way too soon. Nonetheless, I came only because of AHAB, home I go with “The Prophecy23” CD and shirt and the demo of “New Born Hate”. 100 points, they have done everything right!
