Century Media Isolation Fest, Century Media YouTube Channel
What novel idea, after a few weeks of lockdown record label Century Media organised a showcase of some of their best bands. Recorded from various locations all of them were streamed performances, brought together to create an evening of heavy metal on a Thursday night. Between the songs members of the record label introduced the bands and the comments section on the stream was buzzing all evening. So after a bit of chit chat it was time for the first band:
First up was Baest (7) a band who are monumentally heavy, delivering face ripping death metal, it's a pretty meaty way to open any festival, you can imagine this at 11am in a field somewhere. Taken inside the Danish bands practice room, no quarter was given with them plowing full force into the first song, decked out in full stage gear with their inverted cross in front of the drummer it was equally as impressive from this little room as it would be on a stage, the drummer blasting for his life while the trio of guitar stringers windmilled madly, all four standing members headbanging in the breakdown. Just one song and my neck was already hurting as they introduced their second track of their 20 minute set, it was four song destruction showing why Baest deserve the plaudits, even their sound engineer was banging his head furiously in the behind the scenes shots.
Next Italian tech death from Hideous Divinity (8) as the countdown timer once again descended ready for the metal. We had the three screens of Hideous Divinity, one for vocalist Enrico "H." Di Lorenzo to unleash his roars, one for Riccardo Benedini to sweep pick and solo like a he's possessed with the last screen featuring guitarist Enrico Schettino and bassist Stefano Franceschini who shred like absolute bastards Enrico sharing the solo duty. This is laser focussed tech death built around pre-recorded drums from Giulio Galati who was probably having a beer and air drumming along. They managed to deliver a lot of power despite three of the four being sat, Di Lorenzo especially working it like a real live gig having to take huge breaths after every songs end. With only room for three tracks it was music that bludgeons and amazes in equal measure, extra marks go to the HD cat as well!
French black/death Svart Crown (7) were next keeping things heavy with another neck snapping, finger bending heavy assault in the black an white aesthetic favoured by Hideous Divinity (hiding those pink walls see?). More aggressive and little slower at times than previous bands Svart Crown utilise dual extreme vocals and progressive sounds in their music, putting more abrasive sometimes discordant guitar playing against the destructive drumming. Their bassist gets additional kudos for just looking as cool as fuck in his front room IKEA lamp and all. This style of music is made for videos like with the atmospheric, otherworldly feel, mirrored by the camera work, the band content with just letting the music do the talking unlike the two previous acts who treated it like a festival communicating the the (digital) fans, Svart Crown just play driving home every single note with a moody conviction before drifting into blackness.
The modern day successors to the Nevermore crown from the USA were next to the screen, having wanted to see The Offering (8) for a while, just to get this glimpse of them in a live setting (albeit a safe one) was one thing I was waiting for. Two intros came (the festival one and their own) but finally we went Home From Home the band in their respective homes cranking out tracks from their amazing debut record. Musically the band blend black, death and thrash with prog overtones. Nishad George (guitars) and Spencer Metala (bass) in their seated positions playing intensely technical runs that really have that Nevermore vibe to them, bolstered by the absolutely immense vocals of Alex Richichi, he's got a massive range even when sitting taking him into those glorious upper reaches of the sadly departed Warrell Dane, while dancing around punching the air. Rounding out this talented four piece are Steve Finn's drums, who has the biggest kit so far (I mean it is prog after all). The songs were filled with theatrics, samples, (though all the vocals were live), crammed with explosive guitar solos and a light show and nifty video editing (that needed the flashing image warning!). Just from their living rooms The Offering showed that live they will be a force to be reckoned with and I loved every minute of it!
Continuing with the thrash worship German thrashers Bonded (6) who's album we reviewed at the beginning of the year to high acclaim were next. Now thrash is best suited to running around in a circle like a mad man spilling beer over everyone and everything. This is difficult to achieve at home (imagine the carpets) but I'm sure if you're running around your coffee table it can feel very similar, if you get a friend to to run in the opposite direction then it will be a hallowed figure 8 pit. Bonded play thrash, they have pedigree yes, a harmonica break yes but 20 minutes is more than enough of them, there was a weird fade too where I thought the stream had broken. I can only really watch this sort of middling thrash on stage where it belongs both on record and here it had me doing something else.
It was Deserted Fear (7) who play flesh ripping death metal that followed, recorded live from a studio in Germany, they were shown having drink outside before heading in strapping on their guitars and getting behind the kit assuming that wide leg position and bringing some old school death metal riffs. There was some between song banter, but only if you spoke German but it didn't really matter due to the music speaking louder than words. Guttural vocals, twin guitars and a drummer locked in a room going nuts Deserted Fear did here pretty much what they do live, lock in to position and let loose the dogs of war. Only with a little more refinement adding some electronics and dashes of melo-death on their final number.
More thrash! This time from Spaniards Angelus Apatrida (8) each coming in separately and chugging a beer as the acoustic strains of their intro lead into their first song. Now unlike Bonded here there seemed to be a bit more life as they edged into the realms of crossover the melodic leads coming thick and fast with the pace never dropping below a steady chug, mostly the blast beats and shredding was the order of the day. Again it didn't set my world on fire but my head was nodding and the band seemed like they were enjoying themselves in their respective isolation even interacting with each other and the crowd throwing a bit of Pantera during the song changes sprinkled with liberal beer drinking. Full of youth and chaos they finished with You Are Next which was blistering!
Taken from a recent streamed "empty arena" show with Insomnium Finnish Melo-death band Omnium Gatherum (4) were one of the few acts to be playing on stage with their entire set up. Now the visuals on this one was greatly affected by the lights and the shaky camera work, at one point the video even went black. But they were in full performance mode delivering a slick set of keyboard driven melodic death metal that didn't really grab my attention enough to become invested in it. If anything the band playing on a stage to an empty room made it feel a little odd to be honest as the whole time I kept thinking this could be just a poorly recorded video from a gig. 4/10
Omnium Gatherum only got one song (thankfully) as it was then time for Swedish retro heavy rockers Lucifer (7) to get things grooving, filming themselves in their rehearsal space and bathed in red light. They started out on their usual smouldering form Johanna's soulful vocals leading as her band of merry men; Linus Björklund (lead guitar) Martin Nordin (rhythm guitar), Harald Göthblad (bass) and Nicke Andersson (drums) whipped up a hard rock storm in a very cramped room packed full of vintage equipment up to the ceiling. Taking tracks from their latest album III they were the one band of the night who had a massive stylistic difference but that was to their favour standing out amongst the mass of blast beats and lightspeed shredding with some blues occult grooves. A neat little detour into the realms of hard rock.
This gave way to the majestic avant-garde Black/Folk/Viking of Borknagar (8), featuring ICS Vortex on bass and vocals, a position he shares with keyboard/organist Lars "Lazare" Nedland they unleashed the best performance of the night so far, firstly with the folk chants and violin on the first song it was awe inspiring with the hairs standing on the back of my neck as the violin chimed into the slow pace evoking a tundra, with a fizz and change ICS took the mic and they launched into a heavier performance that was also spell binding but uniquely their own ICS' vocals are brilliant with a dense musical performance from all of the members homes. Possibly the best show of the night, it was beyond words, visuals not needed (though ICS has got a LOT of guitars), Borknagar were a audio experience over the course of just one and a half songs.
Canadian prog thrash revolutionaries Voivod (5) came next explaining that they would be without a drummer and without rehearsal as well. Still they managed to make two songs and a visualiser from drummer Away taken from their latest album, unfortunately it didn't win me over no matter how noble they were for playing despite setbacks. I can never get past Snake's vocals and for that it was a quick bathroom break before the headliner.
The penultimate act of the main show were melodic death metal act Insomnium (6), they were introduced by Sanctuary's Lenny Rutledge who called them his favourite band. Unfortunately it was the same stream as the Omnium Gatherum show earlier so had all the visual and audio quality of a phone recording at a show. Saying that the sound was much crisper both Jani Liimatainen and Niilo Sevänen's vocals audible and the bands more atmospheric sound giving a bit more clarity than earlier, only getting muddy when the distortion came in. Personally if they had filmed it all in the close up (when it wasn't pixelated) I'd have been happy but really I was just a little drained from the four hour running time and a slightly distracting performance from Insomnium.
Finally I was woken up by the hard rocking racket of Dead Lord (7) a band who were introduced by Lucifer's Johanna and are apparently the biggest selling Swedish rock band in Sweden. They channel the dirty dual guitar of Thin Lizzy with the wild eyes, hair and beards all living up to those 70's tropes. A band who are built to play live this is the sort of thing they are made for, playing in a circle in their rehearsal space, their rock n roll was accompanied by shaky, twisting camera work and psychedelic lights. An upbeat way of ending the evening with some good old fashioned rocking.
All in all a great idea that I hope spreads to the other record companies, especially with no sign of any summer festivals, it will be good to see some of the best bands around even in this strange format. Perfect for an evening of beers and loud music, without the travel, queues and problems that we've often discussed on the blog (other people talking!)
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