On Feb 2nd, Hamburg witnessed Europa Blasphemia tour featuring Behemoth from Poland, Abbath from Norway, Entombed A.D. from Sweden and Inquisition from USA. What an unbelievable combination of artists. The venue was full of people early and I think they (and me) were excited to see this rare combination of bands in Hamburg. Click Here To See The Live Pictures
At first the mighty two-man black metal band Inquisition began this evening. The venue was fuller of persons as I expected. It seemed the demand to see them live in Hamburg was high. That’s a nice thing for an opener of that great evening! They played the opener song “Force of the Floating Tomb” of their newest album “Obscure Verses for the Multiverse” at first. Just from the beginning until the end I could feel a cold atmosphere in the venue. The light arrangement was turned to a minimum and the sound of the two guys Dagon and Incubus was very oppressive, full of Dagon’s crazy guitar riffing, Incubus mind-blasting drums and it was mixed well. The crowd didn’t interact very much, just savored the performance of Inquisition but at least at the first lines people headbanged continuously. They played stuff from every album except from “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm”. It was a solid, powerful and atmospheric concert with a fine mixture of the past to the present of Inquisition with a focus on the newest album.
Subsequently, Entombed A.D. came on the stage. The only songs they played from “their own” stuff were from their previous album “Back to the Front” was “Pandemic Rage” and “Midas in Reverse” from the upcoming album. The set list of the guys was dominated by Entombed covers, if I may say so. I think they have to get a foothold as Entombed A.D. and not as Entombed. But the people in the full occupied venue had fun with these guys and this is the important thing.
After a longer break, the one and only Abbath entered the stage. Well-known as the front man of Immortal he performed his solo project this evening. He started with the first two songs of his self-titled album “Abbath”. Abbath and his band played nearly the full album “Abbath”, “Warriors” from the side project I of Abbath and some stuff known by Immortal like “One By One”, “Tyrants” and “All Shall Fall”. The crowd was going crazy and celebrated Abbath. Headbangers appeared more than ever and everyone had fun with Abbath’s music on stage. There was too much smoke during the whole gig (I guess 80 percent of the time I couldn’t see the band), too bad. Nevertheless the sound was really impressive and Abbath had performed a very awesome package of his songs and stuff of the past with a brilliant sound. This was an impressive experience!
After that Behemoth entered the stage starting with the opener song “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” of their newest album “The Satanist”. The arrangement of the stage was really awesome and atmospheric. Seth and Orion have stood on some stairs with video projections at their backs. Then Nergal entered with some fire torches and burned up two fire bowls while projections began to move in background. What an epic beginning of the concert! In addition, Behemoth played the whole album “The Satanist” in the same order like on the record followed by some old stuff like “Pure Evil and Hate”, “Conquer All” and “Chant for Eschaton 2000”. Overall, an awesome performance of Behemoth.
So, “Europa Blasphemia” faded out. I think nobody can lament about that evening. It was really an epic and atmospheric “Blasphemia” with Inquisition, Entombed A.D., Abbath and Behemoth. The venue was full of people all the time and the mood of the crowd was always appropriate to the four bands. Inquisition with very fine kind of black metal, Entombed A.D. as a death metal heat upper, Abbath with his solo black metal thing influenced by some well-known songs and Behemoth as the peak of the evening included with a very elaborated and appropriate stage appearance. I’m glad to see this band in this combination, anytime again!