Bands: Lifetaker – Coilguns – Cult Leader
Date: 13/06/19
Location: Die Trompete (Bochum)
Promoter: Shōgun Konzerte
Originally, the decision to attend the concert exclusively fell because of the fact that Cult Leader was playing a show in a neighbour city. At that time, I did not know any of the other bands playing (although I knew that Steven once mentioned Coilguns as a secret tip) and I had never been to the Trompete in Bochum. After having bought the tickets I thought it was necessary to at least give the first two bands a listen – and this was also when I decided to arrive early enough in order to see Lifetaker beginning the evening.
The first band to play was regional quintet Lifetaker from Dortmund at about half past eight. When having listened to their latest release Thanatos before the show I was absolutely surprised by the ferocity I could hear on that record. At that point I kind of felt that Lifetaker could be the secret co-headliner of the show. Once the set was kicked off it immediately became clear that this immense anger that is audible on Thanatos was also conveyed in their life show. Vocalist Konstantin fuckin’ ripped the microphone apart when the quintet kicked off and the entire sound was absolute straight to your face. What I also liked a lot about that band was that both guitarists had their guitars up high when playing – which is a thing I absolutely favor. No poser bullshit guitar down your waist – just sole attention on playing your music. The energy throughout the entire (long !) show was upheld – primarily by Konstantin – and I enjoyed every minute of it. Both Thomas and Maik also agreed on the fact that the menacing sound they could hear in this set was absolutely convincing. After their set I went up and bought the tape of their latest record – and the band was so happy that they handed over other CDs and stickers right away. Their bass player then told me that he was “happy enough” already with at least one person having enjoyed the show and I enjoyed the humbleness you could hear in these words.
Next up were Coilguns – and it got weird from the first second on. The band took off instantly constructing a harsh noise wall of sound in which vocalist Louis seemed to get lost from the first second on. The show was absolutely crazy and definitely sticked to your mind afterwards. The first thing that catches the attention when seeing Coilguns live is the board full of synth FX pedals – hence the noise wall of sound. Thomas entitled the show Curly Chaos Core, which pretty much sums up the aspects of Coilguns’ gig. Vocalist Louis has long curly hair and the audience was not able to overlook this aspect, since he rubbed his hair into the face of a lot of fans while going crazy in what seemed as becoming one with the music that was played. When he did not make use of his hair, Louis climbed on amps or – if available – also people. Otherwise it also seemed like a good idea to entangle people or himself with the cables of his microphone while continuing to sing. Besides, guitarist Jona tripped and fell – going on playing his guitar – getting up again and playing on – and it was not even possible to hear any mistakes in the music. This was an absolutely chaotic experience everyone should have seen at least once.
Eventually, Cult Leader – the reason why everyone of us became interested in the concert in the first place – entered the stage – and the situation grew slightly eerie. Vocalist Anthony stepped towards the mic – slightly covered by his hoody – wearing a jeans jacket on which we could see a backpatch showing the demon on the cover of II by Cursed. It felt absolutely distant when the band entered the stage – in an absolutely positive sense, since this is how you wanna feel at a Cult Leader show. Their set kicked off with an instant straight to your face sound that caught the attention of the entire club. Anthony was unfortunately a little quietly mixed in the beginning of the show, but the mixers reacted quickly and fixed the problem. The chaotic sound that was played did not suffer from this short incident. The whole show felt absolutely mesmerizing. It might be considered to be a show where the audience drives absolutely mad because of the speed of the sound – but it felt as if the audience was rather set into a certain kind of hypnotic trance by the sound – mindlessly moving back and forth while listening.
The setlist followed the album structure of Cult Leader’s latest release. It began with the sound we already knew from their former releases such as Lightless Walk or Useless Animals. Approximately in the middle of the show, Cult Leader began playing their calmer songs from A Patient Man that played a key role in the magnificence of this album. Thomas also mentioned that the slow and melodic songs such as “To: Achyls” boosted the whole experience of the gig as listener. Mike’s guitar was brilliantly mixed at this point and the warmth of this sound was impressing. The selection of quiet and melodical songs from A Patient Man and listening to them live complemented the whole show. After the slower songs, Cult Leader got back to their usual business and ended the evening with more songs following their structure of chaos and melody, finishing with an impressively long time of playing.
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