The Gathering Of Autumn Souls – Day II

And if during the first day of the AUTUMN SOULS OF SOFIA 2016 festival passed almost completely under the sign of the classic black metal, the picture on the two other days was quite more colorful . It was filled with the silky melancholy of doom metal, the destructive nihilism of depressive black metal and the cosmic psychedelics of funeral doom.

The colorful in its darkness multitude was accommodated in the Live&Loud club for the next two days of the festival. The night of the 14th of October was opened by our northern neighbours AKRAL NECROSIS. The Romanians opened for GRÁ recently so the interest in them was quite big. Although their set was rather short , it proved their worth. Probably the shortage of time prevented them to put on their corpse paint that they usually use on stage, but that didn’t affect their performance. Furious, pure black metal filled with virtuoso solos a with slight death metal touch, real crushing power. The front man Octav shared that in the same day their new album “Underlight” came out, which is the second full length album in their discography. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

HUMANITAS ERROR EST were preparing for their show. The band from Leipzig released their first full length album “Human Pathomorphism” in the beginning of this year and the production is done by no one else than Déhà. If you ever wanted a nihilistic, pure man hating black metal, then HUMANITAS ERROR EST were the band for you and the “gentle” presence of S Caedes behind the microphone could easily tear out your heart and chew it for breakfast. Bloody corpse paint, creatures from your most horrendous nightmares, while the behavior of the other vocalist Ghoul was a real slap in the face. He had the power to wake you up even from your sweetest illusions and dreams. They had the power to show you that this world consists only of brutalism and unconventionalism. Yes, HUMINITAS ERROR EST! and it’s extermination must start from self-destruction.

In an absolute contrast with the hatred and roughness of the guests from Leipzig, MOURNING SUN led us in an unspeakably beautiful world, although through the music of the “doomed”. They showed us that not everything in this world is lost. The “mourning suns” come from Chile. The gentle presence here is really gentle. The hovering voice of Ana Carolina kind of reminded me of the charming sound of pan flutes, the symbol of the Andes. Listening to her, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the infinity and solitude of Altiplano. The highland hidden under the stars with its infinite landscapes which our minds sometimes cannot grasp and comprehend. The Chileans created an atmosphere of dark beauty and harmony, amidst which even the Sun would stop for a moment, to cry, weary and bitter from the world that it shines over every day.

Although (EchO) come from sunny Italy, their music is far from sunny. The heavy doom/death even funeral doom, combined with atmospheric acoustic melodies and piano parts by Simone Mutolo, could easily dig a mound to fill with your tears and after that to bury yourselves there. The voice of Fabio Urietti changed from pure and gentle to a funerary thunder, that made you thankful for escaping your rotten existence, for which no one even cares, and one nocturne of the piano would seal the bravery of your decision. (EchO) had around 10 years story behind their backs and in May the released their second album “Head First into Shadows” (how symbolic and uplifting, isn’t it?!) I would say that they are mandatory for the fans of the style, if this is the first time they hear them. They have a story to tell you and a place to lead you into…

Our salvation from the existential desperation and dark thoughts comes from Norway. The name with the icy name is DEN SAAKALDTE. In a completely journalistic manner I called them “Black metal all stars”, furthermore, the band created 10 years ago consisted of musicians like Hellhammer, Niklas Kvarforth and other names from the Norwegian black metal scene. The members of DEN SAAKALDTE were – Tjalve – guitars, Sykelig – guitars, Tybalt – drums, Storm – vocals, Vidar – bass. Extreme?! Way too weak said. Fast and evil? These words are not enough. If the berserks still existed, they would’ve use the music of DEN SAAKALDTE, to prepare for battle. And their set was perfect as a prelude to the last band for the night. Тhe band that started the whole emotional gradation of the entire festival.

Set list DEN SAAKALDTE:
1: din siste dag
2: drikke ens skål
3: la vinteren vare evig
4: Vandringen
5: som et arr på sjelen
6: endeløst øde
7: den farløse
8: du selvproklamerte misjonær

Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only, unique Adde “Outlaw”. A lot of the fans already knew him from his concert with IXXI. This time Adde participated in AUTUMN SOULS OF SOFIA 2016 with his thrash project Angrepp, a project that gathered interesting names from the Swedish scene, such as the guitarist of IXXI Titan and the drummer of Månegarm, Jacob Hallegren. The Swedish “Attack” not only gathered around itself all the fans of the different extreme styles, but also to assemble the other musicians at the festival. Outlaw is the most charismatic musician to see live. As he promised in his interview there were surprises in the setlist of Angrepp, as the double performance of the song “True old soul” along with Ghoul from HUMANITAS ERROR EST. The music of Angrepp is well blustered as well as infectious and sometimes it goes quite away from the borders of the traditional thrash metal. In the original version of the song the second vocals are performed by Acerbus (Ondskapt & IXXI) but in this case the misanthropic harsh voice of Ghoul was the perfect choice.

Our hellish party finished well enough. The survivors and those who still had some strength in their bodies, continued in the BlackLodge Bar which continued to rise in the eyes of the Swedish underground. One more night of real madness and insanity was ahead of us. A night when disembodied creatures, crawled from the underworld and the ancient gods of Rome met. But that will be in the next tale.

Set list Angrepp:
Hellführers Fuckcunt
Legions Arise
Party In Hell
Five Horned Formation
True Old Soul – ft. Ghoul
Hugg Alla
Rape, Kill, Rock n Roll
Dictator
Straffet
Roadkill Glory
For Now I Have Risen