» Mörkaste Småland 2016

Mörkaste Småland 2016

Last year's visit at Mörkaste Småland left a lasting impression and when the chance arouse to visit the 2016 incarnation it was a no brainer. Despite containing less personal favourite acts than last year, the venue, organization, general atmosphere and the good mix of small and bigger acts was sufficient to warrant another visit.

As it turns out, it was sure worth the while. After a quick browse through the records offered by the regular salespeople and a glance at the available merchandise it was time to enjoy the main attraction of the festival: the bands.
//Tengan

|Friday| - |Saturday|

~ Reviews by Tengan

Friday - September 23

Band: Domgård
Main Stage 19:10-19:50

As the opening act of the evening, Domgård is far from a given choice. Their black metal is catchy and has some apparent rock influences, but mostly dwells in the mid-tempo region. At times this becomes a bit one-sided, but overall the Domgård sound translates well into the live format. Better so than my impression of their studio albums to be honest. Just as last year the sound at Mörkaste Småland 2016 is phenomenal for most of the bands and Domgård marks the beginning of this trend.

A surprisingly big crowd has turned up for the occasion to see this rare Domgård ritual. Even though the band members move sparsely around the stage, they perform their music with conviction and give the audience their money's worth. When ex-member (?) Heljarmadr (Dark Funeral, Grá) enters the stage for some guest vocals on the closing track the show climaxes intensely. An excellent start to the evening.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: God Dethroned
Main Stage 20:50-21:25

Just a few minutes before the Dutchmen in God Dethroned are about to enter the stage the fire alarm steals the attention. After nearly 30 minutes outside in the slightly chilly darkness, the local fire department deems the venue fit to re-enter. It is difficult to say if the confusion caused by the fire alarm is to blame, but there should be more people in Sweden who are interested in the blackened death metal of God Dethroned than who made it before the stage this evening. The one's who did drag their behinds over there are treated with a nice set of songs from the distinguished catalogue of the band.

The band seem a bit taken, though, by the almost fire incident, as their technical performance is good but their stage presence is almost non-existent. They seem awkward and far from the experienced band they are. The alarm induced disturbance might have lost the band its momentum, it is difficult to tell. The combination of lack of stage presence with the way too silent guitars makes this a slight disappointment though.

Performance: 5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 6 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Grift
Pub Stage 21:35-22:10

The melancholic stripped-down black metal of Grift is excellent on record, but would it translate well to a live setting? That was the main question before the one man outfit with live musicians entered the stage. After only a few minutes the answer was perfectly clear. Grift's emotional music does exceptionally well live. The feelings of the albums are captured nigh perfectly and the entire gig feels intimate, almost naked and exposed even. The band does not fall into the trap of carrying it over the top but sticks consistently to small means which reinforces the feelings of loneliness and desolation.

The sound is nearly perfect and the instruments well-balanced and the crowd shows their well-deserved appreciation. The fact that the band is quite poorly rehearsed does little to affect the magic. One of the best gigs of the festival!

Performance: 8 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 9 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Craft
Main Stage 22:40-23:30

It is never an easy task to follow an act which totally rips the audience apart and Craft does not succeed this evening. The band's punk- and rock'n'roll-influenced black metal seems to be appreciated by most in the fairly large audience, but for yours truly this gig suffers the same problem as the bands studio albums: some pieces of the songs are quite good, but most of the music fails to grab my attention.

I find myself thinking more about the contrast between the spiked and leathered black metal-by-the-book vocalist and the two guys on the right who seem to have been dragged out of a trendy modern metal gig and put on stage. Admittedly, the sound keeps impressing and the band obviously does something right given the appreciation from the rest of the audience, but it is beyond my humble understanding.

Performance: 5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Warfect
Pub Stage 00:00-00:40

The evening for this somewhat aged scribe ends with the thrash metallers in Warfect. Their retro sounding music is mixed with slower heavy passages which gives it a nice varying touch. The prominent place of the bass guitar in the mix gives the gig an overall nice sound. The band goes all in and interacts well with the audience and even gets a small mosh pit going. All in all, a nice gig and a good closing of the evening.

Performance: 6 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 7 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Saturday - September 24

Band: Kyy
Pub Stage 15:10-15:50

After a good night's sleep and a stroll around the town of Hultsfred the mental batteries are all charged for another evening of darkness. The honour of opening the last day of the festival has been given to Kyy. Even though the band's vocalist proclaims it after a few songs there is no mistake from the first tune onwards that this is a Finnish act. The distinct modern Finnish black metal sound with its melodic riffs is nicely intertwined with some doomy passages.

The band is well synchronized and their performance is excellent overall, despite a sometimes uneven performance from the mixing table. The hungover crowd gets a well-needed slap in the face and seems to love the band for it. An unexpected, but nice surprise to start off the day. The band's debut full-length will arrive this fall and I bet more than I will be eagerly expecting it after this performance by Kyy.

Performance: 8 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 6 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Mephorash
Main Stage 16:00-16:45

One of the selling points of this evening's closing act, Belphegor, is a special ritual being offered for this particular show. Still though, the price for the most ritualistic experience of the festival goes, without a doubt, to Mephorash. The robed and hooded band throws huge chunks of meat and bones to the audience and goes all the way to paint a visual image of hellfire and damnation as well as an audial one.

Fittingly, the band's albums has a ritualistic feeling similar to bands like Ofermod combined with some rock rhythms. Said albums do, however, lack tunes with an extra edge and are enjoyable at best. In this live setting, with the atmosphere conjured this afternoon, the long ritualistic compositions seem more in place, however. The band is tight and well-rehearsed, the sound is good and, as seen the day before with Domgård, a fair crowd has gathered for this special occasion.

For those convinced by the band's albums this is undoubtedly on the highlights of the festival. For yours truly, the lack of songs with that extra touch makes this show damn enjoyable, but not brilliant, despite the simply awesome ritual taking place on stage.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 7 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Styggelse
Pub Stage 17:00-17:40

After the total emotional and, if one wants to become extra pretentious, spiritual discharge delivered by Mephorash, the setting for Styggelse is more than unusually difficult. The bands straightforward punky black metal is catchy but seems particularly banal given what just took place on the other stage. Consequently, Styggelse fails to convince properly despite an admirable performance, a good sound and a quite big crowd. Styggelse is simply at the wrong place at the wrong time this afternoon.

Performance: 5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 7 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Ragnarok
Main Stage 18:00-18:45

Ragnarok is the first of two bands, Tsjuder being the other, representing the pure Norwegian black metal sound this evening. Avid readers might have noticed I was not particularly impressed with the vocals on Ragnarok's last album and this is a problem that reflects onto this gig as well. The sound is also the worst of the festival with the vocals going up and down in the mix without any apparent reason.

These flaws aside the list of songs chosen is a nice one and the band performs well. The performance is perhaps by the book, but still serves a good purpose getting the crowd going. Both the band and crowd seem to get more ecstatic the longer the set progresses and at the end of the show the atmosphere is simply on fire!

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 4 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Tsjuder
Main Stage 20:00-20:50

After a brief supper, it is time for some more Norwegian madness. Tsjuder apparently has quite a strong Swedish fan base given the big crowd gathered to see the blasting neighbours from the west. Everyone gathered here this evening gets more than enough for every krona spent. The band is on fire and owns both the stage and the audience. Even the drummer seems to be all over the place from behind his drum kit.

The set of songs is chosen with utmost care and the entire set is pure magic! It is impossible not to keep the headbanging constantly going. Closing the set with a cover of Bathory's 'Sacrifice' might seem a bit predictable and crowd pleasing given the mostly Swedish crowd, but gets the desired effect when everyone goes wild. The highlight of the festival!

Performance: 8 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 7 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Sorcery
Pub Stage 21:15-22:00

The cult death metallers in Sorcery are bound to be heading towards a fate similar to that of Styggelse, given the discharge delivered by Tsjuder just 25 minutes before. Somewhat surprisingly, Sorcery does not at all get hampered by Tsjuder's performance and deliver their varied and catchy Swedish death metal with intensity and good stage presence. The sound is good and well-balanced and the small crowd gets on board. Sorcery is surely deserving a larger audience than the one gathered this evening, but gives the assembly present a show worth remembering.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Samael
Main Stage 22:15-23:15

The concept of performing an album in its entirety has in all fairness become a bit worn out by now. Still, Samael's 'Ceremony of Opposites' has its given place in the history books and seemed worthwhile for milking the aforementioned concept yet another time. Even though this album was groundbreaking in combining black metal and electronic/techno-based metal, it does not change the fact that it is complete garbage in my humble opinion.

Tonight's performance does not change this fact, despite an excellent sound and an equality dedicated band and audience. It seems that the band actually wants to perform these songs and not just make some quick cash despite the musical profile of the current incarnation, which deserves some recognition.

After the history lesson is over though, Samael drops all traces of black metal and goes on an all-out industrial metal escapade. This becomes too much for yours truly and I take my refuge to the pub stage eagerly awaiting Sinmara.

Performance: 3 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Sinmara
Pub Stage 23:30-00:15

Sinmara's debut full-length is a true gem of the atonal Deathspell Omega-influenced black metal that has been so skilfully cultivated by the Icelandic scene. This was actually one of the concerts I was looking forward to the most before the festival got started. An initial disappointment strikes me, however, as the brilliant music translates less well live than expected.

It is still enjoyable though, despite a not much more than decent sound, and the band knows their stuff. The crowd is small which is somewhat expected given the complexity of the music versus a generally intoxicated audience. A nice gig overall, but I was somehow expecting a bit more.

Performance: 6 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 6 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

Band: Belphegor
Main Stage 00:30-01:30

After a weekend of headbanging, boozing and a series of good shows the crowd seems more than weary when Belphegor closes the Mörkaste Småland of 2016. Despite the band putting on a good show, the crowd seems unusually hard to please. Even when Belphegor leaves the stage does the mandatory chants stay absent and to be perfectly frank: the encore given is not deserved. As a consequence the show never really takes off despite the effort of the band.

As mentioned, this show was announced as some kind of special ceremony. As I am not familiar with the usual Belphegor show, I find it hard to place the special part of the performance. For an untrained eye though, the special parts consist of no more than a few lumps of bone, some excess smoke and a guest appearance by a hooded character for one (1!) song. It all feels rather anticlimactic to be honest.

Even though the stage show and crowd disappoints and the sound is quite fuzzy, the bands performance deserve some recognition. Still not the worthy closing to this year's festival I was expecting however.

Performance: 5 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 5 chalices of 10

(sorry, no setlist)

The 2016 edition of Mörkaste Småland was marked by pretty much the same impressions as the 2015 edition: a good selection of bands, sound technicians and salespeople wrapped in a good organization. If I was to complain about anything it was the lack of information on the delay in schedule following the fire alarm incident. This is a minor detail though and the take home message of this year's festival is nothing but a bunch of nice gigs, with mostly excellent sound, from a good selection of bands. My presence at next year's festival is already guaranteed for sure!