The tour, delayed for unknown reasons (among which some cite the Orange Revolution), finally took place. The venue chosen was the until-then unknown club Torba. So then, having trudged to the club at the appointed time (conveniently, it is not far from my home), I saw no one apart from a couple of acquaintances. It turned out everyone had long since settled inside, warming up — some with beer, others with various cocktails. A few words about the club: it is genuinely a cool place. Compared to Barvy, for instance — practically ideal: there are about ten tables, a bar, a small stage in one corner. Prices are standard for a club. The sound was pleasing — for a club, it was very, very decent, and can seriously compete with Barvy (at least pre-renovation). In keeping with old tradition, no one paid attention to the 18:00 start time announced on the flyers; the soundcheck dragged on for an hour and a half. Attendance was modest — which, for a hall of this size, is actually a positive. Eventually Froster climbed onto the stage and, melancholically delivering some speech about this being the last city on the tour and the need to get moving, announced that MYSTERIUM MAGNUM were about to perform. A decent Ivano-Frankivsk band, apparently playing in the melodic death/thrash style. They played reasonably well; the revelation that they were in fact playing melodic death only came to me at the very end when they performed a cover of IN FLAMES. Generally speaking — too brief; it was not possible to properly evaluate this band's work, but potential is felt.
Then the Vinnytsia melodic death band TREMOR appeared. Somewhat strange melodic death. Somewhere along the way they had lost their keyboardist; someone told me they had put the bassist on vocals.
TREMOR was replaced by the Illichivsk black/death formation called AWOKEN. Here was someone who played well! The impression formed that all the preceding bands had been merely support for them. They played well, hard — just the way I like it ;). Respect here, and for most of the session, to the sound engineer — the sound for such a club was excellent, not comparable to Barvy. Separate respect to the band for the covers: CANNIBAL CORPSE's "Hammer Smashed Face" (though one could have chosen a different song) and CARCASS's "Corporal Jigsore Quandary" — at that point I couldn't hold back and started headbanging ;), though I must say the Cannibal track came out sounding somewhat strange.
The Kyiv band FIRELAKE clambered onto the stage. Not a band I would call especially unknown, but I was familiar with their work. And this is where the sound problems began. At the start of the set the female vocals disappeared somewhere; then the sound engineer, after some manipulation at the desk, produced something incomprehensible. The resulting sound could be attributed more to brutal death than to the proud melodic death style the band claimed. This was actually the worst sound issue of the entire evening, and it also spoiled the mood for FIRELAKE's fans (though not for me, and don't expect otherwise) — more had been expected from the band than it delivered.
And then for the last time Froster appeared on stage and even more gloomily announced that MORTEM were about to perform. While the moscow band tuned up, he once again urged everyone to gather near the stage and mosh, citing Vinnytsia as an example where around three hundred people were moshing near the stage. Well, that kind of thing was simply not possible at Torba under any circumstances, since the total attendance was around a hundred. Anyway — on to the music. I have known the moscow band for a long time: I was listening to them back on Radio Rocks, heard them at the powerful Metal Heads Mission festival. A great band. Having tuned up, they made an attempt at nothing less than tearing the audience apart with brutal fury. And they partially succeeded. Why only partially? Simply too few people. When I was moshing near the stage (couldn't help it), one didn't feel the kind of drive that is usually felt in a crowd. Separate giga-mega-respect to the vocalist — a wonderful, simply stunning, juicy growl. Exactly the kind I love. But one thing I never managed to understand was the musicians' visual appearance. I understand, of course, that the lineup has undergone serious changes, but come on... a guitarist with dreadlocks, a bassist in baggy trousers. The impression was not of one of russia's oldest brutal formations, but of some nu-metallers.
And on that note everything concluded — MORTEM played one more composition as an encore, though without any particular enthusiasm.
A couple of words about the club. One of its few shortcomings — limited space. That is to say, for small gatherings or elite sessions it is perfectly suited, but what would have happened if more people had come?.. And another point — a great plea: remove that stupid column that blocks the stage for half the hall. In everything else — all very good, as they say.