The arrival of a legendary band is always an event for the metal-going public of Ukraine, and all the more so when it is such giants as OBITUARY — a band with whose name the term "Florida death metal" is intimately associated.
The day had not been particularly promising: rain, a chill, wind — in general the weather was not conducive to good spirits. But as if to order, by the time the press conference with the band began the sky had cleared, the sun came out — and with it, the mood arrived, and one simply wanted to enjoy the day.
A few words about the press conference: all the journalists gathered for the concert had been eagerly anticipating the "presser" as an opportunity to see genuine celebrities. First to emerge was Frank Watkins (bassist), and subsequently the remaining members of OBITUARY. Questions were answered calmly, with occasional jokes. To the question of whether the band members smoked marijuana, they responded with a question of their own: "Do you have some?" (The full interview can be seen here.)
Now a word about the venue — the concert was held at the Bingo club, easy to reach, with a spacious interior, though the beer prices were on the high side.
Enough preamble — let us get to the concert. So, the first to take the stage were the Moldovans HOSTEEL. You could see the band was young — the guys were around 19, perhaps a little older. But I will say this: they played well, with real meat to it! What they play is something in the vein of hardcore, perhaps a bit heavier. Remarkably, from the very first songs people near the stage began actively moshing — warming up, so to speak. And the band members conducted themselves confidently on stage, communicated with the crowd, urged the audience to get moving. They did not play for too long — about 30 minutes — but the crowd gave HOSTEEL's work a positive reception.
Next to take the stage was the Belarusian band RASTA, already well known to many. They greeted everyone. And then they unleashed — and gave such heat that there was literally no room: the crowd was already moshing with maximum intensity, letting loose, a pit had even formed. The band itself seemed set on simply killing the audience, pouring out tons of heavy drive mixed with electronic energy, which generally had a very good effect on the crowd. For the record, the band plays in a very specific genre — alien hate metal. This may be purely subjective, but the guitar sound could have been denser with an additional guitar. The sound in general — the engineers hadn't especially exerted themselves to bring it to a good level; the keyboards kept dropping in and out. The band played for quite a long time, the crowd loved it, and cries of "RASTA-RASTA" rang out from various corners of the hall. In short — an excellent set.
Immediately after the Belarusians left the stage, the russians MORTEM took it. This outfit is also well known to the domestic metal community from their tours and individual performances. The band plays brutal death metal in its purest form, without admixture — "the finest cut of meat", as it were. The moment the band began playing, a crowd massed near the stage, a sizeable pit was already underway, hair was flying. And the guys just kept pouring out tons of meat onto the heads of the "righteous" metalheads. The sound deserves a mention — it was good: everything was audible, the drums were well-tuned, the guitars too, one could even pick out the bass from the general musical-meat panorama. The moscow guests finished their set and departed.
A 20–25 minute break was announced for the headliners to have their equipment set up and for the sound engineer to restore his presets at the desk — so the crowd headed off to refuel with beer, vodka, and other non-alcoholic beverages. About half an hour passed; the sound engineer stepped back from the stage; the crowd froze in anticipation. And then — first to take the stage was bassist Frank Watkins, followed by Trevor Peres and Allen West, while drummer Donald Tardy had already settled in comfortably "in the kitchen." In short, OBITUARY themselves on the Bingo stage, in Kyiv. The audience went absolutely wild — everyone was practically vibrating, waiting, waiting for these guys to deliver their classic Florida death metal. And then it began — first came an instrumental intro piece, after which John Tardy — the band's vocalist — appeared on stage. At that point the crowd simply exploded. The very first composition blew the audience apart — what was happening in the hall defies description: everything near the stage was heaving. The pit was already substantial, and more and more people were eager to join. And OBITUARY kept on delivering and delivering — the vocalist gave absolutely everything, fired up the crowd, ran across the stage, and of course "sang" — and I should note that after all these years John's voice has not changed in the slightest. Midway through the set the guys went for a 5-minute break, during which the drummer displayed his technique and produced not so much a machine-gun roll as something I cannot compare to anything — an infernal threshing machine. In short, the crowd said "WOW" and gave a unanimous round of applause. Then the whole band was back on stage, and it was off again — the guys blazed, delivering such a portion of drive that it would have been enough for more than one Bingo. One more amusing moment: during one of the songs (without a setlist I cannot say which one exactly) the vocalist ran over to the drummer, grabbed the sticks, and started "helping" with the drumming — it looked hilarious. The guys played for over an hour, gave everything they had, and the moment they finished they walked straight off stage. They had promised to come out to meet the audience afterwards, but unfortunately I had to leave due to time constraints. In short — the concert was a complete success: an explosive lineup of bands, a great venue — what more could one ask for.