It takes about 18 hours on train to get from Belarus to Petersburg, but I'm sure that such sacrifice is worth to see Genocide Organ live... Petersburg looked like a city in the movie The City Of Lost Children - gray dirty buildings, rain, wet people... Cool background for a industrial festival, don't ya think? Stigmata's crew and a couple of our friends were robbed by... Russian militia (police). Hard to imagine that in fat and lawful Europe? Welcome to Russia! Militia took all our money cuz we didn't have train tickets (It's easy to loose that shit if you don't know how important those tickets for criminals in uniform from Russia.). Everyone is screaming about dictatorship in Belarus but, believe me, Russia is fucking totalitarian state of criminals - even police robs people there. Well, let's come back to the festival....
Spartak Club - home for Heilige Feuer - is nice building made in so-called Stalinistic style: columns, walls covered by sculptures with stars, soviet symbols, etc. I guess it's perfect background for totalitarian industrial music!
About 5 p.m. we had a short press conference. Lina, Albin Julius (Der Blutharsch), Klaus and Michael (Genocide Organ) has answered questions... Yes, Genocide Organ answered questions as well, so maybe you'll meet some shit with title "the first interview of Genocide Organ"... Well, questions were really dumb and most original among them is: "Do you like St. Petersburg?" Me and my co-writer Nihil decided not to ask any questions cuz we... well, we just don't know any good questions for the bands at this moment. We already had interviews with Klaus, Lina and Albin not long ago, so... Nihil decided to present the new issue of Stigmata to his totalitarian friends from GO and DB.
The show was planned for 9 p.m. but everything started at 10 or even later. The venue was pretty big and it had a bar with beer and other drinks. Well, beer was really expensive... Almost half of the room was empty so I think that about 200 people came to the festival, but I'm not sure. Fucking morons, I was victimized by 18-hours long torture by post-soviet train just to see that festival, but Russian assholes ignored this event... Shame to them, God will punish those lazy bastards...
The first band SONNENSALZ (Solar Salt) was playng some sort of ambient industrial. It's not sleepy and it isn't depressive either. Sometimes it has a bit ritua structure. May be it's a bit archaic, but everything sounds nice and professional. The sound is quite authentic and it doesn't remind me anything so far. One more thing about the band - they use not only computers and other electronic shit, but also they have a girl with a cello on stage.
The second band is REUTOFF. I know nothing about the guys but I'll try to get some info or even an interview cuz they fucking amazing! I think they come from Moscow... I'm a big fan of Brighter Death Now, but I think that now I have two Gods in my personal heaven - BDN and REUTOFF... Imagine the best and most aggressive tracks of DBN, add to them violent and noisy parts like those on Nordik Battle Signs' Algiz - Konvergence Of Life And Death by MZ.412... and try to dream about even better combination. They rule! I've never heard any tracks from them, but their live performance is brilliant. First 3 or 4 tracks is nothing but great death industrial with some really distorted screams. Then they had some really strange Soviet song about solders with lot's of noises - nice relaxation after all that wall of deadly sonic violence. The last track sucked long dicks... I guess it was too raw. Their backdrop video was pretty cool, but I haven't found anything unusual - black-n-white scenes with churches, old buildings, snow-covered landscapes, brick walls, etc. Anyway REUTOFF' set was one of the best during the show and for a while I was afraid that all the rest bands will never beat them ;-)
During press-conference Lina has promised some strip-tease on his performance and he fulfilled that... Is that common for his performances to be topless? 8-) Well, he had some problems with his microphone for a while so we were doomed to hear all those screams "Delay! Delay! Delay!" Some even thought that's lyrix for the song... Finally he fixed the echo and the show has started. I have enjoyed alot, but DN isn't my cup of tea. The backdrop video was pretty cool: different fractals, stars and other . I like the last song of his set - the one with words "We all prostitutes... we all hypocrites."
DER BLUTHARSH has started in total darkness. Then they got torches and the show has begun. After the first song they have passed the torches to crowed and the stage was lighted by green rays of lights. Albin Julius was in black uniform, female vocalist looked like nazi cheeks from old WWII movies. In fact it was really cool - two figures in black surrounded by green rays. DB set was really good. They did their best. All fans say that they are satisfied by 150%. I'm not a big fan of that Austrian band so I can't tell you about the tracklist. I've heard some songs from their last album... Are there any new I don't know... The voice of new female singer reminds me voice of Alzbeth (TMLHBAC), so may be the next album of DB will bring to us new reincarnation of that great band... who knows?
It was 3 or 4 a.m. when GO came to the stage. Klaus and Michael were in masks like terrorists, but after the first song they threw the mask in to the crowd. I do not own any GO albums unfortunately, so it's the first time I listen to the band's music. I've heard only a couple of tracks on different compilations... GO is fucking amazing! It's the best live band I've ever seen in my shitty life. I don't remember how many songs they have played - to me all their set was like a minute. I appeared in first rows of the crowd right in front of the stage so I've seen all details of that performance. Audience and the artists looked like one hellish system. Almost everyone's right hand was in air and all of us were screaming and repeating words after musicians. It was incredible - eyes to eyes, hands to hands... Artists were giving out as much energy as the crowd gave to them... you could feel that energy. As I told already I don't remember how many songs GO were playing. I found myself in crowd, my right arm with a fist was in air and I was screaming "White Power!" like everyone around... Suddenly everything stopped and the show was over. Fuck, it was too short for me. I've seen Lina and DB guys during GO show, I guess they enjoyed it as much as we all did. Friend of mine who doesn't care about harsh noise/ pe said that it was "the most honest performance he ever seen". I totally support that point.
We had another band right after GO set, but I didn't know it's name. The venue was almost empty - everyone went to get some beer or fresh air. The band played violent pe, but it was pretty boring so I left the room as well.
That's all I can say about Heilige Feuer festival so far. It was great and I hope the guys will continue to bring to Russia more great bands...
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