Cradle of Filth Brings Hundreds of Fans to Times Square
Show date: February 25, 2009
Venue: Nokia Theatre, NY
Bands: Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, Septic Flesh
“No, we’re not all waiting for The Lion King,” I told a little old lady clutching her husband’s arm and looking warily at an enormous line of leather clad, spike-covered, black-eyeliner-smeared Cradle of Filth fans. It took close to an hour to get into the venue, but thankfully the Nokia Theatre accommodated the huge number of attendees and started the show a half an hour later than scheduled. Good thing too, or I would have had to kick myself stupid for missing Septic Flesh.
from septicflesh.net
Greece-based symphonic death metal band, Septic Flesh, are touring to promote their newest album, Communion. Although they formed way in 1991, my knowledge of metal bands failed to include them until this night. Their music is highly atmospheric, the symphonic part allowing for comprehensible lyrics and dark classical music strains. The sharp and rapid drums kick in often distinguishing these guys from doom metal (not that I would mind some doom). The line up is Sotiris Vayenas on guitar, Spiros “Seth” Antoniou on vocals and bass, Christos Antoniou on guitar and samplers and Fotis Benardo drumming like mad. They played most of the songs from their new album (“Persepolis” and “Communion” as the most memorable) with a few older songs. Their set being only 30 minutes long they left much too early.
from satyricon.no
Satyricon, a black metal band from Norway, hit the stage next. I am not the biggest fan of music that sounds like violent noise as someone screeches in the background. Thankfully, Satyricon isn’t that sort of black metal. Again, the lyrics were more or less comprehensible, of course including death and demons, the appropriately evil themes. The Age of Nero is their newest album, and from what I heard at the show, is definitely worth checking out. Satyr (aka Sigurd Wongraven) ruled the stage, getting the crowd to sing along and encouraging a (failed) wall of death. At a certain point he whipped out a gorgeous white guitar and showed off his multiple musical talents. The crowd screamed along with many of the lyrics and moshed their heads off. Much too early, the 45 minute set ended.
We didn’t have to wait long for Cradle of Filth. Nokia is a great venue in terms of size, sound, and facilities, but they obviously are on top of their logistics as well. While I stood around chatting with people around me about other bands we all like, I also realized what a great time I was having at this show (though d42 was stricken with the flue and so I went on my lonesome). The greatest reason I was having a blast was that for the first time in 3 years I didn’t have to worry about some well-aimed punch sinking a piece of metal deep into my sternum. Last week I removed the last of my chest microdermals. This translated into my first serious advent into the mosh pit in years. I’m glad I started weight training again. Even with that, I was sore for days after.
from cradleofflith.com
Cradle of Filth, an extreme metal band from England, are somewhat controversial in the metal community. They cater to the mainstream and this was evident by not only the amount of people who came to see them, but also by the fact that their fans are younger and more into the likes of bands like Paramore. Despite this, I still have to point out that to sell out you first have to have something worth buying. And Cradle is just that good, so if they manage to make money by advertising to bigger circles and breaking out of a niche, more power to them. There was still a good base of the type of metalheads I generally see at less mainstream shows in attendance.
I, unfortunately, have a bit of a gig-amnesia here. There was such energy in the air when Dani Filth came out, covered in fishnets and metal, and started screeching that I didn’t get a chance to notice song transitions or any possible breaks. All there was was the crowd crushing me from all sides. I sought the mosh pit just because there would be air there, but then I got tossed in and pushed my way around, making friends along the way. I didn’t look at the stage much, just listened. They played some songs from Godspeed of the Devil’s Thunder, the album they are touring with, and the set was a solid hour and a half long. The show ended at midnight sharp, without an encore. Everyone rushed to coat check and I was carried away without so much as a snapshot of the set list.
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