Just on my way home and thought I could use the time to share some thoughts.
Friday started off with Magadan, who did a pretty standard PE set with female vocals. Seemed to me like the overall concept was inspired quite a lot by GO and similar projects. Vocals were a bit too modified to be powerful enough and I found the sounds a bit too monotonous, but all in all OK for a starter act.
After skipping C.O. Caspar (too goofy for me), Clinic of Torture appeared. Starting out with very Industrial-style, calm and structured sounds with carefully planned metal percussion and getting progressively harsh towards the end, Mikko managed to present something highly unique . I needed my time to get into it, but the last 10 minutes were marvellous. Sadly, the heavy smoke buried the background video so that it was close to invisible from my standpoint. Bummer.
Inade, as I have decided now that all is over, were probably Friday's winning act. Nice, deep structures presenting the parts of the project's discography I favour most and seekingä constant progress with hypnotical sounds. Tasty!
As I had said in a few discussions with other Noiseheads, I was pretty certain that In Slaughter Natives would either be brilliant or really bad. However, I was surprised to see that it ended up being mediocre. Basically same strengths and weaknesses that are known from their studio releases, good sound interaction, but the vocal Performance was too tame and sabotaged by unwanted feedback.
Bastard Noise had a nice on-stage presence and raw vocals, but the sounds were a bit too glitchy and digital (regarding the style). I had the feeling that the set was based in improv, resulting in the fact that a few really strong parts were cut off too quickly.
For me, it is safe to say that Inade and CoT were the only really good Friday acts, but Saturday was a completely different matter. I didn't expect much from Puce Mary, as I am not too fond of most of the studio releases so far. Certainly not bad, but apart from the very decent releases on Freak Animal, just not my bag. BUT, the actual performance knocked me out cold. Frederikke delivered GREAT vocals with a lot of devotion and backed them up by precise sounds. These were calm at some times and utterly violent and intense at others while still maintaining a red line that ran through the whole set. Good enough to impress even the most critical of listener.
Puce Mary would have easily been my favourite, had it not been for the Finnish beast Bizarre Uproar. I gladly plead guilty to F&V fanboydom, so this report is far from neutral, but still: hot damn. The first track offered a slow, painful and suffocating buildup until an utterly harsh and brutal version of "Must be Ready" kicked in. Pasi screamed his lungs out and delivered a perfect vocal performance while Pekka did Bass and Metaljunks. "Musta Vittu" was hypnotically filthy and "Kusi Paska Veri" served as the perfect climax of a set that encorporated everything that modern BU represents. The backing Video was basically a compilation of past clips and images, so it was also nothing short of flawless.
Sardh was the second act of the Festival I skipped, in order to have a few chats. Next up was Brighter Death Now which replaced Genocide Organ. I think the beginning was somewhat messed up due to sound problems, but full quality was achieved quickly. Same set as in Mannheim, but, for some reason I cant exactly point out, inferiour to it (but still very good). Drunk and slightly chaotic - a trademark of BDN, for me - but still dark, menacing and sharp. Guest appearance by Puce Mary who was playfully maltreated (Pulling hair, deepthroat with mic etc.) by Roger. The fact that some people loved and others downright hated the show suits BDN perfectly, in my eyes.
Mr. Nordvargr ended the evening with his project Goatvargr. The sounds were pretty clean and structured (maybe sometimes bordering on EBM territory, heh), but some harsher frequencies and Nordvargr's vocals and presence made this one juicy enough to watch until the end. Solid, but not as good as the Folkstorm set he did in 2013.
Overall atmosphere and venue were great, but this shouldn't be news to anyone who has ever attended TT. Hoping for another one next year!
