Watain @ Mojoe's 5.16.12

On Wednesday afternoon two friends and I made the journey down to Joliet, Illinois (about a 100 miles for us), through odd back roads and unfortunately severe delays of bumper to bumper traffic to see Watain at a place called Mojoe's. This was my first time at this venue and although I liked the place I thought the sound could have been better and it was in a downtown, yuppie-ish area, which just seemed odd for metal heads to be gathering too.

The first band to play was, Seal of Saturn, which I believe was a local Chicago band. Although fairly decent musicians, it seemed like the band had numerous technical issues as well the lights were not dimmed and as such no atmosphere was achieved. In any case, these guys played a style of death metal very, very similar to Polish legends, Behemoth. I mean spot on, really, well they were not as good as Behemoth, but it was clear who their influences were. Besides that there's not a whole lot much more I can tell you about this band.



Up next was Chicago black metalers, Ezurate who apparently have been around since 1994. About a decade or so ago I owned the bands debut album, 'Infernal Dominatio,' which only happened because back then I thought it was neat to a corpsepainted black metal band near to home, even though much better bands were from around the same area or even my own neck of the woods, but I was young so what can I say. I don't recall diggin' that album too much, uninspired norsecore stuff basically that was a rip-off of either Transylvanian Hunger or Panzer Division Marduk styles. So, year later Ezurate is playing before me and the same lack of interest suddenly enters my system again. From the bands lousy corpsepaint to the singers ridiculous stage behavior (just watch the video) and their total lack of anything interesting I'm completely baffled as to why this band continues onward. I mean, their newer albums might be something, I really don't know, but what I do know is the band just embarrassed themselves and they probably had to pay a lot of money to open for Watain too. Its expected though these days, slather on some paint, write a generic riff, repeat it, add blast beats and screams and you've got a black metal band. Sorry, no, but oh well. Hopefully they paid attention to Watain's performance.



Following Ezurate was New York based, Black Anvil, which played some sort of... ugh... I guess blackened thrash with hardcore tendencies? I don't know what to make of it, but some people around me seemed to be really enjoying it, a few kids who appeared to be on ecstasy were having a near religious experience too. The band seemed to bring a lot of energy and even a bit of skill to the stage, but nothing I heard was doing much of anything for me. It was also at this time that I took notice of Blake Judd of Nachtmystium fame (also former member of Ezurate!) stopping on through, not to actually watch any music, but to sit in the balcony overlooking the stage with girls hanging off his arms. I guess you know when you've made it in the business, eh?



After all bullshit was said and thankfully done it was finally time for Watain. Before even hitting the stage Watain had me impressed with their massive stage set up, which included tons of candles, incense burning, upside down crosses as well as various occult shit all over the stage. The band of course took the stage in their own custom elaborate corpsepaint and mangled filthy clothing, which has apparently never been washed before and as a whole each member look liked an exhumed animated corpse. The band kicked things off with, 'Death's Cold Dark' from their recent, 'Lawless Darkness' full-length before diving right into, 'Malfeitor,' which might I add I had a bit of moment of head banging and screaming pouring forth from me as the band worked their way through this one. From their they turned the clocks back to, 'The Devil's Blood' and played this masterful black metal song perfectly and then followed it with, 'Satan's Hunger.' If memory serves me correctly, 'Sworn to the Dark' and 'Rabid Death's Curse' came next with 'Casus Luciferi' being their final song before leaving the stage briefly.

As the band re-emerged they splattered the crowd with their blood bath, which was very real and very stinky smelling and fortunately I was a bit further back of the stage and only received a few drops, but my friends got a healthy face full. As the band ripped through, 'On Horns Impaled' a few of the audience members seemed to really embrace the blood by, get this, rolling around in it and smearing it on their arms/face... yeah. Glad I never got into the whole cocaine thing like some people out there. Anyway, the band closed their set with a cover of Bathory's mighty, 'The Return of Darkness and Evil' and left the stage without a word or even a glance back at us.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the choice of songs and just the whole atmosphere, appearance and performance of the band. Between each song some eerie ambient music would play as well, which just built up the suspense for the next song. The whole stage set up is really something to behold too and in a lot of ways it reminded me of those old Mayhem interviews that Dead and Euronymous had envisioned for black metal years and years ago. The bands onstage clothes are really something too and the whole blood bath thing, although quite cool, made for a not so pleasant ride back home.

I can honestly say if all black metal bands strived to the level of excellence that Watain displays on every album and most likely every gig too, then perhaps black metal wouldn't be the awful genre its largely become nowadays. As a final word I can say the journey was definitely worth it and I look forward to seeing these guys once again.