Morbid Angel (Graz - Theatro - 27.04.01)
Written by: Klemen Polimac

And so, on one beautiful sunny day, when we celebrate OF day here in Slovenia (27th of April, it's a date going back to World War 2 when Nazis invaded our country and we made this Liberation Front to defend ourselves), we decided to check what other side think of this - Austria. And you won't believe, they like this day so much that they called Morbid Angel, just for us. Yeah, repent, repent! Ha ha J, joke aside.
Anyway, we went to Graz to see Morbid Angel, but some of us also wanted to see Zyklon and Cadaver Inc. This time the concert was not in Orfeum, but in some smaller club called Theatro, which kinda surprised me. It was a really small place, but you got used to it in a while. The ticket was expensive and the same goes for the beer (on top of all this, they had only Goesser, yuck).
To make this boring intro short, let's get down to business. The first band that set their feet on stage were locals DESTINY. They tried to play brutal death metal, but the result was pretty weak, boring and dull. They acted as if they had never been on a stage before and I guess the only people that actually applauded were their friends. Time to move on...
The next band that tried to warm us up was already recognized Norwegian band CADAVER INC. Their style would be hard to define, you just have to hear it yourself. Personally, I had much more fun watching their singer and his "faces". He had this red curls (he resembled Mick Hucknal) and he looked like some pissed off Viking that has "something somewhere" and he wanted to get rid of it. At least with all the substances involved he looked that way... There was some movement in the crowd so I guess they did a great job.
The temperature was rising all this time while I was waiting for only one thing - death metal gods. But just before the melting process, we were offered a burning storm of fury under the name ZYKLON.
Once named Zyklon - B (released great EP "Blood Must Be Shed", but with almost totally different line-up), now changed to simply Zyklon, what exactly can go wrong when you have guys from Emperor (Samoth and Trym), Myrkskog (Destructhor) and Limbonic Art (Daemon). This "all star" band knows exactly what they are doing, but their great show was maybe a bit too much for the public. They are playing really extreme hybrid between black and death metal in which black is still more in the front. Daemon was looking really hypnotic on stage (maybe his contact lenses or his mimic) and songs were furiously packed with fast guitar riffs and blast beats. They played the songs from "World ov Worms" album and you could see that there are many miles behind them - perfect show. In one song Daemon took megaphone and well..., used it in his own way.
Zyklon are definitely a band worth of playing as Morbid Angel's support band, but I guess that a lot of us were missing more death metal bands (though they did a great job).
And then finally, the moment we were all waiting for. The legends of American death metal MORBID ANGEL appeared on stage, and immediately hit us with the first song from "Gateways...", Summoning Redemption. The time was right, mood was great and I knew I would see another great show. They played mostly old songs 'cause together with the aforementioned song they played only He Who Sleeps from "Gateways..." and same goes for "Formulas..." - they played 2 songs from it. Which is completely OK with me, since I prefer their old songs, though they are all great.
And of course, Tucker was not with them on this tour and he won't be on the next two as well. Even more, between the lines you could see that his carrier in the band is uncertain. Reasons are constant touring and problems with this in his personal life.
He was replaced with Jared Anderson, Erik's band mate from Hate Eternal. He did a great job, his vocals were cleaner then Steve's, but he couldn't sing as fast as him. His only complaints were about the duration of this tour and his problems with vocal chords. The symptoms were already here, he was really ill. He used also same (or similar) bass as Steve, the one with the "horns". I really wonder what will happen and who will sing on the next album. Best wishes to Steve.
Their sound was great and suddenly all doubts about too small club were gone and the ticked became worth of its price. And a little more about the songs. From "Altars..." they played Immortal Rites, Lord Of All Fevers And Plague, Evil Spells and Chapel Of Ghouls (last one of course), from "Blessed..." they played only Day Of Suffering (but after the concert Trey told me that they will revive Fall From Grace for the next tour, as well as their godly God Of Emptiness). From "Domination" they played only Dawn Of The Angry (I guess we all know what Trey think of this album) and most of the songs were from "Covenant" (yes, yes, yes!!!), which I consider as their best as well as the best death metal album of all times. They played Rapture, Pain Divine (if only for this song, it was worth coming for), World Of Shit (The Promised Land), Blood On My Hands and Sworn To The Black.
Since I've seen only one MA show (in April 1998 with Vader) before this, my thoughts about this one were so much better. The whole show went smoothly, Trey had 3 guitars there and in one of his solos, Erik and Jared moved back to Steve and only Trey was playing. Otherwise Erik and Trey were both great, Pete was just amazing, Jared did a good job and once again they showed us how to make a great show and that they are still at the top of death metal scene, with any line-up.
Also worth mentioning is Trey's obsession with the Quake. He had a play station on the bus 'cause he just can't live without it (though he was bitching about the consoles) and he even wore Quake T-shirt on stage. After this tour he said that they will have a month off which he will spend playing Quake all days long. Maybe this has something to do with him braking up with Angela, who also used to run their fan club, which is down at the moment.
As soon as Chapel Of Ghouls ended he jumped into the crowd and stayed there. He was immediately surrounded with fans asking for his autograph or just wanted to take a pic with him. When they were gone, we stayed there and debate some more. He really changed his views over all these years and I would say for the better.
Definitely a show worth seeing.