Age Of Woe

support Parasight + Thurs + Preggy Punch
author AZ date 12/07/13 venue Underwerket, Valby, DEN

It has been a while since I found myself in the cradle of all metal bands – the underground stage. The feeling was both sentimental and inspiring. The first one stems from the fact that the atmosphere in Underwerket – small dark space, lack of air conditioning, scarce crowd – reminded me of my own career as musician. Ah, awesome times! The later feeling comes from the way energy was being exchanged between bands and musicians. No guards, no fancy intros – what you see is what you get!

All photos courtesy of Amadeus Sepúlveda

Preggy Punch

The first thing I got for the night was a funky dose of extreme indie rock. The Preggy Punch started to play in front of 10 people which didn't seem to be a big shock for them. They started bashing away crazy chugs – one after the other. The guys seemed to enjoy what they do and that was probably the reason all ten of us stayed to watch them play. What could have made us bang our heads as well (or at least show some appreciation of the high speed guitar/drum action on stage) was if they had tried to get the crowd involved in some way.

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Thurs

Not to be confused with their Norwegian colleagues by name, Thurs were making their debut at Underwerket. Sadly it was a very poor performance. Taking into consideration that this is their first gig – even though some of the band members have had bands before – this still doesn't cut it. Hiding behind the safeness of playing music almost too harsh and hard to understand. also doesn't compensate for the fact that the drummer had problems pulling off his own parts. This is your own music! Spend time in the rehearsal space before you decide to waste that of other people. On the good side their vocalist had put tattoos all over his face and implanted “horns/bumps” on his forehead. When he went on stage he decided to put a piece of cloth on his head which stayed there for the whole duration of their set. Don't know if this helped him or not but, to me, he was the only one whose performance convinced me that I'm at a metal show and not in the living room with my slippers on.

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Parasight

Midway through the event I found myself pleasantly surprised to find that the level of the bands that are playing has gone from “messing around/mediocre” to “determined/hard working”. To further describe Parasight I would say one thing – they thrive at their live shows. Their fast hardcore/punk really make them stand out in front of the now grown crowd. Coordinated and with a better sound, they executed their stuff well, backing that up with hard headbanging. With the help of their highly energetic vocalist whose funky movements and crowd-involving runs they managed to move the people into forming a pit – something that changed the static vibe of the show. As opposed to the bands before, Parasight's set went by fast but still left a nice memory.

Age of Woe

Coming from Sweden, Age of Woe are making a small yet important run around northern Europe in support of their record Inhumanform. Having made that review, I felt a great urge to listen to the crushing tracks from the LP and see whether the truly powerful demonic energy they release will make me headbang live as it did in front of the PC.

I was not disappointed one bit. Even without a key piece – guitarist Martin is not taking part in the tour due to private matters – the band is a beast on stage. Slowly creeping up, gathering energy from the crowd (which at the time had grown even more), building tension to the edge of a total rip, Age of Woe stomped on our heads with ease and precision. The fact that the few first lines of affected people were swaying crazily under the sounds of the dark doom/black metal proved that songs like “King of Thieves” and “Like Embers” had already been introduced. At a certain point vocalist Sonny and guitarist Carlos decided their music deserves more praise so they literally pushed the front rows of the crowd in order to feed the demonic flames.

After leaving the show I am certain that Age of Woe are a special band which deserves and will hopefully get recognition from international media. In the mean time I am sure their fanbase will steadily grow to catch up with their potential!

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