SUPERTZAR - BARABBAS - NORNES - 26.04.2024 - 1001 Bières - Amiens (Fr)

"1001 Bières"in Amiens is a lovely place - welcoming, spacious, pleasantly decorated for this exclusively DOOM-oriented concert on this April evening... The ‘procession’ was led by 3 bands - SUPERTZAR, BARABBAS and NORNES, who, although all three DOOM-oriented, have their own particularity and very personal style... a good thing, as you don't have to hear the same band 3 times in a row !
A quick info on the attendance ? What can I say ? Where are all those people who cried because there were no more concerts during the pandemic ? Ho! It's over, you can go back to a normal life now, it's TIME ! Seriously, I didn't even take the time to count, it was so empty ... How sad is that ..



First band to go on stage... SUPERTZAR... a STONER/SLUDGE DOOM trio who take us on a cosmic trip right from the start ! Their heavy, powerful music, influenced by BLACK SABBATH (What a surprise ha ! Maybe you got it from the band name...) , THE SWORD, ELECTRIC WIZARD, SLEEP and ST VITUS, is spellbinding and takes you far and high ! Well thought-out effects on the instruments, cascading riffs, it's pounding madly, hypnotic as it can be, the few people present are won over, and the atmosphere takes off. Nothing to throw away, every riff is a delight, it plays hard and well, and the sound really does justice to the music - something rare enough in such a small venue to be noticed ! The musicians have much fun and take pleasure in being on stage delivering their crushing riffs, it's a simple and communicative happiness, the communion with the audience takes place ... This is definitely a band to look for, promising as f*ck and certainly one of the best in its genre at the moment !



Second band of the evening... and not the least... BARABBAS ! Yes, THAT BARABBAS, THAT band that really impressed me with their latest album ‘La Mort Appelle Tous Les Vivants’... an album whose heaviness is matched only by its power - and that feeling of being caught under a steamroller... What was going to happen on stage ? The challenge was to recreate "live" this feeling of power... and the answer was not long to come... BARABBAS unleashed their first riffs with ‘De La Viande’, followed by ‘Je Suis Mort’... and later the unmissable "Judas"... The result is impressively powerful, they recreate what they have on the album with an incredible ease, they live their music, it's played with guts and they know how to capture the audience's attention... It's a chaos on stage, a controlled chaos to bring the audience to its knees and make it beg for more ! I was expecting something HUGE from BARABBAS, they've exceeded my expectations ! Definitely a band to see LIVE !



To conclude this evening, NORNES, who seem to be musically different from the previous bands, leaving aside the traditional aspect of the DOOM style for a more innovative and experimental approach, not afraid to mix various influences : atmospheric-metal, death-metal, post-metal, proto-doom... for a rather interesting result on record, I must admit... I was very curious to see how it could be "live"... Unfortunately, the quality of the sound really failed them, and didn't bring out the intricate and elaborate side of their music, but the musicians did their job, doing their best to recreate their music live. You could feel the potential, it was palpable, it was there, but it was difficult to really grasp all the subtleties of the music. It's really sad, because I think the band was well prepared and with different sound conditions, it would have been absolutely amazing... kinda band to take you far & high too - so their music is soaring and enchanting... bad luck happened I guess... I'd like to be able to see them again in better conditions, because they deserve much better.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening in a very nice venue.. 3 bands that really did the job - it was perfect to me... Hope to see more people there when a new concert will take place... The survival of the underground scene depends on it...

All pics used with kind permission of MESS WITH ME PHOTOGRAPHY - Thanks SO MUCH !