March 22nd Swedish Melodic Deathcore band Avatar finally made it back to Bavaria’s capitol city Munich. Like many shows this year, this was also a postponed tour.
There was a venue change from the originally picked Freiheitshalle to the new Theaterfabrik in Munich. The venue itself is around the scene for ages now, but it moved in town several times. It’s now located in Johanneskirchen in a neighborhood that probably isn’t all too happy about having a live music venue close by.
The inside looks pretty with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The layout of the venue tough is kinda weird, because the stage is opposite the doors on the long wall and it’s pretty small. So when you stand to the far left or right of the stage you can’t make out that much of what’s going on on stage. There’s also a balcony in the back, which gives a good view of the stage. From my perspective it was pretty hard for the bands to get the audience in high spirits, at least that was my impression of the opening bands, Kassogtha and Veil Of Maya.
Kassogtha are, according to Facebook, a progressive death metal band from Switzerland. They released two full-length records and an EP so far. Their latest record “rEvolve” was released in November 2022. I don’t think they’ve played around here before.
Veil Of Maya on the other hand are not new to the Munich audience. They are a progressive metal band from Chicago. Their music is not as heavy as the first band’s and has quite some catchy tunes. They have released six records so far, the seventh will be out May 5th via Sumerian records and is called “[m]other”. They got the crowd moving, though that was a really hard job because the pit between the barrier was really wide for the size of the stage, which makes connecting with the crowd even harder, when it feels like they are really far away.
At 9 pm sharp Avatar made their entrance. I’ve never once seen them just enter the stage. For every album-/touring-cycle they have new matching clothes. But what never changes is that they blow you away with their live performance. The make-up, the theatrics all add up to their stage performance.
The first one to get on stage was drummer John Alfredson, who started to play a steady beat like a mechanical puppet, smoke filled the stage and soon after on the left and right of the stage the rest of the band came out to start the show with “Dance Devil Dance”, followed by crowd pleaser “The Eagle Has Landed ” and “Valley Of Disease”. Avatar played songs from six albums from their latest “Dance Devil Dance” to one of the earlier ones “Black Waltz”. They even put a piano up on stage for Johannes to play the opening tunes of an old Nena song “Nur geträumt”, followed by a stunning performance of “Tower”. Not only can he play piano though, but he’s also pretty good at playing the trombone, as he showed during “Puppet Show”, where he sneaked from the stage to the balcony to play the trombone part there. Older songs and new ones were equally well received by the crowd. But they saved the absolute bangers for last, when they closed their set with “Smells Like A Freakshow” and “Hail The Apocalypse”. Two of the songs which never fail in their effect on the audience. In total, they played a two-hour set, which is quite rare also considering the high pitches and screams Johannes delivers during the band’s performance.
For more information on the bands, follow their social media:
Avatar
https://www.facebook.com/avatarmetal
https://twitter.com/avatarmetal
https://instagram.com/avatarmetal
Veil Of Maya
https://www.facebook.com/veilofmaya
https://instagram.com/veilofmayaofficial
https://twitter.com/veilofmayaband
Kassogtha
https://www.facebook.com/kassogtha
https://twitter.com/kassogthamusic
https://instagram.com/kassogthamusic
~ Alex
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