How to spend the days before X-mas most blasphemous? Let’s see… oh, Shining, Skitliv, Hellsaw on tour! Perfect! Let’s go! 
So, on December 19, 2007 I travelled by train to Vienna, one of the most beautiful cities in Austria. The “Escape” club was easy to reach by walking from the train station. Fine. Too bad that the security guy put a damper on me right at the entrance of the venue, not letting me in with the camera. “No one else than the local promoter is allowed to take photos today.”  Ooookay, we’ll see about that. After terrorizing the right person, I could go in WITH the camera. Thanks.
I was amazed by the size of the club. It was so tiny, I wondered how 5 musicians should ever fit onto this stage (which was more like a step of a stair, to be exaggerating). But of course professional musicians can deliver a good show on ANY stage, be it Wacken’s Main Stage or the step of a stair.

For those who have never heared about it yet: Skitliv is the band of Mayhem’s Ex-vocalist Manic. The musical style is difficult to describe. People call it Black/Doom Metal, but that doesn’t fit. Sure, it fits the lyrics, maybe, but the music is rather Avantgarde. Niklas Kvarforth of Shining pays guitar in this band, too.
As some of you might know, the couple Maniac/Kvarforth are an explosive mixture guaranteeing action on stage. Skitliv started off with “A valley below” and surprisingly there were 2 bass guitars in use, Spacebrain and Maniac, both torturing the bass strings. So with two guitars, drums, two basses the band delivered some experimental shit, drawn-out, weird, different, confusing, but a fascinating journey between music and noise in the end. You can’t describe it, you need to hear it, as it is different than all the other music out there. “Hollow devotion” was up next and Maniac explained why Niklas wasn’t able to play the guitar properly. His hand was injured, as he had to beat up someone the night before. 

You would have liked to just listen in amazement, but of course you couldn’t as you always had to be careful, because Maniac loves to just throw the microphone stand into the audience. So not just us got hit by it, but also his own guitar player Ingvar (who by the way has a sick face expression when playing, you just gotta love it). 
Besides the usual stuff like stubbing out cigarettes on each other’s body, Maniac and Kvarforth strengthened their reputation as provocateurs; they used every chance for loutishness. So Niklas right away insulted the ca. 200 Austrian vistors by saying, they act like proud people, but all they ever had was Falco and … (some other world-wide-known person). Maniac meanwhile had a row with a fan and the sparks flew. Kvarforth was with Maniac immediately and the fan was told to come on stage, if he dares to. He didn’t come and to be called a coward was the result of this. Sometimes they both reminded me a little of GG Allin when behaving this transgressive.

Concerning the music there was no reason to complain. It was interesting to hear and watch, even beer- and Whiskey-bottles were used to make noise on the strings… it sounded psychedelic and deviant. 

Towards the end of the gig the mood among the visitors was getting better and there was a certain amount of applaus at least. After everyone except Spacebrain had left the stage, one fan told him in German “You’re a good man!” and suddenly there were loud cheers and much applause, just for him. He seemed surprised and thanked the audience in German language (he once was a German, who emigrated to Norway many years ago, FYI). Oh well, and that’s how the Skitliv gig ended.

Hellsaw were up next. They are a Black Metal band from Austria whose music reminds of Naglfar and partly Hypocrisy. Playing in Vienna was of course a home match for them. The Austrians supported them immediately with heavy headbanging and screaming along the lyrics. The sound was great, the mood was great, the performance was okay and the fans were fantastic. So it was just a good gig. Hellsaw started with “The inner revenge of nature”, “Omen” and “... me crying”. The guitar walls were merciless and thus I could identify with the music immediately (I had never heared anything of this band before). Front shouter Aries was constantly growling right towards the fans faces, and they just enjoyed and even headbanged arm-in-arm in the first row. The show went on with „Silent landscape“, „Might and hate“, “The ember of your own“ and „In memory“. The song “Execution” was theatrically introduced by shouting “It is time for your execution” and Aries let a fan scream the refrain into the microphone. After the last song “Hate War Victory” they just let the mic fall to the ground (typical behaviour of all three bands during this tour, it seems) and it was clarified that Hellsaw range among the top BM bands of Austria. 

Wrathfully Niklas Kvarforth entered the stage and started the Shining gig with kicking one of the monitor boxes down from stage. The friendly Austrians heaved it back onto stage. Very interesting was also his fashion: parts of something that probably was a trouser before was glued to his body. Anyway, when the gig started you just had to notice that Niklas’ voice was not as full and dominantly as known from the past. But hey, even if he wouldn’t sing at all, the show would have been a notorious event anyway.
Someone was recording the whole show for the local promoter. Too bad that only 2 tracks of it are published on YouTube, I would have liked to see the whole gig again, especially as I had to endure a few invidious onsets and flouts from Niklas. If I ever had a masochistic bent I needed it during this gig. Niklas flung all his hate of the day in my face, it seems. Oh well, a Shining gig is no walk in the park...
A lot of blood from a bottle with pigs-blood from the local butcher’s was being spilled during this gig. Furthermore Niklas played his usual little games with the audience. Of course cuddling with some visitors was on the plan, as well as insulting a few. And in absolutely every venue Shining plays, you can expect a few girls standing in first row who would do almost everything for Niklas and let him do almost everything with themselves. Katha from Bavaria was the preferred girl this time. I can’t even remember how often she licked his body. 

Katha vs. Niklas (by the way, she didn't really...)

One drunk guy (maybe accidently) threw his beer on stage and hit Phil A. Cirone’s bass guitar, so he had to stop playing, as the strings were greasy then. Of course a declaration of war was Niklas’ revenge. He several times commanded the guy to come on stage and face the situation. The boy didn’t come …

Maniac joined Shining performing the song “Någonting är jävligt fel”. And hey, the way Maniac sang it was absolutely great. This song suits him well. As expected his appearance ended in another session with Niklas, they were kissing each other enthusiastically or injured each other with cigarettes again, just everything that causes attention (althought they anyway had full attention of the audience all the time). How can you ignore such an remarkable couple? 
After the new drummer was introduced to the audience and a Whiskey bottle was smashed this gig found its ending. 

Salzburg, Dec. 20, 2007

Before the gig Claudia had an interview with Maniac/Skitliv (see Interviews section!) and meanwhile I saw some funny behaviour backstage. 

Niklas teasing Spacebrain:

By the way, visit Spacebrain’s homepage, if you are interested in design >  www.spacebrain.no ! 

The “Cave” club in Salzburg has a nice ambient style, it is a cave in a hill (club inside) and the walls are made from raw stones. Looks cool. 
This gig was supported by two more underground bands from Austria,  „Karg“ and „Obscure Anachronism“.

„Karg“ from Sankt Pongau in Austria were the first to enter the small stage. They play ambient Black Metal with depressive and self-destructive lyrics which probably qualified them to be a support act to Shining. “Karg” exist only since 2006 which might be an explaination for their problems when playing live. The sound was bad and the growling and musicianship were mediocre. Of course, all music is purely a matter of taste. This didn’t meet mine. So the band played a few songs and after only 15 or 20 minutes they left with only little applause.

„Obscure Anachronism“ played much longer. This band, being from Austria as well, plays very aggressive Black Metal. And they were the only ones that put some effort to things like stage decoration (a scull and some candels, but hey, in this icy cold location such things could cause the illusion of a certain atmosphere at least). 
Their lyrics are about the annihilation of mankind. When entering the stage they reminded me of the German band “Nachtfalke” as their singer is in the same way extraordinary. The vocalist of „Obscure Anachronism“ could scream like only few people in this world can. The blood would freeze in your veins, when listening to him. It was all very intense. I wonder that he didn’t loose his voice after just 5 minutes, as this kind of shrieking can badly harm your voice, if you do it wrong. So the BM was old-school, but really worth to see and hear also for the non-old-schoolers, and if it was just for the dramatic voice performance.

In the blink of an eye it was time for Skitliv again. It began with some little sound problems, something with the monitors didn’t seem alright. While the day before the setlist was slightly changed, this time in Salzburg they played the usual setlist: „A valley below“, „Hollow devotion“, „Slow pain coming“, „Virestcit volnere virtus“, „Amfetamin“ and a few specials. So they started playing “Deathcrush” (and later this evening, I don’t remember whether it was during the Skitliv or the Shining gig, they played the beginning of “De mysteriis dom Sathanas“ and stopped it at once, Maniac shouting: “If you wanna hear Mayhem, listen to a fucking Mayhem record!”).
It was interesting to hear the whispers among the audience, most of the visitors definitely liked the music. But of course music so out of the ordinary as Skitliv’s is not exactly stuff for headbanging. Thus Maniac misunderstood the audience’s reserved reactions and told them: „You bore the fucking shit out of me“ followed by (you might have guessed) “We hate people”, throwing the microphone stand into the audience.  Also he would just let the bass guitar fall down to the ground (outch) and of course Maniac and Kvarforth performed some debaucheries again. 
Crazy sound-constructions were created with the empty bottles again, jamming excessively. After that they just left the stage without unplugging the guitars, so the distortion noise would continue ad infinitum. Well, yeah, this music is indisgestive, but you just gotta give it a try, at least once in life!

On with the show! Hellsaw gave their best again, of course… they still played in their home country and had to defend their good reputation. The setlist was the same like the day before and in Salzburg their live performance resultet in the same overwhelming reaction of the audience. About 150 visitors were present at the venue, and I take a wild guess that about 50 came to see Hellsaw in particular. Headbanging, moshing, singing along… band and fans were passionate. Hellsaw are a band with high-standart live qualities, I am quite sure that we will see them again at many festivals in the future.

Final act! Shining entered the stage, Niklas with a switchblade on his belt. Whilst at the Shining gigs I saw before animals’ blood was being spilled, this time human blood was supposed to be shed.
But first of all I must say that this gig was special regarding the choice of songs. There were a few varieties to the day before and all my favourite Shining songs were played, even if I couldn’t remember the titles I recognized the melodies. Or maybe it was just the fact that I didn’t get offended this time, so I could just concentrate on the music and could let it get to me. 
As I said, I don’t remember all titles, but definitely there were “Eradication of the condition“, „Låt oss ta allt från varandra“, „Svart industriell olycka“, „Uttligare ett steg närmare total jävla utfrysning“, „Längtar bort från mitt hjärta“, „Submit to selfdestruction“ and more. Of course the duet with Maniac „Någonting är jävligt fel“ was one of the highlights again.
Later that evening Niklas started to really use the switchblade for some self-injuries, there was a real cutting session, you could say. Well, yes, it is a great show-effect. But personally I could not enjoy seeing him like this, sorry. It was disturbing and in a way fascinating at the same time. But that’s just Niklas Kvarforth. Shining wouldn’t be the same without him. Love him or hate him, there is nothing in between. 

Before the next song Niklas asked everybody to close his/her eyes and to “remember the worst moment in your life, when you were 5 years old and your father fucked you up for the first time”. And then „Längtar bort från mitt hjärta“ was performed very intensly, having a stirring effect. 

But hey, of course he was also being huffy and had to taunt the visitors constantly. Here’s just one story: One of the guys in the audience disgruntled Niklas, whatever the reason might have been. So Niklas was eager to find out this boy’s name. The guy readily told him his name: “Horst”. But Mr. Kvarforth just didn’t get it (I guess there are no Horsts in Scandinavia), so the boy repeated his name 3 times. And all this effort served just one purpose: Niklas taking the microphone, telling everone: “Horst is a fucking idiot!”……..
During the show the new, only 19 years old drummer was introduced. Niklas thanked him and also thanked the other bands, as the tour was heading towards its end. Also he clarified that Gråby now is a firm member of Shining only and not of Ondskapt anymore, as Gråby realised that only Shining is the real evil.
Furthermore Niklas apologized for the bad condition of his voice and said, he will need treatment for his voice after the tour. At the same time he promised: “When we play here next time, we will REALLY fuck you up!” 
One of the songs he dedicated to the band “Obscure Anachronism“ as he (and the other guys) watched their gig and liked the intensity of their performance and the vocalist’s screaming. „It gave me shivers” Niklas added. 

Song after song followed and the audience seemed to get more dedicated with each song. Niklas took care of making a triumphant exit by telling 3 cute girls in sexy dresses to come on stage, and then he and Maniac just took the girls with them, dissapearing backstage.
So this night ended successfully and everybody got full service, be it good or bad. In any case they all will remember it, that’s for sure. 

More photos of Shining, Hellsaw and Skitliv can be found in the "concert photos" section!