UNDER THE BLACK SUN 12 – ELITE, DARKSPACE, LIFELOVER

It is difficult nowdays to find pure black metal festival and at the same time variations of black metal. UTBS offered me an interesting line up, from primitive to occult black, from atmospheric to raw, from satanic to sensless.
The location was absolutely fantastic, very beautiful place in the country with horses, forest and a small lake, and also a town nearby.
Music – 2 days of pure black metal, what more could I ask for? Troll did not come, without explanation they cancelled their show on the nigt of their gig, what I think is completely irresponsible from a band, especially because the organizator had to deal with a lot of cancellations lately. So I will not loose any more words about this 'true norwegian black metal', no matter what prevented them to play.
Friday line up;
I missed more than half of DRENGSKAPUR show, who were first to play, hopefully I will see them some other time. Parts of their performance which I did see were not very interesting. But this does not happen rarely with the first bands on festivals, when there is no feeling yet and unknown band plays to 'warm up' the crowd.
Then followed THORNGOTH, they were a very plesant surprise, great German band with two good full-lenght albums. Very souvereign live act, strong, powerful, straight to the point and sencere. Band of Folter Records, which is as well the crew behind UTBS. I preffered this little known band over headliners and as well other 'big' bands.
PARAGON BELIAL, decent german black metal did not stand out with anything very special, but i highly recomend their music.
THE ONE – two man band from Greece, Lifelover replacement, primitive style of playing, they were trying to make a good atmosphere, but not succeeded completely. Their show became boring soon, lack of power, lack of instruments, lack of members. But what can be made with drums, one guitar, vocals and intros was done quite well.
ELITE – another band from Folter Records, well known, coming from Norway, technically well performed live act, I think that the public that came to see them was pleased and content. Very stimulative frontman, but I don't know for what he had that giant axe, (un)fortunately he didn't use it. Their intention was mainly to entertain and cheer up the public and have some fun while doing it. It was noticable that this band has a lot of self confidence and experience performing live. Some of the songs they played were Vikingfjord, Winter Moon King, Bifrost, Likmyren, Berserkerens Manifest, I think this is it, the rest I do not remember.
URFAUST – one of my absolutely favourite performances on UTBS, performance which was the opposite of Elite, very atmospheric, stunning clean vocals!! It was the only band on UTBS that made me 'tripping sober'. The last song was a memorial with guest voacls of Bjorn from Celestial Bloodshed. The crowd was surprised, some of them hated this live act, others simply loved it.

The next day was more interesting to me in general;
Starting with GHEESTENLAND – from Netherlands, replacement for Lugubre, very good strong performance of a band, which I think surprised the crowd in a positive way and warmed it up for Slovenian SOMRAK, which soaked the stage, soil and crowd with blood, some left because of blood, but many came and rejoiced the bloodbath. They had some problems with the guitar, so unfortunately they had to finish early, as it affected their sound. Too bad, because I've seen this band perform on other occasions and they always had great sound and atmosphere. This would be one of the best performances of the day if everything would go as planned, but nevertheless it was a solid performance. A band worth checking out. Setlist: Trumpets Of Malevolence, Murmurs Of Diseased Tongues, Crowning Of The Morbid King, Apotheostic And Undivine, Glorification In Loss And Misery, Lux Nova, Banished Into The Void.
DARKMOON WARRIOR – were complete boredom to me. I couldn't wait them to stop playing. It seemed to me like they were trying to pack their music in attractive black metal package of skulls on stage spilled with blood, but no – they did not convince me. Maybe just not my style of music or something like that, I didn't like vocals nor the riffs. Too bad, because as I listen the recordings they sound completely decent.
MAY RESULT – I missed this band, because the weather was wet and I haven't sit all day and I really had to do some resting before Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, if I wanted to stand to 3 A.M. and see the rest of the playlist. These guys are from Serbia, The Stone members, so I am sure I'll see them playing soon again.
I was expecting a lot from DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT, as did the rest of the public. Already at the sound check you could see what authority Onielar is, all horns were up when she released her 'iiiiii' from her inside. Their show was very fast, very intense, good atmosphere, cooperation of public was admirable. The show went by very fast, some blood was involved, but nothing comparing to Somrak amount of it. DNS show i guess was the highligt of this festival, after all this was my cherry on the top of the cake. Their drummer Horrn went bald, info to those who thought it was someone else. This was their first performance with the new bass player. Played Das All-Eine, Unearthing Cosmic Decay, Slaughtercult, The Dead HateThe Living, Nocturnal March, Bearer of Blackest Might.
Then followed another surprise – french NEHEMAH, very slow and atmospheric music, they had great cooperation with the crowd, music played with a lot of emotions, all in all very positive. I absolutely want to see them again.
And for the end DARKSPACE, at this moment very popular band, indeed very interesting style of playing, 3 sorts of vocals and very little movement on stage, very slow atmospheric riffs and fast drumming. The crowd was mostly sucked into their music, they were tripping through dimensions. Or maybe they were just so bored.

To sum up, I had a good time and it was worth driving more than 1000 km for it. Thanks to the organizator for making it possible.