Parisians have noticed that, as usual, autumn promises to be packed with concerts, making us almost tempted to leave our toothbrushes at Petit Bain. After Wiegedood and Die Krupps last week, and with Witch Club Satan coming up in a few days, we returned to the belly of the famous barge to see Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Heretoir during an evening organized by Garmonbozia. The venue is packed, stifling, and hellishly hot. That's fine, we're going to see some black metal, Hell is cool... what if, in the end, we had just boarded Charon's boat? It was Sunday, the Lord's day, the stars were aligned over the Seine, and although the bands on the bill weren't particularly prone to blasphemy and grand guignol, we made sure to look as gloomy as possible as the lights went down. It's not for show, it's for introspection.
HERETOIR
The evening begins with Heretoir, who have joined Der Weg Einer Freiheit for this tour. The blackgaze band from Augsburg has come a long way since their eponymous debut album released in 2011, and they were here to present their latest creation, Solastalgia, released on September 19th on AOP Records. This isn't the first time these two have shared the stage, as they already toured together in 2013, playing venues in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We are therefore delighted to see them together again, especially as this was their first visit to France!
The set opens with the two new tracks that introduce the album Solastalgia, played in order. The band's musical direction moves even further away from black metal here, and it shows. The calmer choruses of The Ashen Falls, with clean singing, and the inclination of Season Of Grief towards a much more progressive tone are somewhat disorienting, but they also pique our curiosity and make us listen closely for a certain elegance. The songs are still unfamiliar live and perhaps lack a little punch for an opening act, especially since Petit Bain's sound seems to be still finding its feet in the early moments of the concert and lacks a little power. We can hear some members of the audience immediately drawn in, very enthusiastic and lending themselves to introspection, while others find it harder to dive into the wave. Twilight Of the Machine (we loved Nightsphere, released two years ago) comes at just the right moment for us to sing along a little with David, whose vocals are poignantly sincere, and let ourselves be carried away by the sweet melancholy with sharp tones that is Heretoir's secret.
It's beautiful and powerful, so much so that the set is too short to give us the time we need to fully immerse ourselves in the richness of this universe and find the unity we seek. The finale on Golden Dust, hypnotic from start to finish, is an intense and captivating rush of emotions that nevertheless provides a masterful conclusion to this first chapter. We did feel a slight twinge of disappointment, however: it would have been the perfect opportunity to play Glacierheart, with Nikita Kamprad from Der Weg Einer Freiheit as a guest... but he was probably busy getting ready, so we had to do without!
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT
“Do you think they'll play Marter? It's the best song on the new album!”... The pre-concert suspense doesn't last long. The band calmly takes the stage to the sound of Dead Can Dance's The Host of Seraphim, a cinematic introduction that sets the contemplative and melancholic tone for the set to come. And then they play Marter. Perfect! It's stifling, we can't see a thing, but it doesn't matter because the darkness around us will never be as thick as the darkness within us. Hidden by the shadows, the smoke, and his hair, Nikita Kamprad roars his lyrics surrounded by his bandmates. A quick note on the lineup, because there's been quite a bit of movement in Der Weg Einer Freiheit in recent years: Alan Noruspur, bassist on Innern, is on guitar, while Vincent Padrutt, guitarist with Nocturnis, plays the bass here. Nico Rausch, who worked on Innern, is not here, nor is Nico Ziska, who is currently on hiatus. Anyway, since we couldn't see anything, it could have been just about anyone playing anything!
The last time Der Weg Einer Freiheit played in Paris was in 2023 at Pleyel before Amenra and Igorrr, and their concert, too short to catch our breath, mainly highlighted the band's more aggressive side. Tonight, we finally have time. In keeping with the intention of the latest album (Innern translates as “inside”, our review), we are treated to truly poetic, introspective interludes that allow us to try to breathe, to lose ourselves a little in our thoughts and dreams, before setting off again with renewed vigor and being crushed by the heaviness and intensity of the next assault. Each track seems to be the apotheosis of the show: the theatrical conclusion of Xibalba is followed by Immortal and its hushed atmosphere. We do without Dávid Makó's lamentations (The Devil's Trade), but it still works very well.
The good news is that even though Der Weg Einer Freiheit released an album two weeks ago, they haven't forgotten their older tracks. The beautiful Noktvrn is generously represented, but we also revisit the first two albums with Ruhe and Vergängnis, whose selection seems significant to us: here again, the band opts for its more melodic, melancholic tracks to better maintain this nuanced mood.
That being said, it rocks hard, don't go thinking we just stood there staring at the floor looking miserable. The musicians strike poses between songs, brandishing their guitars, the audience does the horns, the long-haired guys mimic fans, providing woime wind to the suffocating audience, Einkehr rocks out furiously, as do the incantations of the crepuscular Eos, with its final face during which we wouldn't even dare breathe (if that were possible in the middle of such a compact crowd)... One guy yells “I love you Nikitaaaa” during a silence, another (or the same one?) yells “I don't understand” during the spoken sample (in German) that serves as the intro to Aufbruch... It's dark, it's hot, there are words with lots of syllables like “introspection”... we understand that sometimes metalheads need to be entertained and let off a little steam! Fortunately, when the end of the song arrives, with that clear voice echoing between the walls of Petit Bain, there's no one left to show off. We could have left it at this perfect conclusion, but the band finally plays Forlorn, leaving us in the dark, haunted by the sadness of its synth layers, the power of the emotions swirling around inside, both contained and laid bare as if their guts (and ours) were being ripped out.
Could we have lasted longer? Oh, come on, maybe a little bit, but not much. The length of the set was perfect, giving us plenty of time to immerse ourselves in the band's music without ever losing focus or their energy waning. Nikita Kamprad hands out a guitar pick, they leave, the lights come back on, and we emerge from this slightly bizarre dreamlike interlude where we found ourselves in the dark, facing the torments of a guy screaming in German, but who gave us the impression that these torments were also our own.
