Heavy Metal: Amenra & Liturgy @ Catch One, Los Angeles

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - I am a connoisseur of heavy metal. I really enjoy atmospheric music combined with very heavy riffs. Last Monday I had the joy to watch 2 of the best bands in this genre - Amenra & Liturgy. They performed @ Catch One, an entertainment complex somewhere in Los Angeles` sheer endless sprawl. 

I had followed both bands from Las Vegas where they performed the day before @ Psycho Las Vegas, the mega show with more than 130 bands and some thousands attendants.  Apparently both bands are unknown in California`s hip crowd, so there were not many people in the small "Disco Room". Fortunately for me because I could watch their performances from close and did not risk to drown in the masses.

 

 

 

                       Meditation & Inferno

It was the fourth time I enjoyed a gig by Amrena (2019 Psycho Las Vegas, 2020 Mexico City, 2022 Psycho Las Vegas). The Belgians (Vocals: Colin H. van Eeckhout, guitars: Mathieu Vandekerckhove & Lennart Bossu, bass: Tim De Gieter & drumms: Bjorn Lebon) own in Europe quite a reputation for their spectacular and hyper-intense shows. On Monday they justyfied  their reputation again.

 

 

 

Frontman Vandekerckhove acted sometime like a priest and sang with a fragile and tender voice in Flemish (a kind of Dutch language), than he exploded, turned berserk and shouted like a wounded soul; his band amplified his show and converted atmospheric melodic phases into super-heavy riffs. Meditation transformed suddenly into fierce eruptions - and the show ended with sheer inferno. The experience got intensified by the stylish light show which changed from artful sinister graphics & videos into stroboscopic and blinding flash storms. Breath taking and mind blowing.

Here some quotes from professional reviewers from former shows: 

"Amenra use indescribably intense sections of the music to create an all-consuming wall of sound, a chaotic yet somehow ordered cacophony. More importantly they contrast this with quiet, brooding build-ups which are at times near silent" ( mancunion).

 “Their unique musical style, characterized by brooding atmospheres and spiritual intensity and their live performances, accompanied by visual art, have been described as entrancing communions” says Wikipedia (Amenra). 

The Independent wrote that their "avant-garde post-metal" music "pushes the boundaries of extreme music by being heavy in practically every conceivable way; sonically, emotionally and spiritually (independent ).

 

 

               Heavy Metal As An Art Form

 

Liturgy, who opened the show, performed heavy metal as an art form: Female voices, amplified by electronics, were used as an additional instrument. The band from Brooklyn, New York (Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (vocals, guitar), Mario Miron (guitar), Tia Vincent-Clark (bass) and Leo Didkovsky (drums)) describe their music as "transcendental black metal" (wikipedia ). 

The high pitched infernal screams & shrieks of two girls melted with blurred and very low tuned guitars into an outwordly experience (actually Ravenna is a transperson but shrieks & screams like a girl).
 

Thank you so much Amenra & Liturgy for this exceptional experience.