Vulture Industries and Madder Mortem in Esbjerg, 3 May 2019

On a very cold evening at the beginning of May, The Progspace went on the road to Esbjerg to attend our first show in the Danish harbor city – Madder Mortem and Vulture Industries were playing together with the fellow Norwegian black metallers of Helheim and the melodic death metal band Caelestia from Greece. Finding the venue was a little challenge, as it was a youth center hidden deep inside an old industrial building (which is right beside a bigger venue, where we first tried to enter together with a suspiciously non-metal looking audience).

After some twists and turns we reached the indeed very nice Konfus. The sound was great, and the bands had nothing but praise for the backstage area and catering. Not very surprising for a small city in the middle of nowhere, the audience was rather small, with what seemed to be some regular visitors of the place (some of whom ended being new fans of Madder Mortem and Vulture Industries) plus one die-hard Helheim fan who indeed had the time of his life.

After Caelestia, Madder Mortem was the second band to play. And once again they delivered a show full of power and emotions – tears included. Singer and front woman Agnete M. Kirkevaag never gives less than 100 percent, and even (most of) those who did not know the band before quickly got hooked. Mostly consisting of material off their latest (absolutely beautiful) record “Marrow“, the Norwegians threw in some older songs from “Red in Tooth and Claw” (as the very personal Underdogs) and its 2009 predecessor “Eight Ways” (The Little Things). Too soon a powerful and breathtaking hour of music was over.

Vulture Industries closed the night after a brutal and unforgiving Helheim set and made it clear why they were the evening’s main band. Captivating from the first note, their unique mix of industrial metal and circus is just incredibly fun to watch. Akkordion, tambourine, sing-along parts for the audience (“ahum, ahum” in the band’s lastest song ‘Deeper’) – singer Bjørnar E. Nilsen knows how to keep the audience active and stunned while he is running and jumping around like a madman. The whole thing ended in total chaos with ‘Blood Don’t Eliogabalus’ from 2013’s record “The Tower”, with an endless conga line and Bjørnar crawling on the floor. What a closing for a night of great music!

See the full photo galleries here!