Rock-City

Syrach Tour of Europe
27.03.07 - Rock-City, Uster (ZH)
Pÿlon / Syrach (NOR)

What’s the irony?

When the Big Book of Ironies will be written one day, Pÿlon will have one entry in it as well:

On 04Dec2006, exactly one hour after Tinu announced that he would step out of the band after the gig with Excruciation, an e-mail from Rolv-Erik arrived – they want Pÿlon to share the stage with Syrach at the Rock-City, their southernmost concert on their tour of Europe!

Because there was (and is) no bad blood between Tinu, Matt and Jan, the proposition was made to follow the call and play one more show together. “Ok?” – “Ok!” – “Sure, ok. It’ll be fun!”

After everything was confirmed and we agreed that we wanted to do something a little special, we agreed on two rehearsals with Tinu after the werk21 show. Soon, Reto of Tribes of Caïn proposed that they could figure as an additional support act. What a splendid idea and wonderful opportunity for an enjoyable night with friends! But there was to be even more and the idea was hatched to play a song together with Rolv-Erik, an idea he liked. More. More! … Alright: Matt invited Oliver of Minsk Security and Scythe & Fury to support us for another song.

Between the two rehearsals, on 13Mar2007, Tinu took a week of vacation whilst Matt and Jan followed another invitation, viz. to a radio interview with Basel’s prime doom fan, Laurent of Radio X / Metal X. The give-away of two copies of TEWB was fun enough, as one winner would turn up at the studio to pick up his prize and have it signed, whilst the other was none less than Sämi Schmid, the former Gumpen drummer, whose drum work is what you hear on Corwen’s album Im Schatten des Lichts!

Jan, Sami, Matt & Laurent

The evening

Despite the careful preparation, some little trouble befell us once at the Rock-City: we had too many guests despite the previous clear communication. That could be sorted out, however, whilst Syrach were actually stricken by a severe mishap – their brand-new tour van, bought and got in shape explicitly for this tour broke down on the German Autobahn. To be more precise: a wheel came off at full speed! By a stroke of luck, nothing happened, no one was hurt and the band could continue their journey to Switzerland in a rental van.

Not even their merchandise beer pint glasses with the Syrach logo were broken and they proved to be the hit of the night amongst the bands and the Rock-City crew. Not a single one was left over by midnight. So there’s a merch recommendation to all the bands out there!

21:00 was past, Tribes of Caïn got on stage and a death metal storm ravaged the venue for forty minutes. Old hits off Supra Absurdum were hailed as well as new songs off the forthcoming album. Splendid band!

By 22:00, Matt, Tinu and Jan charged their last attack:

2046 once again proved a fine opener for us because we don’t have to worry about vocals yet, and, well, the riffs and solos work as a nice relief.

Falling Into The Sun must have started unexpectedly for most of the audience because Jan played the intro as heard on the CD on his saz, a Turkish lute with a nice jangling sound caused by open strings and uncommon Arabic intervals.

After this long and slow song and before the next, something short and snappy came along in the shape of Checkmate 64.

In The Shade had already been played at the werk21 and constitutes the only complete track written in the trio line-up after the release of TEWB. Slow, crunching riffs (actually, they don’t feel all that slow to play), a quiet spoken word part (even Jan’s microphone was turned up this time) and a queer funk-rocking solo part sure are a strange combination, but they work. Luckily, Tinu will record his drums for this one yet for the possible use on a split CD.

But the night had just begun and our surprise guest made his way onto the stage: Rolv-Erik plugged in and let ‘er rip on Anaconda, one of our signature tracks. We had never played this together and I tell you that I played more bum notes than he did …. Of course only because someone had to keep up with and counter his posing on stage, heh heh!

Because this was quite awesome, we had to cool off again and did so with the help of Oliver joining for In From The Futile Fields. He did an outstanding job without the slightest confusion about the irregular drum breaks between the main sections. Ah yes, and the hard rocking bits on this song were naturally where he really cranked it up.

It would have been a shame to let go of Oliver again after just one song, so he stuck around for a fast beast, our cover of Warmachine by Unleashed which proved to be a relief and a wake-up call for Punish’ Hardy who had almost fallen asleep during our set. Poor monster.

Due to the long night with three bands, all had to shorten their set a bit and we did so by leaving out Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejection, a favourite of Jan’s because it is the only track allowing him to pound out some weird melody in the second half.

How else would Pÿlon cap off a concert if not with To My Brethren, that old war horse off the HEAVY METAL NATION compilation? After all, it does have everything: three long solos, calm parts, heavy choruses, ample spaces for drum and bass fills and even short segments of three-way vocal harmonies. Thus, it brings the band together in a very strong way truly having everyone feel his brothers in our little outfit.

All the more a fitting end to the Matt / Tinu / Jan line-up.

Yet, there was no time - nor desire - to get emotional as the stage had to be prepared for Syrach blasting everyone down with countless amazing riffs in every song. It was perfectly amazing to see and feel this five-headed metal machine in action.

At the end of the night, all the bands had to agree that it was a grand Tuesday night out and could assure each other of a great performance and honest fan-dom. Shirts were exchanged (not the sweaty ones, of course), commemorative pictures were taken (notice the Pÿlon stage crucifixes?), CDs traded and, if I saw right, one or two tins of beer may have been tapped as well.
 

Pÿlon & Syrach

Pÿlon, Syrach & Tribes of Caïn

Life goes on, of course, and so would jobs, schools and drinking / touring in the morning.

Matt, Tinu and Jan are most grateful to Syrach and Tribes of Caïn for a wonderful time together and we wish you all the best in the musical future.

And yet there were many, many welcome friends who added their special people magic to this spiffy doomy-deadly soirée, amongst them members of Apokatastasia , Cruszt,  Dragonflys , Draven , Elements of Rock , Excruciation , Harmonie Aarau ,  Majesty Of Silence , Punish , S.O.M.M. , sounds2move , Timor and, of course, Hägar & the Rock-City team.

Links:
Syrach
Tribes of Caïn
Minsk Security
Scythe & Fury

www.rock-city.ch
www.sounds2move.de
www.quamlibetrecords.ch

Reviews:
20 Minuten (Blog)
www.sounds2move.de

Live pictures courtesy of Simi (kittyfromhell89 ).
Pictures taken during 2046 and the first half of Falling Into The Sun.