The music has some drum and bass influences and is therefore as danceable as any typical dance act. If you have to refer to any other band you could put these Norwegians somewhere between the likes of Apoptygma Berzerk/ Assembly 23 meets the Prodigy… The band is nice to listen to and to go crazy on, but if you’re into a live act this band has the disadvantage that only the singer can really move up and down.

Undergod
UNDERGOD’s Thomas Baumgartner (vocals and guitar) and Fran Lorkovic (drums) also played together in Erotic Jesus in the early nineties. Thomas is also known from his work with Gurd. Last member of the band is bass player Patrik Aellig. Although the last mentioned didn’t play in any known band it’s noticeable that these three guys know what they are doing. The band proves to be very experienced playing live shows.

The sound is great and the cooperation between the different musicians works well. The intense drum parts fill every little hole that there is to fill. The bass works in conjunction with that and every break is as tight as it can get. The voice and guitar play of Thomas remind me of Filter in their early days. The industrial music of UNDERGOD has similarities to this American band during their first record (“Short Bus”). One difference is that these Swiss don’t have that – typical (?) – ‘look, I’m a rock star’ attitude.

The other is that the music they play is somewhat rougher and that the songs have more tempo breaks than the American example. The band clearly had a good day in promoting their latest album “Trapped”. Songs like ‘Amazing’ and ‘American B.H.’ made me curious enough to buy their record, so you will see a review of that shortly on Rockezine.
UNDERGOD made such a good impression that I was curious if the headliner of tonight could top this performance.

Zeromancer
It’s good to know that there are still bands out there who offer the bands that are touring with them the best opportunity to play. ZEROMANCER surely gave the bands before them the chance to play their best. It showed that these Norwegians are confident in what they are doing and I have to admit that they were right

This was one hell of a show. From start to finish the band made an energetic and explosive impression. Although in the end the band referred to the fact that there weren’t too many people and sounded somewhat disappointed about that, the band gave their best during their whole show. One of the things that were noticeable was that Alex (vocals) is – at times - strongly supported by the voice of the guitar player. Both men created the voices we know so well on the two ZEROMANCER albums (“Clone Your Lover” and “Eurotrash”).

The band played as tight as it can get and the fact that everyone was singing along with the lyrics said enough. The complete picture (sound, music and show) was overwhelming. That even the more pop orientated songs like ‘Clone Your Lover’, ‘Need You Like A Drug’ and ‘Eurotrash’ could impress says everything about the quality that was given this night. From opener ‘Something For The Pain’ till the last ‘cheesy’ song ‘Send Me An Angel’

ZEROMANCER proved to be one of the best (European) industrial bands at this moment. If you consider the perfect performances of a heavy ‘Fade To Black’, the strong ‘Opelwerk’, the beautiful ‘Houses Of Cards’, the melancholic ‘Cupola’ and the exceptional ‘Neo Geisha’ then you have to realise that you have missed one of the best industrial performances this year.

Next time I won’t hesitate to travel even further than the current one hour and fifteen minutes. I hope I dared you to do the same if ZEROMANCER returns to our small country. It’s about time that this music got the attention it deserves…

(Review & Pics: Beautevil )