Stormo + Eleos (Kristiansand, 25.04.24)

Pictures are coming.

Thanks to Timo and Vaktbua for allowing me to come and see concerts :). And those of you who are going to see them in Oslo today, Friday, enjoy yourself.

Vaktbua was once again the victim of my visit, and this time it was a mixture of Italy and one of Norway’s finer coastal towns, Kristiansand. We had core, metal, prog and madness pushed towards us during the couple of hours the session lasted.

And Eleos has evolved towards a landscape where I am more comfortable. We speak partly heavier. Some are very heavy, and a lot grooves very well. A couple of the songs appeared to me to be a bit oddly arranged, but having something that offers variety is always a positive sign. A couple of nifty tempo changes made me stop a bit, I like that. And drummer Street sometimes hits hard! And very good crash cymbals are never wrong, especially not for this kind of music.

They offered a riffy core in the metal spectrum, and something that occasionally made me think of a bit of stoner, a bit of driving rock’n roll with Motörhead in the corner of the mouth. I don’t think anyone would have connected Eleos with Lemmy and company, but a couple or three themes here and there seemed to lie a bit here.

They must have for the effort, for the stage Guard bow is less than my love of sports. Imagine such a large play equipment, located in a room that has no more floor space than the equipment itself. Throw six children into the equation, with slides and ladders everywhere, and you get a bit of the feel of how the match for six well-grown men and metalcore appeared at this great Vaktbua we are so lucky to have in the city. The vocalist saw I was constrained by the space, but it worked in a remarkable way. Impressive lungs on the guy, who had one or two songs where flirting with something melodic took place.

A cool evening with Eleos, half an hour of well-executed controlled noise and brutality. And three guitarists and stuff, Kristiansands Maiden? Or not. They should be shown on a bigger stage as well, with some leeway, because as I said, you can see that they are reined in and want to move.

And then you were knocked straight to the ground. Italian Stormo was simply top notch. Core, progblack-extreme, very very impressive rhythm section. They worked insanely well together, and where the guitarist was a bit hidden from me, he ended up behind a speaker, and then my focus was mostly on the other three. But man, everyone in the band was really good at what they did. You can dislike the band and the music, but this was fun to watch because they were so incredible at delivering! And yes, I want to single out the drummer, here is someone who really uses the drums as part of himself. It didn’t seem like there were any limitations, that nothing was impossible, this guy has a rare talent. And together with a bassist who both pulled the strings in an excellent way, and had a strong stage personality. He reminded me of some goth black rocker from the 80s. And great bass sound!

The songs were fired like cannons, and what better place to do that than at Otter Islandand Guard bow, which is the checkpoint for this military facility? When the concert was over, I think most people in the audience wanted many more songs, but the band let go without an encore, and it’s sometimes wise to leave people wanting more.

No, I was really taken to bed tonight, both bands delivered well, but Stormo I did not expect this from. I was largely unaware of them, and what I have heard now in studio format has not lived up to the craziness I saw on stage tonight.

A bit noisy for some, but check through and see what I mean.