aRternative

Well, this is already the third episode of this so far not quite terrifying wormhole ride, and I haven't yet shown you anything really weird or twisted so it's high time I opened up some darker doors.

This time, I would like to guide you back to a wednesday night, the 17th of March into the belly of one of the most professional party and concert places in Budapest, the A38 ship. One of the coolest, hardest and most insane groups performed an underground (or underwater?) black mass on that day there: Combichrist.

I can't remember how I got to know this most hellish of mainstream bands, but I do remember that a few weeks before I first heard about them, they were playing in Budapest. When I realised who they really are and that just a few weeks prevented me from being part of a thought-to-be-rare event, I was devastated. Since then, fate has compensated me well: last wednesday was the second time I saw them live, and I can assure you it's never ever enough of them.

Imagine a titanic factory filled with industrialised machine-monsters clanking, beating, whirring and shrieking in a predefined rhythm, moulding into a cacophony of rhythmic noise. They are huge, dangerous and frightening, but they can't hurt you if you know what to do. And that is exactly the key to success of Combichrist. They are harsh, aggressive and dark, but they are "safe" as far as the general public is concerned. Or at least that's what they think until they come to a concert.

Never have you seen anything so full of energy, so musically aggressive, yet so... "friendly". The band, under the leadership of the amazing and terrifying character of the singer Andy LaPlegua, explodes everytime on stage like a thousand nuclear warheads, never stopping for a second through the 90 minutes of a gig. Half-naked and tattooed, painted half black and drenched in sweat and water, shouting and smiling like an insane, picking apart the stage and throwing instruments at each other, these guys are zero percent normal. Their songs smash down upon the listener with a hundred tons of weight, crushing all resistance and making you dance like you never did before. Their lyrics and song titles are shocking, but within the boundaries of public taste, except for all the swearings in them. After 90 minutes of us dancing, jumping and shouting, the band decide to leave us. And there we stood, drenched in sweat and with an undeletable insane smile on our faces, wandering around like zombies, unable to recover from the shock of so gigantic an amount of energy. Everybody could use a Combichrist gig once a week.

This is my gallery of last year's Combichrist gig in Dürer-kert. And this and this and this are three of their best songs.

Everything that is broken needs remedy. A vase has to be glued together. A cloth has to be sewn. Broken skin has to be bandaged. And broken hearts also need repair. With hearts however, restoration is not that easy. It differs from person to person. Some of them drink, some of them hide, some of them weep, some of them write. And some of them listen to music.

I wondered for long about what nightmarish torrent of sound should I unleash upon the dear readers in the first installment of this (wanting-to-be-)oh-so-strange musical diary of dreams, and I came to the conclusion that it would be wiser not to scare the audience away with an audio-abomination already at the beginning. While skipping through my compendium of musical journeys, I finally encountered the optimal choice for an appetizer. Being melodic and soft yet intriguing and melancholic, Kauan's Aava Tuulen Maa is truly a fine choice for a stepping-stone into the world of dark subcultural music.

You're standing at the edge of a forest. The sun's pale yellow beams break through the trees' crowns and illuminate every single leaf on the forest floor. The air is filled with sounds: the rustling of leaves, the chatter of bushes and twigs, the whispers of the wind, the occassional cry of a lonely bird. Yet the world remains silent somehow. You take a step towards the heart of the wilderness and nature opens up before you. A carpet of grass comforts your feet, leaves and the thin fingers of the wind caress your bare arms, mossy stones watch your steps.
You walk slowly to the crest of the hill and sit down on a rock. Your rushing thoughts are calmed by the scent of the woods. You think about the things you have left behind and the journey that led you here. Train windows, laughing children, lonely nights, forgotten days and once important things flash through your mind. You let them slip out of your mind's grasp and slowly lie back down upon the leaf-covered ground.
Seconds and minutes pass like ripples on a river. Years can go by around you, still lying in the loving embrace of nature.

But suddenly, your eyes pop open. You're lying in your room, alone and the sky outside the windowpane has turned pitch black. You sit up and rub your eyes. You reach for a glass of water and then you press play on the cd player once again...