Written by:	Sephiroth
Published:	February 03, 2005
Event:	Carpathian Forest
Location:	Alpheus, Rome, Italy

The long awaited Carpathian Forest finally arrived. In those very cold days of the year -quite unusual for Rome- two of the main norwegian black metal acts came for their first italian date of the European Tour, followed by two support bands.

The canadian E-Force began warming up the stage and the audience, which seemed to very much like their thrash/death assault. Teccnically impressive, the band created a good atmosphere and -very unusual for an almost unknown opening band- some mild headbaging and moshing could be seen in the audience. Eric Forrest, singer and bass player of the band [and ex-Voivod] is talented enough to keep the attention on himself for the whole setlist. Although the show was short the performance was weighty.








A bit less interesting was the performance of Wikked Witch, the five american guys [drummer, two guitars, bass and keyboards] plus the "she-singer" didn't have much space on the stage and their gothic/symphonic black metal was not completely appreciated by the hardcore-blacksters of the audience. Anyway, the bad-mouthed singer Ipek was able to answer properly to the public and to keep people interested in the show with her vocal abilities. The show fastly slipped away [the last song was dedicated by Ipek to the late lamented Chuck Shuldiner], now everyone waited for one of the best norwegian black metal acts: Tsjuder.








And here they come, after a brief preparation the face painted/inverted crossed singer Nag announces "Tsjuder from Norway, Black Metal with no fucking compromises!!" and the music starts. The live performance was definitely convincing and it's incredible how just three guys can unleash such an acoustic hell compared to the "mild" Wikked Witch just a few minutes before. The performance of the drummer Anti -Christian is simply awesome, the real engine of the band [and a very funny guy: i've met him backstage after the concert and he has nothing of the grim and obscure blackster standard, but was friendly and chatty], while Nag's vocals were always perfect and evil as they should be and Draugluin's riffing was fast and tight. The audience seemed to appreciate the songs from their last album "Desert Northern Hell" [one of the best balck metal issues of the year, you have to check it out] and a crazy moshing spread all over the place. The show is so good that it seemed too short, the band stop the performance while the audience is still yearning for more. But no matter, they'd already torn the place apart. A memorable performance.








The metalheads of the audience were still liking their wounds after the destructive performace of Tsjuder when the mighty Tchort entered the stage and began setting up his bass, the audience went crazy -everyone presses forward (i think this is what you mean) - and the four band members come onto the stage. But the crowd wanted one person: Carpathian Forest leader Nattefrost. Whilst he was still missing from the stage the speakers began to diffuse his "vomiting performance" from his solo album. A couple of minutes and he took to the stage -a bottle of [italian of course] wine by his hands-. The band started and people went crazy. The acoustic impact of the performance was crushing and Nattefrost strutted the stage proudly and confident as the real rockstar he is, probably the strongest individual personality in the current black metal scene. In the meanwhile Tchort's "big presence" ruled the front row, with the wild guitarist Gøran Bomann headbanging at his side. The setlist satisfied everyone: with songs from the legendary "Black Shing Leather" [when Nattefrost announced the title track the crowd exploded, showing him that his old works are still the most loved by fans] to the most recent works ["Mask Of The Slave" from the "Strange Old Brew" album was excellent as well]. After more than an hour of playing the band left the stage and reentered for the last 2 songs, closing the set with "The Return of The Freezing Winds". A message maybe, and we all hope they'll be back soon.













A very good show. If they're the kind of thing youre into, you should see them, you'll not be disappointed.

The reviewer wants to thank Kick Promotion