VSESLAV THE SORCERER (KIEV, 18.10.2015)

On October 2015, in the steeped in legends city of Kiev, Russian Militant Black Metal division M8L8TH executed its first live assault after three years of forced silence.

Solo concerts are a rare phenomenon on the right-wing scene; yet, the public excitement about the show was so high that the decision to let M8L8TH play alone seemed fully justified. And so it happened – almost three hundred spectators gathered together on this mystical evening to join the musical and poetical ritual performed by the dark scalds of Rus’.

“Militant Black Metal” – one could read on the stage banners and it was not a mere pathos since a large part of the audience, and the band itself consisted of the right-wing military volunteers with a real combat experience.

The event was named after “Vseslav the Sorcerer” – a legendary figure of the Slavic epos. Prince of Polotsk, he is depicted as wizard and warlord in primary Slavic chronicles. Both the Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of Igor’s Campaign endow him with sorcery and werewolf abilities. M8L8TH performance was opened by a half-hour lecture on “the Wolf’s cult in the European Tradition” given by Igor Garkavenko – a revolutionary philosopher-poet, military volunteer and an ex-political prisoner.

After the introduction, that seemed rather unusual for a Black Metal concert but was very appropriate for ideologically charged M8L8TH performance, the musical ritual has begun. The lights dimmed down and a rank of torchbearers, armed with AK47s, lined up in front of the stage, when M8L8TH came in to the strains of Richard Strauss’ “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”.

Starting with furious percussion before unleashing all hell with guitars and vocals, M8L8TH gave all of its ferocity from the studio albums. The vocals, skillfully delivered by Alexey, are a genuine “schrei” with a harsh psychotic touch that creates a nice contrast to the clean epic voice of the second singer. Gods’ blood, it sounded truly amazing.

The audience greeted each song with a roar of approval and a true, wild energy. Slam, mosh, stagediving and crowd surfing were so furious that they would be the envy of any modern hardcore-concert, not to mention the Black Metal or RAC scene. It is important to notice, that the concert took place in a completely sober atmosphere, alcohol addicts and smokers were not welcomed.

For the first time in the history of the right wing scene, lofty words were not a declaration of intent, but a self-fulfilling prophecy:

And still in will be so,
Though Gods lie slumbered in the West,
And proud knights defeated rest.
Now in the East our swords shall glow!
And still in will be so…