Doom over Bucharest III, Club Quantic, 29.04.17

The third edition of Doom over Bucharest got us out of the house on a dark Saturday night and took us to our favourite concert location, Quantic pub. It was the same as always, space, air, beer, relaxed people, the female singer of Clouds sitting on our table during the previous acts and most people not realising it’s her until she got up on the stage, some drunk dude from the audience getting on stage during the show and no one even batting an eyelid, just waiting for the song to end so he’ll get down on his own… must be a club concert. 

Doom over Bucharest is starting to become my experimental festival, as once more I got out there without knowing exactly what to expect. My husband was familiar with all of the bands (of course, he was the main reason we were there), but I had no idea what was about to happen. Usually I make an effort to listen to at least a couple of songs from each band, but this time I couldn’t find the time to do it. I only tried to listen to Shape of despair one morning, but it was so sunny and I was so cheerful and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It didn’t help that funeral doom is what kept me away from doom for years, until I finally found out there’s a whole world out of doom out there, that doesn’t make you want to go to sleep. You can just tell that we didn’t stick around long enough to actually witness Shape of despair, right? 

Anyway, let’s start with the beginning. I have no idea how it happens, but the opening band is always the best in this festival. Or maybe I just don’t get what drives the trv metalheads… anyway, Descend into despair was of course, depressing, but it wasn’t that kind of depression that drowns you and overwhelms you, it was a beautiful moving sadness, much like the one Saturnus is able to produce. Clearly they were heavily inspired by Saturnus and clearly, that made me like them a lot. The vocals put me off, because if there’s one thing I can’t stand in music, it’s monotony, and when you growl something into the microphone on the same two low notes in every single song, if that’s not monotonous and repetitive, I don’t know what is. The instrumental, however, more than made up for it, with lovely melodic keyboards and a beautiful touching melancholy. 

The next band, Abigail, was… I swear I don’t remember. They… played doom? Had grunts? I have no idea. It just passed by my ear. Sure, I remember that the guitarist wore a hood and I kept wondering if he isn’t hot, or that the poor lead singer was interrupted by the drums on the tape just as he was trying to explain that their drummer got sick and they couldn’t find a replacement, so they’re doing their best with what they have. But as far as the music is concerned… blank, nothing. It was a bit more fast paced than the previous band, that I remember, but it also had none of the things that made Descend into despair remotely enjoyable. 

Then came Clouds, which brought some mixed feelings on my part. On one hand, the violin, wind instruments and female chants made for an interesting change of pace. On the other hand, that’s exactly what they were missing: more changes of pace. I’m really not a fan of this drawled type of doom, where you have one drum beat now and the other ten minutes away. Overall it was ok, I at least have a recollection of what they were playing and I mostly enjoyed them. The nature seemed to enjoy them too, as it complimented their gloomy atmosphere with a pouring rain with thunders and lightning.

As I said, we didn’t catch Shape of despair because not even my doom-loving husband could stand two more hours of one drum beat per minute. So we left, wondering if it’s us or them. You know how I was saying there’s a whole world of doom out there? Eh, it may be out there, but I couldn’t get a taste of it during this show. I really like the genre, but there were too many similar bands one after the other. The previous Doom over Bucharest had all sorts of doom subgenres represented and even though I didn’t enjoy every one of them, it at least gave me something to think about, other than how bored I am. It wasn’t all that bad, but I can’t say it was the most successful concert experience of my life. Maybe next time…