Friday nights in Tampa’s Ybor district are typically filled with mayhem, chaos and music. This particular evening, the district welcomed Swedish Black Metal legends Watain to The Orpheum as they promote the band’s 6th album Trident Wolf Eclipse. Joining them was special guest Morbid Angel.
The tour would conclude in Ft. Lauderdale the following night after performing 26 shows in 32 day that took the band from Texas to Cali and cross-country to Florida. Adding to the madness of touring the band lost their guitarist Pelle Forsberg after he was banned from the U.S. while the remaining members went through a week of uncertainty rendering them unable to perform the initial show of the tour in Houston.
Watain is no stranger to controversy or censorship in relation to satanism, black metal and the counter culture.
The intimacy of a small venue creates that feeling of intensity and rawness to it that fans and the band alike feed off of. There are no curtains dropping revealing elaborate stage shows or fancy light shows. All eyes are on the stage as the crew sets up the equipment and props. The lighting dim and dark with deep red tones, animal bones and pig heads are brought onto the stage setting an ominous mood. Suddenly a smell of burning flesh fills the air as the band makes its way to the stage with lit torches in hand as smoke fills the venue.
The hour long set was an intense assault on the senses that overtook ones body inside out. The visual sights, powerful vocals and deafening chords took the crowd through a journey of exploration and they seemed to snap out of their trance as the band walked of the stage.
A WATAIN experience is one that should be experienced by all except the weak.
