God Dethroned Concert Review

God Dethroned, Abigail Williams, Woe Of Tyrants, Augury, Sangre Mal

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Station 4, St. Paul, MN

I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get out to venues for shows that start so early (this one started at 7:00), so I arrived at Station 4 soon after Abigail Williams had taken the stage. Not being familiar with this American symphonic black metal band, I was suitably impressed by their performance. Fans of Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, and their ilk would take a liking to Abigail Williams. They’re still out on the road supporting late 2008’s In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns album, so hopefully new material will be forthcoming in 2010. Abigail Williams is certainly a band to keep an eye on, and they’ll back through Station 4 on January 23 with Nile, Immolation, Krisiun, and Dreaming Dead.

God Dethroned stormed on to the stage with “Under A Darkening Sky”, and proceeded through a 60 minute set that spanned their last six albums since 1999. This Dutch death metal band has been absent from the US for a couple years and the timing of their current tour couldn’t be better, as they are out promoting the phenomenal Passiondale release. God Dethroned is sporting two new members that joined after the recording of Passiondale, Mike van der Plicht (drums) and Susan Gerl (guitar), and fit in well as the band sounded tight. By the time Passiondale’s “No Man’s Land” was played almost midway into the set, selections from The Toxic Touch (“Hating Life”), The Lair Of The White Worm (“Nihilism”), Into The Lungs Of Hell (“Soul Sweeper”), and Bloody Blasphemy (“Serpent King”) had already been covered. The highpoint of the set was “Poison Fog”, the sweeping epic from Passiondale. Founding vocalist and guitarist Henri Sattler handled the clean vocals with ease. The final selection from Passiondale included “Drowning in Mud”, and the remainder of the set was rounded out by “The Execution Protocol”, “The Warcult”, and “Boiling Blood”. The band returned to play “The Lair Of The White Worm” for the encore, and then hung out on stage to talk with fans. Overall, the set was well executed and one would never know that half the band is new. The new material from Passiondale blended into the set well alongside songs from older albums. Poor turnout was the only disappointment of the night, but the band seemed to take it in stride by playing an outstanding show.


Click on the photos to view more pictures of God Dethroned (16) and Abigail Williams (5).