Fellow concert reviewers would aptly describe the crowd size for the Horna concert as “intimate.” Considering all the promotion and venue location, roughly over twenty-five people showed up to see the Finnish black metal band perform at Altar Bar. Shocking to see such a scant sized group show up when Norwegian legends Immortal packed Mr. Smalls on the night of a blizzard and Inquisition, a band on par for popularity as Horna, drew in a substantial gathering at Kopec’s Korner. Perhaps the lack of local support was to blame because The Cult at Stage AE sure as hell wasn’t drawing away the metalheads.  And with a full moon high up in the evening sky, why would anybody think that the night wouldn’t get any stranger?

            The Beyond from Philadelphia and Mausoleum from Johnstown were the first bands to be at the Altar Bar on time for 7:30pm start, which got pushed back to 9:00pm.  The Beyond carried their music heavy and fast, with the most punk sounding black metal in the lineup. High-pitched screams accented their music’s take on mashing up Norwegian black metal and crust. It was a tad amusing to see the vocalist wearing vintage, white dress shoes on stage while letting loose glass shattering screams. But with crusty riffs and a sinister driving force, The Beyond were a nice surprise from the city of Brotherly Love.

            Not much metal has come by the way of Johnstown. Still, the death metal band Mausoleum garnered quite a bit of attention from the tiny crowd. The J-town foursome dealt some seriously vicious songs with the screams and howlings of graveyard horrors.  Straightforward tunes resembled the crushing hits of Benediction, though Mausoleum’s songs consist of heavier, trudging rhythms. A killer approach, as well as a traditional one, that won over the audience.

            Late to the party and taking awhile to set up their stage props, Kommandant was on par with Horna in terms of fanaticism. The Chicago war metal band donned military uniforms including black jump suits and gas masks, while the vocalist took to a man-made podium of black and red. Their music followed a similar path, echoing the cold harshness of an authoritarian regime backed by taunting vocal commands.

            While most of the crowd looked upon Kommandant as an entertaining war metal band, there were a few concert attendees who took offense and confronted the musicians on their message. Themes of war and hate along with a militaristic theme were pushed too far in this case, especially when a drunken couple was giving the Nazi salute. There is something inherently wrong when music attracts intolerant behavior. Whether or not Kommandant condones this sort of behavior, it is up to those at the concert to stand up and say something.

            As for Horna, these guys are what you would expect from your run of the mill black metal group: corpse paint, incoherent screams, and plenty of symbolic references to Satan. Although the Fins took it a step further by playing up the Satanism even further, as one would expect when playing in a church. Musically, though, they differ a fair amount from their Scandinavian brothers by the way of catchier riffs. The iconic tremolo guitar picking is still there, but executed as part of a chorus of power that resemble wolves on the hunt. Fans were even pressing themselves against the stage to get close, despite the fact that there was no need to with a minimal amount of people hanging around. Then again, it’s not often Pittsburgh gets a genuine black metal band so metalheads are bound to go nuts.







The Beyond