The Ultima Ratio Fest 2023 edition offered another strong and international line-up, following last year’s edition that featured bands like MY DYING BRIDE and MOONSPELL, among others, touring throughout Europe. This year’s headliners included prominent acts such as PARADISE LOST and PRIMORDIAL, supported by the mighty OMNIUM GATHERUM and HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY. We were fortunate to catch them in Hamburg on October 12th, 2023.
The Finnish melodic death metal outfit, OMNIUM GATHERUM, started the afternoon. We were most excited to see these guys since it was our first time. From start to finish, their performance was nothing short of pristine. The melancholy in their melodies wafted through the air like a breath of fresh air, leaving everyone uplifted. OMNIUM GATHERUM succeeded in conveying a quality melancholy rarely found in music. The crowd cheered them on as they played hits like “Slasher” and “Frontiers.”
HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, the post-black metal band from Austria, was next and they delivered a deeply committed performance, both musically and physically. The band’s passion for their craft was evident in every tone and move, and though the crowd was quiet, it was never inattentive. On the contrary, it seemed to be fully engaged with HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY‘s intense performance, which was highlighted by vocalist J.J.‘s interaction with the crowd as he stepped down from the stage to continue singing among them. In addition to their soul-crushing melodies that carry deep emotion and are accompanied by a plethora of hard riffs, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY closed the evening with their forceful theme, “Calling the Rain.”
The first headliner of the evening, PRIMORDIAL from Ireland, took the stage, and by this point, the hall seemed to be packed to the point of a sold-out show. The space kept getting tighter and tighter, making it quite challenging to find a decent spot to watch the show. Towards the back, the sound became indistinctive because the ceiling lowers from the middle to the rear of the hall.
Despite the drawbacks of the location, PRIMORDIAL entered an atmospheric stage filled with fog. It wasn’t long until frontman A.A. Nemtheanga made an explosive appearance and engaged the crowd with his theatrical performance, enhanced through his distinctive vocal tone. They were met with high expectations and a loud, cheering crowd, especially when they played their classic “To Hell Or The Hangman.” They visibly lifted the crowd’s spirits, prompting them to step up their game and become louder throughout the performance.
The English band PARADISE LOST took the stage, kicking off with the absolute classic “Enchantment” from their still-acclaimed album “Draconian Times,” released back in 1995. It had been quite a while since we last had the chance to see them live, and over the years, while their moods onstage might vary (much like ours fluctuates from day to day at work), they are undeniably one of the bands in the broader spectrum of melodic-death/doom metal that has consistently produced significantly great albums one after the other. At the very least, in the last 10 years, they have released an album with various super-hits, followed by albums fully stocked with them.
PARADISE LOST continued with “Forsaken,” another hit from their latest full-length album “Obsidian,” released in 2020. These two songs saw the light of day 25 years apart, and while stylistically they could be argued to follow different paths, this is a band that has consistently elevated their game in terms of quality and maintained their unique signature, even when venturing into different genres.
The crowd was ecstatic by this point, and the band appeared satisfied and engaged, with guitarists Gregor McIntosh and Aaron Aedy seeming to have a great time. PARADISE LOST continued to play songs from classic albums such as “Icon,” “One Second,” “In Requiem,” and “The Plague Within.” We are grateful for the opportunity to have seen PARADISE LOST once again, arguably in their best form in many years.
Text and photos by Michelle Rosales
