Abbath is a pretty big name in his own right, and one that has proven once and again to be a top entertainer on stage. Thus it was impressive to see him and the band supporting Hypocrisy on the Mass Hallucination tour, and I half expected the crowd to be here mainly for him. Well, the room was about as packed as it would get this evening, and people were obviously looking forward to this gig, ourselves included.

"Good evening, goddamnit! Ha ha ha ha ha!!”
- Olve ‘Abbath’ Eikemo (vocals/guitar)

During an intro consisting of screaming and shouting, the band entered the stage to darken our night, and so the show began. Abbath kicked off with Calm In Ire Of Hurricane from the 2019 album Outstrider - much like Hypocrisy, Abbath didn’t have a new album out to promote, so you couldn’t avoid a setlist of old songs. What did surprise me, was that there was not a single Immortal song in there, especially surprising since his visit to Copenhell the previous year had consisted of nothing but Immortal songs. It was apparently time for a shake up.
While that was true for the setlist, I quickly grew to wish that the same could have happened to the band. Oh, they hadn’t forgotten how to move like Vomitory before them. There was quite a lot of walking around and headbanging, but from Ole André Farstad and Andreas Fosse Salbu there was no connection to be seen, neither with the audience nor with each other or other members of the band, and this had been one of my praising points at the above mentioned Copenhell gig. Their expressions were rather blank and they did their bit bordering on mechanically. What was going on?

“Kamelåså!”
- Abbath (vocals/guitar)

So it was up to Abbath and Ukri Suvilehto to entertain and connect with the many fans, and Suvilehto was going at it as well as he could. He often stood up while drumming, and contrary to his fellow musicians, he wasn’t afraid to lock eyes with the crowd and encourage the people on the floor to action.
Abbath on the other hand had the microphone, and he did have a bit to say. What exactly it was, I couldn’t tell you for the most part, as he made his voice so intentionally silly, it became quite unintelligible. He did enjoy shouting "Aaa-bath!" a lot, but didn’t really leave room for the crowd to join in. Abbath is more than silly comments however; he’s usually quite a character through and through. Surprisingly, not tonight though. There was no signature crab walk, no firebreathing, and only a bare minimum of some of his other famous stage antics. It was as though there was just no will or energy to make something out of this. Why is anyone’s guess, but it didn’t make for much of a show.

No, while Abbath indeed had the most active audience by far so far this evening, they weren’t up for giving much back for some reason, and in the end, the show felt decidedly underwhelming, and quite far from what we’ve come to know and expect of this artist.

Setlist:

Calm In Ire Of Hurricane
Hecate
Acid Haze
Dream Cull
Ashes Of The Damned
Roots Of The Mountain
The Artifex
Dread Reaver
Bridge Of Spasms
Winterbane