LIVE-REVIEW

Review Source: www.gryphonmetal.ch
Reviewer: dalia di giacomo

The third Swiss band to support the Brutal "Pageantry" from Rome is Punish . And what an amazing support! This last half of the concert gets into a higher sphere: If Muilaff and Shadow's Far were really good on the whole, Punish and Hour of Page infect the evening with open skillfulness and malignant overpower. Punish, seed of dark charm and evil fear, lay down a class performance. Punish, formed in 1996, are one of the most meaningful emerging bands in Switzerland. On 3rd December they will play with the German BM Nordafrost and the Swiss Black melodic Atritas at Industrie 45 in Zug. Don't miss them! At any cost this group of fierce Newcomers, put together to grace us with hatred and darkness, must be attended.

Here Punish , who have supported acts like Belphegor and recorded at Mastersound Studio with producer Alex Krumm their 2005 mini CD "Four Songs in morbid Lust", almost steal the show to the Martyrs of Rome, thanks to their formidable lead guitar, their tight rhythmic session and their obscure music. After all, they are a technical band in my opinion, where each member has a definite role beyond the mere apparent instrumentation in the musical phrases, but fortunately their technicality is very fluent and expressive. Singer Chris Block's hieratic stage - acting gets in balance with the violent, fast, lively lead guitar of founder member André Mathieu. Tonight, the band from Zürich will make us be disciples of its rite through 11 songs, four of them brand new : Guiding the wandering lost Souls
The Entity of immens Evil Dawn of the Martyr and Divinity falls, which will be not published until the release of their next CD (a full length), probably in middle 2006.

Around 10:20 the last sound check runs; five minutes later Punish start off, sinister and energetic and straight to the point without any intro ceremony, with the track Screams from misanthropic Town , which already reveals the talent of Mathieu's piercing guitar. Bassist Reto "Hardy" Hardmeier, also founder member of the band, provides for solid and elastic lines through its 6 strings, headless Basslab (www.basslab.de ) bass-guitar. A very technical unusual lethal weapon, light and comfortable (as Reto underlines to me), ergonomic. So i have before my very eyes a revolutionary product, if it's true that Basslab strings are developed through years of scientific-physical research on acoustic and modern material of construction. Everything positive for the vibration of the strings. Fact is that Punish can be bulldozing and bonebreaking as well as razor-sharp, making always good profit of a dark low-pitched backframe. Brutal and evil with angelic enchantment, they lay down a precise concert based on fast aggression, riffs-changes, plenty of Death, even some old school Black/Death scheme, American appeal, spiced up with a bit of Thrash and killing loops that allow our necks to bleed drops of pain. The compact mercilessly and the dry drumming are able to trigger many moments of moshing: the Werk 21 is again seat of tessence of metal for no posers. While the many eclectic lead solos rips off, Chris' deep growls, very impressive in the first part of the show, recapture force in the last part where also screams and almost clear vocals are delivered. The answer from the crowd is intense and i find the song Divinity falls, the one i prefer, a damned good one. Obviously , like always in these cases, the moment of the last song (Hall of Violence) comes always unwelcome, cause the crowd truly cannot get enough, but Hall of Violence closes definitely the show providing great loops, a dynamic bass sound and a brilliant performance of guitarist Andre Mathieu again. Mr. Mathieu is a talent, man!!

setlist Punish

Screams from misanthropic Town
Suicide Warrior
Ground Zero
Guiding the wandering lost Souls
The Entity of immens Evil
Dawn of the Martyr
Punishment by the Veil of the dark Creation
Discouraging Calamity in mental Disorder
Suffering of the Enemies
Divinity falls
Hall of Violence