A Merry CombiChristmas with Combichrist, Priest and aux animaux at Stockholm’s Kollektivet Livet, 19.12.2024

Hauntwave, dark 80s style synth-pop and industrial metal: When aux animaux was the first to announce on 29 August 2024 that she, Priest and Combichrist would be touring together in Sweden the week before Christmas, this package sounded very promising. Fans of Combichrist could even look forward to an old school electronic set, performed as a duo by frontman Andy LaPlegua and keyboardist Elliott Berlin. On 15 November 2024, the latter then launched an appeal on his private Facebook profile, due to sluggish tickets sales for the tour which is organised and financed by Combichrist themselves. This call to action came as a surprise, because Priest alone had no problems playing a well-attended show at “Slaktkyrkan” with a capacity of 750 during their last visit to Sweden’s capital Stockholm in March 2024. Tonight’s show in Stockholm is the kick-off show of the tour and takes place at “Kollektivet Livet” which can accommodate 700 people, so slightly less than “Slaktkyrkan”. To everyone’s delight, the three-day tour with stops in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg will take place, despite slow tickets sales.

This is the first time we attend a concert at “Kollektivet Livet”, which is part of the larger venue “Stadsgårdsterminalen”, and of course the nationwide “väskförbud” [“ban of bags”], which was introduced in Sweden over a year ago, also applies here. Due to the increased risk of terror attacks in Sweden, one is no longer allowed to bring bags to bigger events, though “Kollektivet Livet” is quite generous, allowing smaller bags with a maximum size “of an A4 paper”. Storing bags in the paid cloakroom is not an option, as the authorities do not consider the cloakroom of “Kollektivet Livet” to be suitable for this (jackets and the like are ok, though). While the security measure is understandable, in practice, it may be a stress factor that could deter some potential visitors from attending an event in the first place.

For a Thursday evening, the doors open quite late, at 8 PM. Then, another hour passes, even though it was said that the first act of the evening, aux animaux, might start at 8.30 PM. This is a pity, because we are here tonight primarily for Priest and aux animaux, and with three bands, the schedule is already tight (everyone has to be out of the club by 1 AM). At 9.03 PM, Gözde Düzer, the artist behind the project aux animaux, enters the stage, half-veiled and scantily-clad at the same time, and performs a kind of ritual during the opener “Redrum (Intro)“. She gets down on her knees, lights a candle, reads from a book, drinks something from a goblet, blows out the candle, stands up and then holds a swinging pendulum in her hand. During “Omen“, things continue in a similarly theatrical manner and she plays the theremin before the sirens of “Blackout” introduce the wilder part of her stage show, with Gözde Düzer jumping and dancing. The audience cheers.

aux animaux was founded as a duo on Christmas 2015. Almost three years later, the duo became today’s one-woman band, which describes its musical style as “hauntwave”. Hailing from the Turkish city of Istanbul, Gözde Düzer has been based in Stockholm for over a decade and a half now. She chose the French name of the project, aux animaux [in English: “to animals”], while she was living in the French city of Strasbourg for a few months, also as a reference to veganism and the animal rights movement, both topics that are very close to her heart. Gözde Düzer sees herself as an audiovisual artist, and visually, she is certainly quite something to look at with her PVC outfit, her make-up and the eccentric performance. As for the visuals, one immediately thinks of Marilyn Manson at his peak in the 1990s.

After “Venus Lucifer“, Gözde Düzer takes over the bass for “Violence In The Silence” and then plays a cover version of The Soft Moon‘s “Wasting” as a tribute to Luis Vasquez. Luis Vasquez, the sole official member of the dark wave project The Soft Moon, died unexpectedly in January 2024 at the age of 44 from suspected fentanyl poisoning. The Soft Moon actually wanted to take aux animaux on tour with them, but now “I will take him on tour with me instead”.

Like the majority of the songs performed tonight, the following tracks – “Lost Souls“, “Night” and “Sleep Paralysis” – are taken from aux animaux‘s debut album “Body Horror” which was released almost exactly a year ago, on 8 December 2023, and was mastered by none other than She Past Away‘s Doruk Öztürkcan. Especially during “Sleep Paralysis“, where things get wild again and Gözde Düzer writhes around on the floor, you notice that the ice between the audience and aux animaux has now been completely broken. During the concluding “Devil Inside“, the audience immediately claps along, and Gözde Düzer no longer just gets closer to the crowd, but even disappears into it for a moment. At 9.46 PM, the 40-minute set reaches its end. It took me a long time to finally catch a show of aux animaux, and anyone who likes “80s horror film inspired dark synth with haunting vocals and eerie theremin tunes” should definitely not miss aux animaux if she is playing a show nearby.

It’s been a while since I last saw Priest live. Kind of. Almost exactly a year ago, in December 2023, we discovered Priest when they performed as main support for the masters of death glam, Deathstars, at “Slaktkyrkan”. Already back then, we predicted that the trio could soon play larger venues on their own, and only 11 weeks later, in March 2024, we were back at the same venue to experience exactly that: Priest as the headliner. And another 11 weeks later, in May 2024, we found ourselves at “Centralbryggeriet” in the Swedish city of Linköping where Priest hosted a pre-release party for their 4th studio album “Dark Pulse” (The corresponding album review can be read here). After that, things winded down a bit, with the Swedish dark 80s style synth-pop band playing just a few selected shows in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain and Mexico. With the start of the Sweden tour today, Priest are now becoming more active again: In January 2025, they will embark on another US tour, and recently, the band – which partly consists of former band members of the Swedish rock heavyweights Ghost – surprised everyone with the revelation that they are working on a documentary, entitled “DECODED: A Priest Doc”. The corresponding crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo runs until the beginning of January 2025.

Their show tonight also starts with a surprise, as the usual intro is not followed by “The Pit“, but by “Neuromancer“, which is usually played after “The Pit“. I’m very tempted to say “never change a winning team”, as the order of intro, “The Pit” and “Neuromancer” works so perfectly, but I also understand the band’s desire to update their repertoire. With “Black Venom“, “Demon’s Call” and “Just A Game“, Priest perform the latest three single releases from their current studio album “Dark Pulse”. The almost seamless transition from “Neuromancer” to “Black Venom” is particularly well done.

During “Blacklisted“, keyboardist Salt plays his first keytar solo at the edge of the stage, while programmer and keyboardist Sulfur, who often acts as the animator of the audience, is showing us his latest – and slightly eccentric – dance moves. Maybe a hint at the mysterious “Dungeon Dance“? Speaking of tracks from the album “Dark Pulse”: “Your Devil” is having its live premiere tonight. Vocalist Mercury explains that fans on Priest‘s Patreon page were able to vote for it, and if you want to vote on such things, you just need to join the band’s Patreon. After “Obey” and “Burning Love“, there is another live premiere: “Enter Your Body“.

As said, I miss “The Pit” tonight, but at the same time, I always appreciate it when bands play as much of their new material as possible, and “Dark Pulse” is definitely Priest‘s best release since their debut album “New Flesh” and their EP “Obey”. The set is concluded with “Vaudeville” and without an encore, despite the audience’s request, as it is already 11 PM. A look at the two different setlists on stage reveals that the original plan was to play “The Cross” as part of the regular setlist, but, apparently, there was no time for that either.

In keeping with the majority of tonight’s audience, the canned music between the sets consists exclusively of aggrotech, because that is also the genre of Combichrist‘s “old school electronic set”: aggrotech, not industrial metal. Amid loud cheers from the crowd, Elliott Berlin and Andy LaPlegua enter the stage and kick off their show with “At The End Of It All“. Andy LaPlegua moves quickly from the left side of the stage to the right, then quickly to the left again, then quickly to the right again… It’s more or less the only move the stage show consists of, while Elliott Berlin works more in the background, providing the sounds and backing vocals. Since Andy LaPlegua is constantly jumping around and either animating the crowd, smiling at them or giving them fist bumps, there is actually nothing wrong with the stage show itself. Quite the contrary: It’s great how much he interacts with the audience, and the crowd clearly loves it. To me personally, it all just seems extremely monotonous, especially in combination with the music, which is exactly that: extremely monotonous. This genre, aggrotech, is definitely not my cup of tea. It never has been. Listening to the canned music between the sets was already pretty tedious, and at some point, it becomes more interesting to watch the passionate (and extremely friendly!) audience than the band.

The setlist covers tracks from the studio albums “Everybody Hates You” (“Today I Woke To The Rain Of Blood“, “Blut Royale“, “Feed Your Anger“, “This Is My Rifle“, “Like To Thank My Buddies“), “What The Fuck Is Wrong With You People?” (“Electrohead“, “Fuck That Shit“, “Get Your Body Beat“, “Shut Up And Swallow“, “Are You Connected“), “Today We Are All Demons” (“I Want Your Blood“) and “Making Monsters” (“Fuckmachine“). Towards the end of the “Tourette’s disco”, as Elliott Berlin once called their shows, the American-Norwegian project increasingly disappears behind fog. The set is concluded with an encore (“They“) at 12:31 AM, before people rush home. After all, it’s a Thursday.

Speaking of which: There are various speculations as to why tickets for this tour sold slowly, and there was probably more than one reason for this. It is interesting to note, though, that aux animaux was the first to announce the tour on 29 August 2024, followed by Priest the day after, while headliner Combichrist took their time (and even after that, there was little advertising). And the aforementioned call to action was published on the private Facebook profile of a band member and not on Combichrist‘s official social media channels. Be that as it may, we are happy and grateful that the tour is going ahead as scheduled, and the kick-off show at “Kollektivet Livet” was well attended in the end. A merry CombiChristmas, indeed.

A photo gallery with additional pictures of the event can be found here.