24.09.2022 Saltatio Mortis

Amphitheater at Gelsenkirchen (Germany)

It has been nearly exact three years since my last visit at the Metallica concert on the Maimarktgelände at Mannheim. It seemed like ages ago that corona has brought to all of us and I really missed being in the middle of a crowd in front of a stage. Also Saltatio Mortis have imagined it differently when they announced in 2019 their anniversary concert to their 20-years existence that should take place in 2020. To that time it should happen at Cologne at the Palladium on two evenings, then it was postponed to 2021 and then once more to 2022. To be even more ensured that it really can take place it was additionally moved to Gelsenkirchen into the Amphitheater where it could take place open-air in order to minimize the risks of infections even more. A positive side effect of that was that it now only needed one evening and additionally due to the larger capacity of the venue even more people could join.
And so, I was standing optimistically on the nearly sold-out stands. The crowd chanted again and again “Saltatio Mortis” already before the concert had started and everyone seemed to be champing at the bit to the beginning when right in time at 20:00 the first sounds of “Ein Stück Unsterblichkeit” the intro of the 2018 album “Brot und Spiele” could be heared. What was following were 2.5 hours or pure energy and joy on both sides of the edge of the stage. Directly from the start the band was really pushing hard. Started 22 years ago as street musicians and on medieval markets meanwhile they got really successful with several number one albums with sold-out concerts in front of thousands of people.
During “Spiel mit dem Feuer” from the 2010 album “Sturm aufs Paradies” just like during many other songs the stage was in flames and huge jets of fire were shot past the roof of the stage into the nightly sky of Gelsenkirchen. After it was loud and forceful in the beginning it got really medieval with “Der Knöterich” und “Douce Dame Jolie” in the middle part when they changed to purely instrumental and also singer Alea der Bescheidene took over the bagpipe. That was also the point in time where it came to a reunion with Lasterbalk dem Lästerlichen who buckled on the drums one more time in order to accompany his former companions for a short part of the way.
Something special was given as well this evening because the song “Odins Raben” was performed first. The time flew by and then Saltation Mortis said goodbye for the first time this evening. But only to be right back in order to perform the calm and sensitive ballad “Nichts bleibt mehr” accoustically whilst seating on stage. Afterwards, not only the band gathered pace again but also the audience getting started again after that short breathing pause. Alea was feeling warm meanwhile and he opened his shirt. At some point in time he could not contain himself, the shirt flew away and he head first into the crowd. After another short break there was a second encore until the concert came after roughly two and a half hours finally to an end with “Prometheus” and “Spielmannsschwur”.
What a roller coaster ride through 22 years of Saltatio Mortis. It was nearly from all albums something in the set list (except the three early musical works “Tavernakel”, “Heptessenz” and “Erwachen”), from calm to powerful, from medieval to metal. You could directly see, how everybody was yearning for these kinds of concerts, may it be the people on the stand as well as the band on stage. The only thing that I found a pity was the fact that there was a little bit too much from the two bawling-along albums “Brot und Spiele” as well as “Für immer frei”. The guys can do a lot more better compared to what they have produce with these, although, these are certainly no bad albums. Be that as it may. I was more than happy and completely satisfied when I went back home late that evening and all the others seemed obviously to feel the same. Overall, I am sure that the ways of Saltatio Mortis and mine will cross again in the future several times.