SKITARG – Oslo – Elm Street

Without any prior knowledge of this band, other than a couple of minutes spent on their myspace page, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when arriving at Elm Street this evening. So when six guys entered the tiny stage in clown makeup, tutus and panties, I thought that this could go either way. Luckily for Skitarg, they pulled of what they set out to do, which was to give their audience a really good show. As far as performance goes, their act could not have been better. Their show is built on humor though, so if you don’t share the bands kind of humor, you would probably hate them. Still, everyone seemed to really enjoy tonight’s concert as these evil clowns were humping each other, running around with dildos and spitting beer into each other’s mouths. The show was built on grotesque humor, and it worked like a charm.

As for the music, it came across as a melodic mix of thrash, black and death metal, with some clear links to metalcore. There are tendencies to clean melodic vocals on some songs, but with rather terrible sound this evening, these elements were pretty much drowned. In addition, the songwriting could use some refinement as many of the songs came across as very similar. Skitarg could clearly benefit from more variation in their material. Still, with song titles as "Jag bryter nacken av din hest" ("I’ll break your horse’s neck"), "Kuk Lukts Klan" ("Cock Stench Clan" with the obvious pun intended to KKK) and "Sodomi kirurgi blues" ("Sodmie Surgical Blues") they clearly color their songwriting with the same humorous creativity as their image.

As a whole, the concert was more than enjoyable, particularly because of the guys’ image, charisma and showmanship, albeit distasteful and grotesque. If they can pick their songwriting up a step or two for their next release, I’ll even buy their album. If you get the chance, check these guys out live, if for nothing else, than for something completely different.