In the underbelly of the Pretoria metal scene, at Full Moon Lounge, a venue that has become the local watering hole of leather-clad-spiked-gauntlet-wearing-children-of-darkness, AOA launched their brand new controversial album, Acts of God: 4000 years of Phallusy. The album takes on the three major monotheistic religions; Christianity, Judaism and Islam; and offers a different perspective on their ideology and influential grasp on society, modern and old. Deciding to document the full experience, we arrived quite early and were surprisingly met by hordes of fans eagerly awaiting the evening's proceedings, Black Labels in hand, devil horns in the air, so we had no choice but to blend in and get the party going. Couple tequilas later and after a rather blasphemous, yet amusing welcome speech by MC Chris van der Walt; long-time friends, and fellow Pretorians, RhutZ and Bile of Man opened up the event and got the crowd warmed up. That's if you can classify moshing your balls off "warming-up". Architecture came on to a screaming crowd, the anticipation had built up to a volcano of energy waiting to erupt at the first hint of a chord, and when that chord struck, chaos fell upon Full Moon. The pit went ballistic, the whole place seemed to start shaking, which could've also been the effect of countless labels and tequilas, but let's just credit the crowd for now. AOA's set consisted of the full new album, which is technical death metal at its brutal-est, and a couple all-time favourites, ending with what could only be described as the AOA anthem, GodKill. Pre-releasing the album online, for free, definitely worked in AOA's favour. It was a slight taste of what to expect from the launch, and gave the fans a chance to get familiar with the songs and learn a few sing-a-long chants for the show, and did they sing along. The crowd proved to be as much of a contributing factor in the event as the bands, as they fed off each other's energy and created an atmosphere worthy of the gods of metal. The organisation of the event was at a calibre we should come to expect in SA, definitely one of the better metal/underground events I've attended. From the awesome sound, moody stage lighting, on-stage LCD screens, merch stalls and let's not forget the VIP area, to printed quotes posted on every wall giving you a better understanding of AOA's message, you could notice just by walking in that this took some serious effort, and the team's blood, sweat and tears definitely payed off. And even feeling the way I did the next morning, as I'm sure most of the attendees did, I was still pumped from the night of chaos that now plays part of a small collection of unforgettable memories. Well done team AOA!!!

Source