System - Live at Club Target '11

The evening of Friday the 15th of January, System had somewhat of a release party in Gothenburg for their new album 'Circle of Infinite Radius'. It's a bit ironic that it is the same date where Progress Productions released the new Covenant album, but we where more than happy to celebrate System's new release.

First band on stage was the Old School EBM band Twat gave it their best shot. To me, it seems a bit strange to mix a Kraftwerk'ish act, with a kind of Oi punk inspired Old School band. Twat did however not impress me in any way. Even though they sometimes managed to squeeze out a great EBM bass line, I nevertheless did throughout the performance, was waiting for something that would make me interested to listen to this band, since there's a lot of great Old School acts out there. During the 5-6 songs I listened to, I could not come up with any reason. Most of all, the vocals where too low and I was unable to hear one single word. There was no push, no strength behind it. Even quieter was the female singer, her yelling came out as a quiet squeal.

Luckily things changed when System entered the stage. At once you felt the aura of professionalism as a big contrast to the supporting act. Live, System has a much heavier beat than on album and it was great, but here was also the problem with the performance. The bass was to high/heavy for the venue, so the bass bounced off the walls and made the steady beat into a rumbling sound, taking over most of the melody and vocal samples. Luckily there where some tracks it where better (like on "You or Me (Nemesis)"), and when everything was working to System's benefit, it was a great show. However, I feel that the lack of live vocals make the performance loose some magic, but it is perhaps too hard to have such heavily distorted vocals performed live.

All and all, System surprised me with their live skills and if the sound and venue worked to their advantage, it would have been a great show.