America’s leading death metal/grindcore band “Misery Index” was here in Singapore for its South-East Asia Touring on 9 April 2010 @ Substation. Our editor, Clarence, had the extreme privilege to catch their performance live for the first time.

Click here to read the review!

(c) Heavy Metal Tribune 2010

Shit yes! This band was stunning live, just as I'd hoped. I've never seen a band whip the crowd into a frenzy so damn quickly, and the setlist was perfect.

@Element_man: That Striker show sounds amazing. I would kill to see White Knight live.

Eventually, I'll try to write a review for the Evile/Warbringer/God Dethroned/Overkill show as well.

The lineup was: Hatesphere, Augury, Obscura, The Black Dahlia Murder.

Kicking off the show was Hatesphere. I came in early and bought a shirt from their bassist they all seemed like a real cool bunch of dudes. They started off with some technical difficulties one of which was the fact that the microphone was turned off, for some reason it took almost an entire song to get the problem fixed. The vocalist tried to get a pit going the entire set but failed until the very end, he had a great performance and I was surprised to find out that he isn't an official member of the band. They really found their groove when they played "Reaper of Life" (one of their slower songs). All in all I wasn't familiar with their music going in and was happy with what I got some solid melodic death/thrash metal. 8/10

Next up was Augury AKA the reason I was at this show. They delivered without a doubt and had one of the best sets they could've possibly put together, the only flaw was that my favorite song "Skyless" wasn't included. I was a little skeptical due to the fact that right before the tour was announced they had lost their bassist Forest, considering that the bands bass work is what really seperates them from the pack for me. I'm not sure who the replacement was but he did an excellent job. The crowd surprisingly dug this more than Hatesphere, they weren't crazily into it until the vocalist yelled "LETS GET NAKED" at the top of his lungs! The guitarwork was really something to see live they play with such precision it is really mindblowing. Bottom line: Augury is a must see
9.5/10

Obscura was next, and another great band I was looking foward to. Aside from one song their whole set consisted of songs off Cosmogenesis. During their soundcheck they were playing songs by the mighty Death such as Symbolic, Pull the Plug etc... I was right up by the bassist and damn that fretless bass is sexy. Overall no complaints about these guys, they delivered with a spot on performance and along with that even threw in a drawn out drum solo that slayed.
8.5/10

The headliners Black Dahlia Murder came up to close out the show. I'll be the first to admit I'm a very big fan of their album Nocturnal so I was excited to see them for the first time. Trevor has so much energy when they play and got the craziest mosh pit I've ever seen going right when they started playing. They played a little bit from every album and considering I hadn't ever bothered with Deflorate I was pleased. Most of the material sounded better live than on cd. They closed with "I Will Return" and it turned out to be one of the most epic shows that I've ever attended even though I think Augury should've been headlining.
9/10

I'll review the show I'm going to next month too
Revocation, Cattle Decapitation, Whitechapel, and JFAC. Even though I may only stay for the first 2 lol

I just saw Amon Amarth and Eluveitie (Holy Grail was there too but I couldn't get in until after their set was done). Turnout was insane, most people I've ever seen in this fucking city and that made buying the tickets right there and then a problem (I usually do that, shows in Québec are NEVER sold out...), and entering ended up costing 60$ instead of 40... minus seeing Holy Grail, who I kinda wanted to see. Anyway.

Eluveitie (7.0/10) played a pretty good show, it was definitely entertaining and all and certainly wasn't as unpleasant as the very mediocre Finntroll I saw a couple of weeks ago. The problem is that much of their trademark sound was barely there, instead sounding like generic melodic death metal with the occasional folk parts. A few songs (mostly from Slania) were really enjoyable and went well, but this show was something of a disappointment for me, I was expecting something unique and memorable. The played nothing from Evocation, and while the album itself is overall pretty boring I'd have liked to hear Brictom and/or Omnos.

Amon Amarth (8.5/10) were fortunately a lot better, second time I saw them. The setlist had several improvements over the first time back in late 2008, notably the presence of the insanely warlike Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags and the timeless epic ...And Soon The World Shall Cease to Be, possibly my favorite all-round Amon Amarth song. Still, even here something was a bit amiss, the performance wasn't quite excellent. Perhaps it was something external, like my being pissed off for the ripoff at the entrance or the large number of idiots present (remember, sold-out concert = many people, many people = many morons among them) who were particularly unpleasant, and given the usual populace at a metal show that's saying something. Overall it was a pretty solid performance though, just didn't have that "extra something" which makes Carcass, Immortal and Moonsorrow so fucking godly live.

Still, it was a pleasant overall experience, just marred by inconveniences and the absence of any mind-blowing moments (except those two AA songs).

Cannibal Corpse, Skeletonwitch, Diabolic (filling in for 1349), Lecherous Nocturne and C.O.B.C. at Jaxx in Springfield, VA 4/23/10

First off, I was really upset that 1349 couldn't make it to this date due to visa issues as well as the volcano. Would have made an already good concert absolutely awesome. Oh well; there's always next time.

C.O.B.C. - I got stuck in traffic on 495 so I only arrived in time to the see the last 1.5 songs by this band. They're billed as death metal but the last song seemed to be one longass breakdown with the frontman yelling "burn it down! Burn this motherfucker to the ground!" over and over with little to no response from the crowd, so I don't think I missed much.

Lecherous Nocturne - This band is basically everything I avoid in death metal. Nonstop blasting, tech "riffs" that just became a monotone wall of noise and some guy in a Hatebreed shirt growling over top of it all. In other words, the most faceless, dull brutal death metal imaginable. Every once in a while something resembling a headbangable riff peeked out through the murk but not often enough to matter much. Luckily their set was pretty short.

Diabolic - What Lecherous Nocturne are to brutal death metal Diabolic are to "regular" death metal. Fortunately, that meant that they were pretty darn fun and maintained a high level of headbangability. Lots of Kerry King-esque whammy bar abuse in the solos (but they sounded awesome so that's not really a complaint). The drummer was fairly sloppy but had a really cool stile for his fills. All in all they could have done a hell of a lot worse with 1349's replacement but could also have done better. The band suffered from sound issues with the drums being way too high in the mix. The tremolo guitar lines were generally pretty audible but the lower parts were hard to make out under the drums, which was a shame.

Skeletonwitch - The highlight of the night for me. The band had tons of charisma (especially Chance, the vocalist, who had some great banter). The band played absolutely flawlessly and the sound was much improved over Diabolic's with a lot of clarity on all of the instruments. I don't really have much else to add; if you enjoy Skeletonwitch even a little bit on record you can expect them to pull that off perfectly in the live setting with a healthy dose of stage presence.

Cannibal Corpse - CC are really one of those bands where it's all about the pit. You can try all you want to stand around and headbang but unless you're right up front that's simply not going to happen. Corpsegrinder doesn't really seem to understand circle pit mechanics (or at least completely disregards them) as he seemed to be determined to get the entire floor of the venue to be one giant pit. I've gotta say he came pretty close to success during "Hammer Smashed Face." The setlist was really varied with stuff from throughout their catalogue. It's hard to say much about the band's stage presence as most of my time was spent avoiding being trampled but a few times looking up I noticed Corpsegrinder windmilling as you'd expect. Really, really fun live band. See them if you haven't yet (or if you have) as they're not really something that should be missed, pretty much without regard to your feelings about their actual music.

Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and Black Anvil at the Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington D.C. 4/25/10

Got to the venue maybe 15 minutes early and there was literally no one else there yet. A few minutes later a couple of dudes showed up but we stood around for quite a while before venturing into the club. Hung out at the bar for a while waiting for the inner doors to open and found a spot right up front in front of the guitar amps on the left end of the stage.

Black Anvil - I had never heard anything by this band so had no idea what they'd be like but I was pleasantly surprised. The spine of the material is d-beat powered thrashy black metal but the band didn't seem afraid to venture into more atmospheric or even doomy territory under the right circumstances. Really entertaining drummer and the bassist/vocalist was nuts. The guitarist was a bit stoic but churned out some awesome riffs (and oddly fitting bluesy rock solos). I wanted to buy some merch from this band but didn't want to lose my spot up front and unfortunately they left before the show was over and took their merch with them. Oh well...there's always the internet.

Toxic Holocaust - Joel Grind is such a badass dude. That pretty much sums things up. Really high energy set. Played some of their best songs and closed with "Nuke the Cross." The whole band sounded great although of course the focus was on Grind's simple yet effective thrash riffing.

Municipal Waste - No matter how much I was expecting out of this band (which was a lot), they somehow managed to surpass it. The crowd went absolutely nuts, tons of stage diving even though it was apparently prohibited, Tony yelled at the security dudes and the venue in general for throwing out random moshers, Ryan poured beer into the mouths of fans and generally Municipal Waste fucked us up. This band has some really incredible stage presence, really knows how to work the crowd and come up with some hilarious banter (after playing "Boner City" they said they were just going to keep playing the song over and over until everyone in the audience was sixty-nining and fingering things they never thought to finger). Oh, and they fucking THRASHED. Anyone who derides this band as being insincere or who writes off their music as derivative D.R.I. worship (well, that last bit may be true but with riffs this good who really cares?) obviously hasn't seen this band live. A must-see.

I got to chat a bit with Joel Grind after the show. I asked him if he had any plans to bring Tiger Junkies to the U.S. but he said he didn't as it's just so hard to organize a tour with someone else with an active touring band who lives in Japan. Oh well. Hell of a nice guy. Unfortunately for whoever's reading this (unless you're in Japan, I guess) this was the last stop on this tour but all three of these bands are worth seeing live if you get the chance.

I recently saw Pagan Altar twice on their tour here in Finland. The opener was Isole and while their three vocalists approach makes for good live harmonics as well as greater variation in that department, it deducts a bit from the performance. They're all very concentrated on their instruments and the vocalizing so there's not much going on. The songs tend to go on for a long time and they're often rather slow going so don't lend themselves that well to live situations. There are some faster and more aggressive parts, but they're always inbetween the slow and somber parts for improved dynamics I suppose, but it left me just feeling disjointed. No Ereb Altor songs either.

I wasn't very familiar with Pagan Altar, but they blew me away. Really catchy songwriting that kept me intensely watching until the very end even though I'm not usually that much into stuff that I'm not familiar with. Terry Jones's theatrics are entertaining, but what kept my attention most of the time was Alan Jones's lead guitaring. At both gigs I was in the first row on the left, right before him so had a clear line of sight. The leads in their songs are almost constant so I had a hard time believing that he was able to remember them all. I guess it's not that difficult if you're used to doing it often, but still. He didn't do much onstage besides play, but still he seemed very charismatic. Their live sound was excellent. Powerful and heavy, much more energetic than on the album. Terry's vocals are an acquired taste and he was a bit off-key, but I don't think that's very important, especially with vocals like his and I didn't much pay attention to that anyway. It was all about the leads for me and they were just perfect, both times.

I wish that lineup would've come somewhere near here, I love all 3 of those bands.

I wish that lineup would've come somewhere near here, I love all 3 of those bands.

The Grindhouse (a misleading title for the gig, for it took some of us quite a bit of convincing to go because we thought it was going to be a grind gig) was held on 30th April. After a 1 hour delay, the gig finally kicked off at 8pm. 6 awesome bands, displaying the prowess of Asian death metal.

The lineup:
Stillborn
GrindButo (Indonesia)
Truth Be Known
Lacerate (Thailand)
GxSxD (Japan)
Defiled (Japan)

Click here to read the review!

Bolt Thrower / Rotting Christ / Dew Scented / Obnoxious
CCO - Villeurbanne (France) - May 9, 2010
Audience : approx. 450.

Sorry for the local openers Obnoxious, but I was outside drinking beers with friends. Having already seen them twice, it was a pity to miss their show as I quite like their brand of fast and brutal thrash Metal mixed with some DM influences. 'Very good' said the people who've seen the show.

Dew Scented is still catchy as all hell. Fast thrash metal all the way. Amongst older stuff, they played 2 tracks from the upcoming album, which were really intense. Their frontman is also quite cool, joking a lot (in french!) with the audience.

I've only seen the beginning (first song) and the end (last two songs) of the Rotting Christ set. Typically uninteresting Century Media metal. I really miss their old stuff, when they had that particular greek sound, and a great sense of darkness in their riffs.

Bolt Thrower were just perfect. Heavy, relentless, crushing. The mosh pit was reeking of hot sweat and spilled beer. No fucking security on stage, so there were plenty of stage-diving. A real return to the ancient days of death metal!

Except the fact that the end of the night was spoiled by some skinheads who broke the leg of a guy in front of the venue, that was a very good evening: my neck is aching today...

I just hope that Orphaned Land this evening will be as good.

Tonight I went to see Dark Tranquillity. Opening for them were Mutiny Within and Threat Signal (and some local band whose name eludes me).

First of all, I only caught the last song and a half of that last band and it was some sort of extremely generic death/thrash mix like a billion other bands like to do in the same vein. No reason to dwell on them.

Then came Mutiny Within (0/10) and boy did they fucking suck balls. This band can be perfectly defined with one simple yet so awful word: mallcore. Mutiny Within is shit. Their music consists of the most distant "evolution" of melodic death metal à l'Américaine, meaning that they're devastatingly metalcore. But that's not all: their songwriting is a disaster, since in every fucking song it follows the same tired concept of harsh deathcore-like verse sections and emocore choruses where the singer fully becomes the wussy little faggot that the band's pictures make him out to be. Even the Awake single, which I listened to before the show, would've been unrecognizable among the rest of their set had they not named the track beforehand. When I first heard them I heard influences from what any metalhead fears to hear in his music: first and foremost, this is a Devil Wears Prada copycat. To make matters even worse (!), they also seem inspired by bands such as Nickelback and even Simple Plan (and similar crap). This band needs to be avoided like the fucking plague that it is upon the world of metal.

The second guttercore band this tour forced upon me was Threat Signal (1.5/10). This was marginally better than the previous band, simply because they didn't have all the flamboyant mallcore/emocore parts that Mediocrity Within love to jam deep into every single one of their retarded songs. However, be that as it may, Thread Signal is one of the most generic bullshit metalcore bands in existence. Again, every song was identical to the previous one and they just kept fucking dragging on (they played for 40 minutes) instead of ending the torture session. Tonight made me realize that I hate core music not because some losers decide that's what they enjoy (I wouldn't really give a fuck) but because labels push this crap in tours with real metal bands and constantly shove them down metalheads' throats, attempting to mix the two scenes together in an extremely immoral and disgusting way.

Finally came the only reason for which I chose to attend tonight: Dark Tranquillity (9.5/10). In this I may be slightly influenced by the extreme lack of quality of the opening bands, but DT blew me the fuck away. The show wasn't perfect, due to some bland We Are the Void tracks (especially around the beginning) but they redeemed themselves superbly.

The track choice was commendable, as, although the new songs could've been a bit less numerous, the number of classics was more than sufficient. Particularly satisfactory was the inclusion of two tracks from The Gallery, namely the staple Punish My Heaven and, the highlight of the night, Lethe. The latter is probably the best track they ever made in terms of emotional delivery and sincerity and playing it made me extremely happy. Mikael Stanne's stage presence was top notch and the crowd's responses made for an explosive atmosphere.

Worth noting is Dark Tranquillity's inclusion of a projected motion picture montage which lasted throughout the show. On it were shown various visual effects, most of them highly symbolic, which went extremely well with the songs being played at the time. Elements such as snow, beasts, flames, smoke volcanoes, cities as night and other elements were alternately shown and made for a very interesting addition to the performance. It added a magnificent theatrical side to it all. In addition to the symbolic imagery, during the rendition of Shadow in our Blood the new clip for the song was shown, creating a pretty cool effect. This clip, and the imagery in general, follows the visual themes previously explored by the band during their Monochromatic Stains clip, as well as by those artists who choose to work with black and white "creepy" imagery, such as Marduk around 2004 (the Plague Angel/Death March EP period).

In conclusion, this performance by Dark Tranquillity has put them into my list of top shows ever seen. To top it all off, I even managed to get a fully signed copy of the new album and to meet all the band members .

A bit late, but better late than never. I saw Deströyer 666 a couple of weeks ago, here in Helsinki. The openers were Crosswrecker (formed from the remnants of Sacrificial Dagger) and Demonical, but while I was interested in seeing the latter, I was too busy at the time to make the effort to go see them. I think Crosswrecker didn't sound too bad from what I heard though.

For Deströyer I got in the front, but some idiot had broken a glass on the stage so had to be very careful where to place one's hands so that kind of detracted from getting completely into the atmosphere of the show, but not that much. I had a sneak peek at their setlist from the previous day in Turku and was surprised to see the lack of the usual staples like Eternal Glory of War and Lone Wolf Winter. But no matter, the band has such music and such a stage presence that the setlist doesn't matter too much. Needless to say, K.K. had a strong and charismatic presence as usual. There's not much running around on the stage, but with their powerful and vicious vocal delivery, there's no much need for that. The bassist seemed to be focusing a lot on just playing though and cant' say anything about Shrapnel: he was on the other side of the stage. Beforehand, the setlist seemed to consist mostly of slower, more epic songs, but I didn't really hear much of those out there. I guess I kind of analyzed the setlist wrong. It was mostly just faster and more aggressive songs, though they did play Trialed by Fire which was the highlight. The aforementioned Eternal Glory of War and (abridged) Lone Wolf Winter did come as an encore after all, along with Satan's Hammer. I really wish they would do away with Satanic Speed Metal though. I know people love it, but to me it is their most boring song, the new album aside. All in all, a very strong performance from them, better than the one at Pellavarock last year (festival shows always are inferior) but not sure if up to the levels of the 2003 in Turku with Genesis to Genocide, Unchain the Wolves and a Bestial Warlust-cover.

Whitechapel
The crowd loved it, this was the most active crowd I've ever seen. Period. I have never seen the pit get all the way back to the bleachers at this venue but that shit went up the bleachers today. So all in all crowd was cool but the set was one long, drawn out breakdown. One question... WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS BAND HAVE THREE GUITARISTS????? They all played the same thing 95% of the time!

Job For A Cowboy
They played their set with some energy and cracked some funny jokes in between songs. I don't care for their music much but it was better live than on record imo. I'm not sure if he sounds like this every show but Davy's screams sounded more like black metal esque shrieks some of the time live. Regardless they were better than 5.

The Roman Holiday
(Local band that opened) I was super surprised by this local band. The walked on stage and the vocalist was rockin a Blotted Science shirt so I knew I was in for a treat. They played a fairly technical brand of death metal that leaned to the core side at times. They played with more energy than the headliners and really set the mood for the night. Some guy was really into it next to me, he was making horns with his crutches and throwning them in the air and at one point he said "PLAY THE ENTIRE (Insert record title here) ALBUM!!!" lol
Revocation
Kick ass deaththrashers Revocation slayed almost as much as Cattle. They blazed through their set with ease. Some faggot in the crowd was heckling with his friends, figures it was the smallest guy in the fucking place, must have been upset with the lack of breakdowns. The dual vocal attack was executed with perfection and I couldn't spot one mistake by any of the members. Merch bought: Shirt All 3 of their CDs

Cattle Decapitation
Travis looks possessed when he is on stage! They came up ran through about 7 songs and then introduced themselves right before playing their closer. When Travis was barking out his deafening high pitched screams all that was visible were the whites of his eyes as he flailed his body through the entire set. The guitarist was fast as fuck and played so precisely throughout. Their new bassist tore it up as well. On another note, I got the Human Jerky picture disc.

Done order of least favorite to favorite

Rock Hard Festival - Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Friday

Ketzer
Nice gig. They came with a strong, powerful sound, a lot of sun (it was quiet hot) and action. Infernal Destroyer did a lot to animate the fans and so this festival opener was a real good kick off.

Necros Christos
Quiet boring, in my opinion. They are somehow one of the most respectable underground Death Metal-Band in Germany, but since I'm not such a big fan of this genre in general (some bands I like), don't take my comment to hard. I would call it "barbecue" time, but I've stayed there the whole show.

Katatonia
Do I really have to say something? Okay, I will: Good sound, good band, beautiful. Do I still have to say more? No? Okay, they are just a really good band.

Bloodbath
The highlight of the day (even if just post Headliner). Mikael's voice kicks arse... perfect. This is one of the Death Metal-Bands which I really enjoy. Good sounds, good crowd and till now just the 4th concert of this band ever, awesome.

The Devil's Blood
Different, I think this describes this band perfectly. No hello, no goodbye, no "sound-off-time". They came on stage, started to play, and went of. 3 guitars, 1 LOUD bass, drum, background choir and a women with a strong voice. Check them out by your own, I liked them.


Saturday

Orden Organ
First at all: They're metal and not in the archives, that's weird. Secondly: They're okay, nothing special in general here.

Acept
The Co-Headliner on this evening. The new singer do a really good job to let us forget, that Udo was and ever will be one of the most characteristicly singers in the Metal-World. New songs, old classical ones, really good job by those icons.

Kreator
Do I talk about Icons? Well, Kreator are some as well, and HOLY SHIT, the best band at this festival. Hate, Aggression, WAR... Mosh Pits all over and when Mille just commands you to do another one, the weakest will die. Kreator is one of the best Live-Bands I've ever seen.


Sunday

Keep Of Kalessin
It was hot, nearly to hot, but still a good band, nothing special, but good.

Orphaned Land
They let the crowd jump and I think, they really won a lot of new fans. Nice sound, nice party. Folk from the middle east, beautiful.

Nevermore
Loud as hell, like always. They're a band for smaller festivals, but than just perfectly fitting. I've seen them also at Wacken, they were not so great there than at this Festival.

Sonata Arctica
I really like the band around Toni, but they're, as like as Stratovarius, no Festival-Band in my opinion. They need a crowd who just love them, than they're great. But on festivals, well, they fall of against bands like Kreator, Accept, Nevermore, Bloodbath et cetera. They were not boring, but also not really exciting.

Rage
The last band on the festival, with an orchestra and wow, they were great. I don't like Rage that much on CD, but live, perfect. Strong, wonderful sound, great crowd ... just everything fitted here right.

They are on the archives, except they're called Orden Ogan.

I went to Buster's Billiards & Backroom in Lexington, KY this past Saturday to see Valient Thorr, Baroness, Between the Buried and Me, and Mastodon.


Valient Thorr
Although they're not really a metal band, these guys were fantastic openers for the show. Their dirty, gritty, rock 'n roll attitude got the energy of the crowd going and the audience was clearly digging them from the start. Very active stage presence and near-flawless playing. Even for the simplicity of their style, none of the songs blended together or sounded samey; the band was dynamic enough to keep the energy high but add some variety into the sound. Their interaction with the crowd helped to foster the same approach for the rest of the night as well.

Baroness
This band was like half the reason I went to the show. Their performance was pretty much flawless on all levels and I really appreciated the fact that they were able to seamlessly transition each song into the next, making their entire set essentially one big song. Their noise rock/experimental tendencies were most at work in these song transitions and helped the atmospheric tendencies in the music. Although the crowd's energy was a little bit lower, the audience was still very taken by their performance; in Baroness' case, the music spoke for itself. I was a little disappointed that they didn't play more from the Red Album, but their song choices were perfect for an energetic and entertaining set.

Between the Buried and Me
Although I've never been a huge fan of them, I can say that I was genuinely impressed by these guys. Although they were slightly boring as far as performance energy goes, it was compensated for the fact that they played everything effortlessly. Furthermore, the crowd went absolutely berserk for this band; the pit got pretty nuts. I wish that they had been given more time to play given the longer song lengths of their material, since they were only able to play 5 or 6 songs, most of which I wasn't familiar with. What I loved about BTBAM was the fact that they are, as I like to say, "musicians' musicians"; many of the more technical aspects of their sound will grab the ears of those who know the structure of music, and I was especially impressed with their wide array of sounds and complex time signatures and polyrhythms.

Mastodon
The entire reason I went to the show, obviously. The backdrop which the band used was interesting: There was a narrative music video of sorts going on as the band played, giving an artistic interpretative spin on each song. They started out with "Oblivion," as I expected, then on to "Divinations." However, after this they proceeded to play the entire Crack the Skye album, something which floored me. I was slightly disappointed with their lack of energy during the first set as well as the fact that the vocals were a little shaky in the beginning. But it proved to me that they could pull off a massive feat of playing an entire studio album live with no problem.

Their second set, however, laid the club to waste; Mastodon put all doubts to rest with the second set. Starting with tracks from Blood Mountain and Remission and later covering their entire discography, their energy spiked and simply did not let up until they closed with "Blood and Thunder." The band's energy was much higher this time and the crowd was totally untouchable. They left on a very high note and left this show-goer entirely pleased with the performance.

This is the only show I've been to so far in 2010, but I would go so far to say that it has probably been one of the best shows I've been to. A star-studded line-up, the perfect sound mix for each band, and several hours well-spent.

Saw the Dark Tranquillity show last night and here's my thoughts.

First band was a local unsinged band called Beyond the Red Horizon. Not bad I would say, the vocalist was the only weak part of the band and I think he's new too. The bassist was good and the guitarist was damn impressive.

Second band was Mutiny Within. I will say they wheren't great, but I thought they where pretty fun. Although this isn't band that I'll want to see again.

then was Threat Signal and honestly, they didn't do anything for me. I just didn't like them, althugh I didn't hate them either.

Then was the band of the night, Dark Tranquillity. I was at the front against the stage all night for them and damn was it worth it. What was really awesome was that during ThereIn, Michael saw me singing and honestly lowered the mike for me to sing, althought it wasn't very close so I don't know if anyone heard me singing. What was also fun was that since the venue was rather small, the people in the audiance occasionally made jokes with the band they played along with it, obviously having fun.

Aftwords too, I got Michael, Daniel and Martin to sign my DVD. I could of got the rest, but I knew my cousin was outside and waiting for me.

Honestly, I had a fun time last night. My 3 favorite Death metal acts are as fallowed

3: Septic Flesh
2: Behemoth
1: Dark Tranquillity

And I saw the first last Jan. and was up against the stage at the same venue, so this has been a good year for me.

Tonight (May 31st) I went to see Hypocrisy live for the first time ever, having been a fan for about five years now. Opening for them were Scar Symmetry, Hate, Blackguard and Swashbuckle.

First up came Swashbuckle (5.5/10) and they were, well, predictable and rather generic if somewhat fun at moments. This is one of those bands who tour way too often, disproportionately more than what their musical quality would warrant. They put on an energetic show and they seem to actively like it and just have fun in a non-obnoxious manner, which is a plus. The music itself is harsh thrash metal with some death influences, fairly decent if ultimately very generic and uninteresting stuff for the most part. A few good riffs and sing-along sections made this performance relatively enjoyable in places.

Then came the bane of my concert-going experience, Blackguard (0/10). Blackguard need to fucking go away and die a horrible twitching death, or at the very least disband permanently. This band’s performance is obnoxious beyond belief: they act like they’re the biggest, friendliest and most popular rock stars in existence, pushing their absolutely shallow and mindless parody of folk metal into the faces of the many gullible cretins who fall for this shit. I’ve heard people praise these faggots for their concerts, how they “give 100% of themselves”. Well that “quality” actually turns any band having it into being annoying fucking pricks when the music sucks huge amounts of cock. And it does: every song lacks any depth whatsoever, and apologists who take cover behind the last album’s being recorded quickly as an excuse for its awfulness now see their arguments turned to dust by the new song, Farewell. It’s just as fucking gay as everything that came before it. An amusing note was when Paul “retard” Zinay asked the crowd to name their drinking song: nobody did. Also, in between two songs he actually told the crowd of their Myspace link and even asked people to add them as friends… never have I seen such pathetic behaviour from a band before.

Additionally, a personal note on them: tonight I was in the front row and basically everyone was cheering/into the show while I stood motionless, arms crossed. One of their fag guitarists (why a band with instrumentals so simplistic would need two guitarists is beyond me…) decided to tap his guitar on my head not once, not twice, but three fucking times over a period of several minutes to get my attention. As if the music’s utter lack of quality or their observable-from-far-away obnoxiousness wasn’t sufficient fuel for my hatred towards these worthless assholes.

Third up on the roster was a completely unknown band to me: Hate (9/10), the death metal band from Poland. They were an extremely pleasant surprise. As their set began I thought that they played generic death/black metal, but then something strange happened. As their set progressed I began liking their music more and more, and what would’ve probably gotten a 5 or 6/10 in the beginning was cranked all the way up to a 9. I loved these guys, their death metal was advanced and intelligent, and they fucking had style. They played long songs, very intricate, and were a great discovery for me, prompting me to get one of their albums at the merchandise counter after the show. Noteworthy is the fact that Peter Tägtgren was wearing a Hate shirt during the Hypocrisy part. The man has taste.

The fourth band was initially the only opening band which I expected to be any good: Scar Symmetry (6/10). Unfortunately, they were something of a disappointment. Most of the music was taken from the newer albums which I never bothered listening to, and the nature of the music has begun to take an altogether more disturbing direction. Since the departure of their original, extremely talented frontman Christian Älvestam, who was so good that they had to bring in two guys to replace him, the music seems to have taken a horribly mallcore direction: all focus is directed at creating songs with lovely clean and catchy choruses and harsh verses. These guys actually reminded me of Mutiny Within at times, and that’s a fucking disgrace. Still, the melodic death metal base is still there, although endangered, and their performance of older numbers, most notably The Illusionist, was flawless and highly enjoyable. Still, it was an overall letdown and it discouraged me from buying an album.

Finally we come to what I had been waiting for for many years. Hypocrisy (10+/10). A+. Perfect. Amazing. 100%. My expectations for them were extremely high, and they delivered beyond belief. I can safely and proudly say that this was my most enjoyable concert experience, beating even bands as godly as Carcass, Immortal and Moonsorrow.

Everything was as it should have been: the sound was perfect, the light show worked in conjunction with the music to create and unbelievably intense and epic atmosphere, and the music… by all the gods, Peter Tägtgren is Apollo’s gift to metal. The performance was flawless. My neck will most likely suffer from stiff pain tomorrow and I owe it all to Hypocrisy (well, Hate contributed a little bit). As far as the songs go, the selection included the obligatory Hypocrisy classics, old and new (Fire in the Sky, Fractured Millennium, Eraser, The Final Chapter, Adjusting the Sun, Warpath, and finally Roswell 47), as well as personal favourites of mine (Let the Knife do the Talking, Weed out the Weak, Osculum Obscenum). Due to the sheer number of amazing songs in their discography, some stuff got left out and in this case, nothing was played from either Catch 22 or, more tragically, The Fourth Dimension. Still, that didn’t stop the performance from being divine from beginning to end. They are the best example of those bands that succeed in infusing their live performance with an additional level of sound, who push the studio sound further when in concert. Those are the bands that make for the very best concert experiences.

On another personal note, several awesome things happened tonight. First, Mikael Hedlund noticed me singing the lyrics accurately and was so impressed by my love of Hypocrisy that, after he played the last notes of the last song (Roswell 47) he personally handed me his bass guitar pick right into my hand, no tossing into the crowd or anything.
Secondly, I got the opportunity (an extra 20$ for a VIP ticket) to meet the Hypocrisy guys and to get a load of things signed, as well as meet Peter (!!!), Mikael and the very epic and friendly (yet physically imposing) Horgh, whom I had seen two months before with Immortal in Montreal. And if all these waves of awesomeness weren’t enough, another (very cute) VIP ticket holder gave me her phone number .

I saw these guys on May 19th and they were great. Hate is an excellent band, I recommend checking out Hate's album Anaclasis by the way. As for Blackguard, I stood by the door talking with friends. Very awkward and horrible band.

Also, you mentioned Hedlund giving you his bass pick. I was also in front of Hedlund during the set and me and him went berserk. I headbanged and sang along to just about every song they had. I could also see the set list paper under the PA, so I growled them with Tagtgren as he announced it.

Anyway, Hedlund did the exact same thing to me. He didn't throw it passively or because he had to - he went right to me, looked at me directly, and handed it off. We also bumped fists and gave a metal shake, with me proclaiming my thanks and him his best regards. Fantastic guy, and the gang altogether was great. Tried to get Horgh's attention, but the best he could do was make his stone face and give the horns (which were met with roaring approval) occasionally.

I'm guessing he was using the same kind of pick as this (excuse the slight blurriness)?

Yup that's the one. Also, talking to Horgh was awesome.

Has anybody here seen dream theater live? How are they ?

So, I just saw Fates Warning live at the Webster theater in CT. I managed to get right up against the stage, was incredible - I was about five feet away from Alder.

It was HOT. Must have been 90 fucking degrees in the theater, no air conditioning. Worth it, though.

There were four openers, none of whom I had heard before. The sound for the openers was a bit iffy - I couldn't hear the rhythm guitar at all for the middle two, and it was still too soft for the others. The bass was too loud, as well.

The first was Shadows Sanctuary (http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3540258521), which was pretty typical power metal. The riffs were very good, the vocals were a bit too squeaky for my tastes, and the lyrics were very, very cheesy. Overall, an enjoyable band.

The second was Infinite Descent (http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3540302577). Thrash/groove metal, female vocalist. The harsh vocals and clean vocals clashed, and I didn't like it all that much.

The third was Myopia (http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=101814). I really couldn't hear what their guitarist was doing most of the time, so I can't really give an impression here - the vocalist was a bit annoying, though.

The fourth band was Vengeance (http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=106148), who were surprisingly awesome. The rhythm guitar was a bit more audible for these guys, which helped. Straight up heavy metal, with a female vocalist who was actually very good - great metal spirit to the vocals, works very well with the music.

Then, finally, Fates Warning came up. The sound was much better for them, thankfully. Rhythm guitar was loud and clear, bass was still audible, drums were perfect. The band was in top form, as well. Aresti, especially, completely stole the show - awesome lead after awesome lead, and some truly spectacular duos with Matheos.

They played through the full Parallels album to start, which, while being one of my least favorite Fates albums, was awesome. They do the songs much more justice live than on the album. They followed it up with a few off of Inside Out, which were just as flawless, and then, after leaving the stage, came back and played One, APSOG III, Another Perfect Day, Quietus, and Through Different Eyes. Every song was executed spectacularly.

Did I mention it was hot? DiBiase was mopping off his bass with a towel after every song, there was that much sweat. There were about 15 minutes before Fates came out when the staff was placing water bottles all over the stage.

Also, I took my earplugs out for one song, and promptly put them right back in. How the hell anyone can stand music that loud is beyond me. Still, with earplugs in the volume was perfect, so I have nothing to complain about.

Overall, a brilliant concert, and one I won't be forgetting.

I'll be seeing them tomorrow night with Iron Maiden. I'll post a review when I get a chance.

Dream Theater/Iron Maiden

Dream Theater only played for 45 minutes. I'm not a huge fan, so I only knew "Pull Me Under," which was cool to hear live. They were okay. It was obvious they are pretty talented musicians. They just weren't given enough time to build any sort of rapport with the audience.

Everything everyone has ever said about Iron Maiden live is true. Bruce hops around on stage like a monkey on cocaine. They were awesome. Great, great show. This tour, they are focusing on Brave New World and A Matter of Life and Death. You could tell which songs the audience really wanted to hear.

All and all, a great show.

I don't think that's what this thread is really for, But I'll still make a live review of the band when I saw them a couple of years back.

I saw them at a time pretty soon after the release of Systematic Chaos, I'm not sure if that influenced the song choice, but most of the songs they actually performed as songs were from that album.

The band are extremely precise live, the music is very impressive to watch live (Especially Myung, who plays with four fingers the whole time basically, which you might not pick up on CD). This does result in the music being not so much a metal show, but more one that you sit back and watch for the complexity. They're actually a band you could get away with having seating for.

Without an opening or supporting act, all we had was the band, they played for 2 and a half hours though, so you get your money's worth. Sadly, they never really develop a repoire with the crowd, there is very little interaction. Portnoy is the only one with any sort of a stage presence, neither Myung or Petrucci even look around. LaBrie actually goes off stage for many of the lenghtier instrumental passages, he really seems like a very unimportant member of the band. On the plus side, his live voice has been excellent of late, much better than any youtube videos from around 2005 or so. The keyboardist does look at the audience, but he seems oddly distant, smiling weirdly the whole time. He's kind of weird.

The fact that the compositions don't actually finish exacerbates this. Instead of songs, the band strings together many songs into sort of 30-45 minute medleys. As I said earlier, the songs off the newest album were the only ones which got played in full, or at least not combined with other songs. I assume this would be the same, except with the new album of course.

Not a band to go rock out to, at all. But they put on a very professional show, and it is damn impressive to really witness the technicality. If you know what you're going for, you'll be entertained.

Megadeth 2009-10/10
W.A.S.P. 2010-9/10
Orange Goblin-2006 7/10
Vader 2002- 9/10
Ted Nugent 2000- 8/10
worst concert: Citizen Fish 1996
im gonna see Death Angel july 7

The thread is called live reviews. Elaborate.

Megadeth
2 words: mind blowing
I thought since this was 2009, it would be all newer stuff. But i was happily mistaken. I was up front and getting my brains moshed out. Despite the extreme pain, it was one of the best times of my life. Here's the set:
Dialectic Chaos
This Day We Fight
Wake Up Dead
Skin o' my Teeth
She Wolf
Hangar 18
A Tout le Monde
My Darkest Hour
44 Minutes
Headcrusher
Trust
1320
Tornado of Souls
Symphony
Peace Sells
encore:Holy Wars
pretty great, huh?

Pestilence - 6/17/10 Gramercy Theatre, New York: 3/10

So the recent Pestilence reunion finally brought them to an area near me. I saw them once prior at this past years Maryland Deathfest. At the MDF show, the sound was awful yet I found it to be generally acceptable considering how every band was being rushed. Anyway,s I was expecting them to redeem themselves here in NY considering that this was the last date of their tour. However, to my surprise, I got a hunk of shit instead. I would have totally forgiven the 30 dollar ticket charge and the wonderful bumper to bumper traffic if the band even slightly redeemed themselves from the Maryland show!! However, the set was just as short if not even shorter than Warbringers and the sound was muffled and buried with effects.

What's worse is that I could barely even identify Chemo Therapy!! The first time I saw them I figured the outside stage just had bad sound...but this time around I realized that it was them! All those years of not playing live may have taken a toll on Pestilence.


The setlist consisted of (excuse thet order)

Horror Detox
Process of Suffocation
Devouring Frenzy
Dehydrated
Lost Souls
Chemo Therapy
Some other new song
Out of Body

In my opinion, this is a rather short setlist for a 2 hour long cover charge price....and last but not least, it was IDENTICAL to the setlist at MDF!!! If I expected to hear the same tracks over again, I wouldn't have went out of my way. The only thing driving me (my piece of shit 1988 Chevrolet Caprice) was my retarded fanboyism for the first four Pestilence records....

The only good thing about this show is that there was nobody there!!! There was tons of breathing room and the floor was minimally violent. I was the asshole interrupting Patrick's speeches and shouting Chronic Infection and Twisted Truth. My main reason for going was to hopeflly hear more material off malevs, testimony, and spheres. However, I ended up leaving rather disappointed and ripped off. The live presence was pretty lame but the fact that the setlist had no surprises was what really drove me nuts. I mean it is understandable for them to play a few new songs..but not when the setlist is so short.

I guess it would have been ideal if Pestilence played 3-4 tracks off each album up to Spheres....however, the setlist would even be forgiving if the sound was acceptable and the older songs were more recognizable!!! The intro Chemo Therapy riff was played at half speed...and they generally emphasized the chugging parts which took away a lot of the appeal of the old songs. The slow break in Loust Souls before the solo sounded pretty off as well. Dehydrated was far too mufled. Process of Suffocatoin is one of my favorite songs off Conusming and I was too distracted by the riffs to really comment on the quality of the performance. The performances of Out of Body and Process of Suffocation are the only reason why I'd give this show a positive score.

Ultimately, I would not see them again unless they were given more time to play and more time to fully master the sound check.

Saint Vitus!

These guys were just perfect - the sound quality, individual's performances (especially their new drummer... damn that guy is good), and the set list. They played some of my favorite songs that they claimed to not have played live since the 80's, which surprised me, but I'm glad they decided to dust them off that night

Okay, so here's my first entry (I think) in this thread, giving a report from all the bands I actually listened to during Getaway Rock Festival (fuckin' amazing - best three days of my life).

8/7/10
RAUBTIER (7/10) started off the day at 12pm. You may or may not know of them - Swedish industrial "metal", but awesome anyway. They played a good, fairly energetic set, but the problem with any band being that early is the lack of any alcohol whatsoever in the crowd's blood, which made most people there about as engaged as corpses hanging from a tree. Still, getting an epic start and getting to hear new songs from their upcoming album was fun.

Next up was WOLF (6/10), who you probably know of, entering the stage at 12:45pm. They do have great music, but something tells me they didn't give it all, and there weren't all that many crowd favourites. Also, once again, the crowd wasn't quite drunk enough, and as a result, dull as fuck. Fuckers.

After Wolf there was a bunch of shitty bands coming up, until this Irish punk/alt metal/whatever band "THERAPY?" (7/10) entered the stage and kicked all of our asses. The crowd was finally starting to get going, and they were incredibly fun - we (me and the friend I went with) sang along despite never even having heard of them. They weren't perfect, but damn good, and I most certainly enjoyed their very fun music.

We went home to drop off merch we had bought and recharge, before returning to watch CAVALERA CONSPIRACY (6/10). The crowd clearly enjoyed it. I did too - to a degree - but their music isn't really all that interesting, even if it was good for mindless thrashing. Also, getting to hear a song ("Warlord") from the next album was a definite bonus, even if it wasn't that great a song.

Next up for us was EXODUS (8/10). They were one of the most energetic, ass-kicking bands I've ever seen live, and the crowd was crazy. Of course, Rob Dukes managed to mess up the spirit a little. I get it, you want to get the crowd going as much as possible, but calling everyone in the audience "a bunch of tired old fuckers" when they'd already been going all day and a huge mosh pit was there just like you begged us for, you're just being an ass. And seriously, does he really think he's being badass snot-rocketing and spitting liters throughout the set? Because he ain't. Fat motherfucker.

Last band for the night, and one of the highlights of the entire festival, was MEGADETH (8.5/10). Their set wasn't really like SUPER-awesome, and the songs played weren't anything different either as far as I could tell. Instead, I'm gonna have to thank the crowd for the fucking awesome time I had (how we managed to get moshing to A Tout Le Monde I'll never know, but it was beautiful, and so was doing the wave during the very same song). As for Dave's vocals, which I've heard complaints about recently, they were excellent - whatever illness he might've had going was long gone, and he was superb.

9/7/10
Friday was kinda slow, but great when stuff actually happened. Heard SONIC SYNDICATE without actually listening, and they sucked less than I thought. I didn't really stick around to actually listen to them though, so I can't give a proper review of their set. Nope, first off for us was DREAMLAND (6/10). I don't remember all that much of their set actually - they're somewhat standard power metal, no more, no less, but I must say that they really had something going for them, and the crowd responded in kind. It wasn't special, but still fun.

DEVILDRIVER (9/10). Yes, I like Devildriver, and with a set like the one they pulled, you would too. Their selection of songs wasn't all that great - I would've appreciated more classics, but they were just fucking insane! They all seemed like they had the strength of ten men on-stage - each! And once again, crowd interaction was the hot topping on this burning feast. A lot of you have probably heard about their "infamous circle pits". Others may have heard that they're not all that they're made out to be. That part... is bullshit. I swear, I've never seen a band so committed to the crowd having fun, and the circle pit must've been like 40 meters in diameter, and there were hundreds of us running. They, without a doubt, had one of the best performances of the entire festival.

Last up for the night was MOTÖRHEAD (7.8/10). Their set really wasn't anything special, and the insane amount of people made it almost impossible to hear what Lemmy was saying, even if I was near the front. I didn't really pay that much attention to them - I was more occupied moshing/thrashing/staying alive. Made plenty of, uh, "temporary friends" during the set, and I like that. It was MOTÖRHEAD being MOTÖRHEAD, which in itself is fucking awesome.

10/7/10
Saturday started off with a great set from THE CROWN (8/10). They were a little rusty, and probably tired/hungover, but they did best they could, and for it being so early (they started 12:45) the crowd was really committed.

DEATHSTARS (6/10) were decent, I guess... I just can't decide if I like their image and/or music (and I'm not certain which one matters more to them) or not.

I more-or-less drifted past DEATHSTARS and stumbled upon a band I've never heard before, GORMATHON (7.5/10). They reminded me, for some reason, of mid-era BATHORY with harsher vocals, and more stripped-down - dare I say more "mainstreamed"? They were still decent though, even if they weren't that interesting.

ZOMBIEKRIG (10/10) are gonna get the gold medal from me, for the best performance of them all - best music, best crowd (and crowd interaction), etc. It all started off with the band themselves personally hanging out with us in the crowd and checking their equipment before the set started, and they were just so much... FUN! No, really, they did a better job at getting us going than even DEVILDRIVER... before the set even fucking started! The result was total fucking mayhem from the get-go. Blackened bay area-influenced thrash, with certain punk undertones. I urge everyone interested in any type of thrash to check them out... if you can stand someone singing in Swedish.

After ZOMBIEKRIG, it was a complete turn-around in mood, as TRIPTYKON (7/10) came on-stage. This set was... strange. It was good, sure, but it's hard to get in the right mood for doom metal when the sun has barely started going down and it's like 25 degrees celsius. As a result, a lot of the potential effect was lost. Also, it seemed as if Tom's idea was "fuck the audience, I'm an artist!" - he went in for the music to 100%, but barely seemed to give a shit about us watching. It was a bit of a disappointment, but inherently good, even if it seemed like a lot of people in the crowd didn't appreciate, as my friend put it "gothic funeral doom". Also, kudos to Tom for finding that hot bassist - Vanja Slajh is not made justice with the picture here on MA.

Next up was CANNIBAL CORPSE (8.5/10). They also seemed hellbent on us having pure fun, and Corpsegrinder was really powerful on stage - I feel like he's been slacking off lately, but he really attacked us all with full force on stage, and generally acted like a (much) less douchey Rob Dukes. They didn't play too many classics, and their setlist wasn't really anything that much of the ordinary, from what I've gathered, but as long as I have fun, I could care less about what songs are actually played.

Because of the length of their set, we only caught the last half (that's 15 minutes!) of TORTURE DIVISION's set. They were good, but I don't want to rate it when I saw so little. There's not much to say anyway. Uh... they're great death metal, and I caught a physical copy of their latest release that they threw out into the audience. Also, F.K.Ü. made a surprise appearance for one song. That was fun.

A bit after they had finished, MAYHEM (5/10) played their set. I must be honest, I've never been all that into MAYHEM - especially their later material, and I hardly recognized any songs. To me it was more-or-less "fuck them", and they were pretty much the worst of all the bands I bothered paying attention to (yes, even worse than DEATHSTARS). It seems like the people there who actually were MAYHEM-fans appreciated the set though.

Last for the night was the one and only VADER (8.5/10). What can I say? They KICKED FUCKIN' ASS. It was brutal, it was fun, it was full of death-energy. Not so many older songs, mostly just stuff fit thrashing your ass off to (stuff from Litany and similar). It all kinda blurred together, but I loved it. I'm not quite sure to say, except I will, from this moment on, take any chance I can to see Vader here in Sweden, and you should catch them whenever they pass by you.

... oh yeah, SLASH played as the last of them all on the entire festival. But seriously, fuck him.

Ok, this post contains reviews for both the Iron Maiden concert I saw last Friday and for the Rush one I attended tonight.

First of all, Iron Maiden’s (9/10) concert last week. They delivered an outstanding performance, with an exhilarating atmosphere due to the huge (80 000 people) crowd and the on-off rain during pretty much the whole event.

They were as into it as when I saw them during the Somewhere Back in Time tour (2008), but this time the material played was wholly different. This year we’re dealing with an 85% focus on post-2000 era Iron Maiden, with a vast selection of Brave New World, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death material. Since I love all three of those albums (despite the occasional filler here and there) and I’ve already seen a “classics” Iron Maiden concert, I was thrilled. This was a set list for actual Iron Maiden fans, not just random people who happen to know four of the band’s most popular 80s tracks. The actual song selection was solid, with an emphasis on the epics of the period: Brave New World, Ghost of the Navigator, Blood Brothers (thoughtfully dedicated to metal legend Ronnie James Dio), Dance of Death, No More Lies, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Brighter than a Thousand Suns, These Colours don’t Run and Journeyman. Basically all these songs are excellent, even if when put together they might blend in with each other a little bit.

Interspaced between this, the bulk of the concert, were some shorter, more classic numbers. A couple came from the previously mentioned albums (the brilliant Wicker Man and the somewhat ordinary Wildest Dreams), the obligatory new song, El Dorado (which seems tailored for the live performance; it’s brilliant in concert), the unforgettable classic epic Fear of the Dark, some Di’Anno-era material (Iron Maiden, Wrathchild and Running Free, these last two being show highlights) and two classics during the encore: Number of the Beast and Hallowed Be Thy Name. All these songs were very well (except Wildest Dreams, which is a bit boring) and gave the concert its much-needed variation (90 minutes of constant new Maiden epics isn’t a good idea).

Concerning the band themselves, their act was very solid. Everyone played very competently and, as usual, Bruce was 100% into it, jumping around and being utterly full of energy. His generous use of accented but correct French in front of the huge Québec crowd was also a big plus for the whole experience.


Now is the time to get to Rush’s (10/10) performance. Now, I’ve been recently getting into Rush’s music and their quality has left me quite impressed. Before the show, I was expecting something pretty solid and certainly very interesting (they were going to play all of Moving Pictures). Instead, what I got was an extremely complete and gorgeous concert experience that actually lasted a full three hours!

The first portion consisted of music from the Signals (1982) album and beyond. The stuff were very high quality and impressive, with a few instant highlights such as the very strong Workin’ Them Angels, the epic Faithless and especially the timeless masterpiece that is Subdivisions, which has worked its way to being my favorite Rush song so far.

After that 65+ minute setlist the band took a 20-minute break and, upon returning, proceeded to play Moving Pictures in its entirety. This was (with Subdivisions) the highlight of the entire experience, as the album is a masterpiece and its rendition tonight was simply perfect. After the performance they continued with another hour or so of additional music, this time material from the 70s. This was also an extremely enjoyable part due to the inclusion of material from 2112 and A Farewell to Kings (as well as other great tracks with which I’m not familiar right now).

The band’s overall performance was what made the concert such a delight. All three guys played their stuff to perfection, and everything was a highlight: Geddy Lee’s vocals were awesome and Alex Lifeson’s guitar playing was simply incredible, as the number of immensely impressive riffs and solos was through the roof. Finally, of course, there’s Neil Peart’s drumming, which is simply excellence in physical form. His skill and technicality are truly godly, while his 5 minute+ solo (Love 4 Sale) was also quite an experience. This triumvirate truly works perfectly together to put on shows and create albums that never fail to impress.

A final note goes to the visual aspects, which were also very well taken care of. First there was the lighting, which was extremely solid and varied (the lighting was art in itself due to the sheer intricacy of it all). Then there were the pyrotechnics, which were impressive yet used with class and restraint (a few shots here and there); same goes with the limited fireworks-type effects. Finally there was the video support, both the motion picture montage that several bands seem to like using these days (Dark Tranquillity), but more interesting was the filmed video. There were these very humorous History of Rush “documentaries”, which added flair and more fun to the whole experience, while the end featured a cameo appearance of actors Jason Segal and Paul Rudd, reprising their roles as Rush fans in the move I Love You, Man and actually meeting the band in the video shown tonight. It was an interesting reference to a good quality movie.

I saw Dark Quarterer last night at what was essentially a glorified BBQ in Somma, Italy last night. It was actually a really strange experience for me - my first concert abroad and I must admit it was quite odd being sat at the next table from Gianni Nepi while he was having dinner. Anyway, slightly dissappointingly was the fact that they didn't play anything from their first two albums. I shouted out for 'Gates of Hell', but alas, no one listens to the pasty English fellow.

Anyway, performance wise I was really blown away - maybe it had something to do with the dreadful opening bands - Francesco Sozzi is an astounding guitar player and his PRS sounds a lot better for them than the ibanez I had seen him use in videos. Honestly, he's one of these players who can literally do anything and carry it off not only technically well but also with great feel. It was a very tight performance and Gianni can still wail away like the best of them. Not bad for a free gig, I'll definitely track down some of their more recent albums... though I expect they'll not sound half as good as they did last night.

Ok, now that I'm sober/not tired, I may as well give my thoughts on Om from Friday.

???? (Maybe something ending in shrine) 8/10 (based on what I saw)
I rocked up a little late deliberately since I wasn't interested in Lichens and hadn't even heard of the other band opening, so when I showed up and found this band, who had not been advertised, playing I was really disappointed. Really cool, droning guitar distortion stuff, which was interesting and unique, they mixed it up for the last 15 minutes with one of the guitarists moving onto a drumset and just smashing the shit out the drums. Really heavy, sludgey stuff, I enjoyed it a lot. If anyone could tell me who the band is, that'd be ace.

Blarke Bayer / Black Widow (5/10)
Again, I missed the start of these guys show since I went to a cheaper bar to slam back a couple of pints between bands, I wasn't as disappointed to miss this, but it wasn't horrible. They play noisey, guitar effect laden stuff most of which was pretty unpleasent. The use of drums is quite strange, very fast and intense crashing randomly around droning noise. I really like the last 2 or 3 minutes of hteir set, but otherwise I wasn't impressed.

Lichens (It would be unfair to rate, but it would be low)
I pretty much missed all of this, I watched a couple of minutes, hated every second of it, and went back to the cheap bar.

Om (9/10
I was slightly worried this would be a hippie jam fest, but luckily, Om know what they're doing for a live show, their whole set list was pretty much entirely devoted to their heavy, catchy and infectious rhythms and largely avoided the more mellow stuff, such as the first half of Thebes. This wasn't as spiritual as I expected, instead it's just a lot of really infectious basslines which were addictive and easy to get caught up in. The sound was excellent, even if the vocals were a little bittoo quiet and indescript and the performances were solid. The band has really no crowd interaction, but was still a really good experience.

The gig was free? Well, it basically sounds like a house party. A really good time, too; I'd happily see Dark Quarterer in such an environment, even if they didn't play any of their old songs, and I agree that's a pity...how could they not play "Red Hot Gloves" or their eponymous song or "Devil Stroke"...? Still, they had a different guitarist then and that could be part of the reason they tend to spurn the material. Still sounds like an awesome experience.

Apparently there's a DVD coming out soon. It's got a few oldies on it, I'd like to hear what the current guitarist does with the older songs... could be an interesting experience. Yeah, it seems the Italians are big into their free gigs in summer. I think they were told to finish earlier so that's probably why they missed some stuff out. Still, seeing them being that good made me realise how damn underappreciated they are. I think Mr Nepi made a comment about them forming in the 70s and still being relatively unknown... well, that's what the translator said.

Saw Dream Theater and Iron Maiden a few nights ago with a friend.

To start, it absolutely poured rain when we first got there, and our tickets (printed from the computer) were very nearly completely ruined - we were lucky to even get into the place, as the bar codes could not be read and we had to read off the numbers. The tickets were damaged enough that they would not let us into the seats. Yeah, completely and utter bullshit - we had to stand out on the lawn. The Nissan Pavilion (or, as they call it now, the "Jiffy Lube Live") has always been a fucking terrible venue in terms of customer service, though, so I'm not surprised at all.

I forgot my earplugs this time, so I settled for wadded up pieces of wet tissue paper, which, given how far we were from the stage, worked reasonably well.

Dream Theater was already playing when we got there. We got to hear a few songs. It was pretty typical Dream Theater - not all that much emotion, and LaBrie really doesn't have a particularly good live voice. It might be because I'm spoiled having seen Fates Warning back in June, but I wasn't all that impressed. Still was somewhat enjoyable, though.

Iron Maiden was great - Bruce was in top form, and the mix was good, though the vocals were a bit too loud, which made it hard to hear the rhythm guitar at times. The setlist focused on the modern stuff more than the classic tunes - a bit disappointing, but not enough to mark the performance down.

Overall, I'd give the experience an 8.5/10, with a 9/10 for the performance but marking down for the shitty customer service and the crappy weather. Still, I'm glad I got to see Maiden, regardless.

Truth Be Known's EP launch was held last Saturday, 28th July. Featuring Stillborn, Taiwanese guests Solemn and label mates Bhelliom, this was a show that kicked much ass.



The lineup:
Stillborn
Bhelliom
Solemn
Truth Be Known

Read the review here!

(c) Heavy Metal Tribune 2010

They were really great! By the end of their set my neck was down to its very last fibers, it almost fell off during Finntroll's set. I saw them in SF on that tour in April. The place was so packed there was sweat dripping from the ceiling. The singer of Finntroll said it was one of the hottest shows he ever played. The singer of Moonsorrow let me, my buddy and another fan each take turns screaming into the mic to see who's was the best. My buddy won with his inhale scream. In the front row we were constantly being pushed on stage by a wave of metalheads. There was only a metal railing that crushed our pelvic bones (Thankfully not our balls.) and they would not let us lean on the equipment (Although the bands had no problem with it.) By the end of finntroll's set my buddy almost blacked out from lack of water and constantly having to fight back a wave of metalheads that were fightiing for our place in the front the entire set (4 hours.) The rythm guitarist for finntroll handed me a bottle of water. At he end we got handshakes from the band and everything. Our ears were ringing for a week after. And to top it off, me and my friends got the meet and greet passes and got our denim jackets and phones and concert flyers signed by Moonsorrow. (The phone was mainly a joke but they did it anyways ) The accoustics were fine, nothing spectacular. It was hard to hear the keyboards in Swallow the Sun's set though. My hair and clothes were completely soaked at the end of the concert, just like I had taken a shower in them. Excellent show, truly a great night of metal!

Not much of a review there, just sharing my enthusiasm for an awesome live concert. I would give them the same rating.