Not Metal

I had the esteemed privilege of catching this show on a last minute, “Oh shit, I totally forgot this show was this weekend!” moment. The Empty Bottle is one of the best places to host a show with a group such as Shrinebuilder, one of the most epicly epic heavy metal supergroup lineups every formed. It’s like Thor, Zeus, Odin, and Batman (all badasses and metal as fuck) formed a group and played a show in your neighborhood dive. Good times. Tight tunes. And the quote of the evening goes to Dale Crover at the end of the near 1.5 set with, “That’s all the songs we know. Go back out and pay to come back in.”

It was a 2 set night…

Here’s some live footage I caught on my shitty phone that likes to pretend it’s an iPhone.

Who: Dethklok/Mastodon/Converge/Hight on Fire

The Fillmore, Denver CO

When: Saturday October 10th 2009
High on Fire

• I didn’t get to see them because I was still drinking beer and having dinner at CityGrille. Best burger in Denver.
• (The blood I bleed is clogged indeed)

Converge

• I missed half their set because the Fillmore is a large ass ballroom much like the Aragon in Chicago, but only has three security guards patting people down to let them in.
• That is poor planning
• I then had to piss really bad after standing in the line (I drank a lot of beer before leaving CityGrille)
• Converge needs to actively not play large venues. Their stage presence just lends itself to small venues much better where J Bannon can get down and interact with the crowd.
• Their drummer looks like he is having the best time ever every time I see them live.
• I am jealous as hell of their drummer
• Small pit, but it was pretty obvious a lot of the people there had no idea who these guys were
• I only then remembered that I still haven’t heard this new album everybody says is so good.

Mastodon

• Full length movie (like, real movie) played on the giant screen behind them while they played Crack the Skye in its entirety.
• There are a lot of hashers in the Denver metal scene. I was contact buzzed by the end of ‘The Czar’.
• Make really really buzzed
• I blame this absurd level of weed intake on why the crowd was too busy to mosh much or do anything really besides watch the screen and bob their heads.
• That movie was really cool if not a little depressing. I was high enough by the end of the movie to emotional identify with the kid in the coma from the album. Beat that!
• Bran said “hank you Denver” at the end and that was all the chit chat.
• Not much movement on the stage during the whole show for the most part
• Mastodon is now a live prog band and I’m saying that as a diss.

He eats drums for breakfast

Dethklok

• The crowd really got into the ‘klok when from the git go
• There were large pits, followed by a short tutorial on moshing on screen
• Not picking people up in the pit is a ‘dickmove’ according to Murderface, and if he thinks it’s a dickmove, well…he’s the expert.
• ‘Black Fire Upon Us’ just killed. The movie, the riffs, the movie once again
• Eagle Riders vs Dragon Riders!
• Gene Hoglan is the fucking man. Every band ever could benefit from a healthy dose of Hoglan.
• So could your mother
• Brendon Small is no slouch either. It was weird basically seeing a guy that looks ‘some professional dildo’ go up there and just tear that shit up.
• Live it becomes apparent of this band’s arena rock/pop hook skills
• I saw two separate people puke during this set. Brutal.
• Does this actually count as a musical because the movie for this band as well had a plot?
• Musicals are not metal. AT ALL.

The Crowd

Lots of

• Angry blue collar dudes
• Depressed looking girlfriends
• Heshers
• Hot Topic Goths
• Face Tattoos (?)

There were some

• Hardcore kids
• Old Metal Dudes (can’t wait till I’m in this group)
• Sloppy fat metal dudes

A couple

• Staggeringly attractive older (mid/late twenties) normal looking women
• Dudes that look like Obama [just saying! (black metal?)]

Only one of

• Me
• Dude dressed like Dr. Rockso.

At least I know what I’m doing for Halloween.

Virginia Beach VA, 8/6/09

What a glorious day for a show. It’s nearly 90 degrees and like 8 billion percent humidity. I am hungover from the prior night where one of my 3 compatriots did this to a motel room sink (thanks whiskey and cheap wine).

So we arrive to the venue for Mayhem Fest and are greeted by the brutal aural assault of Whitechapel. I was looking forward to seeing these guys and they were good. They were early in the day and it was hot and the crowd a little lackadaisical, but their meaty grind interspersed with hardcore breakdowns was a decent start to the day.

As evidenced by the above sink picture, we were hungover and the breakfast Taco Bell and the heat weren’t helping. So we made our way to a little bar area that was shaded and had seats. Currently playing was God Forbid, which none of us gave a damn about so we sat and cooled off. Also during this period I decided to go to the bathroom before all the drunks turned it into a sea of urine. I took a mighty dump and knew today would be a good day. I ventured back to the bar area and we waited for God Forbid’s set to end. The bar was like 300 yards from the stages, so we relied upon a tour pamphlet to tell us what time particular bands started playing so we could hoof it back to the stages and watch their sets. Up next was Behemoth, which we were stoked about. Unfortunately, the schedule on the flyer was wrong and we missed all but one song of their set. Shit the bed! But the one song we saw was great. They are real showmen, wearing corpse paint with the singer sporting some strange gladiator mask.

Up next was All That Remains. They are like the Nickelback of metal. Needless to say, we retreated back to the bar.

Something interesting between sets was the Metal Mulisha, which is a group of motocross riders. Not really my thing, but watching their flips and tricks was entertaining and held my interest since I was semi-hoping to witness a crash/fatality.

So after sitting on our asses and drinking beer at the bar, now it was time for The Black Dahlia Murder. Previously, I wasn’t a big fan, but after seeing them live I am rethinking that. They had great energy and the drummer is badass, not to mention some great solos by the guitarist.

If you haven’t noticed the pattern, now we went back to the bar. I don’t know who played during this period, but all we knew was that Cannibal Corpse was the next band we cared to see. We had the schedule figured out and made our way back to the stages in time to see Corpse. Needless to say, they killed. It was only a 5 song set (bullshit), but whatever, it owned. My only problem with them was that their singer, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (see picture to the left), was an ass. He would say things like, “If I don’t see you moving out there I’m going to come down there and strangle you.” Fuck off, I’ll move if I want to move. Maybe if you were half as good as Chris Barnes (original Cannibal Corpse vocalist) then I would move more. But whatever, the live versions of “Hammer-Smashed Face” and “Make them Suffer” were especially phenomenal. Also, note to people who light joints when standing directly in front of me: I don’t like weed and I don’t think it’s very metal. If you insist on sharing
chemicals, please, by all means, buy me a beer.

At some point after this, Trivium,  Bullet For My Valentine and Killswitch Engage played. Being that these are sub-par bands and the beer was far better than their music, we sat at the bar instead of watching these assholes. Obviously, we have priorities.

Now, the main shit. It’s fucking Slayer time! I am so excited. They are playing “God Hates Us All” as I take my seat. Beside me is a couple. Obviously, the guy drug the girl here cause she is not into it. But, she is showing cleavage so I overlook this indiscretion. Slayer have an awesome set list. They played some new stuff (not “Hate Worldwide” as mentioned here in a previous post) and some semi-new stuff such as “Jihad” from the album “Christ Illusion”. But they really kicked things into high gear with some classics, including: “Mandatory Suicide”, “Born of Fire”, “Dead Skin Mask”, “Angel of Death” and “Reign in Blood”. But what really sent a shiver down my perineum was when they played “South of Heaven”, which is of sentimental value because it is the song that got me into Slayer. Holy shit they ruled. Not only did they have a flaming Slayer logo, but they were so tight. Not a note missed. They are so still on top of their game. And Lombardo back behind the drum kit?!? He fucking rocks the tom fills. They are without a doubt a supreme live act.

The finale to the night was Marilyn Manson. I’ve been a fan since “Portrait of an American Family” and was excited to see him. He puts on a hell of a show: costume changes, props (including some dumb-ass mic with a knife at the end and also a flaming bible), great fog/lighting effects and firings of cannons of glitter/ confetti. Set list included: “Irresponsible Hate Anthem”, “Sweet Dreams”, “Disposable Teens”, “Dope Show”, “Rock is Dead”, “Little Horn” and “Tourniquet”. A great show but not so much great music. I mean, Manson is essentially a solo act. The band was of little importance and it showed musically. Manson’s vocals and charisma were great, but the music itself wasn’t that good. It was apparent that he was the main focus and the band/music was secondary. Also, several times he did that annoying thing performers do where they mention the name of whatever city they are in so that they can get a cheap pop from the crowd. For example, “VA Beach may be the loudest crowd so far on the tour, let me hear you.” Fuck you, I know you say the same shit in every city; don’t placate me and insult my intelligence.

But still, Manson, Slayer, Corpse, Black Dahlia and Behemoth destroyed. A great show and thankfully I had good friends and alcohol with me so I could withstand the crapfest of other bands.

Beer. Butts. Blood.

Crusty jeans, crusty shirts, and body odor.

Dudefest continues to be the most metal event to occur in the history of Indiana, beside Ozzfest – but I’m not sure if that counts anymore.   Despite the insane martial law style police presence, the fest still kicked copious amounts of ass.  Following is my band by band breakdown, I won’t list bands that we didn’t see – much like last year we managed to spend more time drinking High Life at J-Clyde’s next door.

The Viking Beard was lucky to snap some shitty photos of a few of the bands sets when he wasn’t busy getting the shit beat out of him in the pit.

Here we go with the three-day recap!

Friday

Shitstorm – Pretty good grind from Miami, includes one member of Torche.  We only caught a few songs after our beer break, but they put on a good show.

Young Widows – Had never heard Young Windows, they’re kind of stoner-y, dissonant rock.  Kind of sounds like These Arms Are Snakes.  They were good, no crazy antics or anything, crowd wasn’t terribly into it.

Lair of the Minotaur / 7000 Dying Rats – I’ll be honest – I don’t like Lair of the Minotaur’s albums at all.  They’re a little dull to me and the riffs don’t punch me in the face or anything.  That’s me though.  That said, they absolutely destroyed.  They were monolithic, a crushing metal-stoner-doom-viking-battle hurricane of intense riffage on the stage.  For some reason, their songs sounded 10 times better in a live setting.  The crowd was digging it – stage dives and some great pitting action abound.   Halfway through their set they stopped for a minute, pulled on ski masks, brought out a different singer, and like a death metal transformer turned into their grind act, 7000 dying rats.  They were fun as hell – playing a good handful of 1-5 second songs, a handful of longer songs, and then launching into a crowd singalong cover of Living After Midnight.  I think they could’ve just played 10 Judas Priest covers and the crowd would be happier than pigs in shit.

Harvey Milk – They played a good set, but with their bleak music I think the crowd was focused on trying not to commit suicide rather than moshing at a snail’s pace.  The singer is very sweaty.

Helions

Torche – Torche headlined on Friday last year as well, and absolutely dominated – by far the best set of the weekend.  After setting such a high standard, I think they had a lot to live up to this year.  Since last year, they had lost one of their guitar players, Juan Montoya -  I was interested to see how things would turn out live, as they’re now a 3 piece.  They played mostly fast songs – all of the good stuff including Healer, Rule The Beast, In Return, Pirahna, etc.  It was a hell of a set, and the crowd loved it of course.  I don’t think it was as good as their set last year, but it was still damn good.  It felt like the set ended abruptly.  In comparison, last year they closed with the crushing doomfest song Meanderthal, in it’s entirety – it doesn’t sound like the perfect send off, but it was like some kind of 2000: A Space Oddyssey-esque monolith chant and the crowd was in an absolute frenzy.

Saturday

Mehkago NT – Had never heard of them before, we caught the tail end of their set and I wished we had seen the whole thing, they sounded fairly brutal, had some really catchy riffage.

John Hoffman: fucking shit up

Weekend Nachos - After putting a few High Lifes to rest at J-Clyde’s, we were all pretty excited to see Weekend Nachos.  They’ve put on a damn good show every time we’ve seen them previously.   They played a great set of course and the crowd was really into for the first time that we had seen during the day so far.  Lots of stage dives and some intense pit action.  I picked up a shirt with Freddy Kreuger on it.  ACCEPTABLE VIOLENCE!!!!!!!

Tombs – Can’t remember much about Tombs.  Someone proclaimed them to be a doom band.  They were not a doom band.

Yes, this is what an onstage pit with Gaza looks like.

Gaza – Grind from Utah. We missed them last year, which was stupid. Fortunately we caught them this year, because they played an awesome set.  Crowd was a big damn party.  Halfway through their set, they brought about 30 people onto the tiny stage and played like that the rest of the time.  There was a mini-moshpit on the stage, and people were stage diving from above the stage into the people on the stage. Insanity.  They had a shirt with Ted Haggard’s face branded with a big, bold “SODOMITE” title.  Back of the shirt said “Meth and a Gay Prostitute!”.  Awesome.  “Why are there so many Utah Jazz fans here?”

Basketball hoop? Nudity? Grind? No problem!

HeWhoCorrupts – Awesome Chicago grind, we had seen them several times previously and they are awesome every time.  I think they get more over the top every time we see them.  They had a Chicago Bulls style introduction, complete with basketball hoop.  People were pulling off slam dunk stage dives, which is a new to me.  I don’t think I’ve ever caught more stage dives to my domepiece during a show.  They played all the good songs including, Kill ‘Em All, Master of Profits, etc.  They ended up mostly naked of course.  Tommy Camaro managed to put his beanbag in the guitar player’s mouth.  Yep.

Magrudergrind – They played a good set, but HeWhoCorrupts is a tough act to follow.  Magrudergrind didn’t get naked or anything though, so the crowd wasn’t in a frenzy or anything. It also didn’t help the fact that the Emerson’s sound fucking sucks so much of their set was white noise to me.

Russian Circles – Really good metal tinged post-rock from Chicago.  They’re definitely an outlier for the fest, but they’ve played with grind bands in Chicago before, i.e. Plague Bringer.  They were a nice change of pace in comparison to the previous three grind bands.  It was a good set.  Crowd was mostly just nodding their heads.

Portraits of Past – Old school emo/hardcore/screamo shit.  Not really my thing, we left after their first song.

Sunday

Axis and Allies – Hardcore from Indy.  Not super impressive.

American Cheeseburger – Great name.  Punk from Georgia.  Also not super impressive.

Punch – They had a female singer.  Pretty good.

Terrie then brought up a good point – “Why the fuck are we here?”.  We pretty much only wanted to see Mammoth Grinder, Iron Lung, Lords, and Phoenix Bodies for the rest of the day.  All of those bands were playing after 5:30.  We had yet to make the journey back to Chicago (which took 4 hours somehow).  Battered and bruised, we proceeded to leave Dudefest.

Where: Louisville KY 6/12/09

Wow, what a kick-ass show. 10 bands, 8 hours. Summer Slaughter o9 did not disappoint, which was a task considering 2 bands listed on the bill (Ensiferum, Decrepit Birth) and 2 of the main reasons I went weren’t even at this particular show.

The one thing that bothered me about this tour is that I was expecting a death metal show. What I got was a death metal show mixed with a metalcore, hardcore, tardcore, crapcore whatever you want to call it show. I guess if it were a strict death metal bill, then it’d be me and like 5 other dudes. So they add  a variety of other styles of music in order to sell more tix.

Here’s a band by band rundown:

Blackguard: Ugh, I just saw them last month at Paganfest. As far as folk-metal goes, these guys don’t cut it. They aren’t bad necessarily, it’s just that if you want to listen to this style of music, there are a ton of bands that do it much better (Finntroll, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani to name a few).

After the Burial: They hit the stage and announced that the singer was outside puking because of heat exhaustion and that they were going to do an instrumental set without him. I figured good, a metalcore band, the vocals probably blow anyhow.
So they start the instrumental set and man, the guitarists can shred. I’m talking sweep arpeggios, dual lead harmonies, tapping. The bassist and drummer were good too, excellent musicians all throughout this band.
Then the singer gets on stage for the final song, saying he was dizzy and tingly but wanted to at least do one song. Wow, he’s a big fucking hero. Remember what I said earlier about it was probably better that they were doing an instrumental set  because the singer probably sucked? I was right. The vocals really take away from an otherwise good band.

Beneath the Massacre: More like on the shed. They aren’t bad, certainly not good either though. They are mediocre at best.

Origin: I wasn’t familiar with Origin but am a huge fan now. They fucking destroyed, nay, decimated. The term “brutal” gets thrown around often when discussing  death metal and grind, but these guys are fucking BRUTAL. The singer is amazing. Great vocals full of guttural growls and  higher, almost chirps. He owns the stage and stalks it like a ravenous sasquatch with his hand held majestically skyward. He even lent a hand to a crowd surfer who was about to hit the floor head first. He grabbed the surfer by one ankle and held him up whilst singing. The music is technical and unrelenting with sick riffs and machine gun drums. Also, after the show, I saw the singer in front of the venue and said, “You guys fucking killed. I hadn’t heard of you guys until tonight but I’m a fan now.” He then proceeded to shake my hand and wobble as he was extremely inebriated and then ask the person behind me, “You got any weed?” Very metal.

Born of Osiris: Metalcore with a keyboard. Disco-core? I don’t know the proper label, but it sucked. The tour program states they have “proggy death skills”. The only thing progressive about them is their ability to progress from shit to shittier to shittiest band on the bill. Part of the bill designed to bring in hardcore teenagers in skinny jeans and white belts or gym shorts. Karate kicks and cartwheels in the pit. In the words of Brian Posehn, “Dude, you look gay-tarded.”

Dying Fetus: Fucking amazing. Hasn’t missed a step, still ferocious, technical and yes, brutal.

Winds of Plague: These guys are ok; I like them, not love them. Someone had to leave in an ambulance during their set if that tells you anything about their live show.

Darkest Hour: The only thing good about them was the solos, which were brilliant, precise and melodic.

Suffocation: They were great, fucking annihilated. Most of the material played was from their earliest albums (some would say their prime) but we also got a preview of their upcoming album. They just still are great after 20 years. The band is on point and the singer is charismatic. A high point of this particular set was when the singer from Blackguard took the Dying Fetus thong that was on display at a merch table, put it on his head and face and entered the pit.

Necrophagist: One of the main reasons for me going. They were excellent. Complex, beautiful and yes, brutal music. They owned. Wonderful musicianship all around. Muhammed Suicmez (the leader, writer of all music for all instruments in Necrophagist) has found a great group of musicians this time around to execute his vision. Can’t wait for their next record. We got a taste of it, but fuck a taste, I want the whole meal.

Three to four song sets, 10+ minute songs. Epic.

Where: The Bottom Lounge, Chicago IL.

Indian is Chicago’s doom band. Indian remains (in my book) still the heaviest fucking band I’ve ever seen. That’s saying a lot with the likes of the rest of the lineup in this awesome offering of underground black and doom metal. However, with their Emperor cabs cranked they bring the brown note like they invented it. My body shook the first time I saw them at the Empty Bottle a year ago. Once again, their Earth shattering chords could be felt in full in the depths of my colon.

Angular and odd paced riffing, glacial paced dirges, Indian knows it’s doom and does it well. With the stage lights politely requested to be turned “completely up”, the band was completely exposed. Because of this, they are in your face, there is no escape. They are going to liquefy your bowels and rattle your noggin’.

My only gripe is their drummers’ style seemed oddly robotic, and I’m certain he missed a few beats of double bass kick during one or two of their four song set. However, vocalist/guitarist Dylan O’ Tooles’ raspy banshee doom throat is something to behold. Mix that with Ron Defries’ distorted fuzz bass and you have a recipe of utterly terrifying doom. The long bellowing screams that can be heard on tracks like “Slights and Abuse” and “The Sycophant” are doom perfection. There was no half-assing whatsoever in the vocal department.

Krallices‘ sound check was kind of over the top.

“A little more treble in my monitor please?”
“Could I have a touch more drums in my monitor please?”

The stage banter between band and sound crew went on for what seemed like 20 minutes. They are apparently REALLY picky for their sound. It’s one thing to be a perfectionist, but if the monitor isn’t working ya gotta get on with it without. Surprisingly, the crowd did not react as negatively as I would have expected. One guy did yell, “Play some fucking music!”. There were also no “Slaaaaaaayeeerrr!!” taunts from this crowd. Odd.

When they finally did start their set, they destroyed. So far for me though, Krallice feels like a band that will take many many listens to get used to and start appreciating as something relevant to the new(er) school of black metal.

A Storm Of Light was very NeurIsis-ish. They had a great visual backdrop synced up to the music, a nice touch to have with a band playing droney post-metal. I don’t have much else to say about these guys as they are still unfamiliar to me. if you want an idea of what they look like live check out this video here. It has one of the best combos of creepy intro to gargantuan main riff that I have heard in a long time.

This was my first “black metal” show. I don’t care how you define black metal. If you’re tr00-ist, a satanist, only prefer 4-track basement recordings, whatever. Wolves In The Throne Room brought the fucking black metal in the purest sense of how I understand the genre.

It was like a goddamn seance setup on the stage. Candles all over the floor, fog machine, and, with the band bathed in deep red and blue lighting they proceeded to open a portal into darkest netherworlds of metal. It was perfect. they did not disappoint with new songs off of Black Cascade. “Ahrimanic Trance” is my favorite song off that record and it was like I was suddenly transported out into a dark forest full of evil shit when they played it. The sense of confinement you get from the torrential riffing and blasting is stunning. I thought it would get tiresome, only so because I had already withstood the punishment of 3 other bands that play 10+ minute songs. I was left wanting to go into a forest with my amp and guitar and play evil riffs.

That said, it was probably one of the best metal shows I’ve been to this year.

Totally watchable quality

Get a taste of the awesomeness.

Earlier I had posted up my review of Mastodons’ live set here in Chicago at the Metro. The words to describe the chills on the back of my neck took a back seat to the words used to describe the group of idiots in the pit. With my whiny bitching aside, Metalsucks and Culture Bully have each posted up their own take on the live set. The latter includes several glorious videos of the show at Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. Fan or not, I implore you to take the 6:15 out of your day to watch this video.

Mastodon “Oblivion” (Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, 04/29/2009) from Culture Bully on Vimeo.

If you’re kicking yourself for not going to their show you’ll at least understand why now with better reason you should have gone instead of sitting at home looking at porn and going to bed early.

Pussy! Weed! Vikings!

Dress Code: Black and buzzed.

Where: The Gothic Theatre, Denver CO.

I came in at the beginning of Lazarus A.D.’s last song and while I’ve never listened to their records, I dug on the fun thrashy vibe that the band put out for the 4 or so minutes that I got to witness. I’ll check the records out when I have a chance.

The ATM was busted. Fuck. No merch for this trip and Amon Amarth have a flag with the cover of the new album and its pretty sweet. Skeletonwitch have a new shirt that looks like a King Diamond cover that is also pretty rad. Goatwhore’s merch looks well… eh. Not enough colors for me.

Skeletonwitch came out and ruled like always. If you know the records you know what to expect. It’s just awesome because everybody around you is drunk and having a blast.

Best witty banter from a band comes from these guys:

“This is a song about SATAN!” ….. song starts

“Weed! You like weed? We love weed!”… song starts

“Pussy!”….. song starts

“This is another song about Satan”….song starts.

All this done in death screech that sounds cool.

Goatwhore is a band with a great name and shitty stage presence. Their lead singer is really tall as well. I don’t remember a lot of their set standing out and decided to drink to make it sound better. Three beers later I hadn’t noticed a whole hell of a lot of difference.

Those three beers did make Amon Amarth’s set a lot better though. Amon Amarth came out and made if fun with three simple rules:

1. Play the good stuff. They play the great songs off their albums. No filler or weaker songs just because its on the new record. Play what slays. (this is also the same approach that Metallica and Slayer take to live shows, and we all know there is some truth to this approach.)
2. Be funny and polite. When coaching the crowd in a complicated sing along, Big John (the lead singer, that’s his name right?) reminded the more sober in the crowd “Hey if you don’t know the words, still sing along. Its Death Metal…. No one will know if you are wrong anyway”. It should also be noted that as the band is European they are also polite and thanked the crowd multiple times for coming out. That’s not brutal, but it is good manners.
3. Drink beer out of a fucking horn.

I can’t wait to see these guys again.

Best comment from a drunk guy in the crowd:
“Have you seen my cousin? He’s an awkward looking guy in a black t-shirt?
…..Aww I’m just joking man, that’s all of us”

~ Chili Bowl Soul Vortex

Epically epicocous!

Big smelly fucking dudes with no shirts!

Where: The Metro, Chicago IL.

Oh, and one other stereotypical metal head: big fucking dude with a big fucking beard.They were abundant in the crowd on the main floor where at times I was crammed between “them” on the front line of the pit and one obese sweaty fuck garbed in complete White Sox gear. Strangely, the Sox had not played that day.

The Metro was the perfect venue for this show. There are others like it in Chicago, but this small cramped vintage hall is about 4 blocks down the street from my apartment. So that’s really why.

Intronaut opened up the show. They were very very very heavy. I’m pretty sure they fall in the “NeurIsis” camp. Which some people hate. But, honestly the riffing reminded me more of Meshuggah or Dillinger when they’re trying to be melodic and not spaz. Regardless, I found myself read more »

Sunday I went and saw Paganfest, which is a gathering of folk metal bands.

When I first entered the venue I was greeted by some asshole in a tricornered hat. Come to find out this was the drummer for Swashbuckle. More on them later.

First up was the opening act which was some local band that had won a battle of the bands. They were called Burning Shadows. They were pretty good power/thrash folk.

Next was Swashbuckle. They dress in full pirate gear, puffy shirts and all. They were a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect much from these guys but they kicked ass. No folk metal sound really, just pirate thrash with a hint of grind. The singer also implores the audience to “put their hooks in the air” and “screw their peg legs on tight”.  It was corny but they kick ass so I can get past their stage persona.

Third up was Blackguard. They were ok; I didn’t get into them too much. I like their recorded music better than them live, though the singer is charismatic and has a good stage presence.

Next was Moonsorrow whom I really enjoyed. They were a good change of pace. They are folky and thrashy but a bit slower, doomy in some instances.

Then came Primordial. These guys were a huge letdown. Just plain sucked. The singer is annoying; he really gets off on controlling the audience, having them in the palm of his hand, ordering them around. Many frontmen do this but this guy was all about it. Their whole set was him trying to get the audience to do shit (wave hands, clap, pump fists, sing along to his retard lyrics) and the band sucking.

Finally was Korpiklaani. Man, they kicked ass.  Folk metal on a higher level. And they don’t rely mainly on keyboards in live situations to obtain folk instrument sounds; they had a fiddler and an accordion player. Very fierce.