Because the Proclamation/Black Witchery tour was cancelled, this was the first show after getting back from Europe. I could have made it in, technically, to the all-local gig at Great Scott that replaced it, but I was still recovering from the time change. For this gig, though, I came off call and headed straight out, because at least the headliners were guaranteed to be good, and there's at least as much to be optimistic about the thrash revival, in general, as there is to be skeptical.
There was a lineup out in front, even though I didn't get there till right about doors. Hooray conflicting sources. Not so bad, though; even though it's not legal to stand around and skull half-liter cans on the sidewalk in this country, I got some time to decompress, see dudes from the touring bands ambling around to and from the buses, and wonder whether that was soy sauce or blood gumming up the bottom of my pant leg...not that I could remember dropping either on it.
Finally, inside, and the Palladium has finally given in and is doing $4 pint cans of PBR in addition to the criminally overpriced options they've had since forever. It's still shit beer, but it's cheaper than anything else and in a 33% larger unit. Deal.
Lich King [5/7]
I hadn't heard this band before, but heard of them, mostly in the usual thrash-revival circles and, in the more general eastern-New-England scene, vituperatively denying that they named themselves after a Warcraft villain whenever they get on a show and someone makes the now-unavoidable connection. I was expecting pretty much standard-form thrash revival, and that's what we got, albeit with a good measure of humor that not all the bands in this style always get. The band as yet is kind of undifferentiated as to what they sound like, a lot of Bay-Area stuff, but enough German and/or crossover touches to show that they're from the East rather than the West Coast; really, though, this is a good thing, as if they can continue to develop, they may grow into something more original. More than anything else, though, the execution was solid, and the crowd response to that was probably the best up until the headliners, benefiting from a lot of space. If they can continue to improve, they have a chance to take this thing national......and get ripped on by people who think they're Warcraft nerds in the other 44 states, not just the six that are likely to know about them already.
I picked up their latest CD, which is pretty decent and definitely worth a listen; the East Coast thrash touches in their sound are a lot more visible on disc than live. The only quibble I have with this band is introducing "Behaver" as "the only thrash metal song about being nice" -- maybe crossover doesn't count, but Crucial Youth was still around, and I've got a feeling that the Lich King dudes would dig them if they knew they existed.
Bonded By Blood [5/7]
Though being named after a classic record from the headliners on this bill might put some people off -- it really brings up how much of the thrash revival is devoted to doing things again, the way they used to be, for the sake of repetition -- these guys turned that expectation on its head with a nice long set full of solid if not very diverse material. The individual songs were good stuff, even with their influences -- Exodus, unsurprisingly, and a lot of Testament -- fairly obvious, but one after the other after the other, and they started to blend together. This is still a relatively new band, and the members are all really young guys, so it's likely that if they continue on the writing will improve and diversify. The joker in all this, though, is the sense (as an outsider) that maybe the thrash revival audience is not going to necessarily pressure the band to change and develop. We'll see, though.
I also picked up the latest record from this bunch, as I did with everyone on the bill except Exodus. Touring bands deserve support, especially the undercard, and everyone on this show actually had recorded material for sale, and the more that's supported, the fewer bands go out on tour with a merchbucket full of pool toys.
Holy Grail [5.5/7]
Armored Saint wants their lunch back, guys, seriously. Their name was on it and everything, and it was shoved way in the back of the fridge. Joking aside, it's been a while since I listened through Raising Fear, mostly because my record player isn't hooked up to anything, but that was what this band's blend of thrash and more traditional styles reminded me of the most. They also executed it pretty well, and put enough into their originals that their cover of "Fast As A Shark" was just "a" highlight rather than the highlight of the set. They didn't overstay their welcome, probably due to only having an EP and a yet-unreleased album to draw from, and that as much as the fresher sound, after Lich King and Bonded By Blood, probably helped in getting a positive impression from a crowd that was there to see a bill where, really, every single other band was heavier than they were.
These guys played at Wacken this past year; in the tent stage, and I did not see them, either because I had something better to do or because I was drinking with Spanish people, which may count toward the first as well. I don't begrudge their label bringing them over with only an EP out; that is what labels are for, after all, promotion, and the German audience, especially at Wacken as it's become, has a lot of overlap with the audience for this kind of music.
Malevolent Creation [6.5/7]
Just the fucking tops; this was debatably the best set of the night, but it was also the only death metal set of the night, and thanks to the doctrinaire thrash revivalists stepping out or going upstairs, I was able to get pretty close in. Both of these may have affected my personal perceptions, but what's not up for debate is that Malevolent Creation blasted out a killer set of rampaging brutal death metal, good music performed excellently. The setlist had a strong similarity to the set on their recent Conquering South America live-record, but I didn't get an exact list; best to leave that to somebody who has not, in the past, occasionally confused this band with Monstrosity. (I blame the fuckers who stole the CD from the Imperial Doom case at the radio station in college -- even just to cover for my own mistakes.) Just leave it at awesome.
Exodus [6.5/7]
There were low point, but more high points, exactly as you'd expect for this band, as they are, to stay alive and still stay ahead of the revival bands in the present day, and if "Downfall" sounds like a frickin Killswitch song, at least "Piranha", "Blacklist", and "Good Riddance", to call out some standouts from a set of very good songs, still sound like fucking Exodus. Good enough for me, especially the chance to see Exodus in a nice tight little space like this with an appropriately violent crowd, which led to a hell of a lot of motion, onstage and off. Minute for minute, maybe Malevolent Creation had the better set, but there's no arguing with this kind of volume in quality. Hell of a set, and a hell of an end to the night.
For what it's worth, Rob Dukes, despite being the third-best vocalist to record with Exodus, does have his good points; he's so far the only person I've seen call out the people standing around in the balcony from the stage. As noted numerous times, if you go to a thrash metal show, why the fuck are you not on the floor? If you want to watch people thrashing to a band from a position of safety, you can steal a concert DVD on the internet and save yourself a $25 ticket and gas money. I really don't understand this. At the point where I can't participate any more, I'm just going to stop going to such shows -- and I can still go and participate, albeit to a lesser degree, even now with zero ligaments in my knees.
No encore, as they turned the lights on and started chucking people out the venue; good on Exodus for not wasting three minutes when they could be playing more music. I burned rubber back in order to get sleep to work on the tour report Saturday; that's still not done, and my bands aren't even sewn on, but I'm now all caught up, just in time to head out the door for Composted at Metal Thursday. Euro tour report to follow, at least in part, over the weekend.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Composted with Dysentery, Rampant Decay, Maggot Brain, and Intheshit [O'Brien's, Allston, 7/30/2010]
This was the last chance that Boston would have to give me stuff to take over, so fortunately, I had time to get home, change out of my work pants, and equip the battleshorts I'd be going overseas in before I went in. Between these and my warm-weather vest, I had, narrowly, enough capacity to carry everything back home with. This is a good problem to have; pocket space stretched to the limits means that a lot of stuff is crossing the ocean.
I got down, even so, a little early, which was good; time to drink, hang about, talk for a bit with Scott from Deathamphetamine after picking up his 10 promos, drink more, and pick up 20 sleeve-packed copies of Black Thrash Ritual from Hräsvelg. As will be noted in the still-under-construction tour report, all of these eventually found their way into metalhead hands on the other side of the Atlantic.
Intheshit [5/7]
The only real complaint that anyone rational could have about this set was that it was too short. Short sets are a fact of life in the DIY world, especially on five-band shows in a city that has a (stupidly early) had curfew, but this was really on the bleeding edge even of that, probably because Alex (Nachzehrer, 26 Beers) had been pulled in on drums on really short notice and hadn't gotten time to learn any more than what was played. However, since Intheshit is a grind band, and a really pure one at that, we got a good number of songs (being, true to form, fast and short) and a decent amount of material all told. From that point of view, this was what a grind set should be: aggressive, direct, to the point, and never dragging. From another view, this was about 50-75% of what a grind set should be, since it seemed like they only played for about 10 minutes when 15 or 20 of this style would still have felt as fresh and as raw.
After the set, I went to see if I could pick something up from the band; I didn't end up with an Intheshit demo, but Dawn did give me a large envelope full of Dead Languages stuff to lug over, which initially was a problem; this early on, something like that is a little unwieldy to be holding onto. Fortunately, I was in my warm-weather vest, which has a back pouch for a trauma plate that I didn't sew shut while applying either backpatch that I've used on that rig. Envelope issue solved with room to spare. Around this time, I also got about 10 limited-edition PanzerBastard promos from Andrew, with instructions to distribute them only to the hardest and the truest, which I'm pretty sure I did. As with the CDs mentioned above, all of this stuff got distributed as well.
Maggot Brain [5.5/7]
Coming out of New York, I hadn't heard these guys before and didn't have much in the way of expectations; what we got was a good, solid set of doom/grind balanced more towards the doom side while remaining raw. The slower parts wore on a little; personally, I preferred the breaks where they cranked up the speed and blast intensity, but any way you slice it, the music on offer was still good stuff.
On one level, it's still kind of weird for a touring band to go on second. On the more comprehensive level, though, this is where they fit best into the bill soundwise, and basically everyone who came out to the show saw them, and they didn't have to worry about cleaning up the stage after Composted.
Rampant Decay [5.5/7]
In comparison to last year, or on CD, they sounded a little grindier and a little more black metal (welcome to Boston, where these concepts are on the same axis, rather than opposed) without a bassist, but kicked out a class set of pure Drunk Edge. Their material's the same material, "Cocaine Frenzy" still gets people flying around, and Rich remains one of the funniest motherfuckers in Boston.
Following their set, I picked up a shirt that would end up doing yeoman service over the first four days overseas, and also a bunch of stickers and buttons. The stickers all went, and because I was clever about how I did it, most of the buttons went out too.
Dysentery [6.5/7]
Wow. Just wow. This set did trail off a little at the end, but it finished nearly as well as it started -- how good would this have been overall if Will didn't have strep? Brushing illness to the side, Dysentery powered through an intense set of crushing death metal; the new -- as yet unrecorded/unreleased -- songs that they rolled out didn't have as many 'breakdowns' as the older material, but they definitely aren't short in either the slam or general brutality departments. The crowd was in pretty good form as well, though not as riotous as things would get for Composted; maybe holding their energy in reserve, maybe nervous about picking up a bronchial infection. Whatever the circumstances, this was a hell of a performance, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next time that Dysentery puts out something recorded.
Composted [6/7]
Composted's set was much like the last time (as might be expected when the band doesn't have a lot of brainstorming time to come up with new antics), but.....breadier. Several loaves' worth of Wonder Bread got aired out within the first song, and after the bread stopped being in pieces large enough to throw at people, or into the ceiling fan, it stuck around in the form of pieces small enough to get stuck in your boot treads, which is not what "waffle stomper" refers to, but with this band, you kind of had to figure that it would end up with that meaning eventually. While the air was being filled with carbohydrates and male blowup dolls, Composted continued right along smashing out the slams; the older stuff, still killer, and the new stuff measuring up equally well. The new one from these guys may not have been out yet -- and I may not have been able to find them cheap vuvuzelas in the Berlin discount store, which is also a shame -- but it's definitely something to look forward to.
Finally, though, things closed up, and the management threw people out due to the Boston curfew and because there was seriously mashed bread all over the fucking place. I hit the road posthaste; I had the better part of 50 CDs to move and pack, and a flight to catch the next day. This ofcourse is going to be detailed in the tour report -- which is actually upcoming, and some of it, at least, will be done by the end of the long weekend.
I got down, even so, a little early, which was good; time to drink, hang about, talk for a bit with Scott from Deathamphetamine after picking up his 10 promos, drink more, and pick up 20 sleeve-packed copies of Black Thrash Ritual from Hräsvelg. As will be noted in the still-under-construction tour report, all of these eventually found their way into metalhead hands on the other side of the Atlantic.
Intheshit [5/7]
The only real complaint that anyone rational could have about this set was that it was too short. Short sets are a fact of life in the DIY world, especially on five-band shows in a city that has a (stupidly early) had curfew, but this was really on the bleeding edge even of that, probably because Alex (Nachzehrer, 26 Beers) had been pulled in on drums on really short notice and hadn't gotten time to learn any more than what was played. However, since Intheshit is a grind band, and a really pure one at that, we got a good number of songs (being, true to form, fast and short) and a decent amount of material all told. From that point of view, this was what a grind set should be: aggressive, direct, to the point, and never dragging. From another view, this was about 50-75% of what a grind set should be, since it seemed like they only played for about 10 minutes when 15 or 20 of this style would still have felt as fresh and as raw.
After the set, I went to see if I could pick something up from the band; I didn't end up with an Intheshit demo, but Dawn did give me a large envelope full of Dead Languages stuff to lug over, which initially was a problem; this early on, something like that is a little unwieldy to be holding onto. Fortunately, I was in my warm-weather vest, which has a back pouch for a trauma plate that I didn't sew shut while applying either backpatch that I've used on that rig. Envelope issue solved with room to spare. Around this time, I also got about 10 limited-edition PanzerBastard promos from Andrew, with instructions to distribute them only to the hardest and the truest, which I'm pretty sure I did. As with the CDs mentioned above, all of this stuff got distributed as well.
Maggot Brain [5.5/7]
Coming out of New York, I hadn't heard these guys before and didn't have much in the way of expectations; what we got was a good, solid set of doom/grind balanced more towards the doom side while remaining raw. The slower parts wore on a little; personally, I preferred the breaks where they cranked up the speed and blast intensity, but any way you slice it, the music on offer was still good stuff.
On one level, it's still kind of weird for a touring band to go on second. On the more comprehensive level, though, this is where they fit best into the bill soundwise, and basically everyone who came out to the show saw them, and they didn't have to worry about cleaning up the stage after Composted.
Rampant Decay [5.5/7]
In comparison to last year, or on CD, they sounded a little grindier and a little more black metal (welcome to Boston, where these concepts are on the same axis, rather than opposed) without a bassist, but kicked out a class set of pure Drunk Edge. Their material's the same material, "Cocaine Frenzy" still gets people flying around, and Rich remains one of the funniest motherfuckers in Boston.
Following their set, I picked up a shirt that would end up doing yeoman service over the first four days overseas, and also a bunch of stickers and buttons. The stickers all went, and because I was clever about how I did it, most of the buttons went out too.
Dysentery [6.5/7]
Wow. Just wow. This set did trail off a little at the end, but it finished nearly as well as it started -- how good would this have been overall if Will didn't have strep? Brushing illness to the side, Dysentery powered through an intense set of crushing death metal; the new -- as yet unrecorded/unreleased -- songs that they rolled out didn't have as many 'breakdowns' as the older material, but they definitely aren't short in either the slam or general brutality departments. The crowd was in pretty good form as well, though not as riotous as things would get for Composted; maybe holding their energy in reserve, maybe nervous about picking up a bronchial infection. Whatever the circumstances, this was a hell of a performance, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next time that Dysentery puts out something recorded.
Composted [6/7]
Composted's set was much like the last time (as might be expected when the band doesn't have a lot of brainstorming time to come up with new antics), but.....breadier. Several loaves' worth of Wonder Bread got aired out within the first song, and after the bread stopped being in pieces large enough to throw at people, or into the ceiling fan, it stuck around in the form of pieces small enough to get stuck in your boot treads, which is not what "waffle stomper" refers to, but with this band, you kind of had to figure that it would end up with that meaning eventually. While the air was being filled with carbohydrates and male blowup dolls, Composted continued right along smashing out the slams; the older stuff, still killer, and the new stuff measuring up equally well. The new one from these guys may not have been out yet -- and I may not have been able to find them cheap vuvuzelas in the Berlin discount store, which is also a shame -- but it's definitely something to look forward to.
Finally, though, things closed up, and the management threw people out due to the Boston curfew and because there was seriously mashed bread all over the fucking place. I hit the road posthaste; I had the better part of 50 CDs to move and pack, and a flight to catch the next day. This ofcourse is going to be detailed in the tour report -- which is actually upcoming, and some of it, at least, will be done by the end of the long weekend.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Euro tour absolviert
I'm back, and slowly getting everything to the point where tour reports will go up. I suspect they'll show I didn't see as many bands as in previous years, but I still had a hell of a time, passed out every single thing I took over (buttons excepted, but I cleared a bunch of those as well), and hung out with a lot of cool people in the process.
Thanks are due to, in no particular order, Dutch druggies, Greek DIY hosters, Solvi, Mattse and the DORF bunch, the entire island of Ireland, Culto, Maria, Sobo, Paula, Hector, Carmen, and any of the rest of the Salamanca crew that I forgot, German bikers, Dennis and crew, Jesse, Donnie, Max/Mopsi and crew, Oscar and crew (sorry I didn't get your bandname), Susi and Julia, DER KAI!!!, Daniel Mordfest, Nick, Chris and the other Aussies, Paulo, Sara and Michael from Terrorblade, Austrian speedfreaks, Sven from Obscure Mortuary (and Phillip, when he was awake), Katrin and Corinne, the extremely helpful staff at the Hertha fanshop, and of course the bands whose merch I took over and passed out to all these people. If I forgot or misspelled anyone, I apologize; there was a LOT of beer involved, and unlike the reports (hopefully to follow in the next couple days), I wasn't compiling this thankslist live.
Thanks are due to, in no particular order, Dutch druggies, Greek DIY hosters, Solvi, Mattse and the DORF bunch, the entire island of Ireland, Culto, Maria, Sobo, Paula, Hector, Carmen, and any of the rest of the Salamanca crew that I forgot, German bikers, Dennis and crew, Jesse, Donnie, Max/Mopsi and crew, Oscar and crew (sorry I didn't get your bandname), Susi and Julia, DER KAI!!!, Daniel Mordfest, Nick, Chris and the other Aussies, Paulo, Sara and Michael from Terrorblade, Austrian speedfreaks, Sven from Obscure Mortuary (and Phillip, when he was awake), Katrin and Corinne, the extremely helpful staff at the Hertha fanshop, and of course the bands whose merch I took over and passed out to all these people. If I forgot or misspelled anyone, I apologize; there was a LOT of beer involved, and unlike the reports (hopefully to follow in the next couple days), I wasn't compiling this thankslist live.
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