Because I misread Church's door time as something that might have some relationship with the show start (I should know better about this place by now), I headed down a little earlier out of work than I strictly needed to, and since there was no baseball game, was able to park south of the river and get in as the bands were loading in. This resulted in a lot of time to kill, but if the Red Sox were hopeless, the atmosphere at Church is still class, and I was able to get in a couple beers, a good bit of hanging about, and 32 copies of the BCS split from the Scaphism guys. It'll be a little challenging to get all of them moved, but 8 total at Wacken and 8 per day at Party.San isn't outside the range of possibility. Challenge accepted.
A little after 9, everything was ready to go, and the bands started up.
Replacire [4/7]
This set really demonstrates how hard it is to get up to average. You can't fault Replacire for listening to the last Cynic record and saying "this is cool and all, but it'd be awesome if there was more death metal in it"; the issue is that this turns into a really big ask for a band to do originally and to perform live. The band's chops are solid, and their modern-jazz influences just as apparent as their death-metal ones, but their compositional and arrangement skills are significantly short of where they need to be to make this kind of music really work. It's good, in a way, to see younger bands biting off more than they chew like this; as they go on, they're going to get better at junking the parts that don't work and stitching the ones that do together into a more cohesive framework. There's nothing wrong with this band that isn't going to improve with experience, but they don't have that experience yet, and it showed in this performance.
Further indicating that this band will have better results as they learn to put songs together better, they did a bang-up, smashing cover of Bloodbath's "Eaten"; it stuck out like a sore thumb as being significantly less complicated than any of their original work, but they killed it basically down to the ground. This is not a bad band, and as soon as they get a handle on the black art of turning riffs into songs rather than pasting them together with Bondo, there's every chance that they're going to come up with something really cool.
Totality [5/7]
Cutting immediately back in the other direction came Totality; there are a lot of precedents for brutal 7-string death metal with a lot of breakdown parts, but if you execute it well enough, people concentrate on the band in front of them, not the foot-high stack of CDs in their closet that they're not super separable from. Solid, heavy, and vicious, Totality turned in a kickass death metal performance; looking across at the remaining shows list, I'm down to see them a couple more times in the next couple weeks, which is definitely something to look forward to.
In about here, I picked up a swack of Scaphism stickers to go with the CDs -- or, more accurately, to leave on tables when I'm not able to push CDs on people. The trick to successful festival promotion is not just having a lot of stuff, and the right stuff, but the right mix of stuff to stand out and appeal to varying audiences.
Formless [5/7]
Much better than the last time I saw them, Formless put out a quality and crunchy performance of technical death metal that also got the crowd moving, probably at its high-water mark, which was pretty dense for a Tuesday night show. They had a few pick points with timing in a couple places, and with either the equipment or the mix in a couple others, but this is a dynamic, developing band that, if they continue on this trajectory, is going to be one of New England's better death metal outfits in pretty short order.
Fun (?!) bass facts: Craig plays with up to eight fingers, which is rare enough to warrant comment, at least from other bass nerds, and combined with how he does a lot of his fingerings, is a pretty strong indicator of a lot of formal training. Some bad habits might suggest that that training came from someone who was more comfortable on guitar, but can be otherwise explained: it's actually pretty normal to not have the hand strength to fret stuff on the E or B strings with your pinky, and I learned bass playing an upright, and also have persistent issues with leaving my thumb on the lowest string rather than on the pickup, let alone freehanding like you're supposed to. This may not be very interesting, but I do have previous; when someone's doing something technically interesting to me, I reserve the right to nerd out about it.
Scaphism [6/7]
Scaphism have also picked it up a notch lately, one would suspect partly from this being the conclusion of a mini-tour wrapped around an appearance at Brutality Reigns. (Obviously, I didn't make it out to this one; a lot of cool bands, but not quite enough, overall, to balance out the "drive out to goddamn Rochester" part. Maybe next year.) In addition to the older material coming out punchier and somehow more crushing, the band continues to crack out new stuff -- in this case, the obligato Lovecraft piece -- that meets or exceeds their previous high standard. Malika coming up to do guest vocals added some extra bite to the set, but the raw quality of slamming death on offer was consistently high from start to finish. When they finally decide they've got enough material, between the demo, their third of the abovementioned split, and the newer songs that haven't been released yet, to put out a full length, it's definitely going to be a record to watch out for, and probably one that committed death metal fans aren't going to have to work too hard to hunt up.
The only regret on this, obviously, was that I wasn't amenable to getting thrown in the pit on various occasions; I've got zero ligaments left in my knees and kind of need to keep my feet set if I want to be able to walk at the end of the night. Mass and friction coefficients took care of that, so after minimal checks to make sure my leg parts were still in working order, it was back out, and back home fairly early as I parked less than a mile away and 93 is much closer to 'functional' than it was a couple months ago. Next up is Coffin Birth, then probably Autumn Above and a preliminary gear check at the weekend.
Showing posts with label formless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formless. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday, September 03, 2010
Composted with Sapremia, Visions of the Night, and Formless [Ralph's, Worcester, 9/2/2010]
This got delayed as a result of finally getting the tour report together; here it is, though.
I punched straight out of work again for this one, and got over in good order, time enough to get in, get some beer, and browse the tables. Despite the very large selection on offer from Sevared (Pat was accompanying the bands around on Visions of the Night's US tour), I wanted to make sure that I supported the bands, and didn't miss records from either of the touring acts. Sapremia didn't have anything new out (Lou mentioned during the set that they were working on a new one), so at that point I just vultured up VotN's catalog.
Formless [5/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, but they rolled out a decent if occasionally pedestrian set of tech-death that was probably hurt more by the soundboard than it needed to be. It took a couple songs for the bass to really start popping, and maybe a song and a half after that for both guitars to really cut through when they needed to, but the material was good enough, and though they're young, these people definitely have chops. The singer was a little disappointed and unnecessarily butthurt about the lack of moshing, to the point of diving into the crowd to try and get things going...which was to no avail. Seriously, you're a tech-death band playing first at a Metal Thursday with Composted headlining the bill. It'd be a hell of a lot more noteworthy if people were hitting each other in that situation, lack of movement is really no reflection on either the band or the audience's reaction to them.
Formless didn't have any merch out, so, making sure that I'd have the cash to grab a Sapremia shirt later, I looted the Sevared table (picking up stuff from Jack Slater, One Master, Vomepotro, and a couple others), and, much like the last time I relieved Pat of his stock, I got a couple free discs in the bargain....including a 9th Plague record that I think I got freebied last year too. Anyone want that one?
Visions of the Night [5.5/7]
This is the first time I've seen a touring band apologize for the state of their lineup. However, most bands would have packed it in and headed back to Canada with their entire rhythm section out of commission. VotN soldiered on, though, getting some drum tracks programmed in about the time it took Lou from Sapremia to learn bass parts for the songs involved, and put up a good if necessarily somewhat limited set that came a lot more from the band's death metal side than the black metal touches they occasionally show on record. If the band want to assert that they're a black/death band for whatever reason, fine; what we got here was a solid and pretty pure death metal set, maybe due to the drum machine, but probably because of the way the actual material's written.
Full credit to the band for soldiering on; hopefully, they'll be back with a lineup containing more of their permanent members.
Sapremia [5.5/7]
Next up, these Jerseyites, who smashed out a solid set of unrepentant old-school powertrio death metal. We got a bit of new material that's going to be going on the new one, and a good selection of older stuff, including a few tracks older than some people in the room. What you get, though, when a band's been around since '92, still going strong, ....and there's a few underage people in the room thanks to being in the openers. They also had some member rotation; I'm pretty sure that they had another guitarist the last time I saw them, in addition to Justin sitting in on drums for the tour, but this didn't affect the sound to any great degree: still a good death metal band putting in a good shift of death metal.
In here I picked up a Sapremia shirt off Lou, who opined in the process that he didn't know how I was able to take the upstairs heat at Ralph's in a full-sleeve kutte. Us on the floor have it a lot easier and less melting than the bands on stage, who are both directly under the lights and moving around more, but probably the most significant factor is that I'd been living in the thing for most of two weeks, including the crucible of Wacken this year. You get used to it, somehow.
Composted [6/7]
Mark wasn't able to secure a banana suit for this gig (probably for the best, the only banana costume I know of in the greater Peabody area was last seen being worn in the rain while riding a stolen bike with no seat on it, but that's a story for another day), and Composted didn't play any Obituary material (a source of much hilarity; not Obituary, but that they weren't playing any, which is kind of a had to be there thing), but they did roll out a high-test performance of mentalist slam-death that made more than a few converts. A lot of the set was off the new one, including the debut of "SIDS In The City", a nice short song containing exactly five riffs, four of which are punch-yourself-in-the-face quality slams. People, of course, went completely bananas, though with Composted closing out a Metal Thursday, that's more the rule than the exception. That next recording, if I recall correctly, is supposed to be split with Boarcorpse and Scaphism (aka Oor Raep Band); certain devastation to follow whenever that one drops, for sure.
After Composted closed up, I beat feet; I was in the middle of a crush for work that has resulted in this feeling a hell of a lot more than two weeks late. Next show is another Midway black metal matinee....and hopefully that'll get fucking writ up before the leaves start to change.
I punched straight out of work again for this one, and got over in good order, time enough to get in, get some beer, and browse the tables. Despite the very large selection on offer from Sevared (Pat was accompanying the bands around on Visions of the Night's US tour), I wanted to make sure that I supported the bands, and didn't miss records from either of the touring acts. Sapremia didn't have anything new out (Lou mentioned during the set that they were working on a new one), so at that point I just vultured up VotN's catalog.
Formless [5/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, but they rolled out a decent if occasionally pedestrian set of tech-death that was probably hurt more by the soundboard than it needed to be. It took a couple songs for the bass to really start popping, and maybe a song and a half after that for both guitars to really cut through when they needed to, but the material was good enough, and though they're young, these people definitely have chops. The singer was a little disappointed and unnecessarily butthurt about the lack of moshing, to the point of diving into the crowd to try and get things going...which was to no avail. Seriously, you're a tech-death band playing first at a Metal Thursday with Composted headlining the bill. It'd be a hell of a lot more noteworthy if people were hitting each other in that situation, lack of movement is really no reflection on either the band or the audience's reaction to them.
Formless didn't have any merch out, so, making sure that I'd have the cash to grab a Sapremia shirt later, I looted the Sevared table (picking up stuff from Jack Slater, One Master, Vomepotro, and a couple others), and, much like the last time I relieved Pat of his stock, I got a couple free discs in the bargain....including a 9th Plague record that I think I got freebied last year too. Anyone want that one?
Visions of the Night [5.5/7]
This is the first time I've seen a touring band apologize for the state of their lineup. However, most bands would have packed it in and headed back to Canada with their entire rhythm section out of commission. VotN soldiered on, though, getting some drum tracks programmed in about the time it took Lou from Sapremia to learn bass parts for the songs involved, and put up a good if necessarily somewhat limited set that came a lot more from the band's death metal side than the black metal touches they occasionally show on record. If the band want to assert that they're a black/death band for whatever reason, fine; what we got here was a solid and pretty pure death metal set, maybe due to the drum machine, but probably because of the way the actual material's written.
Full credit to the band for soldiering on; hopefully, they'll be back with a lineup containing more of their permanent members.
Sapremia [5.5/7]
Next up, these Jerseyites, who smashed out a solid set of unrepentant old-school powertrio death metal. We got a bit of new material that's going to be going on the new one, and a good selection of older stuff, including a few tracks older than some people in the room. What you get, though, when a band's been around since '92, still going strong, ....and there's a few underage people in the room thanks to being in the openers. They also had some member rotation; I'm pretty sure that they had another guitarist the last time I saw them, in addition to Justin sitting in on drums for the tour, but this didn't affect the sound to any great degree: still a good death metal band putting in a good shift of death metal.
In here I picked up a Sapremia shirt off Lou, who opined in the process that he didn't know how I was able to take the upstairs heat at Ralph's in a full-sleeve kutte. Us on the floor have it a lot easier and less melting than the bands on stage, who are both directly under the lights and moving around more, but probably the most significant factor is that I'd been living in the thing for most of two weeks, including the crucible of Wacken this year. You get used to it, somehow.
Composted [6/7]
Mark wasn't able to secure a banana suit for this gig (probably for the best, the only banana costume I know of in the greater Peabody area was last seen being worn in the rain while riding a stolen bike with no seat on it, but that's a story for another day), and Composted didn't play any Obituary material (a source of much hilarity; not Obituary, but that they weren't playing any, which is kind of a had to be there thing), but they did roll out a high-test performance of mentalist slam-death that made more than a few converts. A lot of the set was off the new one, including the debut of "SIDS In The City", a nice short song containing exactly five riffs, four of which are punch-yourself-in-the-face quality slams. People, of course, went completely bananas, though with Composted closing out a Metal Thursday, that's more the rule than the exception. That next recording, if I recall correctly, is supposed to be split with Boarcorpse and Scaphism (aka Oor Raep Band); certain devastation to follow whenever that one drops, for sure.
After Composted closed up, I beat feet; I was in the middle of a crush for work that has resulted in this feeling a hell of a lot more than two weeks late. Next show is another Midway black metal matinee....and hopefully that'll get fucking writ up before the leaves start to change.
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