Atrociously late but still here, this is from more than a week ago now, but it was still a good show and worth the trundling out to. I was coming from class, so this meant parking in Boston rather than doing the train, and paying too much for garaging and the Pike going out of the city, but it paid off in being able to get out on time and end up at the venue only shortly before doors.
After freezing for a bit, they opened up, and I got in and paid my $25 for what turned out to be, surprise surprise, another show moved upstairs at no discount. With this bill, it wasn't a problem, but as noted before, this is going to start bearing on people's decisions to come out before long. Upstairs is a good experience, but traditionally the cost of the ticket scales directly rather than inversely with the size of the hall.
Scalpel [4.5/7]
First time I'd seen these guys, and they put on a good if somewhat generic brutal/slam death performance. They had a lot of people in to see them who provided some good chaos on the floor while the crowd was still filling in, and decent enough material for a local band in the process of coming up. It'll be interesting to see how they develop, and how they go on to find their sound; eastern New England has a fairly large supply of bands in this general style, so if they want to stand out, they're going to need to step it up a notch.
I know that I've seen several of the members of this band in other area bands before, but their metal-archives entry isn't the most informative, and my memory isn't that eidetic. We'll see if I can work out who played with who in the past.
Dreaming Dead [5/7]
This band saw a lot of expectations reset; given the volume of evidence, it is surprising when a band with two female guitarists comes out and plays hard-hitting thrashing death metal rather than some other style. It's also good, which is why, I think, you saw a lot of interest in this combo from attendees. I was more surprised, though, in hearing that they were from L.A.; poorly informed me didn't realize they were touring and thought they were from New Bedford or something. They drilled out a good set limited to some degree by the sound, and definitely impressed; if Paganizer ever makes it over, this would be a good band to open for them.
This was apparently their first real tour, at least supporting a package nationally; while they seemed to be doing decent business when I went to pick up a CD, it might have been better if they'd turned one of the CDs over as well, to show the Ibex Moon logo on the back. John McEntee doesn't mess about when signing quality death metal, and most fans both know this and will be willing to give bands that are on Ibex Moon a fair shake for that alone.
Krisiun [6/7]
Despite the venue, this was about as far back as I've seen Krisiun from in the last four years. The overall effect may not have been as good as immediately previous times, being right on top of the band, but this was a class Krisiun set regardless, and someone else got to have that experience due to me getting stuck at the back. The room was well packed at this point, and arguing by volume that this maybe shouldn't've been moved upstairs.
Immolation [7/7]
On a night of very good performances from the touring heavyweights, Immolation's was at the top of the heap. There's not a lot you can write about this band: they play uniquely brutal yet epic death metal, and they bring it live with impressive ferocity. Their new record isn't out till March, but it's going to be another strong disc from the sounds of it here. Just simply great all around.
As per the last time I saw Immolation, up in New Hampshire two years gone, they didn't play "No Jesus No Beast", despite people yelling for it. It's a good song, but so is their new material; if they want to emphasize that they're an active band still making good new music, that's their choice, but it's always someone's first Immolation show. Crappy argument, I know; maybe the solution is to book Immolation on more festivals where they're pinched for time and playing to a large number of known new audience.
Nile [6.5/7]
If you were also standing around as the techs milled about and Karl tweaked away at his rig, you might have wondered if the score was ever going to get to this level. Nile started off late, delayed by technical problems with what looked like an effects unit; it's due to stuff like this that people come up gnashing their teeth about simplicity in metal, but as the rest of the set demonstrated, it's useful to also have bands that are willing to take the risk of stuff not working in order to bring their studio sound out onto the stage live. When everything finally started working, Nile hit into a class set heavily balanced towards new material that neatly palliated everyone who had been yelling at them to get on with it. Not perfect, but crushing all the same, and a strong conclusion to a killer show.
People had been filtering out all through Nile, probably as a consequence of the delay in starting up, but I stuck till the bitter end, not wanting to miss out on anything that might go forward before the lights went up. I got full value out of my $25, and suspect that most who were in from the start did as well; Abigail Williams dropping off and good performances from the good bands that remained will tend to do that.
Next show is coming up in the next couple days -- Palladium shenanigans decided against the Arch Enemy/Exodus tour, but if I don't see Cynic in Boston Tursday, then it'll be Suffocation, Shining, and going home before Devildriver Friday -- and if not then, definitely CNV in Haverhill. Good stuff coming.
Showing posts with label immolation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immolation. Show all posts
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Monday, November 19, 2007
Suffocation with Immolation, Skinless, Downfall, Never The Next Day, Slayed Innocence, Devil's Champion, Seize The Day, Severed Survival, and Judecca
(show is from Mark's in Bedford, on 11/17/2007, but the local openers completely filled up the title field)
(also, apologies to the Summoning Hate dudes; I wasn't thinking when I did up the title and used their old name, and now I can't replace it without pushing some other band off the end.)
So I got up shortly after doors, as usual for a Saturday show, and got reacquainted with stages on shipping pallets, insipid pseudobeer, invasive security, the long parade of local bands, and all the other accoutrements of Mark's. I had almost forgotten how bad Coors Light is. This was enough 'nostalgia', though; the bands started up quickly, and the music got underway.
Judecca [4/7]
With their Pantera roots and death metal aspirations, along with the singer's scenester look, Judecca presented what many outside observers would categorize as a neat snapshot of metal in the Myspace age, and probably would include an egregious comparison to Job For A Cowboy. The only similarity between these two bands, though, is in that neither is particularly original or interesting; where JFAC cribs directly from Morbid Angel, Judecca are much more of a Pantera-following bro-core band who occasionally try to play death metal. They weren't in any sense bad, but they didn't do anything in this set that gave any indication that they're going to do anything as a band; the riffs were decent, but composition was lacking and as a result the songs never seemed to go anywhere.
Judecca started things off from the main stage, which led to a double-clutch later; given the lack of doods in-house, I'd have started the first local on the second stage to reduce total latency and give more bands longer sets. I'm surprised, though, that Bernie didn't – or, hopefully, couldn't – just add another local to the second stage.
Severed Survival [5/7]
I was quite pleased to see these guys again; aside from Summoning Hate, I hadn't seen any of the other locals I'd seen mentioned around yet, and it's nice to get a positive sure thing on a pay-to-play bill. This time around, they were a little more deathy and less thrashy, but it's really a matter of degrees, and this was still a kickass set of old-school extreme metal. They closed with some Dying Fetus rather than early Death on this one, and the impression was inescapable that they really ought to try to get slots that are not at Mark's; these guys would kick ass at O'Brien's or at Welfare Records with any number of other bands, and they'd probably have a better time if the crowd was moving around.
The same girl who was screaming for Suffocation (and maybe some of the other nationals, but she wasn't right on the rail next to me for Skinless and Immolation) was also screaming for these guys, so she probably knows the band. Regardless, it's a positive; every band needs someone to scream for them, and it's better to have girls doing so than the normal complement of sweaty hairy dudes.
Seize The Day [5/7]
Now, back to the main stage, for a decent but unfortunately somewhat forgettable metalcore band who at least did pass my most basic test: does this band adequately sound like second-rate In-Flames-circa-1997. They did, and it was a decent time; I tried to find the demos they said they had available later, but unfortunately did not. Like a bunch of other bands from this area, they could be the next new band out of Gothenchusetts, and they were pretty good. Interestingly, they had a third guitar on a stand for their bassist to swap onto, rather than adding a sixth member to play mostly rhythm and occasional leads. The sound balance didn't always bring it all the way through, but it was definitely an interesting wrinkle.
The most fortunate thing about this performance, though, was that the singer's ass managed to stay in his pants for the whole set. The same cannot be said of his boxers.
Devil's Champion [5/7]
If Judecca was a bro-core band attempting to play death metal, Devil's Champion came off as a solid death metal band trying to play bro-core with their standard tunings. More death metal got into their sound in the process, and the result was fairly good; I'd seen their name on a couple Pyad bills and some other shows from the Valley, and they're definitely worth checking out for folks on the North Shore and surrounding areas. I did get their demo, but haven't listened through yet; it'll be interesting to see these guys develop, and which direction they decide to take. If this was the sound of "modern death metal" in the US, there'd be a lot fewer people complaining about it.
If you're a real nitpicker and wanting to know which of the three bands at each of the 4, 5, and 6 points on this gig was better than the others, there's an easy solution: go to more shows. The comments only go so far, and you really need to be there live to get an accurate handle on these situations where I resist the urge to do split ratings, which are inherently kind of dumb.
Summoning Hate [6/7]
Changing their name definitely hasn't changed Boston's best Latin death metal band; despite a few hitches – which later caused David (drums) to insist that their performance sucked – they were easily better than the other locals on the bill, and hung in well with the nationals, meriting the billing that had them WSGed for the touring bands on most of the venue flyers leading up to the gig. Despite those few points where the Avilas were out of phase with each other, this was a good set featuring some really good music; death fans in the Northeast should check these guys out, not least because at least according to the band, you're likely to see even a better set than this one.
This was the part where the stage scheduling double-clutched and left no band playing while they did a set change on the main stage. On one level, it's understandable; Summoning Hate belonged on the same stage as the nationals, both in skill level and general degree of recognition. On another, it's not, given that they could have started with the second stage, played around with the lineup, and had less latency and longer sets. The hopeful part in here is that there was another band originally scheduled, who had to drop due to not meeting their ticket commitments, and Bernie wasn't able to convince any of the other brutalish metal bands in the area to submit to the required reaming. Henry was looking around before the gig to see if there would be enough Mortis Dev supporters going to make taking a slot viable, which apparently didn't pan out; it's always good to see bands get shows, but it's better for them to get paid for doing those gigs (which MD has no problem doing).
Skinless [6/7]
This is what we were all waiting for, the irresistible force (Skinless) versus the immovable object (New Hampshire's anti-mosh laws and TNT's rigorous implementation thereof). This round was a draw, but it was a draw done to the strains of some killer slammish death metal, drawn heavily from Skinless' early catalog, which is being reissued on CD by a combination record label and wrestling promotion. Hooray for the internet driving disruptive business models! This set's crowd-participation activities included the Wave, jumping jacks, and the Zombie Wall of Death, as well as one guy unfortunately getting thrown out for, you guessed it, moshing. The band was quite upset about this last, but this didn't show up for another couple sets.
With the nationals starting up, the venue started to fill up, with a lot more people that I recognized coming in. I gave Brandon (Rohirrim) the Graveland patch I'd woven into an order of some other stuff a while back, and noticed, courtesy of the Summoning Hate posse coming up to see their guys, something that does not happen often: Megan from Hekseri standing next to a guy at an 18+ show that she was legitimately taller than. ;) This was in addition to a bunch of other people I recognized, but unfortunately for the Skinless drummer, not any of the Sexcrement guys (because he was wearing one of their shirts). They, like a lot of the scene in the area, were occupied with not supporting this club due to the pay-to-play and anti-mosh policies.
Slayed Innocence [4/7]
I went back to take a look at these guys, and found them to be mediocre bro-core. I decided I had different priorities and finished getting my merch, then went back to camp the rail for Immolation and Suffocation. They didn't do much by hearsay to convince me that I'd made a mistake, but they weren't actively bad either.
Immolation [6/7]
Immolation, by contrast, put up a killer set, much more tilted to their new stuff than when I saw them at Metalfest. Of course, they were touring behind a new record this time, and the Shadows In The Light material is tremendous, but if you hadn't seen Immolation prior to this, you did miss a bunch of their classics. Of course, the music and delivery thereof was so good that any first timers probably didn't notice or care; the dual leads and prominence of melody in Immolation's music made them a strong contrast to the denser brutality of the other nationals, and should have attracted the interest of people who came out mostly to see the less brutal local bands.
Never The Next Day [4/7]
Like, for, example, these guys, who presented very little evidence that they should be anywhere near a Suffocation bill, let alone playing it. What this group offered is what should be understood as "scenegrind", a new and mostly crummy variant that people need to stop calling grindcore just because scenesters think it is. The mixture of metalcore vocals and a few slammy riffs repeated incessantly did not do much to help the band's cause with the death metal troopies there to see some of the genre's leaders in technical brutality, and, truthfully speaking, the music wasn't really good in any kind of independent sense – and you'd need to be really good to overcome having your singer in a white dress shirt and a gelled-up nohawk with this crew.
Suffocation [7/7]
Then, of course, there's Suffocation, who could debatably come out wearing spandex and Devo hats and still slay. Of course, they didn't, keeping their keep-it-brutal maxim as always, but they did slay, delivering a top-class set of death metal, including a bunch of stuff that they hadn't done in a long while. The sound wasn't quite as good as last year in Worcester, but the performance was maybe a little more consistent. Either way, it was damn killer, and provided an excellent cap to the evening and a perfect soundtrack to victory in the Battle of Bedford.
During Suffocation, two guys got thrown out, but they didn't go down without a fight, and managed to take out two of the security guys in the process, including the huge guy who stumps around for intimidation effect. After this, the secus were a lot more cautious about stepping in down front; core death metal guys fight back a lot harder than most of the opposition they probably get in ejecting scene kids.
The finishing blow, however, was delivered by the guys from Skinless, who blitzed in across the stage and jumped out into the crowd, who managed to keep them from just going straight into the floor. I was concerned that they might get tossed and cause a huge blowup, but Jason (vocals) resolved that as soon as he got out: "They can't throw us out, Frank!" At that point, the balance of power shifted; if the nationals are down front brewing things up, the security can't charge in and brutalize anyone without running the risk of injuring them and causing major trouble with the promoters. From then till the end, there was a nice little pit running down front, a first, at least for a while, at this venue.
So, we won the Battle of Bedford, at least in this particular confrontation, and hopefully, it'll force a shift in how TNT and Mark's approach the moshing issue. The state laws aren't going to change, but the enforcement has to; you cannot really have a metal show in a strict, ejection-only, no-mosh environment. People will get violent and get carried away at times, and if you want a no-mosh environment, just give them a bear hug and tell them to watch where they're throwing their limbs, try not to hit anyone smaller than themselves. There's no need to eject people violently for moshing, rather than actually fighting, even under a state ban: the caution signs at the Palladium work just fine to shield them from liability, and similar signs, subject to state constraints, would probably do it here at Mark's.
The problem here has always been artificial: fascist security, bad location, and ill-advised booking regimes. The second isn't that bad, and the other two can be easily overcome. If more bands are refusing to buy into p2p tactics and the security is starting to get a clue about how to handle metalheads, this could be a decent place to see a show. Could be – for once there was a positive trend at the end of a Mark's show, but there's no sure sign that it's going to continue.
(also, apologies to the Summoning Hate dudes; I wasn't thinking when I did up the title and used their old name, and now I can't replace it without pushing some other band off the end.)
So I got up shortly after doors, as usual for a Saturday show, and got reacquainted with stages on shipping pallets, insipid pseudobeer, invasive security, the long parade of local bands, and all the other accoutrements of Mark's. I had almost forgotten how bad Coors Light is. This was enough 'nostalgia', though; the bands started up quickly, and the music got underway.
Judecca [4/7]
With their Pantera roots and death metal aspirations, along with the singer's scenester look, Judecca presented what many outside observers would categorize as a neat snapshot of metal in the Myspace age, and probably would include an egregious comparison to Job For A Cowboy. The only similarity between these two bands, though, is in that neither is particularly original or interesting; where JFAC cribs directly from Morbid Angel, Judecca are much more of a Pantera-following bro-core band who occasionally try to play death metal. They weren't in any sense bad, but they didn't do anything in this set that gave any indication that they're going to do anything as a band; the riffs were decent, but composition was lacking and as a result the songs never seemed to go anywhere.
Judecca started things off from the main stage, which led to a double-clutch later; given the lack of doods in-house, I'd have started the first local on the second stage to reduce total latency and give more bands longer sets. I'm surprised, though, that Bernie didn't – or, hopefully, couldn't – just add another local to the second stage.
Severed Survival [5/7]
I was quite pleased to see these guys again; aside from Summoning Hate, I hadn't seen any of the other locals I'd seen mentioned around yet, and it's nice to get a positive sure thing on a pay-to-play bill. This time around, they were a little more deathy and less thrashy, but it's really a matter of degrees, and this was still a kickass set of old-school extreme metal. They closed with some Dying Fetus rather than early Death on this one, and the impression was inescapable that they really ought to try to get slots that are not at Mark's; these guys would kick ass at O'Brien's or at Welfare Records with any number of other bands, and they'd probably have a better time if the crowd was moving around.
The same girl who was screaming for Suffocation (and maybe some of the other nationals, but she wasn't right on the rail next to me for Skinless and Immolation) was also screaming for these guys, so she probably knows the band. Regardless, it's a positive; every band needs someone to scream for them, and it's better to have girls doing so than the normal complement of sweaty hairy dudes.
Seize The Day [5/7]
Now, back to the main stage, for a decent but unfortunately somewhat forgettable metalcore band who at least did pass my most basic test: does this band adequately sound like second-rate In-Flames-circa-1997. They did, and it was a decent time; I tried to find the demos they said they had available later, but unfortunately did not. Like a bunch of other bands from this area, they could be the next new band out of Gothenchusetts, and they were pretty good. Interestingly, they had a third guitar on a stand for their bassist to swap onto, rather than adding a sixth member to play mostly rhythm and occasional leads. The sound balance didn't always bring it all the way through, but it was definitely an interesting wrinkle.
The most fortunate thing about this performance, though, was that the singer's ass managed to stay in his pants for the whole set. The same cannot be said of his boxers.
Devil's Champion [5/7]
If Judecca was a bro-core band attempting to play death metal, Devil's Champion came off as a solid death metal band trying to play bro-core with their standard tunings. More death metal got into their sound in the process, and the result was fairly good; I'd seen their name on a couple Pyad bills and some other shows from the Valley, and they're definitely worth checking out for folks on the North Shore and surrounding areas. I did get their demo, but haven't listened through yet; it'll be interesting to see these guys develop, and which direction they decide to take. If this was the sound of "modern death metal" in the US, there'd be a lot fewer people complaining about it.
If you're a real nitpicker and wanting to know which of the three bands at each of the 4, 5, and 6 points on this gig was better than the others, there's an easy solution: go to more shows. The comments only go so far, and you really need to be there live to get an accurate handle on these situations where I resist the urge to do split ratings, which are inherently kind of dumb.
Summoning Hate [6/7]
Changing their name definitely hasn't changed Boston's best Latin death metal band; despite a few hitches – which later caused David (drums) to insist that their performance sucked – they were easily better than the other locals on the bill, and hung in well with the nationals, meriting the billing that had them WSGed for the touring bands on most of the venue flyers leading up to the gig. Despite those few points where the Avilas were out of phase with each other, this was a good set featuring some really good music; death fans in the Northeast should check these guys out, not least because at least according to the band, you're likely to see even a better set than this one.
This was the part where the stage scheduling double-clutched and left no band playing while they did a set change on the main stage. On one level, it's understandable; Summoning Hate belonged on the same stage as the nationals, both in skill level and general degree of recognition. On another, it's not, given that they could have started with the second stage, played around with the lineup, and had less latency and longer sets. The hopeful part in here is that there was another band originally scheduled, who had to drop due to not meeting their ticket commitments, and Bernie wasn't able to convince any of the other brutalish metal bands in the area to submit to the required reaming. Henry was looking around before the gig to see if there would be enough Mortis Dev supporters going to make taking a slot viable, which apparently didn't pan out; it's always good to see bands get shows, but it's better for them to get paid for doing those gigs (which MD has no problem doing).
Skinless [6/7]
This is what we were all waiting for, the irresistible force (Skinless) versus the immovable object (New Hampshire's anti-mosh laws and TNT's rigorous implementation thereof). This round was a draw, but it was a draw done to the strains of some killer slammish death metal, drawn heavily from Skinless' early catalog, which is being reissued on CD by a combination record label and wrestling promotion. Hooray for the internet driving disruptive business models! This set's crowd-participation activities included the Wave, jumping jacks, and the Zombie Wall of Death, as well as one guy unfortunately getting thrown out for, you guessed it, moshing. The band was quite upset about this last, but this didn't show up for another couple sets.
With the nationals starting up, the venue started to fill up, with a lot more people that I recognized coming in. I gave Brandon (Rohirrim) the Graveland patch I'd woven into an order of some other stuff a while back, and noticed, courtesy of the Summoning Hate posse coming up to see their guys, something that does not happen often: Megan from Hekseri standing next to a guy at an 18+ show that she was legitimately taller than. ;) This was in addition to a bunch of other people I recognized, but unfortunately for the Skinless drummer, not any of the Sexcrement guys (because he was wearing one of their shirts). They, like a lot of the scene in the area, were occupied with not supporting this club due to the pay-to-play and anti-mosh policies.
Slayed Innocence [4/7]
I went back to take a look at these guys, and found them to be mediocre bro-core. I decided I had different priorities and finished getting my merch, then went back to camp the rail for Immolation and Suffocation. They didn't do much by hearsay to convince me that I'd made a mistake, but they weren't actively bad either.
Immolation [6/7]
Immolation, by contrast, put up a killer set, much more tilted to their new stuff than when I saw them at Metalfest. Of course, they were touring behind a new record this time, and the Shadows In The Light material is tremendous, but if you hadn't seen Immolation prior to this, you did miss a bunch of their classics. Of course, the music and delivery thereof was so good that any first timers probably didn't notice or care; the dual leads and prominence of melody in Immolation's music made them a strong contrast to the denser brutality of the other nationals, and should have attracted the interest of people who came out mostly to see the less brutal local bands.
Never The Next Day [4/7]
Like, for, example, these guys, who presented very little evidence that they should be anywhere near a Suffocation bill, let alone playing it. What this group offered is what should be understood as "scenegrind", a new and mostly crummy variant that people need to stop calling grindcore just because scenesters think it is. The mixture of metalcore vocals and a few slammy riffs repeated incessantly did not do much to help the band's cause with the death metal troopies there to see some of the genre's leaders in technical brutality, and, truthfully speaking, the music wasn't really good in any kind of independent sense – and you'd need to be really good to overcome having your singer in a white dress shirt and a gelled-up nohawk with this crew.
Suffocation [7/7]
Then, of course, there's Suffocation, who could debatably come out wearing spandex and Devo hats and still slay. Of course, they didn't, keeping their keep-it-brutal maxim as always, but they did slay, delivering a top-class set of death metal, including a bunch of stuff that they hadn't done in a long while. The sound wasn't quite as good as last year in Worcester, but the performance was maybe a little more consistent. Either way, it was damn killer, and provided an excellent cap to the evening and a perfect soundtrack to victory in the Battle of Bedford.
During Suffocation, two guys got thrown out, but they didn't go down without a fight, and managed to take out two of the security guys in the process, including the huge guy who stumps around for intimidation effect. After this, the secus were a lot more cautious about stepping in down front; core death metal guys fight back a lot harder than most of the opposition they probably get in ejecting scene kids.
The finishing blow, however, was delivered by the guys from Skinless, who blitzed in across the stage and jumped out into the crowd, who managed to keep them from just going straight into the floor. I was concerned that they might get tossed and cause a huge blowup, but Jason (vocals) resolved that as soon as he got out: "They can't throw us out, Frank!" At that point, the balance of power shifted; if the nationals are down front brewing things up, the security can't charge in and brutalize anyone without running the risk of injuring them and causing major trouble with the promoters. From then till the end, there was a nice little pit running down front, a first, at least for a while, at this venue.
So, we won the Battle of Bedford, at least in this particular confrontation, and hopefully, it'll force a shift in how TNT and Mark's approach the moshing issue. The state laws aren't going to change, but the enforcement has to; you cannot really have a metal show in a strict, ejection-only, no-mosh environment. People will get violent and get carried away at times, and if you want a no-mosh environment, just give them a bear hug and tell them to watch where they're throwing their limbs, try not to hit anyone smaller than themselves. There's no need to eject people violently for moshing, rather than actually fighting, even under a state ban: the caution signs at the Palladium work just fine to shield them from liability, and similar signs, subject to state constraints, would probably do it here at Mark's.
The problem here has always been artificial: fascist security, bad location, and ill-advised booking regimes. The second isn't that bad, and the other two can be easily overcome. If more bands are refusing to buy into p2p tactics and the security is starting to get a clue about how to handle metalheads, this could be a decent place to see a show. Could be – for once there was a positive trend at the end of a Mark's show, but there's no sure sign that it's going to continue.
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