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.
Showing posts with label exodus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exodus. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Every Shirt XVI: Exodus
shirt: Exodus 2009 tour
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: band
Also picked up at the gig Friday, this shirt illustrates something I alluded to in that review, as to how Exodus is super-underground. If you compare the tour dates on the back of this one to the ones on the back of Kreator's, you'll see that the start and end points aren't the same, in space or in time, and that Exodus' dates are a superset of Kreator's.
There's a pretty easy explanation of this just from reading the itineraries. Kreator's tour starts at the Sonar in Baltimore and ends at the Jaxx in Springfield, VA, after doing a counterclockwise loop through the generally-habited areas of English-speaking North America. The band probably got cheap flights in and out of Dulles and booked the tour accordingly. Exodus, though, comes from the other coast, and though they will probably make enough from the Kreator portion of their tour to justify just coming straight across by road, or by JetBlue and mating up with a U-Haul full of guitars, they decided to do nine dates driving cross-country before meeting up with Kreator, and taking seven dates to drive home at the end, hitting smaller markets and places that Kreator just wasn't stopping for some reason. Yes, it's also an economic winner. But playing en-route dates is what working underground bands do: a few dates define the tour route, and then as close to every night in between them and home is filled out with other shows, because gas is not cheap, and many fans are.
This is the only Exodus shirt from this show; they also had a FedExodus design that was hella funny, but I had, as mentioned, no money at the end of the night to buy one with. Maybe another time; maybe in the fall, or maybe next year, but something tells me those shirts are going to sell out right quick.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Kreator with Exodus, Belphegor, Warbringer, and Epicurean [Worcester Palladium, 4/10/2009]
Others have commented on how far six and a half years takes you: from not selling out a converted Pizza Hut in Haverhill to getting your gig moved into, and nearly filling, the biggest indoor room for extreme music in New England. Between that day and this one, we've had the internet go to ubiquity, the thrash revival start and come to flower, and probably more importantly, six seriously worthy records from the bands at the top of the bill. Not everyone who bought their first Kreator gear here and immediately pulled it on will go on, half a decade hence, to be among us old crusty misanthropes dividing the world between Sounds Like Kreator and Garbage, but some will, and if these gigs continue to bring in both the young and those who'll become the old at a consistent rate, metal is going to be ok.
With an intro like this, you get the impression that this was a pretty damned epic concert, and yes, you would be right on that one.
As is usual for Palladium shows, I left directly from work, strapping my brace on before I left the building. Traffic on the Pike was garbage, with rain starting soon after I cleared 495, and getting heavier as I moved further inland. Coming in about half an hour after doors, I was moderately surprised to see Epicurean already well into their set, but this would have positive rather than negative consequences for the rest of the evening.
Epicurean [4/7]
I took a few moments after coming in to listen to these guys; if they were real good, I would go forward and listen to them now, then do merch later. I got a beer, then somewhat leisurely browsed the merch tables, but did get down for about the last half of their set, which seemed to run on longer (probably going into what would under normal circumstances have been Warbringer's time) than the band's performance might warrant. They were pretty good, sort of a NWOSDM/prog hybrid that you might get by crossing Into Eternity and Shadows Fall, but the music never left that "pretty good" level, and for whatever reason they had a fair amount of synths on playback. I hadn't seen them before, but apparently the last time they were around, they had a live keyboardist. Epicurean were pretty decent as openers go, but on their own I'd be wary of seeing them anywhere bigger than O'Brien's.
In contrast to some other big shows downstairs lately, merch prices were eminently reasonable, with nearly all shirts at $20. I wouldn't read too much into this in regards bands bowing to recessionary pressures or acknowledging the younger audience; Exodus, as their tour dates on this run show, are about as super-underground as a big band can get, and Mille is kind of an anarcho-socialist, to whom normal economic math may not make moral sense.
Warbringer [5/7]
I'll have to withhold judgement until later as to whether I've seen Warbringer yet. This was a good performance running down basically exactly the same kind of Exodus-leaning Bay Area thrash as found on War Without End, but it was also a short one, necessitated by the fact that their normal drummer had broken a bone in his arm a few days prior, and they had only a few days to start rehearsing with and teaching songs to the drummer from Epicurean, who was sitting in. This made for about a four-song set, but it was a good four songs, and they did manage to get a new one in. As regards the new record, from this limited sample, it sounds like anyone who liked the first record will dig the second, as there does not appear to be a lot of material change.
The original plan was to dodge the hordes by going down front only after Warbringer due to expected audience flux between them and Belphegor. As it turned out, the floor did not start filling in until that point, so I was able to freely come and go from the rail up until when Belphegor started.
Belphegor [6/7]
I'll have to check, but I'm not sure that I've seen Belphegor before either; I missed them several times on several previous tours, and as a result seem to have missed out on the period where Anthony (ex-Zircon) was playing second guitar live for them. (I did see him in the audience for their set, though...and if they've got any sense of decency, he was on the list.) This was a shortish but high-quality set of death-black metal that should probably be reckoned a "low 6"; I'd feel more confident about marking them at this level if they had gone on a little longer, but I, and I expect nearly everyone in the hall, would be willing to take slightly less good Belphegor in exchange for more truly excellent Exodus and Kreator.
I picked up Belphegor's new record, Bondage Goat Zombie (talk about your RttP title generator...) from the band along with a patch that I now have to put somewhere, and on later inspection, found a writing credit for someone called "Pagan Megan". If this is the person that the Northeast thinks it is, there is a dramabomb planted somewhere and waiting to go off. If you know why this intersection might lead to ridiculous internet drama, get your popcorn and image macros ready; if not, just go on with your life, it's probably better to ignore this. Support Music, Not Rumors.
Exodus [7/7]
As mentioned above, I made sure to equip my leg brace before going down for this one. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough -- not because I got hurt or anything, but because "Piranha" is still too fucking good to have to stay in one place because you can't afford major joint damage because Kreator is next and you have to bend yourself up to get in your damn car after that. Exodus kicked extreme ass, putting up a better show than the last time I saw them in this building -- which was at Metalfest, so any set longer than 30 minutes would automatically become better -- and probably better than when I heard them at Wacken this summer -- and while the pit was, as expected, fucking bananas all the way around, nobody was beating me about the head and shoulders with a shoe at any point during the performance. The single notable break in the thrash avalanche came when Rob went backstage and brought out a cake for Tom Hunting's birthday (yes, he's back in, so Exodus is no longer at zero original members), and Gary jammed through "Happy Birthday" for the audience to bellow along with. Other than that, yeah, continuous circle pits and a wall of death on "Strike of the Beast" that was hell of fun catching. If this had been the headline set, I don't think that anyone would have minded, except for the part where it was only about an hour long. Still fucking killer.
While standing around between them and Kreator, still burning out excess energy, I encountered Eric from CSDO, flyering for his band (and if you're going to advertise CSDO, you could hardly find a more receptive audience than the people standing around after Exodus because they want to see Kreator at as close range as possible), and Alex from Razormaze, who thanked me for writing them up favorably in an old number of this record. We'll see if I manage to make it down to any of the matinee-and-night Robinapalooza they're playing at O'Brien's today; if you've got working feet and fewer family commitments, though, get the hell over.
Kreator [7/7]
As alluded above, my first time seeing Kreator indoors, and for me even as much as for those who don't even know that Club 125 ever existed, a hell of a way to start. We got the standout material (ok, modulo "Demon Prince") from the new record woven cleanly into highlights from the band's last 25 or so years, and fitting perfectly in beside them. While Hordes of Chaos isn't as good as Enemy of God, it's still a good D-thrash record, and it shows this most clearly by transferring exactly into the live setting. This wasn't a quirky a set as I saw at Wacken, or clinically perfect either ("Voices of the Dead" was done better both times I've seen the band before, but the dudes around me were just pumped that the band played it, so all was good), but it was a Kreator set, complete with high execution, lighting effects to knock your skull in, and ferocious floor movement that benefited from having more space than Exodus did, even if exhaustion was starting to cut into the crowd's vigor. I've got a bad sample space of Kreator shows for comparison; this is tied for second out of three for me, but for normal people, this is likely to be the best set they've seen from the band and may well stay that way for a while.
After it became apparent that they weren't going to do another encore, I went up and dropped my last dollar on the merch stand; they were out of the At the Pulse of Kapitulation shirts, which have a hellishly awesome design, but I was able to score a Live Kreation number before they ran out of those. I also bumped into Dave (ex-Summoning Hate), and asked him about his separation from said band; he quit, which is better than getting kicked, but I didn't go into particulars, as band business should stay band-internal rather than having some yob come and pry about it.
Homeward bound, things were simple: having barely the money left to do tolls, I didn't stop, and as a result got home a little after 2, gunned a glass of water to make up for the fluid volume I'd lost by thrashing and not drinking, and sacked out to start the recuperation process. I'm in functioning form now, but probably won't be hitting any gigs until Thursday, warming up for the NEMBVF (New England Metal Blade and Victory Festival, lolz) with Metal Blade Recording Artists Ravage (I'm not sure, but I think that's how we have to refer to the band now) at Metal Thursday (not yet sponsored by Metal Blade), then sticking in Worcester for Friday and Saturday. We'll see how synchronously the reports on those come in; I may have to work on Friday morning, which would give me a little time to write, but thrashing's of course going to be a higher priority.
With an intro like this, you get the impression that this was a pretty damned epic concert, and yes, you would be right on that one.
As is usual for Palladium shows, I left directly from work, strapping my brace on before I left the building. Traffic on the Pike was garbage, with rain starting soon after I cleared 495, and getting heavier as I moved further inland. Coming in about half an hour after doors, I was moderately surprised to see Epicurean already well into their set, but this would have positive rather than negative consequences for the rest of the evening.
Epicurean [4/7]
I took a few moments after coming in to listen to these guys; if they were real good, I would go forward and listen to them now, then do merch later. I got a beer, then somewhat leisurely browsed the merch tables, but did get down for about the last half of their set, which seemed to run on longer (probably going into what would under normal circumstances have been Warbringer's time) than the band's performance might warrant. They were pretty good, sort of a NWOSDM/prog hybrid that you might get by crossing Into Eternity and Shadows Fall, but the music never left that "pretty good" level, and for whatever reason they had a fair amount of synths on playback. I hadn't seen them before, but apparently the last time they were around, they had a live keyboardist. Epicurean were pretty decent as openers go, but on their own I'd be wary of seeing them anywhere bigger than O'Brien's.
In contrast to some other big shows downstairs lately, merch prices were eminently reasonable, with nearly all shirts at $20. I wouldn't read too much into this in regards bands bowing to recessionary pressures or acknowledging the younger audience; Exodus, as their tour dates on this run show, are about as super-underground as a big band can get, and Mille is kind of an anarcho-socialist, to whom normal economic math may not make moral sense.
Warbringer [5/7]
I'll have to withhold judgement until later as to whether I've seen Warbringer yet. This was a good performance running down basically exactly the same kind of Exodus-leaning Bay Area thrash as found on War Without End, but it was also a short one, necessitated by the fact that their normal drummer had broken a bone in his arm a few days prior, and they had only a few days to start rehearsing with and teaching songs to the drummer from Epicurean, who was sitting in. This made for about a four-song set, but it was a good four songs, and they did manage to get a new one in. As regards the new record, from this limited sample, it sounds like anyone who liked the first record will dig the second, as there does not appear to be a lot of material change.
The original plan was to dodge the hordes by going down front only after Warbringer due to expected audience flux between them and Belphegor. As it turned out, the floor did not start filling in until that point, so I was able to freely come and go from the rail up until when Belphegor started.
Belphegor [6/7]
I'll have to check, but I'm not sure that I've seen Belphegor before either; I missed them several times on several previous tours, and as a result seem to have missed out on the period where Anthony (ex-Zircon) was playing second guitar live for them. (I did see him in the audience for their set, though...and if they've got any sense of decency, he was on the list.) This was a shortish but high-quality set of death-black metal that should probably be reckoned a "low 6"; I'd feel more confident about marking them at this level if they had gone on a little longer, but I, and I expect nearly everyone in the hall, would be willing to take slightly less good Belphegor in exchange for more truly excellent Exodus and Kreator.
I picked up Belphegor's new record, Bondage Goat Zombie (talk about your RttP title generator...) from the band along with a patch that I now have to put somewhere, and on later inspection, found a writing credit for someone called "Pagan Megan". If this is the person that the Northeast thinks it is, there is a dramabomb planted somewhere and waiting to go off. If you know why this intersection might lead to ridiculous internet drama, get your popcorn and image macros ready; if not, just go on with your life, it's probably better to ignore this. Support Music, Not Rumors.
Exodus [7/7]
As mentioned above, I made sure to equip my leg brace before going down for this one. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough -- not because I got hurt or anything, but because "Piranha" is still too fucking good to have to stay in one place because you can't afford major joint damage because Kreator is next and you have to bend yourself up to get in your damn car after that. Exodus kicked extreme ass, putting up a better show than the last time I saw them in this building -- which was at Metalfest, so any set longer than 30 minutes would automatically become better -- and probably better than when I heard them at Wacken this summer -- and while the pit was, as expected, fucking bananas all the way around, nobody was beating me about the head and shoulders with a shoe at any point during the performance. The single notable break in the thrash avalanche came when Rob went backstage and brought out a cake for Tom Hunting's birthday (yes, he's back in, so Exodus is no longer at zero original members), and Gary jammed through "Happy Birthday" for the audience to bellow along with. Other than that, yeah, continuous circle pits and a wall of death on "Strike of the Beast" that was hell of fun catching. If this had been the headline set, I don't think that anyone would have minded, except for the part where it was only about an hour long. Still fucking killer.
While standing around between them and Kreator, still burning out excess energy, I encountered Eric from CSDO, flyering for his band (and if you're going to advertise CSDO, you could hardly find a more receptive audience than the people standing around after Exodus because they want to see Kreator at as close range as possible), and Alex from Razormaze, who thanked me for writing them up favorably in an old number of this record. We'll see if I manage to make it down to any of the matinee-and-night Robinapalooza they're playing at O'Brien's today; if you've got working feet and fewer family commitments, though, get the hell over.
Kreator [7/7]
As alluded above, my first time seeing Kreator indoors, and for me even as much as for those who don't even know that Club 125 ever existed, a hell of a way to start. We got the standout material (ok, modulo "Demon Prince") from the new record woven cleanly into highlights from the band's last 25 or so years, and fitting perfectly in beside them. While Hordes of Chaos isn't as good as Enemy of God, it's still a good D-thrash record, and it shows this most clearly by transferring exactly into the live setting. This wasn't a quirky a set as I saw at Wacken, or clinically perfect either ("Voices of the Dead" was done better both times I've seen the band before, but the dudes around me were just pumped that the band played it, so all was good), but it was a Kreator set, complete with high execution, lighting effects to knock your skull in, and ferocious floor movement that benefited from having more space than Exodus did, even if exhaustion was starting to cut into the crowd's vigor. I've got a bad sample space of Kreator shows for comparison; this is tied for second out of three for me, but for normal people, this is likely to be the best set they've seen from the band and may well stay that way for a while.
After it became apparent that they weren't going to do another encore, I went up and dropped my last dollar on the merch stand; they were out of the At the Pulse of Kapitulation shirts, which have a hellishly awesome design, but I was able to score a Live Kreation number before they ran out of those. I also bumped into Dave (ex-Summoning Hate), and asked him about his separation from said band; he quit, which is better than getting kicked, but I didn't go into particulars, as band business should stay band-internal rather than having some yob come and pry about it.
Homeward bound, things were simple: having barely the money left to do tolls, I didn't stop, and as a result got home a little after 2, gunned a glass of water to make up for the fluid volume I'd lost by thrashing and not drinking, and sacked out to start the recuperation process. I'm in functioning form now, but probably won't be hitting any gigs until Thursday, warming up for the NEMBVF (New England Metal Blade and Victory Festival, lolz) with Metal Blade Recording Artists Ravage (I'm not sure, but I think that's how we have to refer to the band now) at Metal Thursday (not yet sponsored by Metal Blade), then sticking in Worcester for Friday and Saturday. We'll see how synchronously the reports on those come in; I may have to work on Friday morning, which would give me a little time to write, but thrashing's of course going to be a higher priority.
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