Woods of Ypres with Frozen, Hirudinea, and Dreaded Silence [Ralph's, Worcester, 7/15/2010]

Late, but here it goes; at least one more show and hopefully two (noted below) before shipping out.


I got to go home from work before this one, though it did end up being some extra driving, but the Pike was clean all the way out and I got in with plenty of time to spare. Woods had a seriously extensive merch desk out, but I held fire for the time being, to be sure the locals got the support they deserved as well and also to get a better idea of what in this giant pile of stuff was going to be heading out the door in my pockets.

Dreaded Silence [5/7]
These guys started up a little rusty -- maybe enhanced by P.A. issues, the balance seemed a little weird at the start -- but got it under control and put out a quality set of depressive death metal, much as they did more regularly back a couple years when the band was more active. They were a late addition, covering for Anticosm (same tour as prior shows where their vehicle issues were documented), so a little rust is to be expected; hopefully, moving on from a good outing here and the release of Life Hangs Motionless recently, they'll play out some more and get their profile back up again.

Afterwards I picked up their first EP, which they'd been out of, apparently, when I was seeing them more regularly back in 2007, and tried to get some spare flyers (advertising the Life Hangs Motionless demo, available for free from the above link on the band's site, which has not prevented the typical Russian channels from repackaging it, in a display of mentalness verging on plain idiocy) from Doug to hand out overseas. Instead, he sent me a color PDF of the flyer, and now, 10 quick copies later, I have 40 semi-glossy color flyers to paper around at Wacken, with the opportunity to make more if needed. And since the entire festival is going to be wireless-enabled, some people may be able to pick the demo up and put the flyer down for the next passerby. Technology destroys (wireless internet at a metal open air? everywhere? are you fucking shitting me?), but also rebuilds.

Hirudinea [6/7]
Another band that I don't see nearly as often as I should, these guys fit oddly into the bill as it shook out without Anticosm, but for everyone there for music, an sich, not the sake of a uniform experience, more than made up for it with a powerful, blasting set of intense blackened grind. One of the great things about this concert series, and likely a significant factor in why it's now closing in on its hundredth edition (as well as threatening to take over just "every Thursday" at Ralph's) is the job that Chris (et al) does in getting in bills that are diverse week to week and well-balanced internally, but that would only be half-achieved if the bands involved didn't execute at the high levels that they do. This wasn't Hirudinea's usual audience (bands aside; both of the other locals have plenty of members between them who'll go out for grind or generally DIY shows) for the most part, but their performance was strong enough that it should have convinced at least a few of those who were down for the more melodic bands to dig up some of their recordings.

Frozen [5.5/7]
It'd been a while since I'd last seen Frozen, so their lineup changes coming into this one may have been more than just the new guitarist that I noticed. Fortunately, though, the change(s?) didn't seem to hold them back any, with this being a good solid set that leaned a little more towards Symphony X in its fusion of the heavy and the progressive, though still keeping a lot of the Evergrey elements that've dominated my ideas of this band since I first saw them almost four years ago. It wasn't quite a peak performance, but it it was a good set regardless, and it'll be interesting to see how the band continues to develop if they get into another active phase and release some new material.



Woods setting up. Your Ontario flag is just an amp-scrim rag. No, that's offensive, and not even funny either.

Woods of Ypres [7/7]
Wow. That's pretty much all that can be said; a top-class set from a very good band that, at this point, finally seems to have a lineup that's real, complete, and stable, as well as a firm handle on how they're going to get about it going forward. This was their first tour through this area, which meant that David got the usual guff for mispronouncing "Worcester" the first couple times (out-of-area folks: it's probably closest to "wistah", but if your band is touring through here or the Wheelchair or the QVCC, give a try with "worr-chester" or "woo-ster" first, us Massholes like correcting outsiders and it's less lame than most other forms of stage banter), but the Greyhounds got a few shoutouts as well from the crowd; probably not many places outside Canadia where that would be the case. The set covered material from Woods' whole history, with the expected heavier emphasis on the new record; still, there was plenty of stuff off the other ones, with the new lineup pushing the stuff from the second and third albums a little heavier, and the material from the first disc in a doomier direction. The result was a diverse yet unified set of crunching but melodically structured music that both impressed and got the floor moving, not to Dysentery standards by any stretch, but a hell of a lot more than most people might think possible from a set that, among a significant amount of other Woods II material, put both halves of "The Sun Was In My Eyes" back to back. I'm going to, of course, have to go back over seven months' worth of gigs to be categorical, but there have not been a lot of DIY sets this year (at least that I've been to) that have gotten to quite this level.

After the venue ops turned the lights on, closing out the encore (which actually felt like a legitimate encore, that the band were done, but left their gear onstage in the off chance that we'd cheer them back up, and if not, oh well, stretch out for a bit and then start tearing down), I had to make a couple hard decisions about what swag not to pick up, then hit the road more or less skint. Good show; here's hoping the locals are coming back onto an active cycle, and that Woods will be back with a new record sooner rather than later.


I had to miss two gigs due to unplanned contingencies, but there's at least one more show and potentially two before I hit the skies. If I can get out to Metal Thursday tomorrow, I will; if not, there's always Friday's nonstop melee. There's been a good response so far, but there's still room in the pack for more.

Finntroll with Frozen, The Accursed, Provocate, Lord Bacon, Morgirion, and Habitual Offendaz [Mark's, Bedford, 9/23/2007]

I left what I thought was a little late, but managed to get up right around doors; we're out of that part of the year where people go to New Hampshire when they don't have to work. There was a fair number of people hanging around carbaring in the parking lot; again, Saturday show, and also, Finntroll, where the zaniness is enhanced by being well-oiled.

Habitual Offendaz [3/7]
To a certian degree these guys deserve sympathy. Unfortunately, none of it has to do with their music. This was a monotonous set of nu-metal boring; I'm not going to say that they were untalented, because they didn't actually play anything wrong, but nothing they did convinced me that they had much in the way of actual ability. Even more than the bands getting ripped off, this is the worst thing about pay-to-play shows: that you get bands that suck and don't match to open for Finntroll. Yecch.

Morgirion [5/7]
Despite the lack of a bass player, they put up a decent set of death metal that varied in its influences from black to doom metal. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn't enormously up for them; part of it was the style, but part of it was probably that they were wicked out of area; they come from Connecticut, and it's difficult that they could have gotten many people from their home ground to buy tickets to a show in New Hampshire. This was a good performance, but unfortunately they didn't have CDs; this, again presented a common strand at this gig.

During their set, there was a low-lvl Photog running around taking pics. He looked about lv 5, but I couldn't tell for sure; he had the blue bandanna, but I don't know when you get the quest for that class token. The body model he was using was familiar to other examples I've seen, but the ponytail was a little longer and the goatee a little sparser; the art department needs to get their ass in gear and do some more variations. Since he was low-lv, though, he couldn't dual-wield or use the flashchuck, so he was doing a bunch of noob things like walk around on the front, and it was pretty obvious that he didn't have enough bag slots to pack the right gear. gb2/ah/, n00b. He was gone, though, by the time the normal purple-decked lv 70 showed up after shooting SBC.

Lord Bacon [7/7]
This band has the largest ratio of actual coolness to name coolness that I have ever seen. You'd never know it from not listening to them, but this band is one to watch out for, following close on the heels of Atheist with aggressive, dense jazz-influenced instrumental technical death metal. This was an absolute technical feast, which I had the privilege of seeing front and center, mostly by accident, and with some comradely good fellowship, which was completely incidental to the music and continued through most of the rest of the show. They're playing again in November; I didn't get a ticket from them, but I'm definitely going to make a point of seeing them next time. Seriously, record something, dudes!

Provocate [4/7]
This is almost the clinical definition of letdown. My ears were on the point of falling off from boredom after one or two songs, and I got the impression that they somehow learned death metal from, like, a correspondance school or something without actually listening to any. It was bizarre in addition to sleep-inducing; they were obviously technically competent, but absolutely incapable of writing interesting songs -- despite being buds with the Lord Bacon guys! SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL. Like Habitual Offendaz, they didn't fit the bill, but they sucked less, and at least have the potential to eventually improve.

The Accursed [6/7]
I didn't remember them being this thrash-driven previously, but it was definitely a good thing. They played a bunch of new stuff in addition to the Season of the Scythe material, which is definitely encouraging for any new record; no news on this, but it'll probably be dropping sometime in the next year. They closed with Carcass' "Generation Hexed"; yes, it's Swansong material, but that's still good in itself, and they did a raw and tight version of it that might well have blended in on Heartwork. Good stuff, but things were still improving.

Frozen [6/7]
They sounded a lot less like Evergrey last time, but this one was still really good regardless; John added an uncanny edge to "Ghosts of War" with his camo pants and desert boots -- a sobering and thought-provoking reminder of those in our generation for which these subjects are all too real, both when they're over there and after they get back. This band continues to kick ass, but the crowd was unfortunately a little less for them; they were the only openers not to sell tickets, and this sadly translated into a lot of people staying outside to smoke butts. New Hampshire's state laws are mostly good, but if they keep doods away from seeing Frozen, it's a difficult but bearable sacrifice.

Finntroll [7/7]
The crowd really filled in for them, and they got a hell of an outing. I'd technically seen them before, but this was really the first time I'd seen them seen them; I could have almost stayed home and seen them from closer than last time, which was at Wacken, from half a mile away, and through so much beer that I really don't think my eyes were focusing correctly any more. This time I was on the front rail, incidentally packed in with most of Rohirrim, and got the best of the ensuing outing from Finland's premiere alt-country analogue.

Seriously, they are. Think about it. The roots of the band are in humppaa, and the bass and drums still drive throughout with the folk-polka rhythms, the keys setting up the folkic melody, and then the guitars add the metallic punch that brings them up into modernity for their country. The result, of course, is the ultimate metal bar band, with the attendant guzzling and riotousness that makes for a classic time. Unfortunately, despite the awesome music offered, the other components were lacking. The venue is out in the middle of nowhere, cutting down on the beerconsumption, and more importantly, the security was completely mental, breaking up the least little bit of turbulance and tossing people for breaking into jigs. IDIOTIC. They've always had a no-mosh policy, but the TNT guys took this to absolutely stupid extremes last night, ejecting several people, and allegedly macing some kid. Sooner or later, this is going to backfire on the club, and only because I was right up on the rail did these dumb overreactions not sour an excellent performance by one of the best party bands going in metal.

We should have organized better and just thrown a giant riot-cum-moshpit on their last song; soon enough, someone is going to, and they may well also taze all the security first, which could get heinous. The drive back was okay, but I'd rather have gone into the car with a clean thrashout rather than redshirts fucking people up. Bullshit.


Next week, I'm pretty sure there's no Mark's gig on the slate; Firewind in connection with security bullshit isn't compelling, and there's also two gigs on for next week, so poverty is probably going to be an intervening concern. Next, of course is Municipal Waste (Is Gonna Fuck You Up) at the Palladium. I don't know if this is upstairs of down; upstairs fits better with a thrash-revival lineup with more latitude for pileups and sick pits, but the Waste is probably popular enough to get a good crowd in the downstairs. Regardless, it's time for kutte rivalries and knee injuries and pushing through herds of anklebiters to hit the bar.

Katatonia with Scar Symmetry, Insomnium, Swallow The Sun, Tripmynd, Dreaded Silence, Frozen, and Eternal Embrace [Mark's, Bedford, 9/7/2007]

Despite being at Mark's, this was a really good show, and the drive back was a lot less dangerous than it's been in the past. Good time.


Leaving directly after work again, I fortunately managed to get up and in just as Eternal Embrace was starting; the traffic was still kinda thick, but after Labor Day, it starts to get a whole hell of a lot easier to get into New Hampshire on the weekend. This is fortunate, because there's an absolute ton of shows coming up at this place, and many of them are worth going to.

Eternal Embrace [3/7]
I did see nearly all of this band's set, and while some people will dispute the score, this is a critical opportunity to showcase the distinction between doing something well, and doing something good. The band executed well, but what they were executing was boring as all fuck. Their goth-metal sound may have fit in all right with the overall tenor of the show for some of the attendees, but as a rule the guys in ridiculously overbuilt kuttes with seven rows of studs on each shoulder are not in that group. This was not the worst gothed-up metal performance I've ever seen, but it was on about the level of when I saw Tristania at Wacken, who got the exact same score for, similarly, being largely uninteresting and failing to provide anything new. In the eyes of the band and their fans, though, being on the same level as Tristania is most likely a good thing, and they -- or at least the handful who were there, showing that selling tickets for Mark's is a losing proposition, because you may have to go on first and play to barely more people than are on stage -- doubtless enjoyed this set while I was trying to avoid falling asleep.

Frozen [6/7]
This is the first time I've seen Frozen that they couldn't be put into a bucket; the Evergrey influences were a lot more subdued on this outing, and the sound seemed to be a lot more well-rounded and mature. Their progressive NWOSDM-driven sound fit in well with the traveling undercard, and it particular contrasted nicely with Scar Symmetry as an alternate (and, personally, more appealing) way of turning out a heavier take on Tom Englund's sound. While this wasn't as good as when I saw them out at Ralph's, it was a really good showing and hopefully converted some of the people who hadn't heard of them yet and were camping out for the headliners.

Dreaded Silence [5/7]
In a marked contrast to when I saw them back in April, Dreaded Silence didn't sound so much like Sentenced, which is probably due more to the band maturing than to Ken being more or less sober on this go-round. The older material is still strongly reminiscent of the Northernmost Killers, but their new stuff blends in a strong degree of Opeth; the forthcoming record sounds like it's going to be really cool from the stuff that they did in this set, and the performance was very strong overall.

Tripmynd [3/7]
This is the price of pay-to-play gigs: you will occasionally get crummy bands that can, for some reason, sell their fans on paying 20 bucks to see them on a bill that they completely don't mesh with. As has been stated elsewhere, when you have 'i's replaced with 'y's in band names, the band is going to be nu-metal, deterministically, and that also has pretty strong deterministic implications for the quality of their music and performance. This band was more laughable than sleep-inducing in their aspirations, and concordant failure, to be Tool, instead settling for a third-rate imitation of a second-rate radio rock band trying to be Tool, but after a while it stopped being funny and just started sucking. They allegedly covered "Refuse/Resist", but when a band is going to make a Sepultura song sound like this one did, they usually just refrain from playing it to save themselves the embarassment. This set was completely unnecessary, and if Bernie didn't need their doods' money to pay the headliners, there is no way that they would have gotten on this bill.

Swallow The Sun [6/7]
Probably the most completely doom-oriented of the headliners, these guys got the show back on track with a depressive but stone-heavy set that, as might have been expected, tilted more towards later material. I knew them only from The Morning Never Came until picking up their current album from the merch stand, so while I knew only a little of what they were playing, I was decently impressed with the progression. I don't recall if this was their first US tour or not, but they did go a long way to justifying the degree of interest I've seen in them from various quarters.

Insomnium [7/7]
The first impression of this band was "wow, Warheart-core." ;) It'd been a while since I last heard ...Day It All Came Down, so while I knew, abstractly, what I was getting into, the impression of a non-urban Dark Tranquillity was the dominating one from the first row, and also, completely awesome. Where DT's keys and electonics are all sharp angles and modernistic push, Insomnium's fill in -- when they're used, which was not universal -- around the edges of the sound and give a sense of space and nature, which is probably associated with Drudkh only because I was listening to Estrangement before coming up for the show. As the above indicates, the second and more lasting impression of this band is that they were totally amazing, and stole the damn show; Katatonia were similarly impressive, but as will be discussed later, this was the band of the night for the dyed-in-the-wool metalhead.

From the conclusion of the set:
Niilo: Thank you, Bedford! This is our first US-tour, but we will be back.
Crowd: YEAH!
Dude A: HEADLINE!!
Dude B: Headline?!
Dude A: Why the fuck not?!

Indeed, why the fuck not? Insomnium is definitely good enough to do so over a room of this size, and if this set is any indication, has thoroughly convinced American audiences of this fact, so if they do come back as support, it had better be with Dark Tranquillity at the Palladium or a similar hall.

Scar Symmetry [6/7]
After the Finnish portion of the bill concluded, this was somewhat of a letdown for the start of the Swedish half of the headliners; lacking a standing doom or black metal component, Scar Symmetry fit in only tenuously under Katatonia, and while their set of modern NWOSDM was well turned-out, it seemed to lack a certain degree of inspiration or fire. It was good music, and well-performed, but while this band took a step forward from the last time I saw them (at the Palladium, I think touring with Bodom and Amon Amarth), it wasn't a huge step, and they were probably the down point among the headliners.

Katatonia [6/7]
This band is a continuing testament to the injustice of commercial radio in this country. Their most current material is good and interesting enough in its dark indie colorings that they ought, by rights, to be playing the Paradise in Boston and likely selling it out, but because they have that remaining extreme metal strand running through their music, they're playing Mark's, sponsored by 'AAF, who don't exactly make this style a cornerstone of their brand. While they demonstrated with "Deadhouse" and "Murder" (the de riguer closer in a setting like this) that they still have strong pure metal chops -- the sound on these was so clean and fluid that a whole show of similar old stuff would have been just sublime -- they also demonstrated with the bulk of their set that their older sound just isn't as interesting, or perhaps, as challenging, to the band any more. Katatonia has pushed off from what might be considered a doctrinaire metal sound into waters that are damned interesting, even if they're not quite as appealing in a live setting, and thoroughly original, but it's frustrating to think that the other ports may be closed to them because what they're doing is also too challenging to fit neatly into a playlist pigeonhole. This is a really good show, but it's frustrating to think that a band like this can't get their sound out to the audience they need to cross over into to get as big as they deserve to be.


All in all, a killer show and a great time, and at least this time around, the roads were dry on the drive south. The bands were mostly really, really cool, I got a chance to talk kutte shop, and hung out a bit with Frozen, which included some surreal moments as Colin and I conversed in German, which is not totally out of the ordinary at a metal show, but not something either of us do much on this continent. There was also some kid in a Wacken '07 shirt and wristband, but I wasn't able to successfully corral him and find out whether he was from here and had gone there or vice versa.

Most importantly, though, I picked up a rumor from Aaron that some frickn' huge band that every metalhead in New England will want to see is going to be playing Mark's next spring. He, of course, didn't drop the name, but if this gets around, it's going to be an entertaining six months of guessing until it finally gets announced for real. Based on the available, albeit limited information (translation: the conclusion about to be drawn has been pulled out of my hindquarters and should not be regarded or disseminated as real), the current conclusion is that through some means of skullduggery or other black arts, Bernie has gotten himself another date added to the King Diamond/Kreator tour. Granted, the King only dubiously fits the qualification "normally, like, opening for Iron Maiden at the Tsongas Arena", and it's difficult to see how any concert promoter in New England could win the cage match with Scott Lee that this would require, but this is the only tour that's been announced for the spring so far, and thus has a slightly lesser chance of being completely left-field wrong than any other wild-ass guess at the moment. It probably still is, of course, completely off base, but then again, most rumors are.

Thanks to being broke and short on gas, I didn't pull myself away from Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman #1 on Saturday to go up and see Epica; next show is a friend's (non-metal) band in Boston on Thursday, with the next reviewed show being up at Mark's again for Edguy. I'm going to bring up my two digibook Edguy records, and if they won't sign them, yell "ey, wo iss euer Heli" after every song until they tell me to shut up.

Zircon with Frozen, Nocturnum, and Deconformity [Ralph's, Worcester, 5/3/2007]

Partly because this was a good bill on the first anniversary of Metal Thursday, and partly because I missed a fair number of shows while I was in Korea and will miss more this weekend due to other commitments, I made the longish and moderately strenuous drive out to Worcester to thrash it up. This isn't a general change, because getting home from a weekday show at 2:30 and waking up to go to work at 6:00 isn't something I can do on any kind of sustained basis, but for certain bills, the drive out to Worcester from the more populated parts of the state is eminently worth it. This definitely turned out to be one of them.

Deconformity [5/7]
Oddly enough, Deconformity also opened the first Metal Thursday back last year, which sets up commentary on the band: it shows that they're good and dedicated enough to stick around, but also that, in the dense New England scene, they still haven't differentiated themselves enough that a year later, they can go on somewhere besides first at Metal Thursday. Of course, this may not be wholly the band's fault; their CD got pushed back again, so there may be other factors at play keeping them from leveling at a faster pace. Regardless, the difference between this performance and the last time I saw them, up at Mark's with I think Enslaved, was enormous and obvious: having their bass player on hand really thickened up and unified their sound, setting up and giving context to the guitars. Where that earlier set came off as thin and tired, this one was dense and fully-developed, even if not all of the material was the most original. They played a fair degree of new material -- there's allegedly enough new tunes to do another full-length behind the one that got delayed again -- which mostly came off as a definite step up, so if they do end up releasing a double album, the second disc may have more attractions than the first, but anyone into brutal death metal is definitely going to dig, to some degree, everything that this band does at this point. A nice solid set, even though the vocals, bass, and drums cut in and out a couple times -- all together, as though they were being run through the same piece of hardware and that was having problems.

In between here I buzzed Jeremy's table and among other rarities from eastern Europe (including Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, who I'd been looking for for a while) legitimized one of my Drudkh albums; while this can be read to mean that one less person gets to randomly experience the pure awesomeness of Drudkh, the reality is that the band gets supported, and that at this point everyone who wants to hear Drudkh has already stolen all their albums from the internet, and are also among the ones trying not to seem too mental in grabbing the physical CDs out of the rack. Also, immediate Drudkh-grabbage is an unmissable clue to distro operators that they need to import more of this band, because there are few better inducements to metalheads to drop extra cash.

Nocturnum [5/7]
This was a night of firsts -- first local band announcing possible plans for a double-album (almost certainly a joke, but it'd be hell of cool if they actually did a limited double-CD release in addition to normal separate discs), first Rush cover at a local show I've been to, first Zircon cover done live (latter two explained later) -- and this band got into the act as well with the most material among them, being the first band I've seen locally playing d-drums. The sound actually wasn't too bad, which probably should be expected now as sampling bitrates and fidelity have improved significantly since the things were first introduced in the early '80s, and once the band got going it was almost impossible to tell that it was synth percussion rather than organic drums. The obvious benefits are that it's a lot less mass and volume for the same kit sound, and also that meth addicts aren't going to steal your cymbals to sell for scrap, but the cost of this kind of rig, even relative to a good normal drumkit, probably means that we aren't going to see a lot of local metal bands going digital. This band had a decent sound when it finally got dialed in, but it took almost half their set for the sound guy to get both guitars up to where they ought to have been; when the sound was dominated by the bass and keys, the efffect wasn't nearly as good as when all instruments were properly brought into balance. While they were pretty good once they got the sound problems (odd for this venue, Steve the sound guy is kind of a local legend in Worcester and almost always sets up great sound on the first go) ironed out, they did come off as a little unfocused at times; I'll have to see them again to tell whether this is a legitimate issue that the band's working on or just an artifact of a rough night for technical difficulties.

Frozen [6/7]
For this gig, Frozen came in 'uniform'; totally unplanned, all six band members showed up to the gig wearing Metallica shirts, which is so statistically bizarre that most people didn't notice it until it was pointed out -- your mind just blocks it off as impossible; "all six guys in an underground metal band showing up in Metallica kit? No, it can't be, that just doesn't happen." In contrast to the other times that I've seen them, the sound was rawer and thrashier on this outing, less transparently suggestive of Evergrey, but with still enough elements that it's pretty clear that the guitarists at least have The Inner Circle or maybe In Search of Truth. The performance was well-executed and well-finished, including their cover of "Tom Sawyer" alluded to above, which was pretty faithful but also not slavish in doing so; the effect of Alex Lifeson's guitar lines recast through distorted 7-strings was pretty cool, and it's safe to say this is one of the few places in the world where you'd see pileups and HC-style crowd vocals on a progressive rock song. This was about the best I've seen from this band, continuing the steady improvement, and I don't think too many people would have been unhappy with it as a headlining set.

Zircon [7/7]
Though this was the third time I've seen Zircon, it was the first time that they weren't packed onto a raft made of two shipping pallets wedged between pool tables and a merch stand; on a stage and doing a paid homestand rather than p2p at the back end of Mark's, Zircon took it up a notch as well, resulting in a completely dominating performance. There were parts that were merely excellently executed rather than transcendent, but the cumulative effect of almost a full hour of complete slaughter including a guest stint from their old guitarist and one of the best versions of "Pull The Plug" that I've heard from any band not including Chuck Schuldiner to close out the night definitely deserves top marks. Zircon also keeps getting better, and the traveling undercard of the Summer of Slaughter should watch out, because come July, they'll surely be even more of a force to be reckoned with.

God Forbid with Goatwhore, Mnemic, The Human Abstract, Arsis, and goddamnit there's way too many local bands to fit into the title [Mark's, Bedford]

[This show was on the 6th, but I ran out of room in the title. :( ]

I started a little late, but the drive up turned out to be much less demanding than I thought going in. As it turns out, if it's not a weekday rush hour, there's not a whole lot of people driving up to New Hampshire. Who'da thunk? There was some rain coming in, and the lack of proper lane markings on parts of 93 made this a little stressful, but it mostly cleared out by the time I crossed the border...and I actually took the right turns off 101 this time.

I got in late from all this, but not too late; I still saw most of the first band, and all of the 11 following. Yes, you read that correctly. Twelve bands, total, and to handle them with a minimum of latency, they were distributed between two stages. Yes, you read that correctly as well. Two stages. In a bar. To fit in 12 bands.

Kipe [4/7]
I got in after this band started, and watched them from the rail before grabbing my first beer. Most of the other people in the venue at this time were hanging about, shooting pool, etc, and truth told there wasn't a lot about the band to make them pay attention. This band put out some decent, solid, mainstream-friendly nu-thrash, nothing really technical or attention-grabbing. Kipe at this point is a replacement-level metal band, dependable but thoroughly average, but this is hardly surprising given that they're the first of 12 bands on this bill. Maybe I'll see them again -- depends when that "Anthrax" show (I thought this was just Belladonna or something) up there is in the week.

Acariya [4/7]
I didn't catch this band's name until I dug through the merch table to their demo, but I did catch nearly all of their set as soon as I realized that there was a second stage. After I got done boggling, I got up into the crowd and watched some largely generic, replacement-level metalcore. They were decent overall, and thankfully they seemed to be more in line with the headliners on this bill than what this subgenre has become. I did get their demo, and I'll see how they match up on record.

Arsis [6/7]
I finally saw these guys live, and they pretty much match their recorded performance. Technical but still song-oriented, and they still get and perform NWOSDM better than pretty much everyone else on this continent. I've heard far more than my share of Swedish death, so I still can't see them as shatteringly original, but they are extremely solid, and they definitely put on a great show here.

There's been a lot of chatter on why Arsis is playing so relatively low on this bill, when, exposure and talent-wise, they definitely ought to be on above The JesterHuman Abstract. The reason is simple; Arsis is on this tour as a last-second replacement for Scar Symmetry, who would have been doing their first US tour and couldn't have appeared anywhere but at the front of the nationals. The slotting was set before they were brought on, not much that they could do about it.

Our Last Sacrifice [5/7]
The second stage was still warming up, but these guys did a good job, putting up a nice set of fairly brutal modern thrash. I remember this set less well than I ought to due to the extended nature of the total show, but it was still pretty cool. I did get their CD, and will doubtless have some more intelligent and relevant commentary on that.

After this band, I hit the merch stand, picking up a bunch of CDs from Arsis as well as some buttons for my jacket. I was going to go back and get a shirt from them and God Forbid, but waited until after Ruin, and they were closed up. Hopefully I'll get another chance; that "The Real Black Metal" design is pretty sweet.

The JesterHuman Abstract [5/7]
I kid, I kid. Seriously, though, this band was fairly good, but so totally derivative of Jester Race-era In Flames in both tone and style that it couldn't escape notice. There were some original bits, and the singer spun it in more of a metalcore direction, and really, In Flames isn't exactly using this style any more, but still. At one point, I thought they were covering "Graveland", but no, it was an original. A nice set, still, but more as a replacement for classic In Flames rather than as a new and exceptional band.

Illconcieved [4/7]
After the first song, the assessment was that the bandname could hardly be more accurate. That first song was the most godawful abortion of a musical performance that I've experienced since the last time I saw Halo of Thorns, but fortunately they got it together after that, pulling up the score somewhat. Once they got their feet under them, even before their second guitarist showed up with half the set in the books, they did a decent but unexceptional set of Sam Black Church-styled hardcore. At this point, I see them as pretty good, but erratic; if I ever see them again, I'll be able to determine more concretely whether they're an ok band with bad luck or a marginal band who makes their own bad luck. Either is probably possible at this point, though I'm hoping that the first is the case.

Mnemic [5/7]
I'll get this out at the start: I have never been an especial fan of Mnemic. I think they're oversold and overhyped as a Danish remake of Fear Factory, another band that I'm not a huge fan of, even though they aren't really. Their modern thrash style fit in well with this bill, and they put on a good show, but didn't push themselves up to a standout level. However, this is still a higher rather than a lower 5 (no, I'm not going to break rank and start doing fractional ratings, I hate when I have to knuckle and do that), and this was a nice performance that people largely enjoyed.

Like many of the bands, they were frustrated that people weren't moshing...due to the club's "No Moshing" rule. If you want people to mosh, book yourselves into the Middle East; it's not in the middle of nowhere, and people can brew it up in the pit if they feel like it. There was a little bit of moshing, which consisted mostly of this other bigdood jumping up and dropping an elbow into my shoulder before getting grabbed by security. Fortunately, he didn't get tossed; there was no damage, the content was mostly incidental, and even though I don't have the knees to get in the pit any more, I also oppose the lameness of no-mosh regs. This place is covered in carpet. There were enough people in the front to keep a pit wall and prevent people from flying out and hitting the bar, the rail, or the pool tables. Abstractly, this is one of the safer places to throw down that I've seen a show in, and they have an anti-mosh policy that would do Varg and Euro proud. Ell-four-em-three.

Mortis Deveia [6/7]
It was probably just the much-improved PA, but this set was significantly better than when I saw them the last time. The crowd was just as into it if not more so, and in total volume was basically equal to the "mainstage", probably the largest for the local-band stage. They definitely got what they bargained for, with an awesome and ripping set that included a little brand-new material...if not the blistering Slayer cover that they did back in Saugus. Henry continues to amaze, though he had some significant competition from the two bands that would follow them on this stage. The only down point was when they announced that they had only 7 demos left/with them; it's safe to assume that these have now entirely sold out, and though they may have had a few more copies for their show at Rusty's on the 7th, another pressing is probably (or ought to be) in the cards. They were the only band on this stage where the crowd yelled for an encore, and fortunately the organizers gave them the ok to hang over for another song...perhaps because this doesn't happen in real life for local bands, and when it does, you don't want to fuck it up or fuck with their fans who are buying your beer and filling your headcount.

I previously met up with Henry and paid him for the demo, over his protestations. Too much pride, too much honor, all sides. It's a point of honor for me to pay my debts like a normal dood, but also a point of honor for him to forego compensation to get his music out into the hands of people who dig it. Recording's still not free, though...but if they had some more merch, I would probably have nabbed that instead. Actually, I would probably have done as I did, then also bought a shirt. What can I say, it's not a rational world here.

Goatwhore [6/7]
This, also, was a better set than I saw from them last time, the smaller space proboably drawing them out more and getting them more up for it -- or maybe it's that Mark's sound system, in terms of, like, correct balance and stuff, kicks the hell out of the Palladium's. This set covered over their whole history, which was an illustrative as well as awesome expeience, moving between the pure black metal of the early stuff, the black/death of most of their output, and then closing with their current 'single', which has a lot more of a black'n'roll feel to it. A kickass and headliner-worthy performance, and it sure seemed like the guitarist picked up a bunch more spikes on his rig since I saw them in Worcester two months back...plus a Moser custom V, which is just over-the-top enough to work with his overall medieval-warclub look. Killer.

Frozen [5/7]
These guys also put on a better set than they did opening for Celtic Frost, despite their guitarist's untreated hernia, and the reason was probably also the better sound. Their set, like last time, trended steadily towards the wow-you-guys-really-like-Evergrey as it progressed, but showed off their significant thrash elements a little better. It'll be really interesting to see where and how these guys take this fusion, especially if the reports are accurate that Colin has left Cannae, presumably to focus on Frozen.

After Frozen's set, I met Aaron from RTTP for real, drawing his attention by nearly beaning him in the knee with a beer bottle. It wasn't really close to hitting him on its way to the trash can, but flying glass (even in a low arc) is a hell of an attention-getter. Fortunately, he didn't step off askance or anything, and we talked briefly before Colin cut in, and I headed back off to the other stage.

God Forbid [7/7]
Most of this set wasn't as transcendent as might be inferred, but it built steadily to this level by the final song, feeding off of and driving energy from the crowd, so that anyone wanting to dispute this assessment has a tough argument to make and probably wasn't actually at the show. Most of the set was from the new record, with a little old stuff sprinkled in in places; not that it mattered to anyone, as everyone was up for all of their stuff, and most of the main crowd was singing along with Byron on everything anyway. All in all, this was a kickass, committed set from a kickass, committed band that will still be going, even if it's playing bars in Bedford, NH, and kicking their asses long after the metalcore wave has rolled back out. Originators and imitators, man, and these guys are definitely among the first caption...and pretty fuckin' metal too.

I went back and saw Ruin setting up, without a bass player, and felt the bottoms of my feet whining at me. "All right," I thought to myself, "if it's past one, I'll grab a shirt and then bag this." I pulled my watch out of my pocket (irritates the hairs on my wrist when it gets sweaty), and read 12:40. Thanks, watch!

Ruin [6/7]
Though there were some technical problems with this set -- a stop-and-start when someone fucked up the intro of a song, and the non-singing guitarist blew out his A-string -- these barely held this somewhat unusual band back in their delivery of some surprisingly sharp and kickass technical death metal. The basics were fairly Death-like, and after a few seconds, you stopped noticing that there wasn't a bassist in the lineup. Unconventional, but quite cool, and I'm definitely going to be looking for these guys in the future; if Boston and Maine weren't so far apart, it would be most natural for these guys to get into an evil alliance with Revocation. Kick ass, and I'm glad I stayed, though I probably should have gotten merch while they were setting up rather than waiting.

All in all, a cool show, and the drive isn't that much longer or more intense than going to Worcester. The smoke also wasn't too bad...well, at least not in comparison to the Alter Schlachthof or to general outside conditions in Beijing, which are my current benchmarks for unbreathability. I'll probably be going back...but they gotta do something about this whole pay-to-play thing. LAME. And the 'no moshing' bit, but there's probably less chance of changing that.

Celtic Frost with Goatwhore and Frozen [Worcester Palladium, 11/5/2006]

Taking a break from working on the book to post this one, partly because I need to make sure that it gets done, and partly because I twisted up my back Saturday and aggravated it at the show, making sustained concentration a little difficult. I'm half-done, and still going to try to get 3 or 4 thousand more words today; I may post a sample chapter here later.

Doors were a little later for this one, so the roads were more or less clear coming in, and I got in actually ahead of doors....which just meant more sitting around, waiting for the bands to go on. Maybe because it was Sunday, or maybe because they are just egregious nits, the Palladium jacked their beer prices up (or just ditched the specials), which sucked mightily. What is the point of charging $5.25 at an event where everything else is in round dollars again? You're just busting up the bands' merch earnings, never mind also encouraging people to bring flasks in with this dickish nickel-and-diming.

So, content with my tour shirt and poorly manufactured superstrip (there's got to be a good reason why this one cost an order of magnitude more than Reverend Grundarr's similarly underfinished patch that I picked up at their release show which is not based on assumptions that Celtic Frost fans are suckers) and discontent with my oddly overpriced Sam, I sat around where I usually do, and my kutte happened to draw the attention of some of the guys in Temeluchus, who gave me their demo (number 15 out of 50). Take heed; even if you're not really anyone in the scene, if you have a really well-built jacket, people may occasionally give you free stuff. The CD is fairly good, some nice ritualistic black metal (as far as I can piece out, this is 'true black metal' with slow tempos and keyboards), so if you're also one of those people who have Death's intro to "Freezing Moon" from the Live in Leipzig set memorized and tend to croak it out whenever anyone asks you about black metal preferences, you ought to look it up.

After a longish while, the bands started. At first, this was not immediately percieved as a good thing.

Frozen [5/7]
Despite the name, the show they were opening, and the fact that they had a keyboardist, this was not a black metal band. They certainly sounded like it in the first song, though, at least on the true black metal axis of "mix sucks and you can't fucking hear anything". Fortunately, not only did the sound board get them dialed in by the second or third song, but they got stronger going through their set. Their sound is a little hard to define, probably because it's still in the process of formation, but let's go out on a limb and declare these guys one possible direction of post-metalcore. At the start of their set, this was pretty unambiguous, as they came off as either a heavy band trying to cover Killswitch Engage, or Killswitch somehow trying to play underground metal. As the set drew on, though, a sound a lot more reminiscent of Evergrey started to emerge, until it was ludicrously obvious by the last song. Prog-thrash is the next step out of metalcore when you take it in the metal direction, but it's still somewhat unclear whether the band is actually trying to move out from under the umbrella. This became a good set after starting rotten, but with the balance of the bill the way it was, it's not immediately obvious how these guys got this slot. Their sound being what it was, it's understandable to have them opening for Celtic Frost, but maybe not so much for Celtic Frost and Goatwhore, where the sound was leaning heavily to black/death, and these guys had barely a sliver of death metal in their sound.
These things are true: the lead guitarist is a beast on the frets, even if he sometimes comes off a little underused, and if Jon Schaffer is looking for someone who sounds more like Matt Barlow to take over for Tim "can't write lyrics without pounding his face repeatedly with a brick" Owens, he needs to give this band's singer a call. The resemblance was almost a little disturbing at times, though there are a hell of a lot worse models to take after among singing vocalists.

Goatwhore [5.5/7]
I hate giving out split ratings, but this one had to go here for reasons described below. I went down to the floor just as they were starting up, and from there got a much better view of the band -- and of the bassist and guitarist's spiked shin guards, which actually didn't look overdone in context. When black metal enters into the equation, the standards of ridiculousness get shifted ever so slightly, but they're still there, and the costuming is most often excused by the quality of the performance around it. Goatwhore did a very solid job, kicking out a thick set of black/death blasts that hearkened back to the Greek black metal school that came from Celtic Frost more directly, rather than the Norwegian scene that took its cues from Bathory and now dominates the idea of black metal. Things got pretty turbulent for them, though I managed to stay mostly out of it -- my back was binding up, and there were relatively few enough people that those who wanted to mosh had a fair degree of open space to do it in without getting anyone else involved.
Now, the difficulty with the split rating. Goatwhore put out a very strong, very solid set, but it was also very even, without too many real sharp points where the band really jumped out and hit you in the face. It was a very good performance, though not quite great, and thus I find myself splitting hairs on the score. Most people with sense, though, will know enough to chuck ratings as more than an excessively quick summary. The final takeaway is that this band is quite good live, though still nothing real revolutionary.

Celtic Frost [6.5/7]
I floated around for a while on this fucking score as well, because this was an unevenly great performance that, while it met my expectations, didn't really meet everyone else's. CF on this date was slower, doomier, and slightly more pedestrian than most people seemed to anticiplate, and they didn't do an encore either, despite the degree of yelling done across. It was still a good performance, and the crowd got absolutely insane on some of the faster old material -- "Into The Crypt of Rays" was the definite high point of the night -- but people seemed to expect the old CF without considering either how Monotheist sounds, or the stuff that Tom G.'s been doing since the band was last really active. The doom plod and neo-gothic sounds have always been an integral part of Celtic Frost, and this is mostly what we got; the rawness of their first couple records doesn't really resonate with the band members now 20 years older. It was, within a few degrees, basically the same set that we got at Wacken, and just as well-delivered...though what was delivered wasn't exactly what was expected. I was also on the floor for CF, but further back due to larger numbers of people.

It was, all in all, a decent night out, though a little expensive and the venue was out of line with how they set their beer prices up. Unlike the recent Palladium shows that I've been to, this wasn't thoroughly packed, which may have contributed to the lower energy level in places. Not totally awesome, but still decent, and if you go to a lot of shows, you're going to get a few that are basically just kind of there. Still a cool time, but I'm probably not going to be raving about this one to random people.