I went to see Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine live tonight on Sunday 4th December at Manchester Academy.

I went to see Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine live tonight on Sunday 4th December, 2016, at Manchester Academy. They were supported by Nu Metal revivalists Cane Hill. Usually for gigs at the Manchester Academy I show up roughly at the time of doors opening and get in almost instantly with minimal queuing, but this time was different. One of the biggest ques I have ever seen there, all the way to the Manchester Museum entrance met me upon arrival; the only longer que I ever saw there was for a Bring Me The Horizon show (which I’d swear I’ve reviewed but can’t find it anywhere… long story short stuff off Sempiternal sounded good, anything older sounded awful due to the mix, and the crowd were unbearable jerks. I was looking forward to ‘Chelsea Smile’ so much but it sounded so flat and lifeless due to the soundjob.) I guess once when I went to see Megadeth there was a lot of queuing too, but that was really because doors opened late more than anything. Interestingly, this time, rather than rip tickets they scanned em with little lazer machines. Scanners. Lazer machines makes it sound more advanced than it was. The only other time I’ve ever seen scanner machines was with Saxon at the Ritz. Is this the future?

Anyway, when I got in tonight, Cane Hill were already on stage. I’ve never checked them out before but I know from the excellent That’s Not Metal Podcast (who sent me a free T shirt today, for which I’m grateful) that they are a modern band who play in the style of late-’90s Nu Metal. I definitely heard a looooot of Korn in their songwriting, vocal style and extra guitar noises (as in not the riffs themselves but the noises, mid verse). A wee bit of early Deftones and a pinch of Coal Chamber was also audible in their general style. It wasn’t a total ’90s flashback though, there was still some hardcore and metalcore sneaking in there too. And the very occasional Slipknot, Pantera or Black Label Society moment. They were decent, they roused the crowd fairly well (got a ‘fuck Trump’ chant going at one point, and it didn’t feel too pandering, which was nice), and I have nothing bad to say about ’em. Don’t think I’m a converted fan or anything but I wouldn’t swear off them for life either. Their bassdrum said ‘smoke weed’ and ‘drop acid’ which I’ve no time for, and once during a more violent song they encouraged the crowd to hit each-other in the face and literally beat each-other up, exact words, which I’ve also no time for, but musically it was an ok opener. I would’ve preferred Trivium though…damn their new album has grown on me, and last time I saw Killswitch it was with Trivum. They go well together.

So, next up, after a random selection of rock and metal tunes over the PA including Thin Lizzy’s ‘Don’t Believe A Word’ which elicited a particularly big smile from me, the reason I bought the ticket took to the stage. I’ve saw Killswitch once before, and by god, it was a damn memorable show. It was flaberghastingly good and I have such clear memories of it to this day. My second Killswitch show did not disappoint. There wasn’t as fancy a lightshow or backdrop since they weren’t the headliner, and maybe the set was ten to thirty minutes shorter, but otherwise, it was every bit as jaw dropping, life affirming and all out excellent as I’d hoped.

The crowd, singing things like ‘My Last Serenade’ ‘My Curse,’ my favourite Killswitch song, ‘In Due Time’ or especially ‘The End Of Heartache’ was absolutely overwhelming. You were engulfed in the loudest, most passionate sing backs you could ever imagine. You felt like you were in some fabled Live At Donnington moment like Maiden doing Fear Of The Dark or Slipknot doing Duality or one of those ones you read about as legend. The crowd doing ‘The End Of Heartache’ was deathbed-memorable. Seriously. Holy fuck.

From Sorrow To Serenity – The Truth Is Absolution!

Anyway; the band. So good live. All the great little details you’ll know from the DVDs, like playing eachother’s guitars, or having all the extra picksqueals and competitive silliness, or amazing extra fills were all there. Adam D is still such an entertaining character and it doesn’t get old. Jesse live is an astoundingly good frontman. Aforementioned podcast called Killswitch the best live band in metal judging by recent years, and its damn hard to disagree after a show like that. When they go heavy-heavy at the end of songs you feel like you are seeing Machine Head or Pantera at their heaviest. When they do melody and harmony you feel like you’re in a classic Maiden or Priest live album and when they do their clean sing-alongs…there is no comparison, Killswitch fucking OWN that! No-one does or ever did that better.

The setlist was pretty decent. All the hits. ‘Fixation On The Darkness’ and ‘Vide Infra’ from the debut. A good four or five tunes from the new album. No messing about. The only thing I’d query is that their was nothing off the self titled album. Not even ‘Never Again’ or ‘Reckoning’ …but hey, you can’t fit it all. Previous shows had ‘A Bid Farewell’ and ‘You Don’t Bleed For Me’ instead of the new songs, which I personally would’ve preferred, but that’s a familiarity issue, not a quality issue. (Although those two in particular do rank rather damn high in my favourite Killswitch songs).

The show was strong, the performance was immense, the setlist was decent, and the atmosphere was pretty great. Time to go home then, satisfied as I was.

Well, not exactly, because there was still the headliners. Welsh Metalcore band Bullet For My Valentine. The biggest and most successful British Heavy Metal band since Iron Maiden. A band who, for some reason, about a decade ago without hearing any music, I decided I probably wouldn’t like and then completely ignored until their latest album Venom was released, before finally giving them a fair chance after much propaganda from my friend Brad over the years, and being taken aback. They have this reputation as being wimpy or girly or overly commercial or beginner’s stuff, or whatever. They were a cool band to hate. If you were wearing an Exodus t-shirt, then probably someone told you they sucked. …I was told they sucked and never give them a fair chance. When I finally did, I ended up buying all their albums (and their debut EP as well) within weeks. I’ve listened to them near daily ever since. Such a catchy, catchy band. Ironically underrated for someone famous enough to play arenas. Sometimes they are heavy as balls. The title track to ‘Scream Aim Fire’ sounds like Testament at times. Some of the mid album stuff on The Poison is as heavy as Trivium or Killswitch at their heaviest. Some of the song endings are almost Machine Head-esque… yet for some bizarre reason they are warned off to potential Metalhead fans because someone tells us they are wimpy or something. They’re heavier than Megadeth, than Priest. Than Motorhead. Than a lot of really beloved and respected bands. They have a few semi-ballads and a lot of clean singing parts, but hey, so do Priest and Maiden and Megadeth and Anthrax and Manowar and Fear Factory and even early Pantera. Not every band can be Nasum and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Whatever the reason for Bullet being on True-Metal’s blacklsit, its a spurrious and stupid reason, and it is leaving people to miss out on some seriously great music.

Well, let them miss out. Or better yet, let them learn the error of their ways like I did last year. I’ve had a great year listening to ‘wimpy’ Bullet nonstop and loving it. It didn’t stop me liking Napalm Death or Tygers Of Pan Tang or Deep Purple. It didn’t suddenly make me know or care less about Metal’s history, beloved albums, or heavier moments. I’ll just keep jamming ‘Army Of Noise’ or ‘Fever’ or ‘Cries In Vain’ and let a bunch of people in either Tokyo Blade or Morbid Angel t-shirts scowl. Its their loss.

Anyway. This show was a special show. They played their debut album The Poison in its entirety. They had producer Colin Richardson in the audience as a special guest. They seemed to record it as well judging by all the mics pointed out into the crowd. Oh, and Matt took to the mic and stated plainly and not as hyperbole that this was arguably the most significant gig of their career to date.

Visually, it was great. They had big specially made BMFV banners. They had fancy lighting. They had lazers. They were all dressed in matching suits like hollywood stars. It felt like an event. Not just any old gig.

Sonically, it was bad ass. The soundjob was so much heavier and livelier and more energetic/aggressive than on record and it all felt really organic and crushing. The drummer was really pushing himself doing so much extra, having such a big happy face on whilst doing it, and the backing vocals were really brutal. Maybe, I guess, someone could hear them and say its too commercial and too processed on record… but live, oh no no no, this was seriously good. Waaaay heavier than you’d expect. Slick and professional as hell but with that live feel too. Hard to have both. Bullet succeeded.

The crowd lapped it up. Circle pits. Boundless enthusiasm. The sing alongs were even wilder and more memorable than for Killswitch ‘best live band in the world right now’ Engage if you can believe it. The crowd sang like, every single little word from deep tracks’ third verses. It was bonkers. They sang the riffs, the solos. It was like when you see South American Megadeth or Maiden shows on DVDs. Such enthusiasm!

Your cries are all in vain!

There were a few random sound drop outs and mistakes by the soundman, particularly distracting during the heavy-ass opening of their new single ‘Dont Need You,’ which almost stole its momentum but otherwise this was a flawless show.

With sound, visuals and an atmosphere like that it was truly something to behold. That the band were performing at the top of their game, confident and starlike as hell, playing the fuck out of the heavy bits, brilliantly singing the clean bits and shredding out the solos with fun and panache, it all just came together into this perfect better-than-the-sum-of-its-parts supergig!

It was genuinely one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen, and it felt the the culmination of massive fandom for some reason. Hey, I didn’t even know or like this band two years ago, and now they’ve blown me away with literally, unarguably one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. I don’t say that often. I din’t say that for Down or Mosnter Magnet or Megadeth. Not for System Of A Down or Metallica or Amon Amarth. This was a seriously astounding show.

If they do release this on DVD or anything, get yourself a copy. Even if you don’t like the band. Seeing ‘Four Words To Choke Upon’ live, extra raw and heavy would make anyone a fan! For people who like the softer side of Metal, then ‘Ten Years Today’ or ‘The End’ or their signature semi-ballad ‘Tears Dont Fall’ would surely win you over, live, with that sound, performance and fan feedback there’s just something undeniable about them. Biggest British band since Maiden. I can well believe it.

Oh, you know what else was nice. I caught a drum stick! I go to gigs all the time, and I never manage to catch picks or sticks or setlists, but I actually caught one tonight! And not in that nasty fight-for-it selfish way, it literally just landed in my hands! Nice one! A very welcome souvenir, especially since I play the drums myself!

That was a great concert. If ever you get a change to see Killswitch or Bullet, take it. That is entertainment worth seeing!

 

I went to go see Exodus live at the Manchester Academy-2 on 28/10/16.

I went to go see Exodus live at the Manchester Academy-2 on 28/10/16. It was as part of a four part bill, The Battle Of The Bays tour, featuring Florida Death Metal band Obituary (who were actually the headliner but not the band I was most interested in), San Francisco Thrash Metal legends Exodus, New York cross-over thrash turned Groove Metal trio Prong and Australian Grindcore noise makers King Parrot.

I walked in, after having already visiting the merch booth for an Exodus t-shirt, into the first King Parrot track, to join a reasonably revved-up crowd, reacting to the Aussies’ noisy obnoxious music. It was pretty damn entertaining, the singer was like former Jackass celebrity Steve-O in facial expressions and attitude, and kept getting into the crowd, touching people’s face, spitting and throwing liquids at them, screeching in teen girl’s faces, mooning the crowd and generally acting like a 1980s Hardcore Punk front-man, he had that fun obnoxious vibe. The music had blastbeats and grinding guitars, punky moments, and a lot of groove metal sections to balance the two styles out. Not bad at all musically, very good performance wise (from all the band, even though I’ve only bothered to describe the singer) and a very good way to warm up the crowd and start off a fun evening. I’d check em out again. Give em a shot if you like the heavier stuff.

Now, I have a boxset of Prong albums but I hardly ever listen to them. I really love the band when they are playing something that sounds like Fear Factory, Machine Head or Pantera, but I don’t really vibe with their dissonant noisy moments or their hardcore roots the same way. Things that sound like Vulgar era Pantera yes, things that sound like My War era Black Flag, no.

After this concert, I have a lot more interest in Prong. When they played songs I knew, I absolutely loved it. I was singing ‘Another Worldly Device’ at work all the next day. When they played music I didn’t yet know, I was very very impressed. They sound so much heavier and more full live. Maybe it was the production on those albums, or maybe the performances were just that much more firey live, I don’t know, but either way, Prong shot up about 400% in my estimation and I’ll be revisiting them a lot more in the wake of this. Tommy Victor reminds me a lot of Rob Flynn in a lot of good days. He’s a good front man. How in to it he got during closer ‘Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck’ really made me warm to him and I’m totally game to try some new Prong albums in the very near future.

Then came my main event, Thrash Metal legends, number 5 of the Big Four, the best of the Bay Area, the mighty Exodus. This is the reason I was at the gig, I got an email saying they were in town and within a few hours I owned a ticket.

Steve Souza was back in the band, but even at that I was still treated to the amazing gift of having them open with my favourite song from Exhibit B’ ‘The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles’ …a viscous and scathing documentary style comment on the true story of two Californian serial killers who murdered up to 25 actual humans in real life. The vocal performance on the chorus line ‘Killers of Children, Rapists of Women, Sado-sexual Violence’ really conveys how horrific their crimes were (even more so than the lyrics themselves, its the way its spat out that tells the real story). Zetro did not disappoint doing Rob Duke’s material. Nor did he disappoint doing Ballof’s material. Or indeed his own. I love Zetro the best of all of Exodus’ singers over the years, and to hear absolute gems like ‘War Is My Sheppard’ and ‘Blacklist’ live absolutely set me off. In fact, it set the crowd off. I was happy with how well the crowd reacted to Tempo Of The Damned material. That album was such an important moment from the band for my fandom and I was afraid the crowd would be a load of people who only wanted to hear Bonded By Blood songs (of which there was already a heavy percentage). No, good crowd. They know that ‘War Is My Sheppard’ is an indisputable classic now. Smart people. Any concert with ‘Blacklist’ in it is a pretty damn good concert, I’ll tell you that much!

I couldn’t fault the setlist. I wouldn’t remove anything. The only thing I wish is that there was more time. It would’ve been amazing to hear more of my favourite Zetro-era classics ‘Chemi-Kill,’ ‘Brain Dead,’ ‘Fabulous Disaster,’ ‘Corruption,’ ‘Impact Is Imminent’ or indeed newer stuff from the Dukes era like ‘Altered Boy,’ ‘Class Dismissed’ or the Dukes era’s best ever tune ‘Children Of A Worthless God’ but that would’ve been a headline show. How much time would that all take?

How great was it to hear the famous tracks like ‘Bonded By Blood’ or ‘The Toxic Waltz’ though? Oh my goodness did I enjoy that. The crowd began to bang, there was blood upon the stage, metal took its place, bonded by blood. Hearing stuff of the new album like ‘Blood In. Blood Out.’ and ‘Body Harvest’ kept it all vital and not just nostalgia… I mean there’s been no decline in quality over the years. Either of those tracks would still be one of the best songs on Tempo’ or Impact’

I also loved their performance; they were hungry, rabid thrashers, not slow washed-out old men. I’ve heard it said that millionaires can’t make Thrash Metal, and so in that way its good Exodus never got as famous as Metallica, because Exodus are still unrelenting in their delivery. Its as if they’re still in their twenties. I also love their interaction with the crowd, they were very accommodating and interactive and the dialougue about the value of Heavy Metal itself all chimed very well with me. Overall, an amazing, feel-good performance and excellent setlist. I had myself a great time singing along, and I would go see them again tonight if I could. If you ever get the chance, no matter where they are on a bill and how short a slot they’re given, get yourself down to an Exodus show and you’ll be a happy man (or woman) (…but let’s be honest, man. Do I have any female readers? I doubt it.)(Interesting sidenote: Exodus certainly have a pretty high female audience ratio…. way more than I’ve seen in about my last 7 or 8 concerts. More than C.O.C for sure. Not quite Peirce The Veil levels of equality, but for greasy, brutal ’80s Thrash it was more than you’d expect).

At his point my night was complete, only it turns out that Obituary were headlining, as I’ve mentioned, and so I stayed to check them out. I’m not a fan yet, and have only ever heard one song. I’ve been meaning to try them for ages and have picked up their boxset numerous times in HMV but money shortages stopped me ever actually going through with the purchase. I like the other bands in Death Metal’s big four. I’ve liked Cannibal Corpse and Deicide a medium amount for years. I got into Morbid Angel a bit this year. Just Obituary left of the four. (And Death, Immolation, Incantation and many others still to come from the next tiers).

It was a very good performance. The two standout tracks were ‘Slowly We Rot’ and ‘Ten Thousand Ways To Die’ as well as the Celtic Frost cover as a close third. I was taken aback by how dedicated and into the crowd were. I noticed in the last few years how many morrisound album t-shirts have skyrocketed in popularity both in the streets of Manchester and especially at Metal gigs. It seems to be enjoying a renewed popularity, but man, I never expected an Obituary gig to be so packed of such an invested crowd. Shows what I know.

I was very, very impressed. There was no blasting, nothing unmusical. It was all fat, thick, groovy. There was a mix of doomy intros, speedy mid sections, and cool stop/start staccato moments ala Fear Factory, with surprisingly audible and discernible vocals and great lead guitar. Colour me impressed. Obituary are definitely worth me checking out it seems.

Good night.

I went to go see Tesseract tonight (Friday 5th February, 2016) at Manchester Academy 2, with Nordic Giants and The Contortionist as support

I went to go see Tesseract tonight (Friday 5th February, 2016) at Manchester Academy 2, with Nordic Giants and The Contortionist as support. This was the fourth time I’ve seen Tesseract (I’ve previously with Karnivool, Protest The Hero and Animals As Leaders, twice at this same venue and once at Sound Control – another venue also in Manchester) and the second time I’ve seen The Contortionist (seen ‘em with Riverside in Club Academy).

I got there a little late, but that meant the merch table was clear and saved me time after the gig, so it actually worked out alright, I got there as Nordic Giants had just finished their first song. I’ve never seen or heard of them before, so was surrised to see two multi-instrumentalists separated by not one but two projector screens centre stage, dressed up as Eskimos or Native Americans or, presumably, Nordic Giants. They moved rhythmically in time with the music and did big Tommy Lee drum gestures, and had violin bows to use on guitars, and played weird arty movies, with things like Game Of Thrones one minute, then parasites evolving the next, then people’s faces melting into sand and then an animated movie with lots of Pink Floyd and Sonic/Mario videogame references. Pretty interesting. The music was, I don’t know, some kind of Post-Rock, Explosions In The Sky meets Sixty Five Days Of Static type stuff (I’m not well informed on this sort of music… I know some music more than others. I could tell you if they sounded like Tygers Of Pan Tang though… they don’t.)
It was very intriguing and I’d happily see them again, or use their music to score an emotional scene in a sports movie if I ended up in the unlikely position to do so.

Next up comes The Contortionist. Their first song was a badass, Rishloo-esque beautiful prog sparkler. The majority of their set was Djent on the very mathy side, very complex and a bit hard to follow, with some really aggressive parts, but mostly quite beautiful. Their singer is still really cool and their main guitarist still looks about 13 years old, but is like a junior Robert Fripp in talent.

It was a good gig, and saw a very quite violent pit from some very odd, angry looking apes who seemed to think they were at a Throwdown or Hatebreed gig, but whatever. I don’t really love their songs because the math thing is a little too far… and the heavy thing is a bit too abrasive, but I’d happily see them again supporting someone else.

Then came Tesseract. It was the first time I’ve seen them since the new album came out. I’ve said it before, but Altered State, their sophomore, was a true stone cold masterpiece, and arguably the milestone against all other new music will henceforth be judged for me. When Ashe O Harra left I was worried and even though Dan is great I’d rather he stay in Skyharbour and I have the best of both worlds. All other times I saw the band, they were touring Altered State effectively, but this time they had Polaris songs to fit into the set.

Fit ‘em they did. In fact, not only did they fit ‘em, but they were the highlight of the night. “Hexes,” “Survival” and “Dystopia” were three of the best performances I’ve seen out of a band in years. The crowd went flippin wild for “Survival” too, which I didn’t realize was such a big deal because I’m semi out of the loop with other music fans at the minute.
They did play the first four songs off of Altered State too, so I’m damn happy, and this time none crowd surfed over my head during “Resist.”
The sound was very clear, the setlist was nice and balanced from all three albums, the light show was more advanced with colorful lazers and the audience didn’t get up in my business. A very good night for this fan. I didn’t even get into my usual ‘beer, littering, photos and crowdsurfing should be banned’ mood because their weren’t any Slayer fans spoiling for a fight or shirtless English versions of Frat Boys in an out of place party mood. Good stuff.

Oddly; when the band left the stage, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from the Titanic movie played and most of the audience stayed and sang all the words for good minute or two before admitting defeat at the lack on formal encore. An unusual end to a gig, and surprising how many people knew all the lyrics, but whatever… I’m not the music police. I like music my favourite critics and “opinion-makers” think is awful all the time.
Did I mention the new material was good? Its really good. It worked really well live. I’m very excited to see the band again, when they start dropping even more new stuff into the set, Here’S hoping for ‘Seven Names.’

I Went To Go See Protest The Hero Live at Manchester (Club) Academy (2) Tonight (Wed – 26/11/2014).

I went to go see fantastic Canadain Prog/Punk/Metal/Whatever band Protest The Hero last night in Manchester Academy. My ticket said Academy 2, but the bouncers herded us into the basement for the Club Academy.

I was a bit skeptical that maybe they’d mistakenly sent me to the wrong gig, and asked some guy in a Protest The Hero shirt if he though he was in the right place, which he did… I asked that two seconds before noticing the rather large Protest The Hero backdrop (with the same image as the t-shirt I was wearing on it).

The support band seemed to be a local band of Manchester students, but in fact turned out to be Palm Reader – who you might’ve heard mentioned dozens of times on the Metal Hammer Podcast. They were good.. a very pissed off mixture of Parkway Drive and Gallows. Definitely more in the British Hardcore mode than Metalcore in the Shadows Fall sense. Interesting. I wasn’t bowled over but I could respect it.

Then came The Contortionist who played Djent, so I should’ve liked them, but they just lacked a special something. Maybe they were deflated that the gig had been downsized? I don’t know. The singer was super, super calm, almost like he was in a coffee shop. Didn’t really create an atmosphere. Also, it didn’t help that their guitarist had such a young face that it reminded me of the gigs I’d played as a teenager when no-one showed up. The whole thing could only be described as ‘drab’ which I’m aware is unfair and makes me sound judgemental, but its honestly how I felt. Clapping out of politeness but not in any way shape or form “blown away.”

The Safety Fire followed that. I’m not being rude but it wasn’t very good. Technical problems, missed notes, lack of energy until the famous songs. They’re a good band, I’ve seen them before and they were really storming, I think this was just an off-night. Don’t let me put you off them, but just being honest, 26/11/2014 wasn’t a good gig of theirs, for me.

Then came the band I’ve been banging on about for the last two years. The band I paid to see. The band who’ve fastest shot up my scroble-count of anyone ever with the same amount of material (in English that means I’ve listened to them proportionately higher than anyone else recently). The band who I saw in February who played one of the hands down best and most fun gigs I’ve ever seen, ever.

It was good. I had earplugs in the rest of the night due to the really bad ear injury I got on Monday at Mastodon, but I took the plug out’ve the non-injured ear for PTH. They were fantastic. Roddy’s humorous banter didn’t fall flat. New bassist was great. New(ish) drummer still completely awesome. Core band absolutely flawless.

The setlist was a good too – bit different from last time I saw them… no ‘Mist’ but there was ‘Termites.’ No ‘The Dissentience,’ ‘Bury The Hatchet’ or ‘Tilting Against Windmills’ but there was ‘Drumhead Trial’ and ‘ Bone Marrow’ and ‘Plato’s Tripartite.’ Still a good balance of all four albums, still hits, still surprises. Good job.

I really enjoyed the band. I wasn’t in the best spot for “getting into it” and jumping up and down and the earplug thing made me self-conscious of my voice and so singing along wasn’t as energetic as it was last time, and I can’t honestly claim a “best gig ever” thing about this one the way I could last time I saw them (it was amazing!), but I’m still glad to have went. And I was in the best spot for seeing music without yobs impinging upon my person or ear canals. So… I’d chalk that one up to a win, given a) my personality anyway and b) the circumstances.

Anyway; Man, I’m buzzed. Speed walking home to avoid muggers has really woken me up.
Good thing I don’t have to get up at 5am this morning. Oh wait…

I went to go see Mastodon live tonight at Manchester Academy on Monday 24th of November 2014 :

I went to go see Mastodon live tonight at Manchester Academy (on Monday 24th of November, 2014).

This is the 3rd time I’ve seen the band live. I saw them with Trivium/Amon Amarth and Slayer in Wolverhampton, and I saw them with Tool in Dublin. Both were in support of Blood Mountain, but at the Tool gig they played mostly their proggier stuff, and with Slayer they went for the faster harder stuff (well, still not much off Remission or Lifesblood, but the harder side of Blood Mountain and Leviathan.)

As you can tell from all the pictures of me in Leviathan t-shirts, and the picture of a Leviathan vinyl mounted on my wall, and all the glowing Mastodon reviews in the reviews section… these guys were one of my favourite bands. I have to admit, my love affair is waning a bit in the last year or two. 2007-2011 they were unarguably in my top five bands ever, but I’ve kind of forgotten them (through no fault of their own… just me getting distracted by other musical adventure elsewhere), and if I’m honest I’ve fallen out of love with most of the deep cuts off of The Hunter… I just listened to it way too much and only about half of it stayed awesome. Oh, and I’ve also barely watched the Live At Brixton concert because they failed to put it out on Blu Ray and watching it on the computer isn’t an option for me.

All that, and I’ve not gotten Once More Around The Sun yet… I did stream it twice around the time of release and wasn’t blown away (but maybe it’s a grower?) but I do love the latest single “The Motherload” (or specifically, its chorus!), which I’ve heard a lot in music video form or live on tv shows. So going in, I didn’t know what to think. They used to be one of my absolute favourite bands ever, I can remember hearing them for the first time a decade ago, getting my first cd of theirs seven years ago… going nuts for Crack The Skye for a full year and barely listening to anything else… I remember the whole “nothing will ever be better than this… music is therefore officially finished” emotions, but… I dunno I’ve just not been in the mood for them lately. I’ve been off in other directions.

I have however been blown away live by bands I wasn’t in the mood for before. I was out of love with Trivium last time I saw them and they wrenched me violently back to them with an astounding show.

With that in mind, I headed out to the concert on this cold Manchester night.

The support band was called Krokodil, named after that horrible drug in all the documentaries at the moment, and most famous for providing Slipknot with their new bassist. I hadn’t heard their music before going in.

Turns out they’re a sludgy, harsh, abrasive band in the style of early Mastodon, early Baroness and early Black Tusk. Sometimes they went lighter, which was like the heavier side of Red Fang… sometimes it was a bit more Dillinger. It seemed like their bass was their main instrument. There’s also this noisy hardcore aspect to them and a lot of guttural death growls and stuff too. They had a pretty brilliant song that I assume was called “The Tide” and they seemed ok the rest of the time.

Unannounced extra support band Big Business followed. They were a two-man (bassist and drummer, both singers) group, who played more like the light side of Red Fang but very much in that same tent as everyone else I mentioned. The sound mix didn’t help them… it sounded like one big drum solo. I mean… there was a drum solo, but because of the sound, their normal songs were also pretty much a drum solo. Good job they have an incredible drummer. I think their slot was about 10 minutes too long… if I’m totally honest I did start to get bored (and I’m usually very into giving people a fair chance), but otherwise, I wouldn’t criticize them.

Then came Mastodon: One time “I’ll talk your ear off about them, I love them TOO MUCH” band… Current “barely listened to them in the last two years” band.

Would they reignite that passionate love affair with an explosive set of all my favourite songs, played furiously with intense energy and a great sound mix? Or would it be a drab trotting out of new material with lackluster performances and dodgy sound quality?

Well… first up, they seemed to play mostly music off their new album, Once More Around The Sun (it felt like 7 or 8 songs!), which as I’ve explained, I’m not overly familiar with yet, since I haven’t bought it yet.

Otherwise, the setlist was a mix of hits “Oblivion,” “Divinations,” “Crystal Skull,” “Black Tongue” and closing with the immense “Blood And Thunder” with some very surprising moments too, like… they played “Ole Nessie” off of Remission. Did not expect! – Also “Blade Catcher” off of Blood Mountain, which I sometimes think of more as an interlude than a real song (although I’m pretty sure they played that when I saw ‘em with Tool too, in all fairness). It was cool to see “Megalodon” and “Aqua Dementia.” – I saw them both before but I thought they were quiet deep tracks that would get lost once they put more albums out. Luckily not.

Disappointingly, there was no “Curl of the Burl” which I would’ve preferred over almost anything else off the two newest albums, but hey you can’t have everything. Oh; and they’ve returned to their old position of not playing “March of the Fire Ants” anymore, which I think is a mistake, but hey ho… I’m sure lots of people are sick of it. I could do with an Iron Maiden set without “Run To The Hills” and “Number Of The Beast” so I can see why Mastodon would make this choice. Now that I think of it there were quite a few hits missing… no “Iron Tusk,” no “Colony off Birchmen” no “Capillirian Crest.”

At the time I was kind of put off mentally by the whole “lets play a ton of tracks off of the new album” attitude, but really, I think it’s a good thing when bands do that most of the time, so long as the album is good. Me, not being a huge ‘Round The Sun fan yet might not have been best served, but its always a bit rubbish when you go and see someone like Megadeth or Slayer and don’t get to hear your favourite new songs because they kind of don’t let themselves change the setlist too much in case it wrecks a winning formula.

Oh yeah, and you know the most important bit… they absolutely slayed the new album live! It was killer. People went mad for it too. People sang every word to tracks like “Aunt Lisa” and “Halloween.” People ate that right up! (I felt a bit guilty for not knowing the words… was Troy looking into my blank face and feeling disappointed?)

The highlights of the night for me actually included the two new singles “High Road” (despite way too much ironic crowdsurfer action) and “The Motherload.” They just blew the place apart. The biggest, most explosive thing of all though was an absolutely ripping rendition of “Blasteroid” which I never considered an “evening-maker” until now… but boy did it jam! It put a huge grin on my face!

Oh yes, it was a very good show from Mastodon indeed. The cool hand-painted backdrop… all the fancy lazers, the good sound job, it all helped… but what really sold it was Mastodon themselves. They really cared!

Troy would look people in the eye all the time… he’d give people off at the sides a thumbs up, when he noticed someone taking his picture, he’d pull a cool dramatic pose… even in the middle of a song. Brann looked like he was having fun on his new non-Randy Rhodes drum kit… Bill and Brent tore it up like the rock stars they’ve truly become. You just got the sense that everyone was passionate about this… no phoning it in, no boredom… just pure showmanship.

Yeah… you’re damn right its reignited my Mastodon love and you’re damn right I’m getting that new album as soon as my next paycheck lands!

All in all, if you’re wondering whether or not to catch Mastodon on this tour, I strongly advise you do! Just… wear some ear plugs… because the fans bellowed and hollered in my earhole so much it give me really bad headaches afterward and a weird version of ringing-in-the-ears that’s more like an on-off guitar’s killswitch kind of thing… like I’m deaf for one second, normal the next. Not cool.

Yeah, worth it. But dude, earplugs… seriously!

I went to go see Clutch live last night, on Thursday the 24th of April 2014, at the Academy in Manchester.

I went to go see Clutch live last night, on Thursday the 24th of April 2014, at the Academy in Manchester. This is one of the gigs I’ve been most looking forward to all year (with a year being September-September as opposed to January-January).

The support act for the evening was Lionize, who I hadn’t heard before seeing them. Lionize were kind of the same as Monster Truck or Sixty Watt Shaman in that they sound really similar to Clutch but aren’t quite as magical. They’re the kind of band who I’d give a good review to, but would loose enthusiasm for and rarely listen to after that initial excitement has gone. I enjoyed them, but I wouldn’t investigate further.

I actually expected Clutch to play in the smaller Academy 2 or Club Academy venues, seeing as how they are kind of a cult band that should be bigger than they are, but it seems that with Earth Rocker they’ve caught a big wave, and are becoming as big as they deserve to be at last, as they played in the much larger Academy venue. (Neil even commented “Its nice to be in the big room.”)

They played in front of a large Earth Rocker artwork banner, and had a modest light-show, but for the most part it was the same stripped down, working-man thing they always do. I can’t imagine a band like them playing with foam cannons, confetti bombs and video screens of clothing advertisements (like Bring Me The Horizon did when I saw them at this same venue a few months ago).

How were they? Well, you don’t need me to tell you Clutch are good live. Its one of the first things you ever hear about that band. They’re great live.

Last night was no exception. They were fantastic! They played an energetic, rousing set that concentrated on their faster, heavier and more exciting material, with a big emphasis on the Blast Tyrant and Earth Rocker albums. In fact they played almost all of Earth Rocker. It kind of feels like they are fulfilling their potential. Like they’d accidentally become one of the best bands in the world while thinking they’re just some dudes at a bar, and now they realized they look like absolute fucking superstars if they play the right songs in the right order.

Neil is such a great frontman, and his gesturing and jumping up and down really conveys the stories told in the lyrics. He really throws himself into it. Even when he has a harmonica or a guitar (or in the case of ‘DC Sound Attack’ – a cowbell!) he can still bounce around like somebody excited to tour their debut record.

It was a pretty banging setlist. For the most parts you got quick punchy songs like ‘Earth Rocker,’ ‘The Mob Goes Wild,’ ‘Pure Rock Fury,’ ‘Burning Beard,’ and a very fun rendition of ‘Unto The Breach.’

They were tighter here than on some of the live albums I’ve heard, and while they still threw in additional drum fills, groove parts and jams, they were brief and trim and musical. The two slowest moments of the evening were a drum solo and a slightly out-of-place rendition of “Space Grass” to break up all the speed. The got the guy out from Lionize to play keyboards on ‘1000111010’ which was pretty damn bombastic live. (Three times is jive).

Towards the end, the threw in ‘The Soapmakers’ and ‘The Wolfman Kindly Requests…’ both of which were absolutely off the chain. Very exciting, you should’ve seen the smile on my face.

The encore featured ‘The Regulator,’ ‘Electric Worry’ and ‘One Eye Dollar.’ It was crazy how into it the crowd were. People were so excited to sing “Bang, bang, bang, Vaminos, Vaminos.”

That goes for the whole concert. The crowd were absolutely loving it. Loud, loud cheers, some of the loudest I’ve heard in these last two years of more-frequent concert attendance. Also, a lot more polite. Only one crowd-surfer the whole time. No barging and shoving. I got really close to the front and got to stand there comfortably and unmolested the whole night with no competition for space. My favourite kind of concert.

Overall, this was an absolutely brilliant concert. I had a fantastic time and the band performed a great set. I can’t imagine anyone at all walking out of that show and not having had a good time. One D-Bag was overheard to comment “Well, as far as accessible Clutch goes…” – but aside from hipsters who only want to hear B-sides, stuff from Impetus and a lot of jamming, I’d wager that 99.9% of Clutch fans would be impressed and satisfied. Its also cool that they’ve earned the right to play in such a big venue (the same one Megadeth played in). The concert was so good that I bought myself a tour T-shirt afterwards even after saying I wouldn’t at the beginning of the night… Just like what happened at Queensryche.

I hope they put out a live DVD from this tour, it will be their best live album, hands down. That’s how good it was. Go see them live if you can!

I Went To Go See Architects Live Tonight

I went to go see Architects live tonight at the Manchester Academy 2 on Friday 7th March. It was the first day of their tour in support of their new (as yet unreleased, although you could buy it at the merch stand) album Lost Forever Lost Together.

They were supported by Landscapes, Northlane and Stray From The Path.

Doors seemed to open about forty minutes late but I’m not sure if that was reality or just my perception. When I did get in, I was able to get very close to the front in a good spot. Landscapes were already playing when I got in (something that’s happened a few times at the Academy), they were a Metalcore band halfway between the Architects/BMTH style and the Killswitch/Parkway Drive style, and they were really good at what they did. They also had quite a lot of floaty bits that reminded me vaguely of Isis. Their singer was pretty impressive, he got into the crowd at one point for almost an entire song, but not like when a singer usually pops up at the front of the crowd, he walked right into the centre of the room and a circle opened up around him as he sang into different fans’ faces, it was pretty cool. They were my favourite support band of the evening.

Next up came Northlane, who were Australian. Their singer at first reminded me of big New York Hardcore singers like Evan Seinfeld and Lou Coller, but that changed as the show went on. Their music really engaged the crowd, although I couldn’t really make much sense of it. It was pretty techy and disjointed, with a lot of sub-drops and stuff. What was also interesting is that their guitarist played riffs every now and again that you’d swear were Wes Borland riffs. Its not something you expect in combination with the rest of it. It was impressive, but the song structures and things were kind of a little baffling, to the point of being pretty progressive. The crowd seemed really into it. If you like them, you’d love them live.

Next up came Stray From The Path; who I looked up on Wikipedia on my phone while they were sound-checking, and saw under their Genre ‘Hardcore Punk.’ When their first song, which I assume was called ‘Pull The Pin,’ came on however, it sounded like Limp Bizkit to me. Their singer was a bouncy, hip hop influenced guy who threw Eminem style hand gestures and things. The rest of their set was kind of like a mixture between Will Haven, Vision Of Disorder, Rage Against The Machine and actually Northlane. The bill really made sense, all the bands had real similarities in places but were a completely different take on it. They were really good at what they did, but it wasn’t quite to my tastes. I could tell their singer really meant what he said and the band played well, so once again, if you like this band, live they are excellent so you’d love it.

Finally the evening ended with Architects. I was kind of expecting it to be OK. I don’t know why, but for some reason I went in with the notion it would be decent but not great. As it turns out it was actually bloody brilliant. Architects were absolutely on fire. They had this huge, indescribable x-factor about them that made them seems so much larger and more professional than most other bands I’ve seen live in this venue. Singer Dan Carter just had that superstar confidence about him (even though he was humble and really grateful and kept making thankful statements to the crowd that didn’t seem disingenuous in any way), he is an incredible front man, pretty captivating. I would love to see Bring Me The Horizon replace Olly Sykes with Dan Carter – that would make a really great live band. Maybe even better would just be if the entire of Architects had BMTH’s songs. That would be an incredible live band. Comparing the two from what I’ve seen live, (and its kind of reasonable to compare them with their similar music and mutual appearances on eachother’s albums) Dan is thousands of times better as a singer, screamer, crowd ambassador and visual force than Olly is, and has way better stage presence. When I saw BMTH live before Christmas, Olly kind of let the show down a bit, because of being out-of-breath and missing parts and interacting with the crowd poorly… Architects live were the exact opposite. Just as a quick example; at one stage Dan said “Everybody in the whole audience, drop to your knees” and I’m not joking, in less than about 12 seconds it had happened. Everyone just did it. No dragged out period of convincing them, and mocking the people who are slow or unable to do it all the way. Just almost instant success. Olly had tried the same thing when I saw BMTH and it was really drawn out, and Olly started telling people to fuck off and go home and generally being petulant. I think Dan must just seem like such a nice bloke everybody wanted to do it for him.

The set list was interesting, with some new material from the upcoming new album, one track from The Here And Now and most of the set drawn from Daybreaker and Hollow Crown (and as far as I could tell, nothing older than that) so 99% of the setlist was drawn from albums were the ‘A’ logo is the artwork.

The highlight of the show was when they played ‘Even If You Win, You’re Still A Rat’ and ‘The Here And Now’ one after another, possibly because they’re my two favourite Architects songs anyway, but also because it was brilliant live.

The band actually sold out the 900 person venue and raised the very good point that this is pretty unbelievable when you consider how angular, jagged and ugly an album Hollow Crown is (Seriously, if you don’t know the band, just listen to the first minute of ‘Early Grave’ and then wonder how a band playing that can sell out such a big venue, with a pretty equal gender split in the audience)… its not even like they played much material with clean singing or the spacey numbers, it was all just the heavy stuff, more or less.

The crowd seemed to absolutely love it. They chanted ‘Arch-i-techs’ and uncommonly high amount of times. There was an interesting bit when they stopped the show to raise awareness of an anti-whaling charity called Sea Sheppard, and even that didn’t let them lose any momentum. The band were all just on fire. Every member played with real energy and conviction. Overall, it was a fantastic performance and I was really impressed. If you’re a fan and you can, go and see them live – you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve Just Been To See Tesseract and Protest The Hero Live

I’ve Just Been To See Tesseract and Protest The Hero Live at the Manchester Academy, on Thursday the 6th of February 2014. Fuck me. What. A. Gig.

What a gig, and I almost missed it. All week, I’ve thought that this concert was on on the Friday, so today after Uni I had dinner then got undressed and into my pyjamas (well, I don’t own pyjamas, so, into the normal clothes that I wear if its too cold to sleep without clothes) and got ready to drift away to sleep. At the last minute, for no reason I can discern, I got up to look at the tickets. Not to check the date or anything, just to look at them, covetously. That’s when I noticed that the gig was on tonight, and had to get dressed and head straight out the door and walk to the venue. Luckily doors hadn’t opened yet, but I wasn’t in the que very long.

I got in, walked straight to front row center (well, two human body’s distance to the right of center, to be specific) while others where buying beer or t-shirts, and rooted myself in for the night. I remembered jerk crowds the last few time I was here in this section of the Academy (upstairs, not the biggest part that’s in a separate building, where bands as big as Megadeth get to play), so I expected thugs to try come and uproot me. It never happened. Much like the Queensryche crowd, this was the politest, most honourable crowd anyone could hope for. I was really pleased. A little faith in humanity is restored every time you spend a whole evening in the company of people who don’t act like assholes.

The evening was opened up by the Canadian Djent band, Intervals. I didn’t know much about Intervals (no songs, so that’s pretty little) beforehand, but they really won me over. They were really, really impressive. Their musicianship was incredible for an opening band, they had a pretty professional demenour and good songs. A very good band indeed. The sound didn’t really help them out, but they were so good you could tell through the bad sound that they were seriously talented. They were also kind of the heaviest end of Djent you can be, without using any Death Metal parts. Their singer was pretty charismatic and their drummer was straight up awesome (at one stage he hit a cymbal so hard, he broke a big wedge straight off of it and left it looking like a shark had taken a bite out’ve it). Great band. Go see them if you can.

Next up came The Safety Fire. Who were a British Tech Metal/Prog Metal/Djent band. They were also absolutely excellent. Their sound was a bit lighter, more radio-friendly in parts, and sometimes they actually played little guitar runs that sounded like Protest, or those bits on Periphery’s new album that John Petruci from Dream Theater played.

Their drummer was freaking incredible. He plays like he’s trying to pass an exam. Watching him drum was like playing a videogame without dying on the hardest difficulty. Everything about that band seemed on, but the drummer especially was hot, hot stuff. Plus, no Death Metal. They were more like if a Djent band listened to a lot of At The Drive In.

The sound for them was less muddy but the vocals were mixed very low. Again, luckily, they were clearly brilliant so it didn’t matter.

They were really good. Go see them if you can.

Then Tesseract came on. Tesseract are a fucking incredible live band. I took a punt on them just before Christmas and went to go see them live without knowing them, just because I like Periphery, and the two are often spoken of together (like Metallica and Megadeth). Also because Karnivool were headlining and Karnivool are often spoken of alongside bands like Cog and Rishloo, so I wanted to try them out too. Tesseract stole the show, hands down and unequivocally. That show was absolutely incredible (despite a small section of annoying honking fans making clown-horn noises endlessly) and completely sold me on the band. I got their new album for Christmas as a result and absolutely love it.

Seeing them tonight was even better than the first time. These guys are one of the best live bands going. They are like fucking superstars, from their casually cool world’s-tallest-man guitarist, to their Danny Carey’s-maths-homework drummer, their business-looking bassist and the friendly looking other guitarist. That and the new singer. My goodness. That man can sing. Remember what I said about Jesse Leach? Yeah, well double that!

That guy is the best live singer I have ever seen with my own two eyes (and I’ve seen Maynard James Keenan!). If I could give him some sort of award I would.

In fact, maybe I can.

I hereby award Ashe O’Harra the ‘Kingcrimsonblog Best Live Singer’ award

Done. (And well deserved).

Tesseract are such an incredible live band, they just really draw you in, they are so powerful and captivating, it really makes my enthusiasm for live music grow and both times that I’ve seen them, they have absolutely dominated. Furthermore, they had great quality sound. Thank you Tesseract’s soundman.

As if that wasn’t enough, I got to see Protest The Hero too.

If you’ve ever read this Blog before, you’ll probably know that I love Protest The Hero. Since I first got their debut album as a birthday present, I have listened to and talked about them absolutely constantly. Constantly! – According to my LastFM account, I’ve listened to them 1,361 times since August (at time of writing), and in that short time, they have become the band that I’ve listened to Eighth-most, in the entire last three-and-a-half years!

So, with that sort of context, you should be able to figure out that I was beyond excited for this gig. You may however have also seen my write-up about their Live DVD, which I was actually a little disappointed by. That made me a bit fearful that Protest’ were more of a studio band. I mean, their albums are some of the best ever made by anyone. Kezia, Scurrilous and Voltion especially. I mean, I just hammer those albums constantly!

Even if Protest’ were poor live, at least Tesseact had been headline-worthy.

Protest’ weren’t poor live though. Protest The Hero were one of the best bands I’ve ever seen. I had suuuuuch a good time. The energy level was off the charts. They were so good that they pulled out all my reservations. I’m more like a Japanese audience member than a western one usually, but boy did I make an exception. Ever since Lamb Of God’s concert, I’ve been getting more and more into things. I screamed my lungs out, I jumped about, air-drummed, air-guitared, gestured descriptively for all the lyrics and generally banged and danced away like I was having a damn great time (which of course, I was). I haven’t ever thrown more of myself into a gig since I was about 15. I had more enthusiasm here for that hour than I’ve had all year. I looooooved it.

But enough about me, the band, the band were unbelievable. Absolutely nailing such complex, multifaceted, incredible music like it was easy. Even the new drummer who didn’t write any of this bonkers material was absolutely phenomenal. Every musician was entertaining to watch and great fun to listen to.

The setlist was brilliant. They played more or less all of my absolute favourite songs, including ‘Underbite,’ ‘Mist’ ‘Sextapes’ ‘C’est La Vie’ and ‘Blindfolds Aside.’

The crowd seemed to be going pretty wild for them. Proportionately, it was probably the most sing-along concert I’ve ever seen, with the most knowledgable and into-it fans I’ve ever witnessed. It seemed like an absolute love-fest. Deservedly so. They make brilliant songs, and they’ve backed it up live with a stunning performance. I think the fact that they have some of the best and most interesting lyrics I’ve ever read also helps. People sang along like their lives depended on it, which I think is a big endorsement of the quality of those lyrics.

The sound for them was great too. Thank you Protest The Hero’s soundman too.

Roddy was pretty entertaining, commenting on a security guard being the world’s strongest man (which is not an unreasonable assessment) to the point where the bouncer even cracked a happy smile, joking about Buckfast, referencing WWF, WCW and Holywood Hulk Hogan, inviting a handsome crowd member up on stage to be ‘hunk of the week’ (the band played him a little specially-written hunk-of-the-week theme tune too!) and then joking about getting him into bed. He also started singing football chants about Stephen Gerard to annoy the football fans in the crowd, and fake-dedicated a song to Stephen Gerard. It was pretty amusing stage banter. I guess he takes what he written in ‘Underbite’ seriously.

The band’s performance overall was so, so strong. That DVD must have been an off-night, because what I saw tonight was a frigging phenomenal Live Band. It was such a good, good show.

It was such a good show I even bought a t-shirt afterwards (a thing my wallet has stopped me doing since seeing Queencryche Live – so you can tell how much I was impressed to be moved to t-shirt purchasing)

The gig, as a whole, is one of the absolute best I’ve ever seen. Two great Djent bands supporting Tesseract’s world-class superstar-quality live show and the most fun gig (Protest The Hero) that I’ve been to in the last decade.

If you have any interest in modern Metal, live music, or any of the bands mentioned, try and see them live. This was a fabulous bill and a brilliant night. The only way it could be any better is if Periphery also played, and Protest’ got a slightly longer set and were able to fit in ‘Dunsel’ ‘Skies’ and ‘Turn Soonest To The Sea’ – then it would have been the hypothetical best gig ever. As it stands it was pretty damn close.

“So How You Fucking Feeling Tonight?” – Boy, am I in a good mood!

I Went To Go See Killswitch Engage & Trivium Live Tonight.

I Went To Go See Killswitch Engage & Trivium Live Tonight (Feb 1st, 2014), at Manchester Academy. It was a stark, stark contrast to the miserable experiences that I had at the same venue when seeing Bring Me The Horizon a few months ago and Lamb Of God a few weeks ago.

At those gigs I’d been greatly disillusioned by support bands who didn’t interest me and fans who rubbed me up the wrong way, in combination with poor sound. Being up close to these young happy people, having their obnoxious fun made me feel so out of place and removed from humanity. (Until Lamb Of God came on, fucking smashed it live, and fixed my brain!)

None of that tonight, sure, there were a few chuds barging their way through the crowd rudely, and a few people who clearly hadn’t washed or groomed in over a week, but for the most part, the crowd did not irritate me this time (it was almost as nice as the Queensryche crow; the single least stupid, selfish, boorish and annoying crowd I’ve had the pleasure to be in since moving to this city). It was such a great show I think that even if the crowd were off-putting I would still be feeling this happy and satisfied. It was a damn good show, you see.

When I got there, by the time I’d got in, been to the toilet and walked to near the front, I only saw one song from the opening act, Battlecross, but it was very impressive. I’ve psychologically filed them under ‘would see again’ on the strength of just that one song. A far cry from Huntress, or some of the other less interesting bands I’ve seen.

Next up were a band who I’d never heard of, but who turned out to be excellent. They were called Miss May I and their style was very much in the Killswitch/Parkway Drive direction, but they were very good at what they did. Very, very good, with charismatic members, an enthusiastic crowd and heaps of talent. It reminds me of when I first saw Rise To Remain, I should have heard all the Melodic Metalcore I’ll ever need to hear by now, but these guys come along and do it so well, it doesn’t matter if its not ground breaking. Its still damn entertaining.

Not knowing any of their material didn’t stop it being enjoyable. That’s how good they were.

When they finished, there was a brief gap and soundcheck, then it was time for Trivium. They played atop a plastic Cliffside, with big banners behind them, and big ‘T’ things at either side of the stage (sort’ve like statues, the way Slipknot would do with the tribal ‘S’ logo). They also has a fancy light show, a foam cannon that made snow and huge smoke bombs that Lamb Of God and Horizon also had used. Basically, they put a lot of effort into their show. It was a show worth seeing.

Trivium played a few newer songs from the new album, and also surprisingly played ‘Shattering The Skies Above’ from the God Of War 3 soundtrack. I really enjoyed that stuff, but it would’ve been wise of me to have gotten the new Trivium album by now and definitely before the show so as to enjoy them live even more, recognition being one of the most rewarding parts of a live show after-all. They also played a fair few favourites from Ascendency, which went over fantastic. Also, I got the recognition buzz. Yay recognition.

Before the gig I had went online to see what setlist they’d been playing this tour, and was delighted to find ‘Becoming The Dragon’ on it, which is probably my favourite Trivium song (definitely in my top-three at any rate) but for this show they changed things up a bit and replaced a few tracks with the lengthy title-track to Shogun, complete with the falling snow. Fair play. If I’m going to miss out on such a great track at least its for an interesting reason. Like people who see Slipknot live and miss out on a few ragers but get to see ‘Iowa.’

I had seen Trivum before touring Shogun (the album, not the song) and it was a really good show, with a really good performance. This was even better. They have become so impressive, so confidant. The guitar solos are really captivating, the big breakdown riffs are absolutely giant live, and they really know how to work a crowd. It was really, really entertaining stuff. Also this time the crowd didn’t get called pussies for not jumping (my single most enduring memory from my previous Trivium gig for some reason).

The highlights of the night for me were a very heavy rendition of ‘Down From the Sky’ as well as ‘Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr’ (wherein I derived great pleasure from singing ‘Boat Rudder Strange Mountain,’ naturally) and a fucking phenomenal rendition of ‘In Waves.’ I think ‘In Waves’ is probably the best song the band have ever written and live it was absolutely massive. Also they timed the smoke bombs to go off every time he said ‘Waves’ so it was extra interesting to look at. I’m really glad to have seen it live. What a good time.

After Trivium were over, you’d be forgiven for accidentally walking home, because it was a real headline show. It’s a lot better show than either time I’ve seen Slayer, it was better than both Down and Megadeth who I’d both seen (separately) in this same venue and it was almost as good as that Lamb Of God show that stopped me wanting to jump in front of a car.

Trivium are a great band. Much better than they’re given credit for. I know they are given credit, judging by the adoring crowd, but they’re even better than that. If you get me. They seem to be only getting better too.

Even though I’d have been absolutely happy for it to, and have felt like I’d gotten my money’s worth if it had… the night did not end there.

Next up after a very lengthy pause to dismantle Trivium’s Cliffside, Killwitch Engage took to the stage (to the tune of Eye Of The Tiger no less), with Adam D dressed in a singlet and daisy-dukes, pulling body-builder poses on the monitors in strobe lighting.

I had always been a little bit more of a fan of Howard than Jesse, and I remember being cynical when Jesse re-joined the band. Their new album is absolutely corking though, and the live footage I seen online of his return-shows changed all that. Now I was excited to see Jesse.

I. Was. Not. Disappointed.

That dude is a frontman. God DAMN!

His clean singing live is mind-blowing. His Death Growls and his high screams live are so much better than most other bands I’ve seen. His crowd interaction is genuine and his overall performance just screams of someone who really cares.

The rest of the band are all brilliant live, from the extra bass runs, additional pinch harmonics, and better drum fills. Everything has extra energy, its all so big.

Their stage show had a lot more space in it, without the cliff, but they made up for it with a really, really good lightshow and a lot of personal energy and running around. They used the space well.

Hearing things like ‘Fixation On The Darkness’ and ‘My Last Serenade’ live was frigging gigantic. They really put their all into the performances, and the sound was perfect. Some of those riffs were so crushing. When you think of Killswitch you often only conjure up the clean choruses, but man, some of those grooves are just HUGE.

The material from the new album went over really well live too. Really, really well. ‘The Turning Point’ had me screaming at the top of my lungs and I was far from the only one. ‘All In Due Time’ in particular was so, so massive live, really life-affirming. It was tied for best moment of the night with ‘In Waves.’ I can see it staying in their set forever. It’s a bloody fantastic song. Seeing that live made me feel like how it must’ve felt to see ‘This Love’ by Pantera live.

Y’know what else was huge? The sing-alongs on ‘The End Of Heart Ache’ from the crowd were some of the loudest and most passionate I’ve ever heard. It felt like every person in the building was singing along. Plus the band themselves absolutely slayed that song live. Bass, Drums, Guitars, Vocals, everything was absolute perfection.

Its cool they played so much Howard-era stuff live too. I almost expected them to concentrate only on the songs that Jesse had wrote, but they mixed it up well across their whole catalogue. They opened with ‘A Bid Farwell’ and they played ‘This Is Absoltuion,’ ‘Rose Of Sharyn’ (waaay heavier and better live) and even closed the night out with a really energetic version of ‘My Curse.’ Howard’s stuff sounds really well by Jesse. I didn’t think it was possible, but he arguably delivers some of it even better than Howard himself. That’s high praise from me, because I love Howard.

I hope both Trivum and Killswitch film a DVD on this tour, because this was some seriously great stuff.

As an evening, this was a great one. If this bill is playing in your town, get yourself tickets. It is absolutely worth your time and money. I had a fantastic time and the bands (even the ones I didn’t know) all put on a really powerful, solid and entertaining show.

Good stuff. I’m glad I went.

I Went To See Lamb Of God Play Live Last Night:

I went to go see Lamb Of God live last night. For the first time since moving to Manchester I had a friend to go to the gig with. Oh wait, second time, the other one was that Korpiklaani gig I spontaneously went to because people I’d been in a band with years ago were going, and all I said to them was one sentence and then never saw them again. This was the first one that I actually cared about beforehand. He talked me into drinking beer. Normally I don’t drink at gigs because I both dislike drinking and don’t want to have to go to the toilet and miss anything.

We thought it was just Lamb Of God and Decapitated on the bill, but when we got there, it turned out someone called Huntress were supporting. I hadn’t actually heard of them before.

First impressions weren’t great, but I’m a diplomatic sort of person and usually find it extremely difficult to call any band bad and usually just feel that art is all subjective and that I’d probably enjoy it with more exposure and if I was in a better mood and all that business.

Huntress’ singer made me dislike her midway through the set when she announced that Lemmy co-wrote a song with them, then when she announced that he called it ‘I Wanna Fuck You To Death’ – she followed it up by saying “he’s so romantic” in a Dani Filth voice, for laughs. It wasn’t funny. She also kept pointing out people in the crowd and dedicating the titular sentence to them. It was shameless. She started doing it to a fifteen year old kid and then told him to call her in a year. Might as well have got her tits out while she was at it. Or at least that was what flashed through my head in a fleeting moment of displeasure.

Then I realized… “don’t hate the playa, hate the game” or whatever. Of course she’d say that. Of course she’d do that. People like that. Some people expect that. Get over it and stop being judgmental. If Jamey Jasta did the same thing with a motivational song title you’d like it.

Anyway, the band’s music wasn’t engrossing. It was Thrash Revival stuff. Sort of more like Evile than Gamma Bomb. More in the Slayer end of Thrash Revival than the Nuclear Assault end. A lot of riffs reminded me of South Of Heaven, Among The Living and Extreme Aggression… except in order to sound similar but not be a cover, they had to be changed slightly, and something of the magic was lost in that changing.

It made another fleeting thought go through my head. Which was “I don’t care if the music industry dies and no new bands get signed. So few bands have anything good to offer.” Furthermore, it made me think “there’s so much music already that I won’t get around to listening to it all by the time I’m dead. I won’t even be able to afford all the good music, so I really don’t need to waste my time with bad music.”

But then I remembered that bands like Tesseract can come out and make new music seem like a good thing. So. I guess I won’t burn down all the recording studios and concert venues just yet.

To be fair to it, there was nothing wrong with Huntress or their music, but I didn’t like it, it didn’t grab me and it was just boring to me, personally. Maybe they should’ve called it “I’m Going To Bore You To Death” – says hypothetical sneery 1990s music journalist. I probably wasn’t in the mood anyway, I was looking resentfully at the crowd who were enthusiastic, happy looking people who were actually having fun. It made me genuinely consider what to write in my suicide note.

I read a Ricky Gervais quote (he probably took it from someone else, like Jesus, or Ghandi to be fair) on facebook earlier that day, that said “Jealously is self-harm.” If that’s the case, I think I was hash-tag-suicide-risk at that gig, because I was harming the fuck out’ve myself with all the jealously I was feeling for these happy seeming people. Why are all these people so easily-made-happy? Why are all these couples here having a good time? Why do people feel ok with being topless in the pit even when they aren’t by-media-standards-attractive? Why can all these people walk around looking like this without fearing for their safety from muggers on the way home? Why can they all drink without feeling shitty about themselves? How comes my eyes have turned green? Why do I have to be such a boring joyless dick?

Oh well, at least this time I had a friend with me to talk to. Any other time I’ve been at a disappointing concert, feeling out of place in a sea of happiness and enthusiasm, all I can do is sit there in silence, like a grumpy out of place lemon.

“What did you think of them?” – Disapproving face – “I thought so too.”
“Looking forward to Decapitated?” – Disapproving face – “I thought not.”

Also, on a separate note. Lamb Of God have the tallest fans. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in Manchester, but I’ve never seen a higher concentration of tall people at one gig. I’m six foot and don’t usually feel short. But I’m not exaggerating when I say I saw at least three people who were pushing eight feet tall and at least thirty who were definitely seven. It wasn’t so noticeable when I came in and the venue hadn’t filled yet, but as more and more people came into the hall, a disproportionately high number of them were unusually tall.

Is that actually worth noticing? Why am I so interested in the crowd anyway? Am I utterly depressed and in need of help, or, were Huntress just boring me to distraction.

We’ll let a panel of Mental Health experts be the judge of that one, but all I’m saying is, I didn’t rush out and buy their album online as soon as I got home, didn’t walk out of there wearing a Huntress t-shirt, and I don’t think if Huntress played on their own I’d jump at the chance to buy tickets to go see them.

Anyway; when they were over, my friend took me to get another beer and it was about twenty minutes until Decapitated came on next. Before they came on, there was a soundcheck in which they played about the first two minutes of Pantera’s ‘Walk’ and even got the crowd to sing along. From where I was at I couldn’t tell if it was the band having fun or roadies taking liberties. When Decapitated started their proper set I didn’t recognize any of their songs (even though I listened to Nihility and Winds Of Plague again around Christmas), the sound wasn’t good either which didn’t help, the material was a bit boring, and I went to the toilet towards the end of their set, I missed “Spheres Of Madness,” which I actually might have enjoyed. See what I mean about not drinking at gigs?

So. Decapitated live. Not much fun to be had there then.

I started to actually feel drunk after only two beers, mostly because I haven’t drank more than ten times in the last four years rather than any actually quality of the unpleasant watery beer. That made me have all sorts of unpleasant nostalgia-style mental flashbacks to all the times I drank and had a bad time, and no memories of fun or anything positive. Once that kicked in it made everything even worse. I was ready to walk home. What a waste of money this night was. I don’t like concerts anymore.

I walked back in. That was a positive step, at least I didn’t go home. Mostly it was because my friend had my coat though. Ok. I’ll sit through this rubbish a bit longer so that I have a coat for the cold January walk home. I was going to stay at the back behind the land of giants and see nothing behind the sea of tall, tall fans since I wouldn’t enjoy myself anyway. My friend eventually found me before Lamb Of God started, and wanted to go closer to the front, so we did. We got all the way up to about three people-from-the-front. What good progress. Sometimes at gigs the competition for space is really unpleasant. Nope. We just strolled on up without upsetting anyone, or getting in anyone’s way or asking anyone to move. That made me feel some positivity at least. The lack of negativity or rudeness made me feel something positive. Also, being able to see the band would at least make it a bit interesting.

I scanned the crowd a couple of thousand more times; that made the glimmer of positivity die. I found myself deciding that not only did I not like concerts any more, or metal fans, but that I was genuinely incapable of ever having fun again. I was completley convinced that I, in fact, had medical anhedonia and was literally unable to feel happiness. I came to a firm and complete conclusion that life was no-longer worth living.

Then Lamb Of God hit the stage. It opened with the drum solo that’s between ‘Straight For The Sun’ and ‘Desolation’ on the Resoltuion album. It sounded good live. It looked good too, with flashing lights and a big Resolution artwork banner behind the kit, and all you could see was Chris until the first riff kicked in. ‘Desolation’ and ‘Ghost Walking’ were played pretty early on. Bouncy, big, and what’s this? Fun! Holy shit, I’m actually having fun. I didn’t think that it was a medical possibility.

They dropped ‘Walk With Me In Hell’ ‘Laid To Rest’ ‘Now You’ve Got Something To Die For’ and I was actually singing along. Me. I could barely believe it.

When they played ‘Vigil’ and ‘Omerta’ I was actually jumping around, I actually did raise my hands/fists/horns whenever they asked, probably the first time since moving to England. I was actually getting into it.

When ‘Ruin’ came on, I sang every word. Every one. I was properly into it for the first time in what feels like forever.

When I had went to see The Fratellis live before Christmas, some punk-ass fifteen year old girl took exception to the fact that I was just stood there with my arms folded watching the band, and started mocking me for being ‘no fun.’ If only she could see me now.

There were a few interesting things during the bulk of the concert worth pointing out too. Randy had a joke about the Smiths and fake-dedicated a song to Morrisy. Mark Morten was off for family reasons and Between The Buried And Me’s guitarist filled in. Randy had grown a beard and looked like the villain from a crime movie. They played ‘Undertow’ off of Resolution, which I never thought was a noteworthy song before, and it absolutely smashed live. It got a really good audience response too. I think that’ll stay in the set even when new albums come out. Chris broke a drum before ‘Omerta’ and had to replace it. Willy shouted the ‘woo’ during ‘Black Label’ like he did on the live Download Festival DVD. I didn’t realize that was a tradition, I just assumed it was a one off on the night of filming. When Randy was doing the traditional make-the-audience-appreciate-the-support-bands bit that a headliner always says, Decapitated got a gigantic cheer (like, a distinctly bigger cheer than any band I’ve heard in the last two years in the same scenario…including Orange Goblin and Napalm Death).

I was pretty transfixed on Campbell for a lot of the night. I had been listening to a lot of the Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave podcast this week, and in my mind Campbell was (pod host) Brian Johnson. Why on earth was Brian Johnson playing bass for Lamb Of God?

They ended the night with ‘Redneck’ and ‘Black Label’ as you would expect (Since I became a fan of the band, which is only about five years ago now, I always thought they should swap that around now. I know ending with ‘Black Label’ is tradition, since it was the most fun song off their first album, but ‘Redneck’ is way more popular, way easier to sing along to and would make a way better ending).

Anyway, when they Played ‘Redneck’ live, it was incredible. The feeling I got during ‘Redneck’ was even better than with ‘Ruin.’ I felt like somebody give me a shot of pure concentrated happiness. I’d been in a terrible mood all week, flickering in and out of one all month and ‘Redneck’ cleared it away.

They should use ‘Redneck’ as a medical treatment. People should be given Lamb Of God tickets by the government to increase productivity and reduce depression in the population. I sang along to every single word, jumped about and had genuine actual fun. I was in a very good mood.

Then ‘Black Label’ came on.

Then it was over. My friend even caught one of the plectrums that they threw into the crowd at the end. One had hit me, and got caught between my arm and chest, but when I moved to get it, it feel to the ground and some teenager picked it up. Fair dos, the one that had hit me was from the Between The Buried And Me guy anyway, and I don’t play the guitar, so I wasn’t particularly interested. Makes sense that someone enthusiastic get the souvenir. (Had it have been a drumstick, I wonder whether I’d have tried to keep it. I honestly don’t know.)

I walked home without incident. No weird students proposed odd philosophical points to me, no clearly-not-homeless chancers tried to get money off me, no elderly men stopped me for a cigarette and found the idea that someone ‘doesn’t smoke’ to be the most ludicrous notion they’ve ever heard, no streakers got arrested by the police in front of a crowd of Rugby lads dressed as giant vegetables (which happened when I went to see Down live at this same venue, about a year and a half ago), or anything else like that as would usually happen on the way back from the gigs I’ve been to in Manchester.

Overall; It had a shaky start, but it actually turned out to be a worthwhile evening. Lamb Of God themselves had a great performance, a great setlist, good sound and the audience loved them. I loved them. I had a good time. It made me happy.

I even woke up this morning with a big grin on my face. I think I’m going to go and stick ‘Redneck’ on the stereo. G’bye.