Location: Virgin Mobile Mod Club, Toronto, Ontario Canada

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Opening Bands: Halcyon Way, Cauldron

I was looking forward to this show for quite some time.  I hadn't been to a metal show since 2007, so to take in one of the best prog metal bands ever coming off a very strong album with Darkness In A Different Light is as much as I could hope for.

I didn't expect any openers at the show, but we got two of them.

Halcyon Way (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/halcyon-way)

 Georgian metal band Halcyon Way was the first band up at around 8pm, and they played for about a half an hour.  Their style is mainly power-prog with the incorporation of growled vocals.   Overall, they aren't the type of metal band I'm into, but they were a solid start to the evening.  They had those uber-metal song titles like "Web of Lies" "Age of Betrayal" and "Desecration Day" that made me smile from ear to ear.  They handled their frequent tempo changes nicely, and had an aresnal of stage moves at their disposal.

Cauldron (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/cauldron)

 I was caught by surprise by this retro Toronto-based trio.  Seeing that the guitarist and bassist were rocking Angel Witch and The Rods t-shirts, I shouldn't have been.  Straight-ahead, old-school metal delivered in good fashion.  It felt like I was transported to 1985 (not that I can remember the year I was born in).  Once again, they aren't the type of thing I seek out these days, but I was really digging the vibe they put out there.  Reminiscent of bands like Motorhead and Anvil with a bit of an early Rush vibe.

 Like Halcyon Way, the had many of those song titles that by hearing the song name, you knew what you were getting.  I can't recall titles off-hand, but do remember them playing Black Sabbath's "Digital Bitch".  They started around 9pm, and played for around 40 minutes.

Fates Warning (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/fates-warning)

 The much-awaited headliners got their start at around 10:10.  I enjoyed the variety in their setlist, selecting songs from every album going back to Perfect Symmetry.  I was surprised they played nothing of No Exit (they often play "Quietus") considering the fact that one of the t-shirts they had at merch featured that album. 

 I was stationed at the right side of the stage, where touring guitarist Mike Abdow and bassist Joey Vera were stationed.  I would have got a more central view of the stage normally for better sound (Jim Matheos was often notably quieter than Mike), but I took the opportunity to get close to the action.  This was partly as nobody usually moshes to Fates Warning (except for one drunk fellow trying to stir one up), and I got all my moshing out of my system in my teen years.

 Performance-wise, I have no complaints.  I didn't hear too many notable errors or anything.  Ray Alder spoke fondly of the crowd despite the low turnout (I'd guess around 120 people were there), and made cracks about how cold it was outside.  He also kindly reminded us that they recorded the Parallels album in Toronto.  The whole band played great, and Mike Abdow was a great fill-in choice for them.  He fit right in image-wise and plays Frank Aresti's lead wonderfully.

 Additionally, I bought a tour hoodie to match the album t-shirt I got in a pre-order, and I unfortunately had to take off early to catch the last train out of town that night (missing only the final encore, thankfully).

Setlist:

Batcat (Mogwai song, used partly as an intro.

1) One Thousand Fires

2) Life In Still Water

3) One

4) A Pleasant Shade of Gray, Part III

5) Another Perfect Day

6) Down to the Wire

7) A Pleasant Shade of Gray, Part VI

8) Pieces of Me

9) I Am

10) The Eleventh Hour

11) Point of View

12) Firefly

13) Wish

14) A Pleasant Shade of Gray, Part XI

15) Through Different Eyes

16) Monument

Encore:

17) Still Remains

18) Eye to Eye

15th of March, Templet, Lyngby, Denmark.

EXIVIOUS (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/exivious.aspx?ac=exivi):
The Dutch technical/progressive fusion metal act EXIVIOUS started the evening. The band self-released their self-titled debut full-length studio album in 2009. Guitarist Tymon Kruidenier is also known for playing on CYNIC´s comeback album "Traced in Air (2008)" and bassist Robin Zielhorst for playing live with CYNIC on the subsequent tour replacing Sean Malone.

The band entered the stage with a nice relaxed attitude and played their incredibly challenging progressive fusion metal with what seemed like ease. The songs were more energetic in a live setting that they are on the more calm album versions, which worked really well for the band. A great performance from what seemed to be a very sympathetic band.

GOROD (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/gorod.aspx?ac=gorod):
French technical death metal act GOROD entered the stage as the second act this night. GOROD were formed in 1997 under the GORGASM monicker, but to avoid confusion with the US act of the same name they changed their name to GOROD in 2005 and have currently released 4 full-length studio albums under this monicker. The latest being "A Perfect Absolution" from March 2012.

After a couple of minor sound rehearsals, which seemed a bit odd at that point, GOROD started their show. Great energy, tight musicianship and again a band that seemed to have a good time on stage (I swear the bassist was smiling throughout the whole concert). After the more nerdy fusion metal of EXIVIOUS, it was nice to have your head bashed in by some really brutal and technical death metal music.

SPAWN OF POSSESSION (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/spawn-of-possession.aspx?ac=spawn):
After a short break Swedish technical death metal act SPAWN OF POSSESSION took the stage. The band have released 3 highly technical death metal albums in "Cabinet (2003)", the much praised "Noctambulant (2006)" and this years "Incurso" and are widely considered as one of the Swedish leaders of this particular death metal sub-genre.

SPAWN OF POSSESSION are sligthly more old school than GOROD and my initial assumption that the two acts would sound very similar in a live setting was put to shame. The live sound was a bit more muddy than had been the case with the clear and very good sound during EXIVIOUS and GOROD, but I was still able to hear what was going on. The band were well playing and their music worked well in a live setting. Great energy.

OBSCURA (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/obscura.aspx?ac=obscur):
Germam technical/progressive death metal act OBSCURA have been on quite a successful ride after they released their 2nd full-length studio album "Cosmogenesis" in 2009. An album that made quite an impact on the technical/progressive death metal scene. The release of "Omnivium" in 2011 have only further strengthened OBSCURA´s position as one of the most successful acts on the technical/progressive death metal scene.

It didn´t take long after SPAWN OF POSSESSION left the stage before OBSCURA, who was headliner this night, entered the stage to play their show. The band were obviously very well playing and delivered their songs with great conviction, but unfortunately the soundman fucked up the sound to a degree where the sound at times was downright painful to the ears. The sound was terribly distorted because he had turned up the volume way too much. Midways through the show he mananged to control the sound to a degree where it was actually pretty good, but towards the end he screwed up again and everything ended in a distorted mess. I don´t blame the band who did their best and seemed like nice guys with a great contact to the audience (and a really nice German accent that reminded me of Mille from KREATOR), but I´d fire that soundman (or at least give him a kick in the ass or a couple of new ears). I was standing right next to the mixing pult, so he must have heard exactly the same sound as I did, and he didn´t do enough to fix the problem IMO.

...all in all it was a pretty great evening, that unfortunately ended on somewhat of a low. EXIVIOUS was probably the most interesting act and GOROD and SPAWN OF POSSESSION also delivered great shows, so I guess it was one of those rare evenings where the support acts steal the show. I´m just sorry for OBSCURA because it wasn´t their fault.

While MELVINS is a band I´ve always heard nice things about it´s not until recently that I´ve begun to check out their music, so before going to this concert I was only familiar with the 3 last albums out of an (at the moment) 18 studio album discography. I took a friend to the concert who had only listened to a few samples, so it´s safe to say we didn´t quite know what to expect.

After a DJ had warmed up people for about and hour and a half (there was no supporting act), the lights were dimmed and MELVINS entered the stage, starting the concert with an inferno of feedback noise and random drumming courtesy of their two drummers. Then they went into the first track which was a repetitive and extremely heavy track. To be honest the track felt a bit too repetitive and we got slightly worried at this point. We made our way to the front of the stage after the first couple of tracks (which wasn´t hard as the venue can only hold about 400 - 500 people. It was sold out though) and that´s when the experience of seing the MELVINS became extremely intense. After a while we simply couldn´t help ourselves and we banged our heads like madmen. My goodness MELVINS are heavier beyond heavy in a live setting. I don´t think I´ve ever experienced a more bone crushingly heavy band live. Even their more energetic punked up-tempo tracks are heavy as fuck.

The setlist consisted of quite a few tracks from the last three albums and especially "(A) Senile Animal (2006)" and the latest album release "The Bride Screamed Murder (2010)" were well represented. It didn´t bother me of course as those are the albums I´ve heard, but it was actually amazing how easy it was to understand and appreciate the tracks I didn´t know beforehand. MELVINS tracks are damn catchy and downright infectious and that had a contagious effect on the audience, who halfway through the concert started moshing (a single girl stagedived but was politely asked to remove her ass from the stage by a security guard). The mosh was actually so energetic that I missed parts of the JARED WARREN led track "A History of Bad Men", which is a favorite of mine, but who cares? I just like to see happy people go bezerk to music they love. The concert also included a shared drum solo and a quite bizarre and stoned ending to the night with JARED WARREN lying on his knees chanting into a microphone while electronically manipulating his bass for about 10 minutes. A bit unnecessary if you ask me, but because the rest of the concert was as great as it was we decided to forgive this odd way of ending the concert.

The musicianship is absolutely amazing in this band and deserves a mention too. The two drummers DALE CROVER and COADY WILLIS compliment each other very well playing little details all the time but they can also provide some heavy beats and as a consequence of having two drummers those beats come off as crushingly heavy. The vocals were also really strong this night allthough they were slightly low in the soundscape. The distorted bass playing by JARED WARREN bring a lot of heaviness to the music too.

The stage sound was really good this night. Raw and loud but without drowning the instruments in noise. The guitar tone of guitarist/lead vocalist KING BUZZO was particularly organic and his playing loose yet tight.

So it´s safe to say we had a very positive surprise seing MELVINS, and we both agreed that we would most definitely go see them when they come around these parts again. As my friend stated: "They opened my eyes to the fact that there are still original artists out there". I guess praise don´t come better than that.

1. Hung Bunny
2. Roman Dog Bird
3. The Water Glass
4. Evil New War God
5. AMAZON
6. The Talking Horse
7. It’s Shoved
8. Lizzy
9. The Kicking Machine
10. Billy Fish
11. It Won’t Be Long (The Beatles)
12. Electric Flower
13. Queen
14. At the Stake
15. Copache
16. Spread Eagle Beagle
17. A History of Bad Men
18. Ligature
19. The Bit
20. Shevil

MELVINS MMA artist page: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/melvins.aspx?ac=melvins

    More than four years after their last concert in Sao Paulo, the Bards came back to prove once again that they are a great band when it comes to play live.

The concert started with Sacred Worlds, the opening song from their last and pretty enjoyable album, At The Edge Of Time.

Despite the fact that Hansi Kush in short hair and thinner than ever is looking like an insurance salesman, he is singing better than he ever sang.

They followed it with a one-two punch of classics in the shape of  Welcome To Dying and Nightfall, making the crowd sing along with them every single word. Blind Guardian have a big and very dedicated following in Brazil, proved by the audience of about 6 thousand people and their interaction with the German band. Furthermore, the band always get to play in Sao Paulo on the best venue in the city, with great acoustics and an excellent view of the stage wherever you are.

Next song was Fly, from the predecessor and OK album, A Twist In The Myth. However the place went mad with the next song, Time Stands Still ( At The Iron Hill ). The group was clearly enjoying the fact of being back here.

No time to rest, cause the band already launched into Bright Eyes, one of their most well-known songs here, due to having heavy rotation of the video on the local MTV back in the days of Imaginations From The Other Side.

They went back to At The Edge Of Time with Traveler In Time and the best song from that album, Tanelorn ( Into The Void ).  

And then it was time for Hansi to feel the power of the audience. If he wanted, he wouldn’t need to sing Lord Of The Rings, the whole audience would sing for him. In sequence, the mighty Valhalla and Majesty.

Closing the first part of the show, the band executed the long and kind of annoying And Then There Was Silence. It kind of took the pace off the concert. Actually, to be quite honest, it was boring. An unnecessary overindulgence.

For the encore, Wheel Of Time, also from the new album and the moment that everybody was waiting: The Bard’s Song -In The Forest ( I guess even the people outside of the venue sang that along ) and the perennial classic, Mirror Mirror.

A very entertaining concert, but one thing puzzled everybody: NO Imaginations From The Other Side ? How come ? Nobody understood. Also, how about ditching 14 minutes of And Then There Was Silence to play Imaginations… and one more song like Born In A Mourning Hall or The Script For My Requiem ? It’s just a suggestion…

But, those were minor quibbles, the fans thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Metal Bards one more time.      

 (photos by me with my phone)

Alice Cooper visited Australia in 2007 and played in Launceston at the Silverdome to a fair sized crowd of a few thousand for the small region. He brought with him the stage show that he is famous for. It was the ‘Psycho Drama Tour 2007’ and the band was indeed a very cool bunch of guys that wore black and played some aggressive metal, revamping all the classic Cooper tracks making them heavier. Cooper’s voice was excellent, and he belted one amazing song after another. The merchandise consisted of his latest CDs at the time, “Brutal Planet” “The Best Of”, “Legends” box set, and “Dragontown” and “Dirty Diamonds” CDs plus the “Beast of Alice Cooper” DVD. But I had them all so was disappointed there were none of the classics there that I did not have. The T Shirts looked cool but atrociously overpriced. There were no tour booklets! – Not a great start.

The set list was terrific encompassing all the legendary songs of Cooper’s prolific repertoire. (I wrote them all down when I got home so I would not forget). It began with the killer opening number ‘It’s Hot Tonight’ and the crowd made a bee line for the stage. Rather it was a stampede. I had lousy seats at the back of the hall, and I had to part with $80 to get here so I made an executive decision to join the stampede. I found myself bang in front of the stage on the side but it was an awesome view and I could even see Cooper’s garb consisting of skulls up the pant legs and leather jacket. He looked fantastic and was agile for a man in his 60s prouncing around the stage as if he owned it, and he did.

 

He had the crowd in the palm of his hand by now and the ear blistering metal from Psycho Drama band was really killer stuff. He was more metal than I remembered him with this band line up. They looked cool too, playing off to the crowd, leaning their guitars out to us who feebly tried to touch them, and they played some great lead breaks. ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ was next, a bonafide classic and we all knew the lyrics and let him know it. He seemed to enjoy our enthusiasm and played off it even stopping to hear us sing verses. There was a spider web behind him with a large black widow in it and I hoped he would sing ‘Black Widow’, my fave from that album. Alas, Alice did not sing it.

He did do some quintessential hits though such as the next batch, ‘Dead babies’, complete with a baby doll on a spear, ‘Cold Ethyl’ where he bashed the living suitcase out of a rag doll, and this was followed by the brilliant ‘Only Women Bleed’. On this song he was suddenly confronted by an angry ballet dancer who danced beautifully in a mesmirising way. He feigned slapping her around and she was sad and he looked sorry – a nice theatrical performance by the two and typical of previous shows I had seen on DVD.

Next was the dark part of the set, the songs were a lot darker in lyrics and atmosphere including, ‘I love the Dead’ where he is lead to the guillotine to be beheaded and his head is chopped onto a basket. Weird how he did that but there was a blackout giving him time to replace his own head with a fake one. He then belted out ‘Devil’s Food’, ‘Steven’ and ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ but he did not wear his customary straight jacket.

Next he disappeared for a while and the band cranked out a killer riff, and there was a great drum solo. It was amazing because at the end of the solo the drummer threw his drumstick out to the crowd. I saw it come towards me and never thought for a moment I would get it. But all these hands went up and the drumstick fell between us. I got on my knees and there it was! I grabbed it quickly without thinking and stuffed it up my shirt. I arose and pretended I did not have it, but I could feel it digging into my ribs. I could not believe it. I checked it out later and it had a signature of Eric Singer engraved on it, but he was not playing at the concert I attended. Ah well it made a nice keepsake.

The next song was like an encore as Alice turned up in a leather cowboy hat singing ‘Killer’. Then the riff crunched out from ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ where he threw a lot of fake billion dollar notes out. I could not get any but I had my drumstick so I wasn’t perturbed.

 

 

Next he sung ‘School’s Out’ and we all were jumping in the mosh pit. It was a pretty subdued mosh pit as there were lots of girls and kids and nobody was getting out of line though I got shoved by some lunatic from behind. I saw the security guard coming over and the offender disappeared. There’s always one isn’t there? The lead guitarist threw out a few picks and I could not get any but the guy beside me did. He said to me that he was a drummer and would love to take home that drumstick I had. He wanted to swap the pick for it but I kept telling him I would not swap until he gave up. He looked really annoyed. I hoped he would not try and steal it from me later. He did not but I did not give him the chance as I bolted out to the car after it was over – the things that go on at rock concerts!

 

Back to the concert. There was an encore and we all screamed out “Alice! Alice! Alice!” till our throats were raw. He came out with his gothic band and launched into ‘Poison’ and the crowd sung with smiles on their faces as they all loved this song and knew every lyric. I will never forget this moment. I love the way Alice looked out at us and just stood there singing back to us, a formidable presence in black. Next he did ‘Elected’ a very early hit single and I think after this was ‘The Life and Death of the Party’ though at this point I was losing count. ‘Six Hours’ and ‘Is It My Body’ ended the show to rapturous applause.