Concert Review - Obituary, Strong Intention, Survive the Demise, Krass Judgment, March to Victory etc - 10/19/13 at Cafe 611, Frederick, MD

Finally getting around to posting this. Luckily I made notes the day after the show, but I have so much work now that I didn't get to type this up properly till now.

Not being otherwise occupied on a Saturday night, we decided to pop up to Frederick to see Obituary. We left rather late, after the kid's bedtime, so I didn't have much hope of catching any of the local bands opening for them. But as it turned out, we caught four of them...because there were no less than twelve bands performing. Yes, that's right, a solid 6+ hours of music before the headliner even came on. Needless to say, I didn't include everyone in the title, only the bands we actually saw, and I wasn't even able to tag everyone since blogger limits the tag field pretty severely >.<

I was glad we got there in time for Lancaster, PA death metal band March to Victory. We've seen them several times now and I enjoy their music. They sounded good - loud and groovy. They played the same songs as before, including the cover of Death's "Crystal Mountain." Having heard them play several times now, I was able to devote some attention to individual songs. I especially enjoyed "Funeral of Lizard Beast" (or is it "Funeral Blizzard Beast"? Not sure..) and "Consumption" for their groovy guitars. The vocals on "Consumption" were different from the others. On the other songs, Danielle, the vocalist, used a semi-intelligible growl, but for this song she alternated deeper guttural vocals and higher raspy vocals. "Soulless," meanwhile, was the song I enjoyed least; it was a bit slower and had some weird rhythms. I wonder if next time we'll get to hear some new material from these guys.

Based on the event's facebook page, we thought that Strong Intention would be on next, and then Obituary, but it turned out to be Krass Judgment who took the stage. They started out thrashy, then went into more of a rumbling death metal vibe with growled vocals. I thought they were pretty good - energetic and aggressive enough that I wondered no one started a pit - but S said they sounded better last time he saw them. I thought "Demon Bitch" was their best song. It had a frenetic hardcore pace, but with groove.

The next surprise was Survive the Demise from Western Maryland. I really enjoyed them. They seemed to play death metal with some clean vocals, and some melodic leads. There was one song I particularly liked, but totally can't remember the title, it was something Rotten, or something of that sort. After their set, I got really tired, which unfortunately wiped my memory of a lot of details about them.

Then finally Strong Intention came on. By then I was fed up with how the show kept going on and on, and also was totally not in the mood for hardcore. It was loud and fast and heavy, but didn't hold my interest at all. (I can see how people might mistake hardcore for metal now - they're both heavy and aggressive. But the guitars and vocals are so repetitive, I just can't get interested in the genre.) Strong Intention did have a few riffy, headbang-worthy moments, but mostly I zoned out, as much from tiredness and irritation as from not being to get into the music.

Obituary finally started sound checking a little before midnight (my phone had gone off, so I don't know the exact time). They were better than I expected. I had expected hardcore vocals with bland guitars (based on some album that S lent me a while ago..) but actually the vocals were more of a wet low growl. The guitars weren't amazing, but they changed pace frequently, from rumbling groove, to blast-beat-led frenzy, to oozing slow heaviness, so they held my interest pretty well. I was having a good time in spite of my tiredness, so we could have stayed later, but for the sake of making the next day's plans something like on time, we decided to leave around 12:40.

Despite the lateness and the mixed up line-up, I enjoyed most of the night. I got to hear March to Victory as well as some other local bands I hadn't heard before. Survive the Demise in particular I'll be following closely; hopefully they come back to play sometime soon. I'm really liking that Frederick is getting more strong shows like this, cause it means I can go out for a night of metal on the drop of a hat. In fact, my next show is also at Cafe 611: Arkona (Rus) there tomorrow! I can't wait to see Masha up close <3

Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Dying Fetus, etc. - 2/14/13 at Empire, Springfield, VA

This will be a pretty short review cause it's now been a week since this show :/ But I want to have something on record saying that I went, something to look back on in a couple years when I'm like, didn't I once see Hatebreed on Valentine's Day? Yeah, I did...

So yeah, S and I had our Valentine's Day date at Hatebreed, and before that at BGR with friend J. Who is not part of our threesome. Really.

Due to the V-day dinner at the burger joint (or perhaps just due to not caring), we missed the first band, The Contortionist.

I can't recall if we saw all of Dying Fetus's set, but what we did see, I liked. They are a death metal band with a very groovy feel, a bit like Six Feet Under but maybe more complicated, and their music is very headbangable (my number one criterion for judging metal music!). I enjoyed their set.

I was looking forward to seeing the quasi-melodic Shadows Fall, but unfortunately I was pretty disappointed with their set. The first half of their set sounded very messy - riffs, vocals, melodies all seemed out of sync. "Weight of the World," the only song I know well enough to judge, sounded terrible. They got better as the set went on, the vocals and guitars getting clearer, so we could actually hear the melodies and riffs. They were still not as melodic as I would have liked, though (possibly my second or third criterion for good metal).

There was a mom with a young child (3 years?) at the show. I'm all for introducing kids to metal - after all, I foist it on my daughter every day - but her behavior during Shadows Fall's set was questionable. I'm sure S says more about it in his review.

Hatebreed, however, was great like always. Jamey Jasta and the crowd were both very energetic. I got to hear most of the songs I wanted to hear like "This is Now," "I Will be Heard," "In Ashes they Shall Reap" and of course "Destroy Everything." They didn't play too much from the new album, which was fine with me as I don't know the songs too well yet (and the whole point of being at a Hatebreed show is to jump around shouting along to the lyrics).

For a Valentine's Day date, the only better show I can think of would have been Kamelot. That would have been a little more romantic. But this was pretty awesome, too.

Lamb of God, In Flames, Hatebreed, Sylosis - 11/17/12 at Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD

I was really looking forward to this show. Three great bands, what could go wrong?

We got to the venue just as Sylosis was finishing up. I heard their last song; S went to get a drink. They were pretty listenable, with some energetic and melodic segments, but didn't especially catch my interest.

Hatebreed came out to "America, F**k Yeah" from Team America and immediately got everyone pumped. Pretty much the whole floor was jumping and singing along with Jamey Jasta. I'm surprised I wasn't hoarse after their set cause I sang along to most of the choruses in a low growl, which I didn't even know I could sustain that long. They had a very simple stage show - just the guys playing and Jamey moving around the stage - but they really brought the hardcore energy and got everyone moving with their anthemic and sing/shout-alongable songs (singing along was encouraged by Jamey on just about every song).

They were followed by Swedish melodeath band In Flames, who started with a mellow song and sort of sounded like an 80's rock band compared to Hatebreed. I know In Flames gets a bad rap for not being metal anymore or something, and for not playing some song that everybody really likes, but I thought they sounded all right. They were heavier than I expected, and as they went "back in time" playing older songs, they started to sound more energetic and thunderous. They still had some slow mellow segments in each song, though, and ended with a slow song. There some surprisingly large pits during their set, though, so perhaps they still have some metal cred.

Lamb of God was excellent, and to date the only band I've seen that could share a stage with Hatebreed and outshine them (granted, I've only seen Hatebreed once before). They were loud, fast and heavy, filling the hall with a thunderous barrage of sound, and had lights, spouts of smoke and videos augmenting their performance (no fire for In Flames at the Fillmore - just some banks of lights that blinded the audience). The bass was very loud and the vocals pretty low, so much so that I could hardly hear Randy at first, but I noticed it less as the show went on. The fast but rhythmic music was great for headbanging, and luckily not all of the floor turned into the pit, but we did get shoved a bit.

The show turned out just as good as I hoped. I would recommend it to any metalhead - these are bands you should definitely see if you're into heavy music at all, and you won't be disappointed (unless you expect In Flames to be something that they're not anymore *shrug*)

Next show: I think it's Sonata Arctica and Arsis on 12/9, unless I'm forgetting about something. And after that, Eluveitie and WINTERSUN on 12/19.