Friday, March 30, 2012

PAGANFEST - Turisas, Alestorm, Arkona, Huntress, Deranged Theory, Yesterday's Saints, Fallen Martyr - 3/29/12 at Sonar, Baltimore, MD

Ok, finally touched this up - as in, finally wrote it in complete sentences.

This was probably the biggest show of the year for me - three awesome folk metal bands in one night. It was a lot of fun, although there were a few points where I was disappointed. Mostly organizational things; the actual performances were great and I had a good time.

We got there during the second band's set - just after 8pm. We had judged that getting there around 8 would get us there just in time for Huntress (the fourth band and the first of the official Paganfest bands). It turned out the show was running way late. For a show with seven bands, that definitely cut my enthusiasm a lot - it meant sitting through several not as interesting bands hoping I wouldn't get hungry before the fun started, and a really, really late night on a week when I have no days off.

But anyway, enough of the whining, in spite of the annoying lateness, I did have fun, so here's my review of the bands:

We missed Fallen Martyr entirely. S thought they had cool shirts though.  (As I go to post I realize we have indeed seen these guys before since I already have a tag for them, so if you want to know about them, click on the tag at the bottom of the post.)

We arrived in the middle of Yesterday's Saints' set. They were loud, but not every interesting. The singer had a nice voice though.

Deranged Theory was the last of the openers (we perhaps cheered a little too heartily when they finally cleared the stage, no offense to the band, we were just getting a little impatient). They had some headbang worthy melodies and riffs, reminiscent of Iron Maiden at one point. S disapproved of the singer's vocals, but I thought he sounded all right. Perhaps a slightly deeper growl would have been better. But still, I enjoyed their songs, and S was amused that many of them were about video games, like Castlevania.

Huntress had a strong metal sound, but I find the vocals kind of bland - at least, that was my initial impression of them. "Eight of Swords," their single, is not a good representation of singer's vocal range - she can growl like Masha (of Arkona) and also has a lovely clear high singing voice. S compared her to Doro. She had an..eye-catching outfit that helped to keep attention on her for the whole set.

Arkona came out blasting with "Pokrovy Nebesnogo Startsa", which I have always considered a great moshing song and was really looking forward to hearing and moshing to. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the pit, because I was too far back; the pit was right in front of stage. I got in on the second song though. The pit was big and brutal, with a lot of big lumbering drunk guys, so I didn't go in as much as would otherwise. They played a really short set, about 5 songs, with no time wasted on talking. They sounded good and heavy to me, but S thought they didn't sound as good as on their recordings. Perhaps the sound could have been clearer, I dunno, I was mostly thinking about the pit, and wishing that the pit was better. Masha called for a Wall of Death for Stenku Na Stenku but the moshers ignored her or didn't hear (but at least they were folking). I didn't quite feel like being pit boss and making it happen. Maybe next time.

Alestorm sounded great, and the pit was a blast - besides the usual shoving, there was lots of jigging and headbanging circles. I sort of got my right side abraded off by a guy in chain mail. In contrast to Arkona, Alestorm got a really long set - the singer kept saying how no one was telling them to stop so they would just keep playing. They didn't play Captain Morgan's Revenge, which was disappointing, but on the other hand, we got to hear a bunch of other songs that aren't played as much.

Turisas came out strong with "March of the Varangian Guard." They followed it with "Take the Day," the second song from new album, and I wondered if they were going to play the whole album. But that was not to be. The third song was "To Holmgard and Beyond", and I started looking for pit. On the next song ("Dnieper Rapids") I started a pit. People did not seem to realize that one could mosh to Turisas. (Someone called me a warrior maiden for starting /constantly being in the pit.) Then, the music slowed way down, with slow paced solos from Olli and some slow paced songs. A lot of the crowd drifted away, dunno if it was because of the late hour (well after midnight) or because of the slow songs. Netta (accordion player) is not with band anymore, and I noticed that some parts sounded a little odd, so I wondered if they replaced the accordion parts with keyboard. I missed the accordion sound. Toward the end, the set picked up again; Turisas saved the best for last, with "Stand Up and Fight" and "Battle Metal" at the end.

I had fun, although besides for Alestorm, I didn't have the epic folk pit experience I was hoping for. I also expected more of the pirate/Viking (Varangian) rivalry, and perhaps more songs from Turisas. It would have been great for if they could have pulled out "Rasputin" or "Those Were the Days." If not at Paganfest, where else? But still, for folk metal fans, these 3 bands in one place is not a show to miss.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Leviathan Wakes by "James S. A. Corey"

The quote marks will be explained in a bit.

This was an enjoyable and well crafted read.As the cover promised, it is "a really kickass space opera."

Unfortunately, the book has a slightly weak start, after a very suspenseful prologue. In fact, at first I kept reading simply because I wanted to know what had happened to the character in the prologue. The characters it switched to in the first chapter seemed flat and stereotypical - the old fashioned XO, the tough female EO. (At one point, I actually said to someone that if another tough female officer appeared, I was going to put the book down. But luckily that didn't happen till much later, when I had gotten sucked back into the story, and forgotten about my silly declaration.)

As soon as the action started up again, things got better. The XO kept making mistakes, which transformed his character from an archetype to a much more rounded character. The space-based "world" was gritty and full of nuanced detail, just the way I like it. I was very impressed that some Chinese words were used in the slang of the Belters (people that grew up in the asteroid belt) and they were actually the right words. Just enough other details were dropped about space station- and ship-board life to feel the differentness of life in space. And very impressively, when minor characters died they were named AND their sacrifices were remembered.

Still, and although I know space opera is not hard science fiction and therefore not thoroughly grounded in hard, plausible science, the vague descriptions and improbable powers of an alien molecule that plays a huge role in the plot bothered me a little. But I was willing to overlook it for all the other excellent things I mentioned above.

I was pretty impressed that one new and unknown author managed to turn out such a well-crafted, almost ingenious novel. Then I found out that "James S. A. Corey" wasn't a person at all, but the pen name of two writers - one of whom is George R.R. Martin's assistant. And that the two of them were helped along by an all star team of other authors. Well no wonder! The book is still a good read, but less impressive an achievement. Still, I'd highly recommend it, and am looking forward  to finding the sequel.

Children of Bodom, Eluveitie, Revocation, Threat Signal - 3/4/12 at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD

We completely missed Threat Signal. I had worked for 38 of the 48 hours before the concert, so I did not feel like rushing back to Baltimore.

Revocation was in the middle of their set when we got there. I thought they sounded better - heavier, more interesting - than on their Youtube videos (my primary way of researching bands I don't know), but S. thought the opposite. They were loud and heavy with some cool riffs, but fell short of awesome. The singer said something silly about Skyrim which I had already read on Youtube. We wondered if he said the song was about Vikings just to play to the folk metal crowd.

I may be biased, but Eluveitie was awesome. They were much heavier than I expected for a folk metal band that actually uses a lot of folk instruments. I started to wonder whether they made their sound heavier and/or picked their heavier songs for the set just because they were touring with three death metal bands.

ELUVEITIE!

S. said that Eluveitie's drums were too loud, but I did not really notice during the show. In the first song ("Everything Remains..") the drums sounded like an army marching and banging their swords, which I thought was pretty cool. From the front, I could hear the acoustic instruments like the tinwhistle, but I guess they were a little overpowered by guitars and drums.

At first people did not seem to know it was ok to mosh for folk metal (most of crowd seemed to be death metal fans although there were a few definite folk metal fans). I tried to start pit during the second song ("Nil") but did not quite dare run into the really big guys. But when the singer called for a circle pit for the 3rd song ("Kingdom come undone") they sure got into it. (I was standing right near "Primordial shirt guy" when the singer picked him but I think you can only see the top of my head in the video. The circle pit was pretty big though you can't really see it since it's dark.) There was not much of a folk pit at any point, though there were a few moments of jigging (I owned the pit with a jig at one point). There was also a girl pit at one point; sadly I can't find any youtube videos of it. If anyone has one, please post and tell me!

I don't really do the setlist thing - that's usually S's forte - but Eluveitie did play one new song which they said they hadn't played before on the tour: "The Siege." Otherwise they seemed to play the same setlist as their other shows on this tour.

Other fun videos:
Intro and first 2 songs
"Inis Mona" (last song they played)
None of the videos are mine. Much gratitude to the metal people who take vids and post on youtube, so that those of us who are too busy moshing and headbanging can enjoy later XD

Children of Bodom were amazing, of course. I couldn't hear as much of their awesome melodies as I would have liked (too loud and heavy, the melodies were drowned out), but the heaviness made up for it. Now I can really see them as a death metal band (and understand why there were so many death metal fans there. Nothing against death metal or its fans, but I was hoping for a good folk crowd for Eluveitie). I wondered what the death metal fans thought of the more (very much more) melodic segments in COB's music, like the parts that sound somewhat like Nightwish.

Children of Bodom, RAR

You all know my highest compliment to a band is that they sound like thunder (ex Medeia and A Sound of Thunder) but COB did one better. Not just thunder, they sounded like a thundering war machine, like some alien battleship pounding the earth, it was so intense. The pits were massive and crazy. We were all the way in the back (I was wiped out after Eluveitie and didn't think I could handle the giant pits anyway) and we still got jostled around.

I would have gone to see either Eluveitie or COB on their own, so it was great to see them together kind of like a "package deal." Next time though, I hope Eluveitie tours with folk metal bands for more folk metal fun in the pit!

Next concert: Iced Earth, Warbringer - 3/13/12. I kind of forgot about this one, augh!

The photos are by Steve Wass. More photos

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Machine Head, Suicide Silence, Darkest Hour - 2/1/12 at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD

This was the first concert in a good six months that I was actually
excited to attend. Maybe it was just that I was less tired and
stressed out than usual, maybe that there was no hassle involved in
getting there (Ram's Head is a couple blocks from my place of
employment..). It was also the first in a while where I wasn't bored
and tired and feeling like
can't-wait-till-this-is-over-so-I-can-go-home in a good while. Again
maybe because I actually wasn't tired for once. But anyway..it was
nice to actually enjoy a concert again.

So now for the actual reviewing..

Darkest Hour was good, although not as excellent as I thought it would be
from my very quick pre-listening the day before. They had some melodic
bits and heavy bits and some bits that were both melodic and
heavy, but I kept wishing they would make the guitars a little heavier
and give the vocals more punch to make it into true melodic death
metal (but this may just be because I wish everything was death
metal..). Also, metalcore kids don't know how to mosh. During one
insanely heavy song, there was NO ONE in the pit. At one point the
singer called for a circle pit, and one guy pushed another around the
floor, and that was it. I had come straight from work and had a bunch
of "luggage" with me, otherwise I would definitely have had to teach
those kids a lesson.

Suicide Silence was great. Ultra heavy, just an all out assault
on the senses (being a bit ADHD, I like music that overwhelms all
distractions in my brain). But it wasn't just the usual grinding-bass
grindcore band; the vocals were more of a black metal shriek, and they
mixed in some other unusual sounds as well.
They varied the tempo, too, with some fast riffs and some slow,
soul-shakingly heavy segments. Overall it was just all-consuming
nonstop heaviness (the singer didn't waste a lot of time talking
either) and it never got boring either. There was better moshing for
these guys but some grindcore silliness too - a few guys doing moves
that reminded me of kung fu drills in the pit.

I thought that with their nonstop delivery of heaviness, Suicide
Silence would blow Machine Head out of the water, but I was
wrong. They weren't as heavy as Suicide Silence, but definitely heavy
enough. Also, they had great riffs and guitar solos, as well as
powerful lyrics and melodies that took the place of overwhelming
heaviness in holding my interest and making me headbang. I didn't
really like their old stuff much before this concert - although I
thought their new album was amazing and that was why I went to the
concert at all - but after seeing them live I have new enjoyment of
their music. The singer delivered a short speech before the first
encore, and usually I'm the jerk that shouts "Play some damn music"
when the band gets speechy, but it seemed like he was really speaking
from his heart, thanking the band's fans and talking about how music
got him through tough spots, as well as high points, in his life, so I
actually listened and was touched by what he said, even though I'm a
relatively new fan of the band. Then the first encore, "Darkness
Within," which starts with a long acoustic segment, convinced me for
certain of the guy's amazing songwriting abilities. That's right, I
said first encore. I think they played three encores. They played for
about 2 hours overall. I was so exhausted by the end, I was leaning on
the barrier in front of the sound tech area thing, but still the music
moved me to headbang till the end.

Overall it was an excellent experience, well worth the exhaustion. It
was also neat to see three bands of such different styles on one
night. You could definitely see the change in the crowd as the bands
changed - but I for one enjoyed all three.

Concert Recap

I'm going to post a review of Machine Head et al pretty soon (I know, my first review in what, five months? So exciting!). First though I thought I should recap what I've been doing since September. It's not that I took time off concerts, just that I was too tired/stressed/busy/lacking-in-internets, etc. to post reviews. Since my next concert is early March, we'll see if the renewed vigor lasts.

So here's what I've been doing since September:

Sabaton, A Sound of Thunder, Oct. 2011, Jaxx: Sabaton = awesome, so Sabaton live = overpowering amounts of awesome. Jumping, headbanging, shouting and singing along. Sabaton is a power metal band that focuses on historical and heroic themes, so they manage to create some seriously inspiring songs. "Uprising" was definitely the highlight of the night. Even more excellently, the amazing local band Sound of Thunder opened for them and got to play an extra long set (for a local band) so we got to hear a lot of their new music.

Anthrax, Testament, Death Angel, Nov. 2011, Ram's Head Live (Baltimore): It was great to see a legendary act like Anthrax in such a small venue. We were behind the pit but it still felt like up close and personal with metal history. Great show and massive pit. Was not a big fan of Testament before but I appreciate them more after seeing them live. We missed most of Death Angel but the song and a half that we did hear sounded good as well. (Thank goodness we didn't hear "Truce," it's an ok song but horribly overplayed on a certain xm radio station.)

Five Finger Death Punch, Hatebreed, All That Remains, Nov. 2011, Ram's Head Live (Baltimore): Hatebreed was the highlight of this show and restored my faith in metal (well, hardcore, so, um, music in general I guess) at a kind of low time in my life. Their music is so in-your-face yet also has a positive spin, I can't help but feel inspired by it (I mean, even their most famously brutal song, "Destroy Everything" goes, "Destroy everything...so a new life can begin"). Five Finger Death Punch and All that Remains were probably better than all right, but I wasn't feeling too great and don't really have a clear memory of how they sounded. Except I think this was the show where one of the singers said, "Let me hear all the ladies," and I went ROARRR and several people turned to look at me in surprise.

Korpiklaani, Arkona, Polkadot Cadaver, Dec. 15, 2011, Jaxx: I couldn't remember who the third band on this line-up was and when I googled it I realized why. I don't really care for Polkadot Cadaver at all, I think their music just sounds bad. No epic riffs, powerful vocals, or stellar guitars. We sat out their set. Arkona and Korpiklaani were great, though, of course. I spent most of Arkona's set in the pit, and most of Korpiklaani watching two bigheaded guys ruining the pit for everyone else (by the time it occurred to me to just get in their way and mess up their turning the pit into their personal duel, the set was winding down). And I got S injured in the pit when I dragged him in - oops :( Anyway, it was fun times but not quite as good as Alestorm or Blackguard, I think.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Dio Disciples, Disciples of Sabbath, A Sound of Thunder, Bloodlines - 9/24/11 at Jaxx

Although I love Dio, to be honest I went to this concert because A Sound of Thunder was opening. Otherwise it would not really have caught my interest. But A Sound of Thunder is an awesome local band that I hadn't seen for some time, so mainly for their sake (and because S. wanted to) I went.

We got there in the middle of Bloodlines's set and listened to a few songs. I don't have much impression of them. (Sorry, my brain is not completely functional these days. Blame the meds.) S. posted a setlist albeit a very short one for Bloodlines.

Fortunately A Sound of Thunder was second, so we got to hear their whole set. They veer more toward a classic metal sound, although Nina does throw in some harsher vocals every now and then. What I like most about them is that when they get going, they shake the house with their thunderous sound. This time I thought they started out a little quiet. They started with "Walls" which is a pretty catchy song but didn't quite get me moving. But then near the end of second song, "Murderous Horde," came this amazing barrage of sound! I love it when this band lives up to their name! They played some new songs as well as their "classics." Apparently people get mad if they don't play "Blood Vomit" and I'm glad this caused to them to play cause it's one of my favorite songs from their latest CD. They ended with their "theme song," "A Sound of Thunder" which is my all time favorite song by them. I can't wait till their new album comes out but seeing them live is even better. Nina has a powerful voice and I love the way they shake the walls. Oh yeah and at one point Nina used a whip to induce awesome, virtuoso soloing from the guitarist. I just felt bad the guy didn't get any applause cause they went right into a song. I'm sure the whole room would have thundered with applause. ha, ha.


One of their new songs. It's not my video, and I'm not in it either..I'm afraid my hair would get tangled in someone's guitar if I went right up to the front O.o

After that was Disciples of Sabbath, an Ozzy era Sabbath cover band. I'm not a huge Ozzy fan so I was not terribly interested in them. The singer looked a bit like a chubby(er), blond Ozzy, complete with make-up, and they did decent renditions of the songs I recognized (could not for the life of me tell you the song titles though..um..see S's setlist.)

Last, of course, was Dio Disciples, which was Dio's band with Ripper Owens (Charred Walls of the Damned, Beyond Fear, Judas Priest, Iced Earth) and Toby Jepson (Little Angels, Gun) doing vocals. It was amazing to hear these songs live and performed by such talented people (not just the vocalists but the band as well). As a metal n00b I figured I'd never get to hear them anywhere close to original quality (I was just getting into metal when Dio died) but obviously, this was something quite other than an opening act cover band! The songs I knew well enough to judge were all sung by Ripper and I think he did his best on the lower parts, his high notes didn't quite match the sound of Dio. (But then, the guy's not Dio, and he did do a really good job anyway I thought.) My favorite was "Holy Diver" (too predictable?) I was literally falling asleep on my feet by the end and didn't enjoy the two encores ("Rainbow in the Dark" and "We Rock") as much as I should have. Damnable job interviews at 7 in the morning!

I thought that this was a one tour wonder but apparently Dio Disciples is an actual band. If so, I hope they come around again sometime. RIP Ronnie James Dio. Your music will live forever!

Next review: Would you like me to review Chinese opera?? That's what I'll be seeing tonight XD If it's metal you desire, then the next show on my calendar is Sabaton on Oct. 17 - with A Sound of Thunder opening!! can't wait!!

Kix (Jaxx, 9/17/11) and Corrections

I bet you are wondering if I'm refering to the band you think I'm refering to because Kix definitely is not a folk, power, death, epic or pagan metal band, right? Yeah, that was S's doing, he's a big Kix fan, so I went with him to see a show. They were good. Louder and heavier than I expected. I was tired and felt like crap so I just kind of stood there and listened, and I wasn't familiar with their songs cause I'd spent the week listening to Enslaved and Alcest (for a concert I wound up not going to >.<). But it was fun. The singer was so energetic and crazy - he kept talking about rock and roll hard-ons and jumping around the stage and throwing things like confetti and giant balloons into the audience. Huge crowd too, it took forever to get anything at the bar and the floor was packed.

Here is an example of Steve's craziness. He's telling some story about a woman who threw up all over the floor or something. I couldn't really follow it even when I was there XD

In other news, I have a few corrections to make. For some reason I was under the impression that Enslaved was a Swedish death metal band, when in fact they are a Norwegian black metal band O.o (I could have sworn they said they were from Sweden at Tuska! But maybe they were just messing with us because they also said that in interviews they like to say they are from Finland. assholes! XD) And apparently everything is death metal me.

Also, I'm going to go back and change the post titles so that the bands are listed from the headliner down, as is the convention. I hope this does not cause url's to change in case anyone (probably only me >.<) has linked to the posts. If it does..sorry :(