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.

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 :(

Arch Enemy, DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, ChthoniC - 9/8/11 at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD

aka. Arch Enemy, Devil Drivers, Skeltonswitch, cthohic according to the sign on Ram's Head's door. Way to go Ram's Head! You kept us well amused in the entrance line by inspiring people to do imitations of Toki and Murderface. Good times.

I hope this review will be decent because I wasn't feeling too well by the end of this show, and kind of lost the ability to concentrate.

This was my first time at Ram's Head in Baltimore. It's kind of in the middle of everything by the waterfront, which was annoying to me since it meant a lot of people around, but there was also a 24 hour Subway around the corner which is the best post concert food. Parking at Ram's Head is convenient - the garage is on top of the venue - but it's expensive ($10), and the garage seems sort of dangerous to drive in because of its narrow ramps. Inside is more open than Jaxx (yes, Jaxx is my standard for everything) but not just a huge warehouse like certain other venues. I didn't like the layout at first, with a bar in the middle of an open-ish area with the stage and floor off to the side, but I got used to it, and it was nice being able to see the stage from the bar. I thought the bar area needed more seating, though - tables or something. On the floor, I liked how the stage area feels large because of the high ceiling. There are three floors but only the  bottom was open for this show because the crowd wasn't large - people said that for bigger shows, the two tiers of balconies are open too.

We got there early on purpose because I was not about to miss the first band - ChthoniC, a melodic black metal band from Taiwan that combines Chinese melodies and traditional instruments with overwhelming metal heaviness. They blasted off with a loud, heavy sound right from the start. Like with most melodic bands, the melodies got a little lost in the noise, but the erhu (Chinese two stringed fiddle) segments came out nice and clear, probably since the vocalist, Freddy, was the one playing them. One of the erhu solos got cut short since his bow got stuck somehow, which made me sad. I was also sad that the guzheng that's seen in the video for "Takao" was nowhere in evidence, but I maybe they just couldn't bring everything across the ocean. They played a lot of songs from their new album. And there was almost a fight in the pit.

 ChthoniC rarrrrr

 S. with ChthoniC, it's pretty dark (fittingly so?) but from right to left (this is black metal after all) S., Doris, Freddy, Jesse. And C's merch guy behind S.

The next band was Skeletonwitch, a band that S. rather likes. He says they are blackened thrash, but they sound more like death metal to me, even sounding like Amon Amarth in one song. They had fast, interesting riffs and melodies, and they sounded more interesting live than on their recordings. I confess to not having familiarized myself with them as much as usual before the concert because the week before, I was listening almost exclusively, obsessively to ChthoniC (so flipping good).

I thought DevilDriver did not sound as good as Skeletonwitch, but they were still fast and heavy. They are hard to place genre wise, but I would peg them as some kind of death metal or deathcore. (Wikipedia calls them "heavy metal" which I think is basically a copout from trying to name their genre.) I like the songs from the newest album, "Beast," better than their older ones - the sound is very unique, with this kind of harsh whining sound to the guitars, the intense drumming and the combined growl/scream of the singer's voice. Basically, the "rar" factor of the new album is much higher :P Their sound in concert was a little, uh, blurred, though. (They didn't play "Blur," though; the only song from "Beast" that they played was "Dead to Rights," sadly, but at least they played that song.) Huge crazy pits appeared during their set.

The star of the evening was Arch Enemy, a death metal outfit with a revolutionary agenda. They were pretty good, but unfortunately I was too irritated by some people near me to really enjoy. Angela's voice was strong and vicious for the whole set, which was great. I thought their uniform-like outfits were odd, though - what were they supposed to be, Angela's Anarchist Army? There were several awesome melodic guitar solos, and I liked that they ended their encore with guitar solos, because of course most people are into Arch Enemy because of Angela, so it was nice that the guitarists got to send off the audience. Also, there was a crazy wheelchair guy in the pit - he had people, sometimes big knots of four or five people, pushing his chair around the pit, and he even crowd surfed up to the stage, chair and all. And then came back around to the pit again. Now that's hardcore.


This video shows some of the awesome guitarring. (Be warned though, the camera person must have been jostled by moshers because the camera shakes and jerks around a lot. Do not watch if you are sensitive to that type of thing.) I couldn't find video of the wheelchair moshing sadly :(

Next concert: Not sure. S. is going to see Within Temptation tomorrow and I'm pretty jealous. Enslaved is at Jaxx next week but practical matters may get in the way.

Book review(s) soon because I also finished China Miéville's Kraken.

The Agonist, Blackguard, Alestorm, Kamelot - 8/27/11 at Jaxx, Springfield, VA

We braved Hurricane Irene to go see this show and I'm glad we did. Actually the hurricane wasn't that bad - we were so far inland that all we got was a lot of rain, a little wind, a few downed branches and a lot of flying leaves.

We got there near the end of The Agonist's set, in time to hear "Thank You Pain" and one other song. The Agonist is a death metal band, which sounds like you take Arch Enemy style vocals over really fast, thrashy guitars. Their vocalist is pretty amazing, but they lack something in the guitars - more melodies or epic riffs. But they sounded better live - really heavy, and Alissa's clean singing voice (which I don't like as much as her growls) seemed deeper and more fitting with the music. I would probably have enjoyed the set although I don't know if I would have gone on the floor.

Blackguard, a self-described "epic metal" band from Montreal, was next. (This is the first time I've heard a band refer to themselves as "epic metal." I guess it's a new genre for those bands that just sound EPIC without really fitting into death, power, symphonic or folk metal?) I was pretty pumped from their headlining show three days before, although S. and I were a little worried that they would play the same exact set. (They almost did. They didn't play "Fear of All Flesh" this time, that was the only difference.) They did play "Sarissas" again and this time the pit was awesome. The crowd was a little lax though - for the first few songs, they didn't start to mosh until Paul (vocalist) gave the signal. S.said they sounded better at the headline show; I didn't notice any difference. I think I was too busy moshing, and thinking about folk pits, to critique their sound - perhaps not something I should admit on a music review blog! But I am honest to a fault :D

Then came Alestorm, which topped Amon Amarth as the best concert experience I've ever had. Alestorm is what I would call a "pirate metal" band from Scotland. They use a lot of jig-like melodies but are also VERY heavy. To my glee, the singer looked just like he does in the video for "Keelhauled" - frizzly black hair and a ragged white shirt, the image of a pirate. Their performance was excellent - they didn't suffer from the problem a lot of folk and melodic metal bands have, which is that the heaviness drowns out the melodies. Their melodies came out loud and clear, even in the heaviest segments. But the best part of the experience was the crowd. Wild crazy pits for nearly every song. Jigging and headbanging together in a line for "Nancy the Tavern Wench" and "Captain Morgan's Revenge." I even almost got S. into the pit for "Wenches and Mead" and saw (and participated in) a fair bit of jigging in the pit. My watch broke and I got thrown face first onto the floor (by someone that was trying to help me up from a fall just before that no less XD) but it was worth it. Until I go to Wacken or see someone like Megadeth up close, this holds the title of BEST SHOW EVER.

(Side note: Sometime during this concert, I figured out how to mosh with minimal pain from my epic long hair. Luckily, it tends to get stuck between people rather than on people - so when it gets stuck, what I have to do is stop, wait a moment for the people to move apart again and then I can continue. mwahaha.)


"Rum" video. It's not very clear but only one I can find from this show :( I was somewhere in the middle for this song but you can't really make anything out. It's funny how mosh pits look so slow on video, when they feel so crazy at the time XD

I was pretty wiped out after Alestorm, but somehow I stayed standing during Kamelot. They were great, even with Fabio Leone from Rhapsody of Fire as the singer (their singer Roy Khan left the band earlier this year). Anyone who is wondering whether seeing the show is worth it without Roy, I would say YES! Definitely go. You will not be disappointed. Fabio has an amazing voice. (Caveat, though: I haven't followed Kamelot that closely, so the difference wasn't as noticeable to me as perhaps a more diehard fan.) But S., who has listened to Kamelot a lot more, also approved of Fabio. They also had a few special guests including Simone Simons of Epica and the singer from Amaranth.

All right. This is about a week later and I'm finally recovered from the this concert (although a little sore from industrial club dancing two nights ago). Next concert coming up will also be killerrrrr because it is Arch Enemy, DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch and CHTHONIC this Thursday at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore. CHTHONICCCCCC!!!!!

There should also be a book review soon because I have finished reading Tuomas Karhumieli...But when will I have time to type it up???

Sanhedron, Sixteen Cylinder, Vitality, Fallen Martyr, BLACKGUARD - 8/24/11 at Krug's Place, Frederick, MD

I was pretty excited when I found out that as warm-up for their tour with Kamelot, Alestorm and The Agonist, Blackguard would be doing a headlining show in my area. (If you don't know why I'm crazy about Blackguard, read this post.) They'll play a whole set, I thought, which means a bunch of their old stuff! (These days they tend to mainly play songs from Firefight, their latest album, with a few old ones thrown in along with a comment about their fans who've followed them since the beginning of time and how they used to be a folk metal band, which always causes me to throw the horns and yell, "FOLK METALLLLL!" Although before that, they were a black metal band.) But anyway, I digress.

Well, this show started late. By the time we managed to get our butts in gear and get out the door (and stop by Giant for supplies..) it became clear it would be past 9:00 when we got to Frederick. We figured we were going to miss most of the opening bands, which made me sad since the tiny samples that Sixteen Cylinder put up online sounded pretty tempting, and I wanted to hear some full songs from them. But it turned out the show, which was supposed to start at 8, didn't start till 9. We missed Sanhedron, but Sixteen Cylinder was on when we got there.

Sixteen Cylinder is an insanely heavy band, with a little industrial flavor particularly at the beginnings of their songs, and also a female vocalist with a great voice. I was glad we got to see them, disappointed that they didn't have any CDs or merch for sale. I guess they're just working on their first album. They had an amazing, loud and heavy sound for a band that's so new they don't even have an album or full song samples.

After Sixteen Cylinder, we skipped out for a bit. Krug's place is more of a bar and restaurant than a real concert venue - there was plenty of seating, as well as pool tables, in the bar area to the left, and the room to the right where the bands played was jammed with tables, chairs and five bands' gear. The "floor" area was so tiny and the "stage" so small and low, that it was wonder none of the moshers crashed into any of the band members. Things at the venue were pretty relaxed, so it was easy to go in and out..so figuring we were in for a long night, we left and got some fries.

When we got back, Fallen Martyr was on. We missed Vitality, whom S. would have liked to see, but I was not that excited about. Fallen Martyr has a pretty nice sound, and they sound more intense live than on their recordings, but they're still missing something. Their songs tend to be long and ramble a bit, with lots of different pieces that don't quite come together. They have epic and heavy guitars, but the singer doesn't quite live up to the rest of the band. He has a nice voice, but in my opinion he doesn't sing strongly enough - although this was better live than on the recordings; S. thought he would be more suited to a different music genre.

By the time Blackguard finally came on stage - I think it was near midnight, I didn't even dare look at my watch cause I had to go to work the next day - there were only ten or so people left in the floor area. We chatted a bit with Terry (guitarist) earlier in the show, and found out that since Kim (lead guitarist) couldn't make it, they were not going to be able to do any songs from their Profugus Mortis days, only a limited set that the guest guitarist (someone from Destrophy \m/) had learned. And then since they came on late, they announced they were only going to play a short set :(

They started with "Firefight" like usual. I felt like there was something off about the song, but maybe that's just from listening to the album version too many times. Even with a small crowd in a small space, they sounded loud and awesome, and they used the low stage to their advantage - the bassist got on the floor a couple times to join in the pit, and Paul put his hand on people's heads and gave one avid fan the chance to sing into the mic. The highlight of the night for me was that they played "Sarissas," my second favorite song from the new album and one that they don't usually play live; I said to S., "If no one else starts a pit for this song, I think I'll have to." No one else did - so I ran into a bunch of big dudes, who looked at me like I was crazy - I'm female and kind of small, so I don't think they believed I was serious. I couldn't get a real pit going for that song, but I joined in a few more and tried to start a folk pit for "Allegiance." (More about folk pits in the next review XD) Overall, the expected solid, fun performance from Blackguard, and it was just too bad that there weren't more people there to hear them. (S. commented that the advertising for the show and for Krug's Place in general was pretty nonexistent.)

Next review: I believe the one I will post after this is Kamelot, Alestorm, BLACKGUARDDDDD and The Agonist, from 8/27/11