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Eastpak Antidote: Soilwork + Dark
Tranquillity + Caliban + Sonic Syndicate
Nottingham Rock City October 4th: Review by Sam and Steve: Photos
by Steve
Having been to two pretty much sold out shows in the Main Hall in the
last couple of weeks, (Turisas and Dimmu Borgir) it was a bit of a letdown
to find that tonight's show had been moved to the basement. And a paltry
crowd of about 30 were waiting outside when we turned up, about 15 minutes
before the doors were due to open. Thankfully as the evening progressed
the basement filled up nicely. It's just a shame there were so many twats
amongst them.
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While I think it's a good
idea to create a varied bill, I'm afraid the mixture of old and new,
brings together two completely different sets of fans and the kids
that attend gigs nowadays have absolutely zero respect for gig
etiquette and I don't that'll change until a few of them get the
kicking they deserve. It's quite simple: Respect others and learn
how to behave, otherwise you'll learn the hard way.
First up were Sonic Syndicate,
and although they belong to the new brigade, they're a band I have a
lot of time for. I was very impressed with their Only Inhuman opus,
and the songs from that transform very well in the live environment.
It's a shame that they were squeezed onto the small stage that's
crammed into the corner of the Rock City's basement as they were so
full of energy, I'd have liked to see them having the room to really
let rip, especially the twin vocal attack of Richard Sjunnesson and
Roland Johansson, which had a great visual impact. The band as a
whole were exciting to watch and this transferred itself into the
crowd, although the attempts at creating a moshpit were woeful.
Mixing more up-tempo rockers such as Aftermath, the infectious
Denied and Psychic Suicide with the much more mellow Enclave kept
the pace varied and it brought together a thoroughly enjoyable
performance of a young band destined for a bright future. |
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Caliban were the band the younger brigade were here to
see, as Dark Tranquillity were the main focus for the more mature
Metalhead. Unfortunately, despite their obvious talent and live
prowess, they didn't do it for me. But everyone 25 years younger
than myself was lapping it up. Andreas Dörner demanded a wall of
death before they leapt into Nowhere To Run and I could see why the
pit was so lacklustre for Sonic Syndicate, as the kiddies were
saving their energy for Caliban. They obeyed every word of the
skinny frontman and created havoc upon command. Some of the hero
worship, especially from the front row, bordered on obsession and
the emo kid in the middle that was practically in tears as he poured
his heart out over every word, had me worried for his general
wellbeing. Fuck that makes me feel old. I guess my parental side
kicked in and I just wanted the poor kid to sit down |
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| with a nice
cup of hot chocolate, rather than him go out and slash his arms as
he'd just seen his favourite band live. I didn't get what was so
special about them, although they seemed to get heavier and more
enjoyable as their set progressed and they were beginning to appeal
to me, although nowhere near the levels that some of their fans
believed in them. (Steve) |
It’s been a while since I
saw Dark Tranquillity, and I was
really looking forward to this gig. We’d been nicely warmed up by
the previous two bands and there was a rousing cheer as they took
the (tiny) stage. Stanne was as energetic and charismatic as ever,
charging round the stage, hanging off the lighting rig (even at one
point falling off the monitor and nearly ending up face first in the
camera pit), climbing across the camera pit and generally trying to
touch as many of the audience as possible. Not that any of us were
complaining, of course! I particularly liked his tattoo – “Redhead”
– just above his pubes. Very tasteful!
Opener “Terminus” was followed by “The Lesser Faith”, during the
course of which Stanne managed to get himself seriously entangled
hair wise with the neck of a guitar (probably just par for the
course) but fortunately managed to extricate himself before pounding
into “The Treason Wall”, followed by one of my personal favourites
“The Wonders at your Feet”. By this stage he was moving round the
stage looking rather like a slimmer, red-haired version of Ian
Anderson, eyeing up the audience with a definite air of one about to
cause mischief and mayhem. He restricted himself however, to simply
letting us know that Dark Tranquillity were very much enjoying their
first gig in Nottingham.
The sheer energy pouring out from the stage was incredible: Dark
Tranquillity have to be one of the best bands ever to play second |
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on the bill in
the basement. They all looked so comfortable together as well, you
just know that you’re watching a class act with these guys.
All too soon, the eight track set was over, finishing up with
“Misery’s Crown” and “The New Build”. Stanne once again tried to
make bodily contact with the whole audience, who were all thrusting
forward trying to touch him. Eventually, he left, and there was a
great surge of people leaving the front for the rear of the
premises. |
Obviously, a large part of the crowd were only interested in Dark
Tranquillity, and by the time Soilwork
came on. There had been more or less a complete changeover at the front.
Unfortunately this gave the opportunity for certain loutish elements to
behave in a thuggish fashion, shoving those of us of a more peaceful
nature aside.
When Soilwork appeared, it seemed apparent that they are one of those
bands who encourage this kind of behaviour, whipping up a frenzy amongst
their followers. It was obviously the night for hair related accidents as
the keyboard player managed to entangle himself with a light, but that was
the end of enjoyment. For me, I can only say that their performance was
characterised by poor sound and a total lack of charisma. In fact, it was
so dire that I retired to the rear of the venue, where I realised that I
had the chance to save eighty pence on the car parking. This was enough
reason to leave, and so we did, along with quite a few others. (Sam) |
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Obituary, Alabama Thunderpussy, Full Blown
Chaos, Hemlock, plus local bands.
Date: Sunday, September 30th, 2007 : Venue: The Knitting Factory,
Hollywood, California
By: Dave Schalek
Despite the fact that Obituary was not supported by a well known death
metal act, I wasn’t about to pass this one up, even on a Sunday night, as
Obituary’s latest album, “Xecutioner’s Return”, will no doubt factor into
my year’s top ten list. So, I made my way out to the Knitting Factory in
Hollywood knowing full well that this was going to go well past midnight
and I had to get up for work the next morning at about 5 AM. Yikes!
Ultimately, eleven bands on two stages would be featured starting at about
6:45 PM or so. I arrived at about 7:30 PM and noted that the Knitting
Factory was relatively deserted. About 50 people had shown up to catch the
first few acts of the evening as I made my way to catch
Cerberus, a local death metal act
that, frankly, is nothing special. Although the quality of their
musicianship was good, they’re not particularly interesting and I spent
most of their set looking over the merchandise tables. I headed for the
second stage afterwards to catch The Cauterized,
another local death metal act with a definite old school vibe and crunch.
Coming across with combination of modern blasts and, say, the snarl and
attitude of Venom (not to mention the fact that the bassist/vocalist is a
ringer for Cronos, receding hairline and all), The Cauterized were well
received by the crowd with an actively moving pit for most of their set.
Heading back to the main stage, I caught the latter portion of
Hemlock, a death/core band from Las
Vegas with a charismatic front man who joked easily with the crowd. The
few songs that I caught were pretty good, and I just might track down
their latest full-length from the ubiquitous Candlelight Records.
Next up on the second stage were brutal death metal veterans
Sepsism. I’ve only heard a bit from
this band prior to their set, and they were fairly good with an
enthusiastic stage presence and energy that was appreciated by the crowd.
Their set was actually quite long as I only caught the latter portion of
the set from Full Blown Chaos a little
while later back on the main stage. Sounding similar to Hemlock, F.B.C is
also fronted by a charismatic, overweight front man as their set was
energetic, as well. Once again, I just might track down their latest
full-length.
A this point, I alternated between Letum Ascensus,
a Los Angeles DM band that I’ve seen about a billion times before, and
Alabama Thunderpussy, a rather odd choice
for this show. Letum Ascensus were fairly boring, as I’ve seen them do
better. ATP was a priority for this evening due to the vocalist, Kyle
Thomas, being a member of the classic Southern thrash band Exhorder. ATP
thundered through a good set of their brand of Southern tinged hard rock
that was well received by the crowd, although their inclusion on the bill
did seem out of place. Thomas himself proved to be a good vocalist and
admirably pulled off the band’s closer, a cover of Whitesnake’s “Still Of
The Night”. |
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Although I was enjoying the show, I was there to see
Obituary, plain and simple. So
was the rest of the crowd which, unfortunately only grew to maybe
200 people or so by the time that Obituary took the stage at about
11:45 PM. The lack of a large crowd did not deter Obituary’s
professionalism as they blew through a 75-plus minute set that
concentrated on classics to open and end the show, as well as
featuring a huge dose of “Xecutioner’s Return” in the middle portion
of the set. Just prior to the encores, Donald Tardy and Ralph
Santolla delivered short solos on their respective instruments, with
John Tardy briefly aiding his brother’s cause. As a side note, Jack
Owen made a brief appearance on stage to photograph the action. It
will be interesting to see the future of Obituary and Deicide.
Overall, this was a good show to see and, undoubtedly, the sparse
crowd was due to the support not being of a high profile nature and
the show occurring on a Sunday. That’s too bad, because Obituary
delivered the goods and they deserve to be supported by their
considerable fan base. At any rate, I finally got home at about 2 AM
in time to get less than 3 hours sleep.
As usual, you can check out the lousy camera phone pictures and
videos at
http://metalrunsinmyveins.blogspot.com |
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