Bound By The Road
Bands: DevilDriver, Napalm Death, In Vitro, Walls Of Jericho, and 36
Crazy Fists
Venue: House Of Blues, West Hollywood, California Date: February 29,
2008 : By Dave SchalekFinally! After many false starts over the
last few months, I finally managed to drag my ass to a show! The
“Bound By The Road” tour made its way into West Hollywood on
February 29th, and I fought my way through absolutely horrendous
traffic only to arrive too late to see 36
Crazy Fists. Oh, well. I walked in to the HOB WH just as
Walls Of Jericho, I believe
(actually, I wasn’t too sure, do they have a different vocalist?),
took the stage. A young, female-fronted melodic metalcore band with
some musical talent, they weren’t too bad but, as you know, this is
not my genre of choice, so I spent most of their set propped up
against the bar.
I dutifully waited for In Vitro,
another young band with which I have no familiarity, and I wasn’t
expecting a whole Hell of a lot. However, I was pleasantly
surprised, and highly amused, to hear the theme of the old ‘70s
version of “Battlestar Galactica” just as the curtain parted to
reveal In Vitro dressed up in lab coats and tinfoil hoods! They
proceeded to rip through a couple of songs of thrashcore dressed up
in their outfits before shedding the costumes (they were all still
wearing goofy t-shirts) and continuing the remainder of their 30
minute set. A weird blend of some old style hardcore with decided
Municipal Waste and System Of A Down influences, In Vitro, frankly,
kicked ass with a high energy set that had the crowd really moving. |
Prior to my attendance at this show, I felt that the whole notion of
Napalm Death playing underneath
DevilDriver was an insult and a travesty. Judging from the
conversations going on around me, I wasn’t alone in this assessment.
With that in mind, Napalm Death takes the stage and plows through a
45 minute set covering their career. Highlights included “Breed To
Breathe”, “Suffer The Children”, “Mass Appeal Madness”, and the set
closer, their patented cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”. Now a
four-piece, Napalm Death haven’t missed a step in a career now
spanning over twenty years.
At this point, I actually contemplated leaving the show. I had seen
DevilDriver open for Dimmu
Borgir awhile back and I had thought that their set was enjoyable,
but nothing spectacular. In addition, “The Last Kind Words” hadn’t
quite been released at that point and I wasn’t overly impressed by
their first couple of full-lengths. Dez Fafara’s nu-metal Coal
Chamber days had lowered the band’s credibility in some peoples’
minds from the start, and the band had some ground to make up. Well,
I may not be a full believer just yet, but DevilDriver was firing on
all cylinders |
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for this show. The groove oriented blend of post-thrash/death metal
shown on “The Last Kind Words” was on full display with an enormous
sound, great musicianship, and energy with full crowd participation
in the packed HOB. Storming out of the gates with “Not All Who
Wander Are Lost”, DevilDriver were obviously at their best with
tracks from “The Last Kind Words”. They did seem to slip a bit when
hitting tracks from their prior releases, but this show will
certainly give me great cause to further investigate “The Last Kind
Words” as well as future releases, provided that they maintain their
momentum with this direction. Should Napalm Death have played under
DevilDriver? No, but DevilDriver does deserve to headline.
At any rate, a good show with plenty of good stuff on the horizon
here in L.A. this Spring! As usual, you can check out the crappy
pictures and videos (In Vitro in costume) at
http://metalrunsinmyveins.blogspot.com |
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Primordial, Grand Magus, Mael Mórdha
London Underworld 2/2/8 Review by James Young
The crowd were ready for a folking good night of metal, and the
Underworld was absolutely heaving from the start of the show. Folk
metal appears to be peaking in popularity at the moment, with bands
such as Korpiklaani and Turisas pulling in hordes of unwashed furry
warriors to their shows. With these acts usually coming from the
Nordic lands, it would be nice to see bands hailing from closer to
home tonight.
Mael Mórdha were the first of
the bands tonight, and like the headliners, came from Ireland. Call
them Celtic metal, Gaelic Metal, or whatever you want, this was
blissful folk metal with some doom elements, which made for a nice
original listen. The ‘Winds Of One Thousand Winters’ blew past,
utilising the tunes of a penny whistle blown by frontman Roibéard Ó
Bogail, which was unfortunately a tad lost in the sound mix. Enough
of it came through however to provide a nice epic feel to the
composition, and it was good to see the band really getting into the
music. ‘Curse Of The Bard’ and a brand new track were played, and
were mightily enjoyable. Most intriguing were the riffs of
facepainted Gerry Clince and Anthony Lindsay, which managed to make
you want to jig and headbang at the same time. The band closed with
the title track from their latest album, ‘Gealtacht Mael Mórdha’,
displaying the band’s historical knowledge about past battles, and Ó
Bogail’s mastery of the horn. This was a new band to me, and it was
both impressive to watch and confusing that they are not talked
about more in the metal world.
Sweden’s Grand Magus were
slightly out of place on tonight’s bill, not necessarily because of
their country of origin (you can never really complain about a
Swedish band), but because their style of traditional doom lacked
the folk that this concert was largely built around. This genre
certainly is not my cup of tea, but I’m sure if I was a fan of doom
metal this would have come as somewhat of a wet dream. This wasn’t
the slow boring brand of doom, but rather the action-packed, guitar
heavy, stoner-based variety, backed up by a huge and well-balanced
sound. There may only have been three members but the sound of many
three-pieces has been botched before, so it was refreshing to say
the least when it sounded good. It helped that the stage banter of
Janne ‘JB’ Christoffersson, also in Spiritual Beggars, was
entertaining, and the band looked like they were having a good time
on stage. The solos and fairly high-pitched vocals in songs such as
‘Blood Oath’ and ‘Nine’ were fairly exciting, but the Stockholm boys
failed to bring the crowd fully alive despite their best efforts.
They were entertaining, but Grand Magus simply didn’t fit in
tonight, which was a shame, because they are outstanding in what
they do.
It was time for the main event, and
Primordial certainly have established themselves as one
of the most unique sounding bands in the folk-meets-black metal
field. Having never seen them before, expectations were at their
highest, and as they came on stage to provide a jaw-dropping
rendition of ‘Empire Falls’, it’s fair to say that they are every
bit as good, if not better than on record. The setlist was only
about ten songs long, but the length of the songs ensured that they
were on stage for a good long while. Naihmass Nemtheanga was fully
painted and running around the stage like a rabid dog, whilst
reciting his trademark part-growled, part-sung vocals. ‘Gallows
Hymn’ and ‘The Golden Spiral’ whizzed by side by side, despite
clocking in at just less than ten minutes each – epic indeed.
Filling in for the absent bassist was Mael Mórdha’s axeman Gerry
Clince, who appeared to be full of life despite it being his second
set of the night. ‘As Rome Burns’ came thundering in, and the crowd
were encouraged to bellow along to the ‘Sing Sing Sing to the
Slaves, Sing to the Slaves that Rome Burns’, which worked
surprisingly well. ‘The Song Of The Tomb’ and ‘The Coffin Ships’
from 2005’s The Gathering Wilderness album were played next, showing
some tremendous endurance from drummer Simon O’Laoghaire, whose
tight playing was astonishing throughout the entire show. After
briefly leaving the stage, the band returned with an encore which
included ‘Gods To The Godless’, which climaxed triumphantly to end
one of the most enjoyable sets seen for a good long while.
This was an impressive show which showed that you don’t always need
to travel too far to find a great folk band, and this will certainly
be a contender for headliner of the year, even though it’s only
February. The bands tonight certainly made their ancestors, and
their fans, very proud indeed. |
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