Ya Dumb Swedes
First off, sorry for posting late today, my home is a madhouse. Cycles. Sometimes we just have to let gravity have its way.
Last Thursday I attended the At the Gates show at Warehouse Live with my soon to be departing friend, Chris. At the Gates is a celebrated death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, whose album, Slaughter of the Soul, is both a landmark for not only Swedish metal but for metal in general.
Me, I had always known of ATG, but never actually became familiar with their music. For my ears, most of my knowledge of death metal centered almost exclusively on Tampa, Florida, and its host of Satanic acts like Deicide, Death, and Morbid Angel. That’s not a bad place to hone ones ears, but to be sure, there is a whole world of other stuff out there just as good and often much better. ATG is one such band.
What ATG did was take the brutal power and blazing speed of death and add a more melodic sound to the guitars without ever having it reduce itself to the relative ease of shambolic pop posture.
I’m so glad I got into these guys because based entirely on Slaughter of the Soul, coupled with seeing their ten-year reunion show Thursday, I now realize their importance in the world of metal.
Decibel magazine, the monthly bible of all things extreme metal, put on the show, and their selection of bands for the lineup made for a well-rounded and entertaining night throughout.
Opening was what is virtually a one-man-band titled Toxic Holocaust. TH is your basic Motorhead knockoff, and honestly, what they lacked in originality they easily made up in effectiveness. No, TH was not pretty, but it was pretty fun, and that’s all I needed.
Next up was Richmond, Virginia’s own, Municipal Waste. MW are at the forefront of the current thrash revival that seems to have taken over the world of metal recently. Remember when DRI suddenly lost it and decided to go all metal with their practically infamous album, Crossover? If you do, then you probably also remember the way some people acted as though crimes against humanity had been perpetrated in that blasphemous period in hardcore history.
Of course now, looking back, while listening to Municipal Waste, it’s hard to understand what the problem was. Municipal Waste is simply amazing. And they have also reminded me what it was that was so great about bands like Slayer and DRI in the first place. And as for their live show, they fucking smoked. They were loud but not painful and they rocked as hard as you could ever hope them to. Best of all, the guitarist had a custom built guitar shaped like the M from the Municipal Waste logo. Pure genius. My only complaint was that they could have played maybe two or three more songs. Oh well, leave ‘em wanting is a good thing too when I think about it.
Next up was a band from DC called Darkest Hour. These guys have actually been around for ten years, which by the looks of some of them would mean they started out in diapers. DH is basically a metalcore band, which is to say they have taken the mentality of hardcore a-la overly serious crossover era and added the muscle and extreme technical proficiency of technical thrash. The problem is, as is the case with almost all the metalcore bands I have heard: they are boring. At first I was actually getting into Darkest Hour. They are heavy as fuck and they don’t mess around with their ability to pull off insanely technical stuff; but seriously, after a while, who really gives a shit? Write good material. If I want technique without songwriting ability and want to be amused I’ll catch Mr. Bungle or some such shit, and I don’t care for them much either. Actually, the final nail in the DH coffin was the use of the crates they hauled up on stage. These looked like speaker boxes or huge monitors. As it turned out, they were used for the sole purpose of posing. Yeah, posing. The band members would stand on these two boxes and strike manly metal poses as if the entire world depended on this retarded level of determination. It doesn’t. The killer was the foot prints painted on the top of the boxes so the boys would know where to put their feet as they posed. Gay.
When I went and saw At the Drive In many years ago I was ridiculously underwhelmed at their live show. All that jumping around and overdramatic posturing got tiring within about five minutes, and then I was left with an entire set of badly played material performed spastically to a very forgiving (or maybe just deaf) audience. Mind you, I actually like Relationship of Command (the album At the Drive In was touring for), but live, they were one truly lame band. That goofy level of over performance is so thinly veiled as being a cover for some level of incompetence that I tend to turn off fairly quickly in the face of it. Darkest Hour ended up coming off as metalcore cheerleaders. Who wants that? Write a fucking song that matters.
Finally it was At the Gates. ATG officially broke up in 1997 to splinter off into other projects, so it was like a dream come true for their fans when they announced they would reform just to play a one-off farewell tour. Best of all? They have no intention of cashing in on their past by trying to rehash whatever it was they had ten years ago. No new album, and no watered down attempts to revive the beast. They just wanted to do it because they thought it would be fun (and get paid, sure).
So when they took the stage they did so with authority. And you know what I realized? I realized a couple of things. First off I re-realized just how much I love going to see metal live. In fact, I would choose a metal show over just about any other show any day (save maybe for a good free jazz show). Metal is just so fun to see and hear live. Beyond that, there is a different vibe to the crowd at these shows. Meatheads? Oh god yes, in droves. But these meatheads are more fun loving than your standard indie-rock shoegazer crowd.
Am I oversimplifying? Well, duh.
So, the other thing I realized was that At the Gates were universes above the lion’s share of bands I have seen in my life at punk rock shows. Plus, the show went off without a hitch. The bands were all professional: on and off the stage within minutes. The show started at about 8:30 and was over at somewhere around midnight. It was a real pleasure to watch the Swedes with the identical twin brothers showing people how it is supposed to be done. They brought material from every single album they released and they played it beautifully.
So, a great night, a great show, and I had a blast.
Best of luck to my friends Chris and Amanda as they make their way back home and out of this swamp. And a special thanks to Chris for turning me on to At the Gates, and Opeth, and also for listening to my nonsense for the many hours we blew at work talking about the shit that makes life bearable.
And to the rest of you, be careful and be thoughtful. There are worlds in those words. Explore them.
Last Thursday I attended the At the Gates show at Warehouse Live with my soon to be departing friend, Chris. At the Gates is a celebrated death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, whose album, Slaughter of the Soul, is both a landmark for not only Swedish metal but for metal in general.
Me, I had always known of ATG, but never actually became familiar with their music. For my ears, most of my knowledge of death metal centered almost exclusively on Tampa, Florida, and its host of Satanic acts like Deicide, Death, and Morbid Angel. That’s not a bad place to hone ones ears, but to be sure, there is a whole world of other stuff out there just as good and often much better. ATG is one such band.
What ATG did was take the brutal power and blazing speed of death and add a more melodic sound to the guitars without ever having it reduce itself to the relative ease of shambolic pop posture.
I’m so glad I got into these guys because based entirely on Slaughter of the Soul, coupled with seeing their ten-year reunion show Thursday, I now realize their importance in the world of metal.
Decibel magazine, the monthly bible of all things extreme metal, put on the show, and their selection of bands for the lineup made for a well-rounded and entertaining night throughout.
Opening was what is virtually a one-man-band titled Toxic Holocaust. TH is your basic Motorhead knockoff, and honestly, what they lacked in originality they easily made up in effectiveness. No, TH was not pretty, but it was pretty fun, and that’s all I needed.
Next up was Richmond, Virginia’s own, Municipal Waste. MW are at the forefront of the current thrash revival that seems to have taken over the world of metal recently. Remember when DRI suddenly lost it and decided to go all metal with their practically infamous album, Crossover? If you do, then you probably also remember the way some people acted as though crimes against humanity had been perpetrated in that blasphemous period in hardcore history.
Of course now, looking back, while listening to Municipal Waste, it’s hard to understand what the problem was. Municipal Waste is simply amazing. And they have also reminded me what it was that was so great about bands like Slayer and DRI in the first place. And as for their live show, they fucking smoked. They were loud but not painful and they rocked as hard as you could ever hope them to. Best of all, the guitarist had a custom built guitar shaped like the M from the Municipal Waste logo. Pure genius. My only complaint was that they could have played maybe two or three more songs. Oh well, leave ‘em wanting is a good thing too when I think about it.
Next up was a band from DC called Darkest Hour. These guys have actually been around for ten years, which by the looks of some of them would mean they started out in diapers. DH is basically a metalcore band, which is to say they have taken the mentality of hardcore a-la overly serious crossover era and added the muscle and extreme technical proficiency of technical thrash. The problem is, as is the case with almost all the metalcore bands I have heard: they are boring. At first I was actually getting into Darkest Hour. They are heavy as fuck and they don’t mess around with their ability to pull off insanely technical stuff; but seriously, after a while, who really gives a shit? Write good material. If I want technique without songwriting ability and want to be amused I’ll catch Mr. Bungle or some such shit, and I don’t care for them much either. Actually, the final nail in the DH coffin was the use of the crates they hauled up on stage. These looked like speaker boxes or huge monitors. As it turned out, they were used for the sole purpose of posing. Yeah, posing. The band members would stand on these two boxes and strike manly metal poses as if the entire world depended on this retarded level of determination. It doesn’t. The killer was the foot prints painted on the top of the boxes so the boys would know where to put their feet as they posed. Gay.
When I went and saw At the Drive In many years ago I was ridiculously underwhelmed at their live show. All that jumping around and overdramatic posturing got tiring within about five minutes, and then I was left with an entire set of badly played material performed spastically to a very forgiving (or maybe just deaf) audience. Mind you, I actually like Relationship of Command (the album At the Drive In was touring for), but live, they were one truly lame band. That goofy level of over performance is so thinly veiled as being a cover for some level of incompetence that I tend to turn off fairly quickly in the face of it. Darkest Hour ended up coming off as metalcore cheerleaders. Who wants that? Write a fucking song that matters.
Finally it was At the Gates. ATG officially broke up in 1997 to splinter off into other projects, so it was like a dream come true for their fans when they announced they would reform just to play a one-off farewell tour. Best of all? They have no intention of cashing in on their past by trying to rehash whatever it was they had ten years ago. No new album, and no watered down attempts to revive the beast. They just wanted to do it because they thought it would be fun (and get paid, sure).
So when they took the stage they did so with authority. And you know what I realized? I realized a couple of things. First off I re-realized just how much I love going to see metal live. In fact, I would choose a metal show over just about any other show any day (save maybe for a good free jazz show). Metal is just so fun to see and hear live. Beyond that, there is a different vibe to the crowd at these shows. Meatheads? Oh god yes, in droves. But these meatheads are more fun loving than your standard indie-rock shoegazer crowd.
Am I oversimplifying? Well, duh.
So, the other thing I realized was that At the Gates were universes above the lion’s share of bands I have seen in my life at punk rock shows. Plus, the show went off without a hitch. The bands were all professional: on and off the stage within minutes. The show started at about 8:30 and was over at somewhere around midnight. It was a real pleasure to watch the Swedes with the identical twin brothers showing people how it is supposed to be done. They brought material from every single album they released and they played it beautifully.
So, a great night, a great show, and I had a blast.
Best of luck to my friends Chris and Amanda as they make their way back home and out of this swamp. And a special thanks to Chris for turning me on to At the Gates, and Opeth, and also for listening to my nonsense for the many hours we blew at work talking about the shit that makes life bearable.
And to the rest of you, be careful and be thoughtful. There are worlds in those words. Explore them.
1 Comments:
i've been to two MW shows. one at the white swan in 2006 and a few months ago at the Meridian. those circle pits are insane! something about them just touches a nerve in kids. at those shows they allowed local guest vocalist friends to sing - adding to the madness. they sure know their audience - literally and figuratively.
i've always been partial to florida act the runnamucks. talk about crossover. they went from metal/grind/punk to their latest 7" which includes a cover of Roky Erickson's "White Faces".
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