Satisfaction is a dearth of attire
I went to four shows in June: Dr. Killbot, The Coral, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (see last post) and Murder By Death. None of those bands play metal, and while I like them all, I'll admit the live experience just doesn't seem as satisfying. That all changes this month, which naturally culminates with Ozzfest on the 30th.
Jack and I spent Friday trying to avoid the sun while enjoying the Sounds of the Underground tour, the first of this summer's two Ozzfest competitors. Since my review was totally butchered in print today, I posted the full text in a comment, along with a review of Lamb of God's new "Killadelphia" DVD. To make room for a nice picture of GWAR, somebody took out every bit of text about Opeth, although I didn't even write half of what I wanted to say. Bonus: watch the video for Lamb of God's big hit "Laid To Rest" (they play a censored version of the song on The Zone, or so I'm told).
Best of all, Slough Feg, a San Francisco outfit I've wanted to see for years, play Tuesday at Double Door. Formerly The Lord Weird Slough Feg, they're lead by of Mike Scalzi of the amazing Hammers of Misfortune. It's only seven bones, so anyone reading who's free, nearby and open-minded about really idiosyncratic, Celtic-tinged old school metal should make a point to be there. Check out "Gene-ocide" from their last album, "Traveler," which is based on an obscure '70s sci-fi role playing game about space pirates and a race of mutant dog-men. Tuesday night's bill includes local bands Bible of the Devil (pretty decent), Cianide (yawn...) and Imperial Battle Snake (awesome name). How could you not be intrigued?
Jack and I spent Friday trying to avoid the sun while enjoying the Sounds of the Underground tour, the first of this summer's two Ozzfest competitors. Since my review was totally butchered in print today, I posted the full text in a comment, along with a review of Lamb of God's new "Killadelphia" DVD. To make room for a nice picture of GWAR, somebody took out every bit of text about Opeth, although I didn't even write half of what I wanted to say. Bonus: watch the video for Lamb of God's big hit "Laid To Rest" (they play a censored version of the song on The Zone, or so I'm told).
Best of all, Slough Feg, a San Francisco outfit I've wanted to see for years, play Tuesday at Double Door. Formerly The Lord Weird Slough Feg, they're lead by of Mike Scalzi of the amazing Hammers of Misfortune. It's only seven bones, so anyone reading who's free, nearby and open-minded about really idiosyncratic, Celtic-tinged old school metal should make a point to be there. Check out "Gene-ocide" from their last album, "Traveler," which is based on an obscure '70s sci-fi role playing game about space pirates and a race of mutant dog-men. Tuesday night's bill includes local bands Bible of the Devil (pretty decent), Cianide (yawn...) and Imperial Battle Snake (awesome name). How could you not be intrigued?
posted by SoulReaper at 2:15 PM
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Metal and hardcore titans clash at Sounds of the Underground
The inaugural Sounds of the Underground tour stopped at Tinley Park’s Tweeter Center on Friday, with 17 bands representing a variety of metal and hardcore styles. Compared to Ozzfest, the longest-standing summer hard rock festival tour, this show was downright cozy.
Only two bands on the bill were signed to a major label: screamo kings Poison the Well and headliners Lamb of God. Fans moshed, floorpunched and headbanged before a stage erected in the Tweeter’s parking lot, finding seats where they stood. While a few of the groups were Ozzfest veterans, the overall diversity on display would clash with that tour’s mainstream appeal.
Sounds of the Underground’s clashing musical approaches created some confusion, as did the day’s schedule, but for the open-minded, it was a tasty buffet of heavy riffs.
Conservative metalheads reached for the aspirin in the presence of Norma Jean, whose tooth-grinding chaos-core obscured their Christian leanings. Every Time I Die performed a similar dissonant, grinding style, but made it more tuneful with a dose of rock n’ roll swagger.
Likewise, streetwise hardcore fans were itching to spin-kick veterans Clutch, whose greasy funk jams, classic rock groove and psychedelic tangents provided a hazy evening respite after a day of pounding and screaming in the blazing sun.
Most out of placed seemed Opeth, the Swedish/Uruguayan favorites who intertwined progressive death metal and lush, haunting acoustic rock. Theirs was the most cerebral set of the day, drummer Martin Lopez a whirlwind of limbs and frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt displaying newfound confidence.
Opeth’s mellow moments surely ticked off the mosh pit crowd. They got their fix from the girthy, macho hardcore of Throwdown and Unearth’s melodic, energetic metalcore anthems. Poison the Well’s radio-friendly emo elements drained the vitriol from their furious hardcore flashes, rendering their set too bland for anyone but the devoted.
Strapping Young Lad won over the unfamiliar crowd with robotically intense cyberthrash, frontman Devin Townsend lording over converts with a maniacal grin and amusingly abusive stage banter. But pity High on Fire; the trio was bumped from the afternoon to a slot right before Lamb of God, sadly leading crowd animosity to run high for their brusque, crusty biker metal.
Only Lamb of God and GWAR seemed the unite the audience, although the latter’s rubber suits and satiric, blood-squirting effigies held more visual than musical appeal. The headlining thrash quintet, however, delivered harsh clusters of deadly precision. Lamb of God distilled the sharpest traits of thrash icons like Slayer and Pantera, poised to join that rare pantheon of bands esteemed in both hardcore and metal circles. At that intersection, the true sounds of the underground remain.
Lamb of God work out woes on the road
After Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe and guitarist Mark Morton finish a bitter European tour bus argument, the intoxicated bandmates end up tussling outside.
"Right here! On the fuckin' streets of Glasgow!" Blythe bellows in a swaggering near-parody of American male aggression. After a bit of this cocky antagonism, it's satisfying when Morton waits his chance and pummels the wiry frontman into submission.
This sequence from the Virginia outfit's new DVD, "Killadelphia" (Epic, * * *), is one of several contentious moments. Intra-band tensions run high on the road, and on a few occasions a viewer can see how this particular quintet sort them out. No therapists, no feel-good group interventions... "Some Kind of Monster" this is not.
And while they're one of the current American thrash metal revival's leading bands, Lamb of God (who headline the inaugural Sounds of the Underground Tour at Tweeter Center today) doesn't dumb it down for the masses, and they sure aren't Metallica.
The bulk of the DVD is a concert shot last October at Philadelphia's Trocadero Theatre. Morton and Willie Adler crank out a succession of irate riffs which have grown more intricate with every album. Drummer Chris Adler (Willie's older brother) and ursine bassist John Campbell stomp and pirouette around restless rhythms with heroic skill and vigor.
Hardcore aficionado Blythe is as confrontational on stage as his tour bus antics suggest, scowling and growling his contempt for social, political and religious hypocrisy. Sure, his boozy volatility is somewhat alarming, threatening to blow the wheels off the vehicle his bandmates work so hard to command. Yet his loose cannon rage balances their prodigious playing with the sort of rock 'n' roll danger the likes of Slipknot or Mudvayne can't summon, even with spooky outfits or extra percussionists.
Thanks to a hearty sound mix and decent camera work, the DVD includes vice-tight live versions of such Lamb of God gems as "Black Label," "11th Hour" and the scathing "What I've Become." Like the old Pantera home videos, tour hijinks are interspersed between songs. Among the highlights: the power outage that halted last November's set at the Rave in Milwaukee where, in frustration, Blythe dove into the crowd as a sign of comraderie, literally putting his body on the line for the benefit of his fans.
If thrash was built on integrity, Lamb of God's constructions all but erase the damage done during the Korn Bizkit '90s. For a glimpse of the genuine blood, sweat and tears such an effort requires, visit "Killadelphia" and those fuckin' streets of Glasgow.
Sounds of the Underground Tour featuring Lamb of God, Clutch, Poison the Well, Opeth, Unearth and more
Where: Tweeter Center, 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park
When: Noon today
Tickets: $29.50, $34
Phone: (312) 559-1212
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