THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007: METAL BLADE ANNIVERSARY TOUR @ THE TROCADERO (PHILADELPHIA, PA)
I was pretty pumped for this show, in spite of the lackluster line-up; out of five bands, I only wanted to see two (Cannibal Corpse & Goatwhore) but I reeeallly wanted to see those two, haha! Whatever, I wasn't paying for it - I'm doing a feature on Cannibal Corpse for HAILS & HORNS MAGAZINE, so I was there to interview Corpsegrinder. I was nervous as all hell since he's, like, Corpsegrinder and all, and Cannibal Corpse were one of the first "extreme" bands I got into when I was younger. I don't get star-struck very easily anymore (it's not very practical to do so if you're in my line of work) but that dude had me cowed. Luckily, he was an absolute sweetheart to me - respectful, thoughtful, and with a genuine love for death metal that you don't see very often nowadays. I guess it comes with being one of the old guard - one of the originals. Dude talked my ear off, and I didn't get out of there until around 12:30pm, but luckily for me, curfews are a thing of the past!
As for the show itself...eh. The Absence put on a much better performance than when I saw them with Vader/Kataklysm/Destruction/Graveworm back in '05, and their new record is pretty dece, but I'm so over melodeath it's not even funny. Goatwhore always massacre live, so even after seeing them four or five times now, I was still enthralled. I'd hung out with them at this year's incarnation of the so-called Sounds of the "Underground" tour, and hit it off with Zack (drums), so I ended up spending a good amount of the show backstage with him, drinking cheap beer out of funny plastic bottles, getting drunken hugs from Sammy Duet, and shooting the shit. I'd say we're about as tight as two people who see each other every six months or so can be, so I was happy to see him again. Being back there meant that I didn't hav a very clear idea of how the show was progressing, so I ended up missing the Red Chord (I saw them years ago in a fire hall, playing with my buddies the Concubine and a bunch of piss-poor Jersey metalcore bands; didn't impress me then, don't impress me now) and most of the Black Dahlia Murder's set as well. I've seen them a couple times now (I think in '04 at Ozzfest, then opening for Nile in '05) and thought they sucked pretty hard in a live setting. Seeing them at the Troc this past week changed my mind about them, though; armed with longer hair and a frankly killer new album, TBDM put on a more than acceptable show. Cannibal Corpse's set wasn't quite as amazinglyawesome as I'd anticipated; to be honest, they were kind of...boring. Zack and I only stayed to watch a few songs before retreating back to the dressing room for more beverages. I still love you, Cannibal Corpse, but...it just wasn't working. Maybe next time <3
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2007: HIGH ON FIRE/MONO/PANTHERS/COLISEUM @ TLA (PHILADELPHIA, PA)
I wasn't entirely sure if I was going to make it to this show. A folk punk matinee (Defiance Ohio! love) that day had left me sweaty and danced out, and and a messy breakup earlier this week had me a bit leery of going to see Mono, a band that had significance in the relationship, but by the time 8pm rolled around, I'd decided to throw all that to the wind and suck it up. I ended up missing Coliseum, which was a bummer, but I did catch Panthers, and am hella glad I did. They were, to betray my South Jersey upbringing, FUCKINNN,' MAD GOOD! I picked up their new album at their itty-bitty lil' merch table; gotta say, they come across much better live than on CD, but whaddayagonna do. I'd describe their sound as bottomed-out, feedback-heavy doom interlaced with rawkin'-ass riffs and a decidedly Clutch/Alabama Thunderpussy-esque vibe, with whiskey-soaked vocals to match. Good shit. Japan's MONO was up next, and damn were they good. Like pretty much everything musical to ever come out of Japan, these guys have taken something Westerners are used to and totally switched it up/improved it/mindfucked it entirely. Mono is post-rock, but not quite like anything you've heard from the genre previously; this ain't Mogwai, kids. They verge upon indescribable - the sort of music that needs to be soaked into every pore and breathed out in slow, deep sighs, the kind that washes over you and sucks you in and doesn't let go until the last keening squeal of feedback dissipates. It's music made for sleeping with your lover to or staring at the sky in a purple haze; it's fucking good, is what it is. I was blown away (obviously). High on Fire was headlining, and I knew they could be counted on to put on a good show. By then I'd managed to find some of my buddies from Relapse, so I had a motley crew of longhairs to rawk out with. HIF played until about 12:30, drawing pretty evenly from all of their albums and causing many a head to bang. I personally would have been fine with a 45 minutes set, but hey - I don't call the shots. Yet. Haha! After the show, we grabbed some pizza at Lorenzo's before heading off to the Relapse after-party. It was technically an employee/band-only type of thing, but since I know everyone and I did intern there for a hot minute, I was welcomed with open arms (and more cheap beer). We stayed there until 3am or so, before crawling back to our respective lairs and nursing our poor tattered eardrums back to some semblance of health.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2007: DARK FUNERAL/NAGLFAR/DAATH/SIL VETH
This definitely qualified as an adventure. I befriended Sil Veth, a Philly-based melodic black metal band, after seeing them open for Fintroll last month; turns out, the vocalist/guitarist, Alex, lives a few blocks down from me, so we've taken to hanging out. He's a fascinating guy, and the rest of the band is awesome, too. At any rate, when I realized that their show with DF/Naglfar fell on a Tuesday (my day off) I made arrangements to ride up with the guys in the, er, Sil Veth-Mobile. We managed to fit 7 people plus gear into that van; it was impressive, if not exactly comfortable. We got there almost two hours late ('sup traffic?) but managed to catch the opening band, The Green Evening Requiem. Awesome, awesome stuff - like a more blackened/death-ened(?) Opeth with a distinct Agalloch-y vibe. I picked up their demo, and can't wait to see them play on the 20th. I played it for my boss Stve today actually, and he said he'd put a good word in for 'em over at the UK offices if they sent a press kit over. They're that good. They were followed by a couple other local bands - a decent thrash outfit called Black Gauntlet, then some shitty metalcore, then my friend Jamie's awful goth-rock/black metal-ish band. Half of Sil Veth was still in transit by the time they were supposed to take the stage, and by some stroke of fortune the other 4 members ran onstage just as Alex and Rusty were setting up. They only got to play two songs, but they still blew everyone else away. I handled their merch and made a few bucks (probably aided by my miniscule Darkthrone shirt and strategically-placed Sil Veth stickers, tehee); I told them that I'll be their merch girl whenever I'm around, because it's fun and I love those dudes. So there's another thing to occupy myself with! As if I didn't have enough. Anyways, I was behind the merch tabe for Daath, but from the sound of it, I didn't miss much - they were decent but unremarkable. Naglfar, on the other hand, were pretty damn good for a band that hasn't toured in 16 YEARS! They didn't play anything I wanted to hear, and were way too heavy-handed with material from Pariah, but they were still better than Dark Funeral. I'd seen DF before, opening for Enslaved; they were boring then, and were even more boring this time. I mena, honestly...there's a reason the term "Norsecore" is constantly applied to this band. Blasbeatblastbeatblastbeat for an hour and a haf? No thanks. We left after a half hour, ended up getting insanely lost thanks to a detour on the turnpike, and finally got back into our 'hood at like, 2:45am. Ugh.
So that CD I'm holding? That would be an insanely-rare copy of Burzum's Daudi Bauldrs album; it's rare/collectible because of a small printing error on the cover. I know the picture has it backwards, but see how the end of 'Burzum' is cut off, and it just says "Burzu"? There are only a few copies like that in existence...and I haave oneeee, necause my boss is awesomeeee. Exciting.
Just a couple other thoughts-
We got the Elvenking promos in today, and the new Witchcraft album. The packaging on that bitch is righteous as hell; I grabbed a copy for myself. I'm more than likely seeing them in NYC next week - WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM are playing in Brooklyn, Witchcraft is inexplicably opening, and Steve (bossman) said we'd probably take a "business trip" up there to support Witchcraft (and so I cna lose my mind over seeing WITTR). Even more exciting.
Oh, and just to utterly negate all and any metal cred I've built up over the course of this post...I just got the new Agnostic Front album in the mail today, and popped it in my stereo on the way to work...
...and it's AWESOME. Hahahaha, I love idiotic fast-as-shit NYC hardcore, but really...how can you not? So tuffff it's blinding.
\m/
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