Archive for August, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009 No Comments
I will never quite understand why I do the things I do… perhaps I have a need to make things difficult…or just like things to be extra special. I decided I needed to break up the monotony of life in Northern Virginia (which everyone needs to do from time to time, regardless of where they live) and I had a couple hundred extra bucks so I spent it on a roundtrip ticket to my favourite vacation spot in the whole wide world… Las Vegas.
All in all, as much as I love my Vegas friends (one of whose couches I slept on while I was there) this was probably the worst vacation I have ever had. Bad timing coupled with stress, anxiety and lack of funds (which was plaguing ALL of us) forced me to gamble with strangers all day (who then became friends) and even though I managed to keep my blackjack money alive for hours and hours of play, I ended up losing it all… my budget, not my shirt. (I’m a responsible gambler…whatever that means.)
I did, however, drink for free for 3 days which can’t be beat… and I attended the Down show at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay on the last day of my vacation.
Down is out with the Melvins and Weedeater. Weedeater was UNBELIEVABLE. I adored every single song (“God luck and good speed”) the energy, the synergy – all fantastic. I will most certainly catch them on their next tour, regardless of which bands they may be out with on the road. I had never seen the Melvins before either, and they were rocking their two-drummer ensemble (which apparently means they’re not exACTly the Melvins that way) and I wanted to get up on stage and take over for one of them. (I played drums for 9 years and quit when I was living in dorms in college – no room for a set there.) But quite seriously, I may look into getting back into drumming soon…
One thing I’ve neglected to mention thus far is that even though I had four tickets to the show, none of my compatriots had shown up yet (due to all the reasons listed above…and some extra time at work for another one.) So, standing alone at the House of Blues, I was noticed for doing so and one kindly gentleman from the Air Force (Nellis is a rather large air force base near Las Vegas) invited me to come hang out with him and his friends so that I was no longer alone…which at first I thought was sweet. But then I realized how drunk this dude, Josh, was and I had to rename him Rapist Air Force Douchebag. I had to spend the entire set of Weedeater avoiding his hands and finally got away from him on the floor of the venue halfway into the Melvins set when one of my friends finally arrived… phew. Finally I settled in to watch the show.
Down started their set with “Ghosts Along The Mississippi” and within 2 minutes, R.A.F.D. was apprehended by two security guards for slamming into the people in the front row (moshing by himself.) But the two guards couldn’t get him under control, and he ended up being thrown out with force by five security guards. Scary.
I managed to secure a spot in the front row on stage left, literally five feet away from Kurt and often Phil (which if you know me = heaven.) Phil is back to rocking the Cowbows From Hell hair again (yes, I’m a girl, and yes I was drooling. I’ll stop that now.) So even though Down’s set seemed short because we have been spoiled with tours like an “Evening with Down” or whatever the fuck it was when they played for over two hours and included “Jail” in their setlist… the whole show was great. Phil did a lot of interacting with the audience, Pepper’s playing was right on point and you know Jimmy Bower always brings it… I’m not sure where Rex was, they had a bassist from Canada who filled in quite nicely… It’s funny that I fly all the way across the U.S. to see a show that I could see within an hour’s drive from my house… but I didn’t want to wait until September 8th to see them. And now, I don’t think I will even be making it to the Baltimore show due to complications back in NoVa – however I think YOU should go. You should ALL go. And don’t miss Weedeater.
Tue 09/01/09 Atlanta, GA Center Stage
Wed 09/02/09 Lake Buena Vista, FL House Of Blues
Fri 09/04/09 North Myrtle Beach, SC House Of Blues
Sat 09/05/09 Charlotte, NC Fillmore Charlotte
Sun 09/06/09 Knoxville, TN The Valarium
Tue 09/08/09 Baltimore, MD Sonar
Wed 09/09/09 Clifton Park, NY Northern Lights
Fri 09/11/09 New York, NY Nokia Theatre Times Square
Sun 09/13/09 Boston, MA House Of Blues
Tue 09/15/09 Hartford, CT Webster Theater
Wed 09/16/09 Rochester, NY Main Street Armory
Thu 09/17/09 Buffalo, NY The Town Ballroom
Fri 09/18/09 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Small’s Theatre
Sat 09/19/09 Mount Clemens, MI Emerald Theatre
Mon 09/21/09 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
Tue 09/22/09 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues
Thu 09/24/09 Omaha, NE Sokol Auditorium / Underground
Fri 09/25/09 Sauget, IL Pop’s
Sat 09/26/09 Mokena, IL Pearl Room
Mon 09/28/09 Louisville, KY Expo Five
Thursday, August 20, 2009 1 Comment
That’s right, those crazy motherfuckers are headlining a tour to immediately follow up mayhem festival. I just saw them at Blossom when mayhem came through, and I must say that among every single band there they were at the very least in the top 2, and the only reason I say that is because Job For a Cowboy played Entombment of a Machine which is one of my favorite songs.
metalunderground.com has the the scoop:
“On the behalf of my mates in The Black Dahlia Murder, we are fucking pumped to hit the road with Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust, and Trap Them. We have forged this alliance in the name of Satan, hand picking the best bands possible to bring you the most stage dive worthy tour of the fall. Circle up!” comments vocalist Trevor Strnad.
Tour w/ Slipknot
08/23 Kennewick, WA Toyota Center
08/24 Spokane, WA The Big Dipper not part of tour
08/25 Great Falls, MT Four Seasons Arena
08/26 Billings, MT MetraPark Arena
08/27 Pocatello, ID Icon not part of tour
08/28 Boise, ID Qwest Arena
08/29 Salt Lake City, UT The “E” Center Of West Valley
08/31 Colorado Springs, CO World Arena & Ice Hall
09/01 Casper, WY Casper Event Center Arena
09/02 Sioux Falls, SD Nutty’s North not part of tour
09/03 Fargo, ND Fargodome
09/04 Rochester, MN Mayo Civic Center
09/05 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
Tour w/ Children of Bodom, Skeletonwitch
09/18 Providence, RI Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
09/19 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom
09/20 Clifton Park, NY Northern Lights
09/22 Quebec City, QC Theatre Capitole
09/23 Montreal, QC Metropolis
09/25 Kitchener, ON Elements Night Club
09/26 Toronto, ON Sound Academy
09/27 Chicago, IL House Of Blues
09/28 Minneapolis, MN Epic
09/30 Winnipeg, MB The Garrick Centre
10/01 Saskatoon, SK Odeon Events Centre
10/02 Calgary, AB MacEwan Hall Ballroom
10/03 Edmonton, AB Edmonton Events Centre
10/05 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
10/06 Seattle, WA Showbox at the Market
10/07 Portland, OR Roseland Theatre
10/09 San Francisco, CA Regency Center w/ Austrian Death Machine
10/10 Pomona, CA The Glass House
10/12 Phoenix, AZ Marquee Theatre w/ Austrian Death Machine
Tour w/ Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust, Trap Them
10/13 San Diego, CA Soma
10/14 Victorville, CA Karma
10/15 San Luis Obispo, CA Downtown Brewing Co
10/17 Orangevale, CA The Boardwalk no Toxic Holocaust
10/19 Murray, UT Murray Theater
10/20 Colorado Springs, CO The Black Sheep
10/22 Iowa City, IA Picador
10/24 Madison, WI Orpheum Stage Door
10/25 Columbus, OH The Basement
10/26 Evansville, IN Boney Junes
10/27 Nashville, TN Rocketown
10/29 Metairie, LA The High Ground
10/30 Jacksonville, FL Jack Rabbits
10/31 Augusta, GA Sector 7G
11/01 Wilmington, NC The Soapbox Laundrolounge
11/02 Baltimore, MD The Ottobar
11/03 Farmingdale, NY The Crazy Donkey
11/04 Hartford, CT Webster Underground
11/06 Cleveland, OH Peabody’s Down Under
11/07 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection
11/08 Louisville, KY Uncle Pleasants
11/10 Syracuse, NY Lost Horizon
11/11 Buffalo, NY Mohawk Place
11/12 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
11/13 Bucksport, ME The Kave
They’ll be coming through Columbus in October, who else will be going with me? The Basement is going to be absolutely packed.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 12 Comments
Two reviews in two days?! Yes, yes it is. Ok, so after my January review of Emmure’s The Respect Issue, I had high hopes for their August release Felony. After scrapping several long-winded, angry rants, I decided ultimately to just keep this review short and sweet: “What the fuck.” It should have been a *felony* to release this album! HYUK HYUK.
Musically, this is not the same Emmure I know and love. All this singing and chanting…just didn’t feel like metal at all to me, let alone a fitting Emmure release. And they decided that it would be totally brutal to add melody and smooth jazz into the drop B tuning while keeping the demonic tones? I just don’t see where they were going with this style.
These song titles…. you got to be kidding me. Is this The Devil Wears Prada? Sunday Bacon, I <3 EC2, You Sunk My Battleship, R2 Deepthroat? Come the fuck on. With these quirky, cutesy track names, they’ve successfully stooped to the level of lesser, popcore bands like Attack Attack! This helps lead me to believe they were trying to appeal to (i.e. selling out to) a younger, more mainstream crowd with this one.
So, Emmure…What the fuck?
Monday, August 17, 2009 2 Comments
If my memory severs me right (which it probably doesn’t), I think I first heard Arsonists Get All The Girls on XM 42 Liquid Metal back in the day when Katie Brutal made our days a little brighter. To be quite honest, I originally thought it was a bunch of gibberish. But now after listening to Portals 9 times in a row. Not too sure why it took them 3 years to write an album, but I think it was a good idea. The Music is still – technical – if you want to call it that. I’d say it’s a little less gibberish in comparison to their 2006 album Hits From The Bow. Correction, I just found out that AGATG actually had Hits From the Bow remade, and a second album, The Game of Life (2007).
I will post a precaution to all metal listeners: If you don’t like keyboards, then stray away as far as you possibly can. It’s full of little – I’m going to call them “jingles”. It’s really not my thing, but I feel it fits to the music. It makes it somewhat bearable to listen to.
Pros +
Way Better Production work. Good Job, Zack Ohren.
Full Length Album
Awesome Album Art.
Cons -
Keyboards
…keyboards, sigh.
As usual I’m going to try my track by track review. Hit the jump.
(more…)
Saturday, August 15, 2009 1 Comment
So Butters and I were on AIM chatting about the usual, pirate ships, ink, metal, blah blah blah. I mentioned that I had finally gotten around to listening to a few bands, one of which was Hester Prynne, and he asked:
<butters> hows Hester Prynne?
<butters> never listened to them
<Chris> Hmm, an interesting mix
<Chris> First track was like a rose funeral sounding thing
<Chris> Some cool riffage in another one, still another has some pretty bland drumming
<Chris> I’d say worth a listen, mostly good
<butters> booo to bland drumming
<Chris> Yeah the bland drumming was really only in the one
<Chris> A pet peeve is blatant mixing of vocals (like scratching the vocals) and they did it at least once
<Chris> Some pig squeals which you may like, some heavy breakdowns
<Chris> Hester Prynne reviewed in 7 IMs
<butters> ROFL
There you have it, Hester Prynne reviewed. Who says chatting on AIM isn’t productive?
Thursday, August 6, 2009 1 Comment
An amalgamation of orchestral warm-up and the gateway to hell opening, the death riders known as Behemoth crawl out of the depths… “Hear the word of the lord!” he cries… the Dark Lord.
God I love Behemoth. Their ninth studio release Evangelion will be released upon the world August 11th and as I sit with it now, I imagine it will be one of 2009’s finest black metal achievements. (Although we apparently have a new Immortal album to look forward to – we’ll see who takes the reigns!) I’m a little thrown by the beginning of the first track, “Daimonos,” because it reminds me, a little too closely, of Misery Index’s “Ghosts of Catalonia.” However, as soon as the straight kicks, well, kick in, it turns right back into Behemoth.
I am a sucker for a slow, dark march, so “Ov Fire And The Void” is definitely one of the standout tracks. Behemoth have created a video for that song which will be released as part of a digi-pak that also includes a DVD of the trio in the studio working on Evangelion. I’m going to have to get my hands on that one…
“Transmigrating Beyond Realms Ov Amenti” is a typical Behemoth track, could have been found on The Apostasy. “He Who Breeds Pestilence,” “The Seed Ov I” and “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me” seem to swim together as a story-line trilogy. Of course, I can’t understand all of Nergal’s lyrics and since the Satan nerds don’t have access to the record yet to interpret and post them online, this is merely a feeling the three songs give to me. Of course, the last track on the record is “Lucifer” an 8-minute epic piece, full of slow, swelling guitar lines, sung entirely, I believe, in Polish. Well, at least it’s not English…
The doom and despair dispelled by Behemoth beckons me and once inside, I’m blanketed, like a fog taking over a great city… they make the darkness, the hidden-away-from-God places, seem romantic. Definitely powerful.
BEHEMOTH
ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL
Tour w/ Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium, All That Remains, God Forbid, Cannibal Corpse, Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel
08/06 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheate
08/07 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
08/08 Hartford, CT Comcast Theatre
08/09 Washington, DC Nissan Pavilion
08/10 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero not part of tour w/ Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, God Forbid
08/11 Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre
08/12 West Palm Beach, FL Cruzan Amphitheater
08/14 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
08/15 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Center
08/16 Oklahoma City, OK Zoo Amphitheatre
![Emmure - Felony [Review]](http://www.knucklesfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lg_emmure_felony_cd.png)
![Arsonists Get All The Girls - Portals [Review]](http://www.knucklesfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Arsonists-Get-All-The-Girls-Protals.jpg)
