Live Review Amenra, Voivod, YOB @ Masquerade

I rarely get out for shows these days. Back when I started this blog I went to one a month Since then my depression has gotten worse and I would rather stay at home than be around people. This could also be called getting older, but it feels like more of my mental illness, as when I hear about the show I think "Oh, I would like to see that" But the closer it gets the more I talk myself out of it. The last show I went to was Rob Zombie in August. I had the intentions of going to a couple more with my girlfriend , but life happened and those shows did not. So it was a big deal for me to get out of the house to see Voivod, who is one of my favorite bands. I have  seen them twice before, so that could have been more fuel for me not to go , but I made it out even it it was a last minute thing on my part.

Amenra  started off their set with atmosphere, but when they kicked in they hit so hard you felt it with your body as much as your ears. Ok maybe they were not as loud as Swans , but it was powerful and they really poured themselves into the performance, you could feel the energy on many levels . As much as I love Voivod if I am being honest with you and myself they were the best band, in terms of having a striking visual performance and being sonically over powering. Granted what Voivod does is very different and they were the odd band out on the bill. The boys from Belgium had a screen behind them and projected black and white nature scenes that really added to the atmosphere.

The first time I saw Voivod in the late 80s they had more of a visual spectacle as well. With a smoky stage and eerie lighting and Snake in a gas mask. This time around the main weapon in their arsenal was a wealth of songs. 36 years worth. I also saw them touring for "Target Earth" so was aware how the new stuff blended with their more classic songs, but this time around it was more seamless. The two things they really had going for them aside from 36 years of experience under the two founding members belts, was the set list and the drumming. Away is one of the most under rated metal drummers. His double bass is on point and he does everything so effortlessly.  As far as the set list goes it was like they  were taking requests for me as they played every song I would have yelled out... "Into My Hyper Cube" , "Ravenous Medicine", "Psychic Vacuum" and the biggest surprise was "the Prow" from the "Angel Rat" album.

Yob was headlining. I am sure this is due to being the band with currently the most records sales, as Voivod, was the most established. If Voivod was going to headline then Yob could be wedged between the two, but Amenra is a hard band to follow. Granted the have more in common with Yob stylistically as both bands have the huge monolithic riffs to trample your ears with. A friend of mine said that he feels Yob is like Cathedral on a fraction of the drugs and with a siren singing. I can hear that, but after Voivod they seem more simplistic. The work at more of a pulsing throb than a proggy space journey. Overall it was an interesting look at metal past and present.

Iced Earth @ the Masquerade

The gravity pulling against to me to attend week night shows played into my favor , as I narrowly avoided the openers, as like Kamelot, Iced Earth are one of the rare bands in a genre normally heavy on cheese I like .So taking that into consideration, Sabaton would have been too much for me in terms of the level of dungeons and dragons like pageantry.  I heard they went over well with the crowd , that was more of a white trash meets the geeks of progpower sort of affair. The size of the crowd surprised me ,but aside from Dragon-Con and Prog Power, the band hasn't really been through Atlanta much.

Stu Block was in the hot seat in my book. He had the most to prove.  Having to fill Matt Barlow's shoes, is no easy feat, not that Barlow is in my top ten metal vocalists, but he has some pipes and more than that a distinct sound. Sure he can nail the metal yodel, but he does it not in the Star Search or Journey manner many progressive metal singers do , but with some balls.

I notice Block's, upper register is pretty piercing in falsetto, but he goes from chest register right into it and doesn't go into the more Paul Stanley sounding rock strained rock tenor that Barlow bridges his head voice into.He was able to fire off piercing highs on command with a lot of power and his voice did not wane as the set progressed.

It made me happy to hear Vengence is Mine from Dark Saga, which is my favorite Iced Earth album as it defines what sets them aside from other power metal bands in that they are also firmly rooted in thrash. There was a pretty decent pit , though small compared to say Morbid Angel, but better than any moshing that would not erupt at a Hammerfall show.

The only drop in energy was the power ballad off the new album which came way earlier in the set than I would have expected., The gritty baritone approach Block went with on this one made it seem to much like Shinedown for my taste buds, aside from that the set was largely in your face. John Schaffer has preserved his trademark crunch, not feeling the need to pull out Orange amps or detune as trends over the years have shifted.

So this performance won me over to accept the current incarnation of the band as it carries on their legacy. If straight up metal with no apologies is your thing it is highly reccomended that you give te current line up a shot.These guys recapture the feel of Preist and Maiden era classic metal in a way thats their own and are all the more authentic in doing so.

Watain@ the Masquerade 2013

It makes sense for Watain to play in Hell, the day after Halloween. I arrived at the Masquerade to be met by my co-workers at Chambers  Horror , the torture porn themed haunted house the venue operates, to be  told how the band had been airing out their carcasses in front of the haunt, and caused a stench, so when a walked into the venue shortly after Tribulation took the stage I was expecting to be smacked with a foulness that never came. I was later informed the pig's heads Erik impaled on the inverted crosses were only a day old, though the crosses themselves were fifteen years old.

I really enjoyed what I caught of Tribulation's set, the had a jammy element that captured the ambiance of their recorded work well. The spandex and big hair caught me off guard, as they looked like H.I.M, minus Ville. They had the best sound overall, every thing came across very full and clear while In Solitude's guitar mix sounded best when the guitars were locked in playing the thrashier Maiden like riffs , than when the ventured into the more ambient melodic sections, things hollowed out a little.But this is more of  a problem with the downstairs stag at the venue being cavernous.

In Solitude blended the new songs well with the older stuff. Their was a much different energy to their performance, it was less explosive and Pelle was lurching into the crowd, in the latter portion of their set. His brother's backing vocals at times almost overshadowed him. Headlining a bigger stage is on their horizon, and I am interested seeing how that translates for them, as they were cramped on the small stage and it stifled their energy a tad, but they worked well with the situation given over all and I enjoyed their performance.

Watain's set was set for a ritual that looked for like something out of the Hills Have Eyes , as the stage was surrounded in the back drop of  hide skins spread around it with bones and dried carcasses adorning it. Erik's altar sat beneath the drum riser. The band took the stage and blistered into the assault, though their sound when they first came on was mid-range heavy and got dialed in as the set progressed.

Despite the fact they were touring to support, the Wild Hunt the band leaned heavily on Sworn to the Dark instead,only playing four songs from the new album. The set which is posted below only featured two songs from the Lawless Darkness album, dipping into 2003's  "Casus Luciferi" for "Devil's Blood" and even digging up from the graves of 2000 " On Horns Impaled" from Rabid Deaths Curse"   They attacked the  material with the feral intensity,  and the choices of  newer songs were well blended into the selections from their discography to keep the momentum in a solid blast, only allowing it to breathe in moments like for title track off their new album, which seemed almost to serve as a segue into "Sworn to the Dark" as it felt abbreviated in the live arrangement, with backing tacks layering the more melodic vocal section.

The ferocity of velocity , was balanced out with a more ritualistic intent to the performance than their set did when they preformed with Behemoth last year. Muggles might view this element to be theatrics, but while many metal bands like to don occult trappings to keep up appearances Erik is very sincere in his beliefs. At he appeared to be in a trance like state while he held the mic stand in-between arcane snarls. The trance was infectious, carrying over into the audience as the throb of violent vibrations,  conjured up a performance that stopped time, it came to an end and from the smoke machined hazed we realized over an hour had passed. One of the most intense metal acts on the road today, do not miss if they swing through your town.    

• 1. Night Vision 
  2. De Profundis 
  3. Storm of the Antichrist 
  4. Malfeitor 
  5. Devil's Blood 
  6. Satan's Hunger 
  7. The Wild Hunt 
  8. Sworn to the Dark 
  9. Reaping Death 
  10. Outlaw 
  11. Stellarvore 
  12. On Horns Impaled 
  13. The Serpent's Chalice 

Live Review : Christian Death @ the Masquerade

O.k before we get into how the stage was set with cob webs draped over the drums and mic stand a roses abounding lets get the elephant out of the room...

Some goth die-hards will be reluctant to give the non- Rozz Williams line-up of the seminal death -rock act a chance, if they don't out right scorn it. Valor took over as the singer in 1985 and Williams tried to reclaim the name in 95 resulting in a legal battle. Which Valor claims never took place, maybe it didn't I was too high at the time to keep up or care about that drama. He said it all went down with Cleopatra Records and they didn't want to deny Rozz's fan and said his version just had to say featuring Rozz Williams. Sound fair enough as long as his version said featuring Valor Kand  but it's water under the bridge unless you ask the people over a rozz.net on Facebook who are still trolling the Christian Death page to make sure justice is done.

 The conclusion I came to is this...it's like Ozzy and Dio. Ozzy is Black Sabbath. Rozz is Christian Death. Dio is technically a better singer than Ozzy, just as Valor is technically a better singer than Rozz , however both Ozzy and Rozz have the personality that makes their bands come to life. Mob Rules and Heaven & Hell are good albums. Sex, Drugs and Jesus Christ is a good album. So it's ok to go see Valor as it was o.k to go see the Dio Sabbath. The big difference being Rozz Williams is dead, so there are no other options, so we get off the hook better than Sabbath fans because Dio could still sing his songs and he is dead , Ozzy is back with the band but can no longer sing.

Now that they years and the drug lifestyle have worn on Valor as well he sounds more like Rozz than he use to and after last night  the playing field was leveled vocally between the too but he still hits more of the notes than Ozzy 

Maitri who joined the band as the bass player back in 1992, took a more commanding presence on stage than Valor , who introduced himself as "Satan or at least that who some people think he is " this kind of deprecating humor took on a Spinal Tap air. Valor almost seemed apologetic at times and this being the third date of the tour  maybe he just needed to get his sea legs back on stage.   

 Maitri held the audiences attention for a few reasons depending on which members of the audience you asked. Young goth boys who hadn't ventured out from in front of their computers since dragon con to see a woman in the flesh where particularly enamored by her, as she was clad like a sequined stripper. Her high heels seemed like an odd fit to stalk the stage in while slinging her bass and her skirt was more like a few strands of black to decorate her panties. It was more than she is wearing on the cover of her album "lover of sin" and like Thrill Kill Kult they adopted a very over sexual theme since the 90's so they stuck to that theme, despite rocks steps toward feminism, but like metal this kind of sleaze goes back to the bdsm themes in early goth, so some objectification applies. Hey it worked for Lords of Acid.  

Drummer Jason Frantz did and excellent job of keeping the songs moving. Drummers are never the strong point to goth, come name some great goth drummers...I'll be waiting. The bass players normally run the show and let the guitarist and singer romantically waltz around the proceedings, so having a drummer that was really solid gave them more of a metal edge.  The newer material they Valor said was being introduced and sold exclusively on this tour was much more metal at one point there was a riff that reminded me of something from Metallica's Black Album,so almost dumbing it down metal. This did prompt Valor to explain what tuning his guitar down to drop d meant. 

The crowd did fill in a little better for Christian Death, though the Rozz resent would be one suspected reason for the low turn out. I only caught the opening band locals Board of Whores best attempt to win the crow over with a cover of Concrete Blond, when I asked the bartender how  the rest of their set was she said very 80's, so there is her word for. If asked a decade to pick for Christian Death featuring Valor Kand's set was I would say very 90's. It was a good decade for Cleopatra Records so little wonder thats where their evolution ended them up at. I think it would be a nice gesture to the fans and an olive branch to do a tour that served as a Tribute to Rozz, reach out to bands like Mephisto Waltz and Sex Gang Children with Rikk Agnew , Gitane Demone, and Eva O.  It wouldn't be goth without the drama and what else have they got to do. Sure if Valor swings back though town I'll saunter in again and hope for the best.