Do you hear the mosh pit scream, screaming the growls of epic melodies
Aaaaaaah, the Palladium. So many good memories of that venue. The scariest concert I ever went to (Slayer w/ Hatebreed as an opener); my first real metal show (Dio); the first time I got to meet Burton C. Bell outside the venue after the show; the time my band got the opportunity to play the mainstage. With all these memories in mind, I walk into the upstairs of the Palladium to enjoy a night of interestin people, excitment, and of course, Heavy Metal.
Is there any better way to start off a concert than with a band that plays Pirate Metal? I'll answer that question for you: no, there isn't! Swashbuckle: Three men (the singer being a rather rotund individual), dressed in pirate clothes singing about walking the plank is by far the best way to get a crowd pumped up. Not the best Pirate Metal band I've heard (yes, I've heard others), they have a grindcore influence in their music writing, a genre of Metal I could never fully get into, but regardless, they were incredibely entertaining and a pleasure to watch. I actually wouldn't mind seeing them again.
Next on the bill: Blackguard. For six people on stage they were ridiculously energenic and knew how to get the crows doing while not missing any beats in their carefully crafted music- old school thrash sounding guitar riffs curtosey of Terry Roadcase & Kim Gosselin, classical orchestrated keyboard parts from Johnathan Lefrancois-Leduc, Paul Ablaze's crowd commanding moves behind the mic- all backed by Justine Ethier's precise and creative drumming style. Their set was blistering fast and incredible drom start to finish, leaving the crowd wanting to more. I was lucky enough to have the provilage to speak to a few of the members after theur set, and like all true metal musicians, were wonderful to talk to and very gracious that someone was taking the time to talk to them.
Up next was Hate, a death/black metal band with satanic face paint on. The music was generic and bland, nothing too interesting going on there. Added kind of a lull to the night, but that lull was quickly erased when Scar Symmetry took the stage with their blend a crunchy verses, melodic choruses, and two lead singers who worked well together onstage and welcomed any crowd surfers to join them in some headbanging before sending them back to the pit. What I found the most intriguing about this band was that despite the fast and angry sounding music, whenever htey spoke the seemed like the nicest guys in the world (I would probably go as far as to call them sweet). This was most apparent when guitarist Jonas Kjellgren was having monitor troubles near the end of their set; instead of yelling at the sound tech, he politely asked for his monitors to get tweeked then continued the show without his monitors with no complaints. Later in the night I managed to say a quick hello to the two singers, and they too proved to be ridiculously nice when dealing with fans. Tech problems aside the set was awesome, complete with some personal favorites, Chaosweaver and The Illusionist.
After Scar Symmetry was finished the headlining beast was unleashed: Hypocrisy. They stormed through a powerful set (complete with two encores) without even looking at each other! They were so on top of theur playing they never needed to look at eachother to know when to come in with a solo or change tempos; now THAT is professionalism right there! Commanding the mic on his own through out the night was Peter Tagtgren, whose screaming and growling was at times soothing to hear (I know, hard to believe, but trust me, it was).
It was a night of Heavy Metal I'm glad I didn't pass up. Though the night wasn't without a few pins and needles- after all, this show was at the Worcester Palladium, whose sound system isn't the greatest in the world. The way the amps were positioned made it hard from where I was standing (house right in the balcony) to hear anyone stage left. I also couln't understand any of the banter from any of the bands between songs (the fact that all the bands were either from Sweeden, Poland, and French-Canada and speaking fairly broken english might have had something to do with that).
Also, the show reminded me that though I love heavy metal, I don't always love fans of heavy metal. Most of the people that I was surrounded by at the show came across as 15 yrs old (which they weren't- most from what I can tell were in their mid-twenties) and drunk (which most of them were). I sadly felt like I was surrounded by the stereotypical dead beat metalhead: all long hair and no brains. I usually pride myself of liking metal will always site fans of metal as some of the smartest I know. Friday night sadly wasn't the case. Oh well, you can't win them all.
Speaking of my annoyance with the crowd, I was thoroughly dissapointed by the mosh pit in front of the stage. I've been in a few pits before, and I've watched a lot to know that that pit was weak sauce conducted by what looked like a lot of metal newbs. Such a sad state of affiars. Luckily, most of the bands were so awesome my attention was barely on the pit for most of the night.
Is there any better way to start off a concert than with a band that plays Pirate Metal? I'll answer that question for you: no, there isn't! Swashbuckle: Three men (the singer being a rather rotund individual), dressed in pirate clothes singing about walking the plank is by far the best way to get a crowd pumped up. Not the best Pirate Metal band I've heard (yes, I've heard others), they have a grindcore influence in their music writing, a genre of Metal I could never fully get into, but regardless, they were incredibely entertaining and a pleasure to watch. I actually wouldn't mind seeing them again.
Next on the bill: Blackguard. For six people on stage they were ridiculously energenic and knew how to get the crows doing while not missing any beats in their carefully crafted music- old school thrash sounding guitar riffs curtosey of Terry Roadcase & Kim Gosselin, classical orchestrated keyboard parts from Johnathan Lefrancois-Leduc, Paul Ablaze's crowd commanding moves behind the mic- all backed by Justine Ethier's precise and creative drumming style. Their set was blistering fast and incredible drom start to finish, leaving the crowd wanting to more. I was lucky enough to have the provilage to speak to a few of the members after theur set, and like all true metal musicians, were wonderful to talk to and very gracious that someone was taking the time to talk to them.
Up next was Hate, a death/black metal band with satanic face paint on. The music was generic and bland, nothing too interesting going on there. Added kind of a lull to the night, but that lull was quickly erased when Scar Symmetry took the stage with their blend a crunchy verses, melodic choruses, and two lead singers who worked well together onstage and welcomed any crowd surfers to join them in some headbanging before sending them back to the pit. What I found the most intriguing about this band was that despite the fast and angry sounding music, whenever htey spoke the seemed like the nicest guys in the world (I would probably go as far as to call them sweet). This was most apparent when guitarist Jonas Kjellgren was having monitor troubles near the end of their set; instead of yelling at the sound tech, he politely asked for his monitors to get tweeked then continued the show without his monitors with no complaints. Later in the night I managed to say a quick hello to the two singers, and they too proved to be ridiculously nice when dealing with fans. Tech problems aside the set was awesome, complete with some personal favorites, Chaosweaver and The Illusionist.
After Scar Symmetry was finished the headlining beast was unleashed: Hypocrisy. They stormed through a powerful set (complete with two encores) without even looking at each other! They were so on top of theur playing they never needed to look at eachother to know when to come in with a solo or change tempos; now THAT is professionalism right there! Commanding the mic on his own through out the night was Peter Tagtgren, whose screaming and growling was at times soothing to hear (I know, hard to believe, but trust me, it was).
It was a night of Heavy Metal I'm glad I didn't pass up. Though the night wasn't without a few pins and needles- after all, this show was at the Worcester Palladium, whose sound system isn't the greatest in the world. The way the amps were positioned made it hard from where I was standing (house right in the balcony) to hear anyone stage left. I also couln't understand any of the banter from any of the bands between songs (the fact that all the bands were either from Sweeden, Poland, and French-Canada and speaking fairly broken english might have had something to do with that).
Also, the show reminded me that though I love heavy metal, I don't always love fans of heavy metal. Most of the people that I was surrounded by at the show came across as 15 yrs old (which they weren't- most from what I can tell were in their mid-twenties) and drunk (which most of them were). I sadly felt like I was surrounded by the stereotypical dead beat metalhead: all long hair and no brains. I usually pride myself of liking metal will always site fans of metal as some of the smartest I know. Friday night sadly wasn't the case. Oh well, you can't win them all.
Speaking of my annoyance with the crowd, I was thoroughly dissapointed by the mosh pit in front of the stage. I've been in a few pits before, and I've watched a lot to know that that pit was weak sauce conducted by what looked like a lot of metal newbs. Such a sad state of affiars. Luckily, most of the bands were so awesome my attention was barely on the pit for most of the night.