A night
of Metal in Toronto is exactly what I needed and man tonight, February 1st
2016, was it about to get gritty here at the Mod Club. Decapitated had finally
made it here on their tour for “Blood Mantra” and although Black Breath weren’t
able to make it, local support was added to make up for it.
The
night opened with Sludgehammer, a local band with some great art on their bass
drum. When the lights went down and the crowd got ready out came the guys in
this local band battering through each of their songs. Although being
unfamiliar with these guys, I had to go home and find their music; Sludgehammer
had the stage presence of a high end professional band. Battering away through
everything they could, making jokes to the audience and having some showmanship
is what we look for and although a lot of people like to skip the local bands
at these shows, you would have regretted missing this band.
As it
turns out, they had to say goodnight, but they got me headbanging heavy and I
thought I was more than ready for Mad Trapper, the second local band. There was
something wrong when this band took the stage, the vocals were completely
inaudible, the vocalist couldn’t even stand up straight and kept stumbling
around the stage and into the other band members and while the instrumentals
didn’t seem to miss a beat, the bassist of this band looked like he was ready
to say fuck it and quit. Everything involving the vocalist seemed to be going
wrong and if this is a common thing for this band, I couldn’t suggest going out
of your way for them. After about 8 fairly quick songs and nearly being spat on
by their vocalist more than once, the band left the stage without so much of a
“we are Mad Trapper” or “this song is (insert song name here).” Backing vocals
were audible and quite awesome to be honest, but as it stands, the vocalist
sort of killed the momentum of the night thus far.
Next up
was the band touring with Decapitated, Theories. Having only one album and
being a surprisingly new band it was a little surprising to me to see Theories
playing main support for such an iconic Death Metal band, but after seeing them
live I understand why they got the slot. Playing and writing grind means they
can blast through songs quickly with the longest song on their album
“Regression” being 4 minutes and every other songs being 1-2 minutes it’s easy
to play your entire album and for all I knew, they would. I was unsure what to
expect from this band, not knowing anything about them before the show, they
definitely made me a fan. I’m not the biggest Grind fan and when their vocalist
came out it looked like they were about to belt out something not so fast and
brutal. The pits opened, hair was flying and they floored a lot of people who
didn’t know them, myself included, the growls were low and brutal, the crushing
screams were quick keeping up with their constantly blasting drummer and the
solos are so short and quick no one knew when they were coming. The joke about
missing 10 minutes of a concert and missing 4 Grind bands almost seemed true;
if you blinked you’d miss a song. They played their bit, got an incredible
reaction from the crowd and definitely made some friends at their merch table
as I happened to see but they were soon about to be in the shadow of the all
mighty Decapitated.
So
here’s my experience with Decapitated, I know “Nihility” as everyone who knows
this band does and I know “Blood Mantra” which means there was bound to be a
bunch of stuff I didn’t know about to be blasting through those speakers. The
band took the stage, the lights came up and Decapitated started, as did the
pits practically instantly. Playing all sorts of new songs from “Blood Mantra”
like “Exiled in Flesh” “Veins” and the title track mixed with fan favourites
like “Day 69” and “Post(?) Organic” the band threw their hair everywhere,
played some outstanding solos, talked and joked with the crowd, but eventually
they broke into the first song I was really hoping to see. “Nest” features one
of my favourite instrumental sections with the iconic chugging of Decapitated
playing under a tapping section that seemed impossible live for me to follow,
somehow the band did it and absolutely nailed how it sounded on record. A
couple more songs played out and a wall of death was opened (where yours truly,
the top dumbass broke his thumb) but the main event happened, closing out the
main set was “Spheres of Madness” and nowhere was safe, the pit grew to obscene
sizes. “Spheres” played out and before you knew it the band left the stage,
only to come back with another new song “Instinct” which was the last song I
was looking forward to seeing tonight, after cranking through it they again,
said their good nights and left the stage only to be chanted for by the entire
crowd and what do you know, they came back for a second encore!! Unfortunately
this was not a song I recognized; neither did any of the few people I asked on
my way out so I guess that part of their set has to remain a surprise. Everyone
was exhausted, this was what I needed, a good, heavy, Death Metal show and man
did I get it, sore neck and all.
Sludgehammer Performance: 85/100
Mad Trapped performance: 12/100
Theories performance: 78/100
Decapitated performance: 95/100
Overall experience: 90/100
No comments:
Post a Comment