So as promised a few days ago, here's my little ditty on this past Tuesdays amazing show at the Capital Music Hall featuring As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Unearth and Carnifex.
I would apologize for the longevity of this post - but then again I don't care, people will either read it or they won't.
The evening started out with me and my comrades meeting up for some food and drinks prior to lining up for the show. By the time we ventured over to line up we were a group of five and still had three other friends that were going to be showing up shortly after the doors opened.
We actually arrived at the perfect time, seeing as how we were near the front of the line, as the doors only ended up opening after 7:00PM and the line started to stretch easily around the lot. Many jokes took place, including a hilarious situation involving a Korean drivers license and the holder trying to prove he was over 19 years old.
The doors slowly started to open and people were filing it, just after Carnifex had finished doing a sound check. We knew it was Carnifex because as one of the side doors would swing open, from time to time, you could hear the brutal screaming and pounding, meaty riffage that made them a stand out from the other three bands set to hit the stage.
A half hour passed, people packed themselves into the venue and it was time to get this party started.
Carnifex hit the stage first. As I mentioned before, this was the second time I got to see them live, in as many months - having seen them at Summer Slaughter, early in August. Their set list was similar to the one I had heard in Montreal and that was absolutely fine with me.Not to make this sound like a shot at the band, in any way, but Carnifex has the quality of being a band that performs and sounds much better live, than on some of their recordings, which are equally as brutal - and considering the genre of music, that's a big plus.
Carnifex played through the majority of their most recognizable tracks and their best work, including: In Coalesce with Filth and Faith, The Diseased and the Poisoned, Lie to My Face, Sorrowspell and Hell Chose Me, from their most recent LP.
Unearth was the second band to hit the stage. This was the second time I've seen Unearth as well, though the first time I had seen them was prior to their most recent album release, in 2007, when they opened for Slayer.
When they opened for Slayer three years ago, they put on an awesome performance at Scotiabank Place. This past week at the CMH they simply stole the fucking show. And I stand by that fact.Their performance this past Tuesday was 10x greater than the first time I had seen them, and in a small club environment, you really get to feel and hear the whole the music to a greater level, enhancing the experience as a whole.
Out of all the bands, save for Carnifex, Unearth's set brought with it that ground shaking, ear drum pounding, experience that you've come to love from the band, if you're at all a fan. Unearth brought out the beast inside the Capital Music Hall and left no mosher or headbanger unscathed.
Even more so for one of my friends brothers, who was at his first Metal Show and got so into it that he ripped apart his t-shirt like Hulk Hogan trying to stir up a crowd of Hulkamaniacs.
Their set list provided equal amounts of crushing breakdowns, finger shredding guitar solos and crowd gathering chants as they flew through their repertoire of songs, including mainstays such as: The Great Dividers, My Will Be Done, Crow Killer, This Lying World, Endless, This Glorious Nightmare, One Step Away and Black Hearts Now Reign.
All That Remains took the stage third and provided some nostalgia by playing some of their most recognizable works, including Six, very early into their set. I haven't listened to the band in particular in recent years so they were the band out of the four that I was able to associate to songs with the least.However their performance was pretty good overall, despite some of the things I had recently heard about their live sets.
As I Lay Dying has been on tour promoting their most recent release, The Powerless Rise for this past summer on a number of tours. I'm admittedly more familiar with their earlier work and particularly liked the albums Frail Worlds Collapse and Shadows Are Security. So the fact they opened their set with the song 94 Hours was a good hit of nostalgia to get me into their set.
Their set included a good amount of old, but a particular focus on the new - after all this was the tour showcasing their newest release after all. Their set included tracks including: 94 Hours, An Ocean Between Us, Anodyne Sea, Within Destruction and Confined.
On the whole I enjoyed their set, but I found it lacked a bit of 'pizazz' that they almost tried make up with, in the use of lighting effects and enough smoke to choke a city block.
Although Jordan Mancino's drum solo was ridiculously awesome and great change of pace in the middle of their set.
I'll also give them props for inspiring a wall of death during the final song of the night, it doesn't always work so well indoors, but they pulled it off.
The tickets to the show read: As I Lay Dying, All That Remains AND GUESTS.
I knew who the guests were and to be honest was most looking forward to Unearth and Carnifex, than the back half of the show - and my expectations were met, and somewhat exceeded, seeing as how Unearth and Carnifex delivered one of better openings to a show I've been to in quite some time.
Next show on my radar is most likely to be Despised Icon's final trip through Ottawa on their farewell tour, October 14th.
Other shows that could figure on the Tour De Force include:
Oct. 5th - The Black Dahlia Murder, Goatwhore + Arkaic @ Ritual
Oct. 11th - We Came As Romans, In Fear and Faith, Upon A Burning Body @ Maverick's
We'll just have to wait and see what's next.
0 comments:
Post a Comment