I can’t believe nobody has ever brought up Vanden Plas here before!
I admit I love this video. So it’s important to know these guys have been around 30 years (though only about 23 since their first album), and have been a fantastic band. They also have ties to musical theater, being part of live shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors, etc. in their native Germany. So this definitely has an eye towards the cheesy stage showmanship.
Some of my favorites of theirs
Local metal act who’s show I just missed AGAIN :( :( :(
Tagging onto the power/prog metal with female vox thing we had going a couple of weeks back
Concert night! Looking forward to seeing Amaranthe, Failure Anthem, Citizen Zero, Cypher 16, Smash Into Pieces down in Fort Wayne. I’d term most of those closer to the hard rock end of the spectrum, but metal enough for this thread. Should be a fun evening!
Nice!!!
We, of course, will expect a full report in the morning, sir; double-spaced, MLA.
While I’m still recuperating from missing Mayhem and Inquisition last month, Monday night for me will be Overkill, Nile, Amorphis, and Swallow the Sun. I am, needless to say, pumped as shit.
And Anthrax/Lamb of God/Behemoth tickets go on sale in about 3 minutes. . . :-D
TL;DR:
That sounds great! I don’t know any of the other bands, but I’d love to see Amaranthe.
It turns out my coworker’s brother is in Whitechapel, and he might be able to get me in to see them next week. Don’t really know their music, but they’re playing with a couple of bands I already kind of like (Allegaeon, Cattle Decapitation) and a couple more I don’t know (Goatwhore and Necromancing the Stone).
Nice! Thank you for sharing! And yeah, as much fun as it can be to discover be music via the openers, I’m getting a little tired of huge tours turning three hour shows into five hour slogs. But I’m not getting old, dammit! Glad that you wound up enjoying regardless, though :-)
An early highlight for the month of March!
Svart Crown - Abreaction, brings you some lovely French blackened death metal:
p.s. Kévin Paradis on drums is a maniac, and the video is proof he’s actually human. ;)
I bounced off that Svart Crown, but may have to give it another chance. In the meantime, here are my recent highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diCNA8YrOyw
Violet Cold - Anomie (atmospheric black)
I meant to post this a month and a half ago, but I’m looking forward to this album like you wouldn’t believe. James LaBrie, Tobias Sammet, Tommy Karevik, Simone Simmons, and Hansi? Hells yes.
Love the commentary on the video. A month and a half more… can’t wait.
GET WITH THE FOOKIN TIMES MATE
Ahem.
A few nights ago, I got the chance to catch the combo-tour stylings of Overkill/Nile and Amorphis/Swallow the Sun. I went in only really liking Amorphis very much a few months ago, but in the intervening time, I’d grown to be quite fond of Overkill’s hyper oldschool thrash stylings.
While I was kinda sad (see, because the tours merged for six dates this month, Overkill stayed as main headliner, relegating Amorphis to “2nd opener” status), and extremely sick, my very enthusiastic friend Briony got me out there all the same, and I managed to stay on my feet all the way through the end (well, okay, I did skip out during the encore, but I’d heard all the Overkill songs I knew and liked, including “Trouble” “Armory” and “Mean Green Killing Machine” by then and was seriously about to vomit everywhere).
Finland’s Swallow the Sun were surprisingly amazing live. With the bass cranked up to 11, their ultra-heavy, pounding style of gothy, doomy death was perfect, even if their stage presence was a little. . . spartan. Great, albeit somewhat muted, vocals, pounding bass, guitar, and drums, with a melodic strain crooning at the back of your head throughout. It touches some of the same space that Woods of Ypres does for me, which is high praise indeed. And, of course, the whole place felt like it was shaking a few times. . . but that could have been the illness.
Finland’s Amorphis were my whole reason for going in the first place (and Briony’s, to be fair; she LOVES those guys). Although they lost my favorite vocalist, Pasi, like 15 years ago now, “new guy” Tomi is pretty fucking solid, albeit with a very different style. They were clearly seasoned, commanding the stage expertly despite being the second band up, and Tomi was wielding the sickest fucking mic, some huge, metal contraption that he held onto with three huge wooden handles protruding from the back. At some point, he lost his jacket, at which point we knew “shit was on.” They barely got more than half an hour, which killed my soul, though, but managed to squeeze in some really deep cuts from Thousand Lakes and Elegy in the process, so I can’t complain too much (even though there was nothing from my favorite album, the almost acoustic rock Am Universum).
South Carolina’s Nile were up next, and I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge Nile fan. Their style of death metal’s just a little brutal and unfocused for me, as much as I love the ancient Egyptian mythological themes that run through their whole catalogue. And knowing that longtime guitarist and vocalist Dollas Toler-Wade abruptly walked out a day before the tour started wasn’t super encouraging, either. Buuuuut. … here we are, nonetheless! The remaining guys and newcomer Brian Kingsland managed to put on an extremely fun “hometown” show (Charlotte, NC’s damn near in SC as it is) with a ton of local bands in attendance–including black metal wonders Rapheumet’s Well I praised a few months ago. They clearly had a blast up there and were eating up the crowd’s enthusiasm, so while I still won’t claim to love Nile, I’m really glad I got to see them in Charlotte.
Finally, New Jersey’s own Overkill, 35-year, 18-album veterans of the thrash metal scene, took the stage in a sickly gleam of green light and immediately threw down any notion that they might finally be getting old. Ol’ DD and Blitz were still rocking the fuck out, and it was obvious the entire band was completely locked in, moving from 3-decade-old classics to brand new material with aplomb and working the crowd expertly. For instance, here’s Blitz, introducing the “new” drummer (longtime member Lipnicki hasn’t made the last couple of tours), "“We got somebody brand new on drums back here. From the great state of Texas: El Paso! The Irish Eddie Garcia, El Diablo! The Metricutioner! We’re teaching him to be a soprano…” They absolutely brought down the house and brought out the oldschool thrash grognards; there were greybeards there than at a Linux conference!
Great night. Mind, driving back, with Bri having had 3 hours of sleep in the last 36, me still in the midst of a hellish stomach flu, and neither of us able to resist the siren song of Sheetz late-night dinner, was a fraught proposition even BEFORE we came across the hour-long dead-stop on the highway 40mi outside of Charlotte. . .
Totally worth it, though :-D
Sounds like a great time, @ArmandoPenblade! Well, other than the whole sickness thing.
In other live show news, I just got an email about this, here in West Michigan no less! I haven’t listened to any Anthrax in probably 15 years, but nonetheless I don’t see how I can pass this up.
It really was a great night. I’m so glad I’m getting to see so much great metal right now, and getting to do so with a rotating cast of amazing characters here in Raleigh.
To your point there, I would like to point out that 2017 is the Year of Thrash Tours.
Right now, or in the very near future, the following oldschool thrash acts are touring:
If Exodus picks up their guitars and hits the roads in the next 3 months, the 8 largest thrash acts in history will all tour the US in 2017.
WTF???!!! :-D
Rumor has it Megadeth will be touring with Meshuggah, Tessèract, and Lillake.
That Sepultura & Testament show has me disappointed I can’t see them.
Apparently Anthrax has been playing Among the Living in its entirety on tour. I REALLY want to see them. They’re the only one of the Big Four that I haven’t seen. |And Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth I have all seen multiple times.)
Looking forward to Metallica with Avenged Sevenfold & Volbeat this summer.
Feel free to come over to Grand Rapids for the show on the 7th. Been a while since I’ve had a metalhead crash on my futon! :)
This is what I’ve been listening to today. I give it the thumbs up
Ludwig van Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata ( 3rd Movement )
Done in Metal by a 17 year old girl. Stunning.
Surprised @ArmandoPenblade hasn’t mentioned this one since I think it’s around his neck of the woods (Asheville NC) - or maybe he has and I missed it! :)
Anyway, listened a few times today and really digging it. Some great doomy metal ala earlier Grand Magus; a concept album telling a pretty nice little fantasy story as well. Good stuff!
Temptation’s Wings – Skulthor Ebonblade
Reminds me of this, and I can’t resist posting a link to Vitalij, since he is a fantastic keyboardist, and great showman.
(because it is the same song, naturally)
And a perfect way to start my day. I hope to see her band some day ;)
