Celtic Frost : CHICAGO

[Novembers Paul]

Let me just say, I was blown away tonight. This was easily the best show I've been to in over a decade. Screw all the haters, Celtic Frost is THE example of how to play slow, and are one of the heaviest bands alive.

The only complaint, no encore. No Babylon Fell, no Morbid Tales. Other then that, it was a perfect set.

Sahg was awesome. With that name, I expected black metal, and was pleasantly surprised they were... doom rock, more on the rock side? Hard to say.

1349... Not my cup of tea, in any way.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

The show was utterly amazing. I could tell that the crowd were somewhat divided about it, some people not being too into the newer material, some people not liking the downtuned slower approach on some old songs, etc. I thought it was all brilliant. So much atmosphere and character onstage, it really moved me. Martin Eric Ain has been one of my biggest musical heroes for so many years now, it was a pleasure getting to see him just RULE onstage tonight, and we briefly met the band after the show, though they were very tired you could tell, they still signed autographs for people and shook hands. Celtic Frost have for years been one of my favorite bands of all time, and tonight they just solidified it that much more.

As Paul said, SAHG were a pleasant surprise, I enjoyed them quite a bit. They're one of the best doom-rock type bands I've seen in years.

1349 I prefer on cd, I guess. They were energetic onstage and the drummer was a monster, but sadly their sound was the usual chaotic whirlwind of undeciperable noise. Quite a few people said they thought 1349 was the best band there. I just don't get it. I guess people like a bunch of washed out noise that you cant understand as long as its dressed up in black metal attire and such. As I said, I think they're decent on cd, but even if I was a huge fan of them, I'd have been disappointed all the same with the mess of sound tonight. Oh well.

 

[Jasonic]

Do you guys have a setlist memorized?
Glad to hear it was a good gig...

I have heard some 1349 tracks on some internet radio station, and it did stand out from run of the mill black metal. They are fairly popular with the younger black metal crowd, no?

 

[Novembers Paul]

Celtic Frost set list...

totengott- intro
procreation (of the wicked)
visions of mortality
circle of the tyrants
the usurper
jewel throne
ain elohim
necromantical screams
dawn of the meggido
mesmerised
sorrows of the moon
ground
dethroned emperor,
into the crypts of rays
synagoga satanae

 

[ScientistOfDarkness]

Celtic Frost set list...

totengott- intro
procreation (of the wicked)
visions of mortality
circle of the tyrants
the usurper
jewel throne
ain elohim
necromantical screams
dawn of the meggido
mesmerised
sorrows of the moon
ground
dethroned emperor,
into the crypts of rays
synagoga satanae

Wow. Great set list, I'm even more excited.

 

[Jasonic]

Very good set list!
I am sure the crowd went nuts for Procreation of the Wicked.

What was the turnout?

 

[Mister Shhh]

I was at this show with Paul, Larry and Joe. It was the first show of its kind that I have ever attented. Black Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal; what an experience.

Celtic Frost really was impressive. I can see the influence these guys have had on ND.

I thought Sahg was a cross between Iron Maiden and Triumph. The vocalist remined me of Rick Emmett voice-wise. I really enjoyed these guys and today found out that a couple of these guys are in Gorgoroth. Interesting.

1349. Well, I think they were victims of a poor sound system or poor sound mixing or whatever. I guess at least I can die saying that I saw a real Norwegian black metal band.

 

[Jasonic]

1349. Well, I think they were victims of a poor sound system or poor sound mixing or whatever. I guess at least I can die saying that I saw a real Norwegian black metal band.

You need to go to more Milwaukee Metalfests then..

It seems to me that people have calmed down over the hype of Norwegian black metal. When I first saw that 1349 was added to the tour, I was thinking, "Damn, this is huge!" It seems that no one really cared that much.

4 or 5 years ago, people were blowing loads over them.

Maybe the rise in popularity of Dimmu and Cradle (not that they are true BM), have made some folks luke-warm over black metal.

 

[Mister Shhh]

I forgot the coolest thing: These guys hung out after the show and signed autographs. How cool is that?!?!

Joe got some old vinyl signed, Paul had them sign the new CD and I had them sign my ticket stub.

When Paul went up there they told him, "YOU were great tonight." The band was telling the audience how good THEY were tonight. WOW. What a breath of fresh air. Here we are thinking how awesome the band is and here is the band being so incredibly humble and telling us how good we were. I was dumbfounded. I want to buy all of their albums now just because I thought that was so cool. Well, all except Cold Lake from what I hear

 

[Jasonic]

I wonder if the autograph thing is something that the VIC suggested.
DragonForce also did a signing after the show.
Glad to hear the guys in Frost were cool.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

Actually I don't think the 1349 hype has calmed down too much. It seemed like a vast majority of people I talked to after the show were raving about how "amazing" 1349 were and how it was who they were there to see, etc. Which kinda furthered my impression that alot of people (not all, but alot), tend to be wrapped up more in the image and vibe than the actual music itself. Honestly the sound was so chaotic, it wouldn't have mattered if the band was playing mary had a little lamb at hyperspeed, noone could've told the difference 95% of the time. I guess in this respect I just don't "get" modern BM, or something. I just don't see how people could be impressed when they could barely hear a note of it.

Maybe I've gotten it all wrong all this time? I guess I ought to have donned the corpsepaint, buy a BC Rich and play indecipherably noisy and fast and evil? I might've fared better in my musical career then. I guess you can never underestimate the "kult" factor....


And in case this starts some kind of controversy with people, let me clarify this....
I like 1349. I have two of their cds and I think they're pretty decent. I was however very disappointed at what an indecipherable wall of noise they were live. Had the situation been the same with Celtic Frost's set, I would've walked out with the same negative impression of their set too, even though I'm a longtime fan. As I said before, noise is noise, and I don't enjoy noise. The issue I am perplexed with is how even the diehard 1349 fans could talk about how "amazing" the show was, when all I saw were a band of talented musicians looking kult and evil onstage, and a huge mess of noise coming out of the p.a. system. When I have people afterwards telling me they loved the show because "they looked so grim" and "I thought the noisy chaotic sound was cool", but then they slag off bands like CF and Sahg who played and sounded great, well that's just depressing to me. But again, I guess I just don't understand the mentality of the BM fans. *shrug*