Concerts in the Year of the OX () aka 2009 -

[Zach.Zhang]

The mad butcher is coming to Beijing !

Destruction ! May 16th !

 

[Defiance]

The mad butcher is coming to Beijing !

Destruction ! May 16th !

Awesome, Destruction rules!!! From the 3 of German Thrash Metal, Destruction is the best IMO . The guys are quite nice too, try to stay after the show and get a pic with them. Like this. .

Also, Amon Amarth is coming here, it's quite the major event actually. I'm not that much into AA, but they certainly give good shows.

 

[Naglfar]

Gonna give a little battle report...

I was at the Enslaved / Opeth show in New Jersey last night (May 1st, Starland Ballroom). For those of you who were there, I was the spritely dirty blonde standing behind the main sound gear wearing a Vertebrae hoodie (it had the best view in the place, other than the front and up at the bar). For some reason there was an odd combination of fat guys, teenage hipsters with their girlfriends, and regular metalheads at the venue.

Enslaved opened, and their first three songs had huge sound problems. Enslaved's one of my favorite bands ever, so I was digging the show, but their sound guy was frantically moving around dials and levers trying to fix whatever the fuck went wrong. To make matters worse, you couldn't hear the lead guitarist, and the lead guitarist himself tried to fix the sound from the amp on the stage. I know... sometimes guitarists do stuff with their amp, but in this case it was a running battle. This was their set list, like, literally. Their sound guy gave me his copy at the end of their set:

1. Intro from F.O.H. (cd/ipod/mp3)
TO THE COAST

2. ... directly into Ivar guitar-chords as intro for
FUSION OF SENSE AND EARTH

3. ... directly into Ivar guitar intro w/ Grutle talks
RUUN

4. ... directly into Herbrand synth intro w/ Grutle talks
AS FIRE SWEPT CLEAN THE EARTH

5. Grutle talks
GROUND

6. Grutle talks
THE WATCHER

7. -Grutle talks, then Arve guitar intro
ISA

NO EXTRAS (I'm assuming this means Enslaved doesn't get to do any encores)

The first couple of songs, up to As Fire Swept Clean The Earth, were really a wash. You couldn't hear very much except the drums and some guitar, and it felt loud in a bad way. Fire went as badly as possible, with the guitarist finagling his amp, the sound guy trying to fix it, resulting in some feedback and a huge whomp from the bass. Once they hit Ground the band got its shit together and at least the last three songs were pretty amazing, especially Isa. They only played six songs, though! =( Enslaved needs to add Return to Yggdrasil and maybe one of their oldies to that set!

As for Opeth's setlist:

Heir Apparent
Ghost of Perdition
Godhead's Lament
The Leper Affinity
Credence
Hessian Peel
Closure (super fucking deluxe ultra prog metal edition)
The Night and the Silent Water
The Lotus Eater
Deliverance

Opeth was... wow. I hadn't been to a show where a band gave their everything like that in a long, long time. They were SO GOOD. If you're not a fan of their last three albums, yet you've never seen them live, that's really the antidote for "getting" their newer sound. The intensity and heaviness that is perhaps not captured on their albums simply kicks your ass live. Closure had what seemed like an eternity of just Opeth jamming on stage added to it, and the crowd was basically in disbelief at the band's sonic assault on them. I think we earned ourselves Deliverance as an encore, although Opeth may have just done the whole "walk offstage and come back to rev up the crowd for the real last song" act. Akerfelt likes to talk to the crowd, also... every time there was a pause between songs, he would give the crowd music advice and make cracks about NJ / Bon Jovi. And he called himself cocksucker. At least he claims he has a jacket that says as much on the back. Their sound, overall, was excellent. Opeth simply oozes musicianship.

All in all, great show. If Enslaved gets their sound together for the rest of the tour (it was the first show of the tour), it will be one of the best venues this year. Highly recommend.

 

[Nikki]

Gonna give a little battle report...

I was at the Enslaved / Opeth show in New Jersey last night (May 1st, Starland Ballroom). For those of you who were there, I was the spritely dirty blonde standing behind the main sound gear wearing a Vertebrae hoodie (it had the best view in the place, other than the front and up at the bar). For some reason there was an odd combination of fat guys, teenage hipsters with their girlfriends, and regular metalheads at the venue.

Enslaved opened, and their first three songs had huge sound problems. Enslaved's one of my favorite bands ever, so I was digging the show, but their sound guy was frantically moving around dials and levers trying to fix whatever the fuck went wrong. To make matters worse, you couldn't hear the lead guitarist, and the lead guitarist himself tried to fix the sound from the amp on the stage. I know... sometimes guitarists do stuff with their amp, but in this case it was a running battle. This was their set list, like, literally. Their sound guy gave me his copy at the end of their set:

1. Intro from F.O.H. (cd/ipod/mp3)
TO THE COAST

2. ... directly into Ivar guitar-chords as intro for
FUSION OF SENSE AND EARTH

3. ... directly into Ivar guitar intro w/ Grutle talks
RUUN

4. ... directly into Herbrand synth intro w/ Grutle talks
AS FIRE SWEPT CLEAN THE EARTH

5. Grutle talks
GROUND

6. Grutle talks
THE WATCHER

7. -Grutle talks, then Arve guitar intro
ISA

NO EXTRAS (I'm assuming this means Enslaved doesn't get to do any encores)

The first couple of songs, up to As Fire Swept Clean The Earth, were really a wash. You couldn't hear very much except the drums and some guitar, and it felt loud in a bad way. Fire went as badly as possible, with the guitarist finagling his amp, the sound guy trying to fix it, resulting in some feedback and a huge whomp from the bass. Once they hit Ground the band got its shit together and at least the last three songs were pretty amazing, especially Isa. They only played six songs, though! =( Enslaved needs to add Return to Yggdrasil and maybe one of their oldies to that set!

As for Opeth's setlist:

Heir Apparent
Ghost of Perdition
Godhead's Lament
The Leper Affinity
Credence
Hessian Peel
Closure (super fucking deluxe ultra prog metal edition)
The Night and the Silent Water
The Lotus Eater
Deliverance

Opeth was... wow. I hadn't been to a show where a band gave their everything like that in a long, long time. They were SO GOOD. If you're not a fan of their last three albums, yet you've never seen them live, that's really the antidote for "getting" their newer sound. The intensity and heaviness that is perhaps not captured on their albums simply kicks your ass live. Closure had what seemed like an eternity of just Opeth jamming on stage added to it, and the crowd was basically in disbelief at the band's sonic assault on them. I think we earned ourselves Deliverance as an encore, although Opeth may have just done the whole "walk offstage and come back to rev up the crowd for the real last song" act. Akerfelt likes to talk to the crowd, also... every time there was a pause between songs, he would give the crowd music advice and make cracks about NJ / Bon Jovi. And he called himself cocksucker. At least he claims he has a jacket that says as much on the back. Their sound, overall, was excellent. Opeth simply oozes musicianship.

All in all, great show. If Enslaved gets their sound together for the rest of the tour (it was the first show of the tour), it will be one of the best venues this year. Highly recommend.

Something always goes wrong with the sound at Starland Ballroom.

 

[DisplayofCharacter]

@Naglfar: Too many fat old guys IMO. I got up close to the front, maybe third from the railing and I had old and/or tall fat guys pushing on me the entire time, and I'm a pretty big fucking guy so it was getting annoying.

That being said, Opeth was fucking ridiculous. Goddamn great setlist and that playing at the end of Closure blew my fucking mind. It was amazing, like Porcupine Tree or something, fucking great. I thought they sounded tight for the first show of the tour, and though my friend and I noticed a couple inconsistencies on Deliverance (which is probably hard as fuck to play) they sounded pretty fucking spot on. As of now, probably the best show I've been to this year (out of three).

 

[Lina]

Shows I'm looking forward to this month:

May 12 -- Cynic and Brave @ Jaxx, Virginia
May 27 -- Opeth and Enslaved @ 9:30 Club, DC
May 28 -- Days of the New @ Jaxx, Virginia


Doing Deliverance as an encore is so...meh. I never get tired of Demon of the Fall and Drapery Falls as enders. Oh well.

 

[Nikki]

Paganfest was amazing as I expected. I just didn't expect the whole floor to start dancing during Korpiklaani

 

[Naglfar]

Doing Deliverance as an encore is so...meh. I never get tired of Demon of the Fall and Drapery Falls as enders. Oh well.

It's not my favorite Opeth song, either, but I think it's a good live song. I mean, I'd like to hear To Bid You Farewell and the Apostle In Triumph, which are my two faves, but I don't think they'd be all that great for a band trying to get a live crowd going. Then again, they played Credence...

I don't blame them for being heavy on the new songs. I kind of like their last two albums a lot, even if a lot of longtime Opeth fans don't.

 

[Lina]

I don't blame them for being heavy on the new songs. I kind of like their last two albums a lot, even if a lot of longtime Opeth fans don't.

Ha, I just realized that I still think of Drapery Falls as a new song.
I actually do like Watershed, for the record (no pun intended).

 

[Jolty]

I'm hoping to attend:

- May 12th: Paganfest: Primordial, Korpiklaani, Moonsorrow
- June 27th: Slayer and Megadeth (I might have a floor ticket.)
- July 6th: Summer Slaughter Tour: Ensiferum, Suffocation, Necrophagist
- August 18th: Dream Theater
- August 22nd: Woods of Ypres
- September 4-6: Harvesting Hell Open Air, featuring Atheist and Quo Vadis. (SO stoked for this one. Metal + Camping, what could be better?)
- September 17th: Obituary
- September 29th: Stratovarius
- October 2-3: Noctis Valkyries III. I have no idea who will be playing, but it's never disappointing.

 

[DisplayofCharacter]

I'm hoping to attend:
- August 18th: Dream Theater

Not that down with this year's Prog Nation. IMO Europe gets the better lineup.

 

[Dreadful]

They'll play The Twilight Is My Robe one day. Mike does play the middle acoustic bit to the song sometimes...He did it on the tour in 06' and he does it on the Roundhouse DVD (I think).

I'm always ready for an Orchid song live...I didn't see the Blackwater Park tour where they did "Forest Of October"...my bad but since then they haven't played an Orchid one.

Edit: I just remembered 'Under The Weeping Moon'...how can I forget? appy polly logies

 

[Zach.Zhang]

Awesome, Destruction rules!!! From the 3 of German Thrash Metal, Destruction is the best IMO . The guys are quite nice too, try to stay after the show and get a pic with them. Like this. .

Also, Amon Amarth is coming here, it's quite the major event actually. I'm not that much into AA, but they certainly give good shows.

Destruction's show was really terrific, last night.

I planed to have a dinner with my friends before the concert. We bought advance tickets weeks ago.

When we stepped into a restaurant, I suddenly found that I left my damn TICKET in my dorm !!
So I rushed back to get my ticket.
Fortunately, I got there just before the concert started.

There are 3 guest bands : (all of them are thrash metal bands)
Raging Mob (members from China, Germany and USA)
Suffocated (a native band)
Grim Force (from Japan)

They played for about one hour...
After a half-hour sound-checking, Destruction finally showed up.

Intro, Soul Collector, Bestial Invasion, Devolution, Eternal Ban, Life Without Sense, Urge
Metal Discharge, Antichrist-Release From Agony medley, Thrash Till Death....
then, encore :
Curse The Gods, The Butcher Strikes Back, Nailed To The Cross...

After Nailed To The Cross, they started playing Mad Butcher.... Suddenly, Mike stoped playing and said something to Schmier.
He rushed to the backstage... I thought there was something wrong with his guitar ...
So, Marc started doing drum solo...
While we waited for Mike, Schmier started shooting the audience with a DV ,saying that we will be on the new DVD

Then the interpreter said that Mike's not used to chinese food and got a diarrhea.

Marc played another drum solo.
Schmier decided to play the last song with the guitar technician.
It's The Damned (PLASMATICS cover)

This concert lasted for 4 hours. Although there's no Mad Butcher & Total Desaster for us, we really got fun.

 

[Defiance]

Destruction's show was really terrific, last night.

I planed to have a dinner with my friends before the concert. We bought advance tickets weeks ago.

When we stepped into a restaurant, I suddenly found that I left my damn TICKET in my dorm !!
So I rushed back to get my ticket.
Fortunately, I got there just before the concert started.

There are 3 guest bands : (all of them are thrash metal bands)
Raging Mob (members from China, Germany and USA)
Suffocated (a native band)
Grim Force (from Japan)

They played for about one hour...
After a half-hour sound-checking, Destruction finally showed up.

Intro, Soul Collector, Bestial Invasion, Devolution, Eternal Ban, Life Without Sense, Urge
Metal Discharge, Antichrist-Release From Agony medley, Thrash Till Death....
then, encore :
Curse The Gods, The Butcher Strikes Back, Nailed To The Cross...

After Nailed To The Cross, they started playing Mad Butcher.... Suddenly, Mike stoped playing and said something to Schmier.
He rushed to the backstage... I thought there was something wrong with his guitar ...
So, Marc started doing drum solo...
While we waited for Mike, Schmier started shooting the audience with a DV ,saying that we will be on the new DVD

Then the interpreter said that Mike's not used to chinese food and got a diarrhea.

Marc played another drum solo.
Schmier decided to play the last song with the guitar technician.
It's The Damned (PLASMATICS cover)

This concert lasted for 4 hours. Although there's no Mad Butcher & Total Desaster for us, we really got fun.

poor Mike, that's horrible, but at least he was on stage most of the concert. The guys are great, I actually enjoyed a lot talking to them in German .

Oh and I saw Amon Amarth yesterday :

Wow, what a great concert!

I don't really like Amon Amarth, but the band has a very strong presence on stage, and to be honest, kicks ass!

I liked that they were quite humble, very down to earth. I got my poster signed!

I tried to talk Norwegian with the guys, but it seemed they didn't understand me. I talked in English with one of the guys and he was quite kind, I thanked him for doing the signing session even though they looked veeeery tired.


Priceless moment:

This guy comes during the signing session and says to the guys: "See you in Valhalla!!!" . The band was like , and then they said something in Swedish that I didn't quite get. But you can infer hehehehe .

 

[Zach.Zhang]

SuidAkrA confirmed 3 shows in CHINA !!!

Hahhh, melodic death metal.

http://www.suidakra.com/index.php?page=tourdates

14.06.09 Shengyang (CN) - Deutschland-Promenade
16.06.09 Beijing (CN) - Yugong Yishan
17.06.09 Shanghai (CN) - Zhijiang Dream Factory

 

[Dreadful]

Saw Opeth at the Avalon in Hollywood last Sat...fantastic as always and it was good to see them again after a few years. I got my Watershed booklet signed by Fredrick before the show and my Vertebrae booklet signed by both guitarists from Enslaved.

 

[plintus]

Saw mighty Prodigy on Tuesday and Kreator on Sunday.

Dude, Kreator was awesome, but experience was a tad spoiled but really fucking dumb cunts from South America - Colombia, if I'm not mistaken. Really. Fucking. Dumb. I remember there was an idiot or two at the last dt show at the same venue, but looks like they are increasing in numbers... and stupidity. Dude, it was really out of the fucking line, something very wrong with them - yelling stupid shit in Spanish at Kreator (like a fucking cow or something), trying to pull people out of the crowd in front, touching my balls... There were normal dudes, of course, but those few fucks just spoiled the evening.

Worst part - the club doesn't have too much security, and you can easily smuggle in a blade or a gun, which is a little disturbing, even though shit can happen anywhere. Yikes.

But the show was awesome - H.A.T.E. cheerleaders at the end were a nice touch.

And after Prodigy show I can say only that metal fans suck big, no - HUGE donkey dickballs. It was easily the best show I've seen in Electric Factory (nearly 2000 capacity), the floor was full, and it was going up and down from front to back entire show. Yeah, I'll see that for 90 minutes of Opeth - I'll change my mind, but for now - keep on sucking.

The show was amazing - bright, loud, all the hits played, friendly people, ton of good-looking (but barely legal) girls, all the good stuff. Will see them again for sure.

 

[Defiance]

Saw mighty Prodigy on Tuesday and Kreator on Sunday.

Dude, Kreator was awesome, but experience was a tad spoiled but really fucking dumb cunts from South America - Colombia, if I'm not mistaken. Really. Fucking. Dumb. I remember there was an idiot or two at the last dt show at the same venue, but looks like they are increasing in numbers... and stupidity. Dude, it was really out of the fucking line, something very wrong with them - yelling stupid shit in Spanish at Kreator (like a fucking cow or something), trying to pull people out of the crowd in front, touching my balls... There were normal dudes, of course, but those few fucks just spoiled the evening.

Worst part - the club doesn't have too much security, and you can easily smuggle in a blade or a gun, which is a little disturbing, even though shit can happen anywhere. Yikes.

But the show was awesome - H.A.T.E. cheerleaders at the end were a nice touch.

And after Prodigy show I can say only that metal fans suck big, no - HUGE donkey dickballs. It was easily the best show I've seen in Electric Factory (nearly 2000 capacity), the floor was full, and it was going up and down from front to back entire show. Yeah, I'll see that for 90 minutes of Opeth - I'll change my mind, but for now - keep on sucking.

The show was amazing - bright, loud, all the hits played, friendly people, ton of good-looking (but barely legal) girls, all the good stuff. Will see them again for sure.

Were they saying something like "vacas" /bækæs/? If so, yes, they were talking about cows. Which is quite weird .

But I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Kreator, despite releasing that horrible thing called "Hordes of Chaos", is a great live band. I prefer Destruction though .

 

[Zach.Zhang]

Kreator, despite releasing that horrible thing called "Hordes of Chaos", is a great live band. I prefer Destruction though .

Enemy of God is great !
Hordes of Chaos is ok, not that bad..

Kreator will play some gigs in Asia this September. I wish someone could hold a Kreator gig in Beijing...

 

[plintus]

Were they saying something like "vacas" /bækæs/? If so, yes, they were talking about cows. Which is quite weird .

But I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Kreator, despite releasing that horrible thing called "Hordes of Chaos", is a great live band. I prefer Destruction though .

They were screaming something about puta or something like that... that pone particular idiot said it like 30 times before encore, totally retarded (he sounded like a cow, that's what I meant =).

I really like the Hordes - sounds better to me than Enemy of God and has some really powerful tracks (title, Warcurse, To the After..., Amok Run, Destroy What Destroys You, Demon Prince are my favs). And it did, in facet, capture energy and some of the atmosphere of a Kreator show - the way it was recordedd and all.