Went to the Starland Ballroom to check out the Headbanger's Ball 2 tour. Mind you, I'm not a huge fan of any of the bands, but I haven't been to show since PPV in Atlanta and I was jonesing.
Trustkill Records had the following to say about Bleeding Through:
"Bleeding Through has arrived to stake their claim as heir to the legacy of the heavy metal forefathers of yore. Think we're kidding?"
After seeing them, I would say, "Yes" (at least I you're kidding).
I hate to knock anyone who puts forth an honest effort, but these guys just offer nothing musically. They are high energy, especially the singer, but their songs are just plain boring. The vocalist, on the rare occasion when he uses clean vox, makes no attempt to be in any particular key. The drums are dull, the guitars uninteresting, and the keys (cute keyboard player) lost in the mix.
Arch Enemy was solid. They sounded tight, though their mix was not great. Angela brings it live. She sounds identical to the CD. Unfortunately, they lack energy. That being said, they seemed to be the most popular band of the night, although they probably had the fewest number of people who were specifically there to see them. It seemed like the crowd was basically two groups; those there for CoF and those there for Bleeding Through and Himsa. Interestingly, AE seemed to bridge the divide and entertain the largest percentage of the crowd.
Thankfully, Himsa didn't show.
CoF had a really cool stage setup; the drums were on a very high riser to the left and the keys were on an equally high riser to the right. They also had sizable video screens next to each riser. Since they were introduced as "the most erotic band on the planet", I imagine that they intended to use a lot of the erotic imagery that can be found in the artwork that comes with their CDs on those screens. However, given that this was an all-ages show, I'm guessing they weren't allowed to, since there was very little going on on the screens.
CoF opened with "Satyriasis" and followed it immediately with "Guilded Cunt" and "Nemesis". AFter chatting to the crowd a bit, they broke into "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh". However, a third of the way through this song, Dani seemed to have mic problems. Rather than hand it off to his tech, he whipped it against the keyboard riser and destroyed it. They didn't get him a fully working mic until half way through the next song. I watched a five minute screaming match between CoF's sound guy, who was working the board, and the tech who works for the club, all the while trying to figure out how to get Dani's new mic into the mix. It was quite entertaining.
I'm not a huge CoF fan, so I can't give you a song by song set list. It seemed that they played an equal amount number of songs from each of their CDs.
Overall, CoF was entertaining. They were tight musically, and Dani is a real good frontman. It amazes me that he can sing the way he does, without simply spitting up blood. Unfortunately, the rest of the band seemed like hired guns, who found out that they would need to dress goth and wear corpse paint after agreeing to do the tour. They weren't statues mind you, they just seemed no where near as into it as Dani. And given that this was the kickoff of the tour, you would think they would have been pretty pumped.
For those interested in such information, the venue holds 2,800 and was about 40% full.
Zod
Trustkill Records had the following to say about Bleeding Through:
"Bleeding Through has arrived to stake their claim as heir to the legacy of the heavy metal forefathers of yore. Think we're kidding?"
After seeing them, I would say, "Yes" (at least I you're kidding).
I hate to knock anyone who puts forth an honest effort, but these guys just offer nothing musically. They are high energy, especially the singer, but their songs are just plain boring. The vocalist, on the rare occasion when he uses clean vox, makes no attempt to be in any particular key. The drums are dull, the guitars uninteresting, and the keys (cute keyboard player) lost in the mix.
Arch Enemy was solid. They sounded tight, though their mix was not great. Angela brings it live. She sounds identical to the CD. Unfortunately, they lack energy. That being said, they seemed to be the most popular band of the night, although they probably had the fewest number of people who were specifically there to see them. It seemed like the crowd was basically two groups; those there for CoF and those there for Bleeding Through and Himsa. Interestingly, AE seemed to bridge the divide and entertain the largest percentage of the crowd.
Thankfully, Himsa didn't show.
CoF had a really cool stage setup; the drums were on a very high riser to the left and the keys were on an equally high riser to the right. They also had sizable video screens next to each riser. Since they were introduced as "the most erotic band on the planet", I imagine that they intended to use a lot of the erotic imagery that can be found in the artwork that comes with their CDs on those screens. However, given that this was an all-ages show, I'm guessing they weren't allowed to, since there was very little going on on the screens.
CoF opened with "Satyriasis" and followed it immediately with "Guilded Cunt" and "Nemesis". AFter chatting to the crowd a bit, they broke into "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh". However, a third of the way through this song, Dani seemed to have mic problems. Rather than hand it off to his tech, he whipped it against the keyboard riser and destroyed it. They didn't get him a fully working mic until half way through the next song. I watched a five minute screaming match between CoF's sound guy, who was working the board, and the tech who works for the club, all the while trying to figure out how to get Dani's new mic into the mix. It was quite entertaining.
I'm not a huge CoF fan, so I can't give you a song by song set list. It seemed that they played an equal amount number of songs from each of their CDs.
Overall, CoF was entertaining. They were tight musically, and Dani is a real good frontman. It amazes me that he can sing the way he does, without simply spitting up blood. Unfortunately, the rest of the band seemed like hired guns, who found out that they would need to dress goth and wear corpse paint after agreeing to do the tour. They weren't statues mind you, they just seemed no where near as into it as Dani. And given that this was the kickoff of the tour, you would think they would have been pretty pumped.
For those interested in such information, the venue holds 2,800 and was about 40% full.
Zod
