Soulfly with Skindred- Live
London Astoria, Febuary 7th
By James Willcock
As way of support, Skindred take to the stage. For those of you dont know, this band play the frankly unique fusion of reggae, dub, punk and metal, with a few drum and bass drums loops and sound effects sprinkled on top for good measure. The band themselves have termed their music ragga-punk-metal and dub-metal, possibly just to annoy anyone who tries to pigeonhole them and fails miserably. If youre not already convinced, trust someone whos been listening to them for going on four years and seen them live five times (including this gig). As Tony The Tiger would say, theyre great. Some may whinge along the lines of, theyre not that heavy or, theyre not really metal, but to be honest, anyone that small minded is simply denying themselves an aural joy.
Sucking up to the band aside, I was curious to know how they were going to win over a crowd gathered to see a significantly heavier band. Half a second to the simple yet bludgeoning riff of "Bruises", probably their heaviest song, I was convinced. In trademark, lets-fuck-with-the-crowd-a-bit style, they stop playing just before the song hits, and Benji Webbe (vocals) encourages everyone to get ready, before effortlessly starting up where they left off. The set, as usual, is executed perfectly, and takes in crowd pleasers such as "Set It Off", "Pressure", "Babylon", "World Domination" and "Nobody". Shortly before the end of the set, Benji asks the crowd, Have Skindred made some friends here tonight? From the noisy response, Id say yes.
I do have a few small criticisms of the set. Firstly, the band didnt actually play that many songs, seeming to opt more for the Skindred standard of improvising on existing songs and playing the last phrase of a song again when the crowd thinks its finished, instead of trying to cram more songs into the rather short set time. But then, that is their style. Secondly, the lack of use of Benjis box of noises was noticeable to me; along with the lower than usual level of interaction with the crowd (although by no means was there none, including a little call and answer sing along mid-set), again probably due to do with the short set time. Thirdly, a true die hard fan gripe, in that all the songs played were taken from the Babylon album, so Ive heard them all done live before. Why dont they play the old stuff like "Brainkilla" (one of my personal favourites), or test out some new stuff? Again, I feel they were restricted by the fact they were in support. Minor whinging aside, this band, as always were awesome. Bring on their own headlining shows!
Now for the main event. Having seen Soulfly once before, at Download 2004, I wasnt quite sure what to expect from them live, as they were, for reasons best known to the organisers, only given a 30 minute set at 1pm, and were limited accordingly, in a similar way to that described above. Well, Im more than happy to report that when given their own set, they really go for it. With the new album, Dark Ages, released recently, I was expecting to hear a bias towards the new material. They did open with "Babylon" the first (full) track from Dark Ages, before tracking back through time via "Living Sacrifice" from Prophecy, "Seek n Strike" from 3, to the now standard inclusion of the Sepultura classic, "Roots Bloody Roots". However, I was more than pleasantly surprised to not only to hear an almost completely even mix of material from the Soulfly back catalogue (three songs from every album, except for two songs from 3 and four from Dark Ages), but also, in addition to "Roots Bloody Roots", versions of "Refuse/Resist" and even "Inner Self", a treat for me personally being an fan of the older, thrash style Sepultura. I believe this is the oldest Sepultura Max Cavalera has ever played with Soulfly, possibly reflecting the fact that Soulfly have headed towards a more stripped down, thrashier sound on Dark Ages than other recent releases. Or maybe he just felt like playing a quality old song.
As you may have guessed from the fact that the set was a beefy 18 (or so) songs, it was nothing short of mammoth, with very little in way of respite for those moshing (trust me). The set lasted an hour and a quarter, with the interlude before the encore and final song (the classic "Eye For An Eye") simply consisted of the band walking behind the P.A. equipment for maybe a minute. Other than that, the only vaguely relaxing periods came with the couple of minutes of quieter, guitar driven mid section of one song, the drum solo between songs early on in the set, and Maxs Berimbau intro to another song. There was also one other pause in the music as a random member of the audience was invited up on stage to join the band in a tribal style drumming session, as large toms were brought out on stage and a rhythm set up.
Furthermore, Maxs stepson Ritchie appeared to fill in Fred Dursts parts on "Bleed"(and frankly, did a better job), followed by the guest appearance I was certain would happen, with Skindreds Benji appearing in a cloud of smoke next to the drum kit, just in time to unleash his vocals as "Prejudice" truly kicked in, which was spliced together with "Quilombo" (the two tracks that Benji originally provided vocals for on the self-titled Soulfly album).
All in all, this Soulfly were excellent, with a pitch perfect set both in length, song selection and playing. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, with a least one big mosh pit that hardly ever stopped, with people of all ages throwing themselves into with little regard for personal safety (the way it should be). Overall, this gig was the best Ive been to in a while, and would easily rate in my top ten gigs ever. Excellent support, excellent main set, even the crowd were good. I seriously advise anyone whos ever vaguely enjoyed Soulfly and/or live shows to catch them if you can.
9/10
London Astoria, Febuary 7th
By James Willcock
As way of support, Skindred take to the stage. For those of you dont know, this band play the frankly unique fusion of reggae, dub, punk and metal, with a few drum and bass drums loops and sound effects sprinkled on top for good measure. The band themselves have termed their music ragga-punk-metal and dub-metal, possibly just to annoy anyone who tries to pigeonhole them and fails miserably. If youre not already convinced, trust someone whos been listening to them for going on four years and seen them live five times (including this gig). As Tony The Tiger would say, theyre great. Some may whinge along the lines of, theyre not that heavy or, theyre not really metal, but to be honest, anyone that small minded is simply denying themselves an aural joy.
Sucking up to the band aside, I was curious to know how they were going to win over a crowd gathered to see a significantly heavier band. Half a second to the simple yet bludgeoning riff of "Bruises", probably their heaviest song, I was convinced. In trademark, lets-fuck-with-the-crowd-a-bit style, they stop playing just before the song hits, and Benji Webbe (vocals) encourages everyone to get ready, before effortlessly starting up where they left off. The set, as usual, is executed perfectly, and takes in crowd pleasers such as "Set It Off", "Pressure", "Babylon", "World Domination" and "Nobody". Shortly before the end of the set, Benji asks the crowd, Have Skindred made some friends here tonight? From the noisy response, Id say yes.
I do have a few small criticisms of the set. Firstly, the band didnt actually play that many songs, seeming to opt more for the Skindred standard of improvising on existing songs and playing the last phrase of a song again when the crowd thinks its finished, instead of trying to cram more songs into the rather short set time. But then, that is their style. Secondly, the lack of use of Benjis box of noises was noticeable to me; along with the lower than usual level of interaction with the crowd (although by no means was there none, including a little call and answer sing along mid-set), again probably due to do with the short set time. Thirdly, a true die hard fan gripe, in that all the songs played were taken from the Babylon album, so Ive heard them all done live before. Why dont they play the old stuff like "Brainkilla" (one of my personal favourites), or test out some new stuff? Again, I feel they were restricted by the fact they were in support. Minor whinging aside, this band, as always were awesome. Bring on their own headlining shows!
Now for the main event. Having seen Soulfly once before, at Download 2004, I wasnt quite sure what to expect from them live, as they were, for reasons best known to the organisers, only given a 30 minute set at 1pm, and were limited accordingly, in a similar way to that described above. Well, Im more than happy to report that when given their own set, they really go for it. With the new album, Dark Ages, released recently, I was expecting to hear a bias towards the new material. They did open with "Babylon" the first (full) track from Dark Ages, before tracking back through time via "Living Sacrifice" from Prophecy, "Seek n Strike" from 3, to the now standard inclusion of the Sepultura classic, "Roots Bloody Roots". However, I was more than pleasantly surprised to not only to hear an almost completely even mix of material from the Soulfly back catalogue (three songs from every album, except for two songs from 3 and four from Dark Ages), but also, in addition to "Roots Bloody Roots", versions of "Refuse/Resist" and even "Inner Self", a treat for me personally being an fan of the older, thrash style Sepultura. I believe this is the oldest Sepultura Max Cavalera has ever played with Soulfly, possibly reflecting the fact that Soulfly have headed towards a more stripped down, thrashier sound on Dark Ages than other recent releases. Or maybe he just felt like playing a quality old song.
As you may have guessed from the fact that the set was a beefy 18 (or so) songs, it was nothing short of mammoth, with very little in way of respite for those moshing (trust me). The set lasted an hour and a quarter, with the interlude before the encore and final song (the classic "Eye For An Eye") simply consisted of the band walking behind the P.A. equipment for maybe a minute. Other than that, the only vaguely relaxing periods came with the couple of minutes of quieter, guitar driven mid section of one song, the drum solo between songs early on in the set, and Maxs Berimbau intro to another song. There was also one other pause in the music as a random member of the audience was invited up on stage to join the band in a tribal style drumming session, as large toms were brought out on stage and a rhythm set up.
Furthermore, Maxs stepson Ritchie appeared to fill in Fred Dursts parts on "Bleed"(and frankly, did a better job), followed by the guest appearance I was certain would happen, with Skindreds Benji appearing in a cloud of smoke next to the drum kit, just in time to unleash his vocals as "Prejudice" truly kicked in, which was spliced together with "Quilombo" (the two tracks that Benji originally provided vocals for on the self-titled Soulfly album).
All in all, this Soulfly were excellent, with a pitch perfect set both in length, song selection and playing. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, with a least one big mosh pit that hardly ever stopped, with people of all ages throwing themselves into with little regard for personal safety (the way it should be). Overall, this gig was the best Ive been to in a while, and would easily rate in my top ten gigs ever. Excellent support, excellent main set, even the crowd were good. I seriously advise anyone whos ever vaguely enjoyed Soulfly and/or live shows to catch them if you can.
9/10
