PREFACE: I did not write this review with any form of formal intentions. AT ALL. Frankly I just wanted to write what I could before I pass out.
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Well, what an interesting show.
Winterthrall:
FANTASTIC guitars, but the quality of the vocals were really lacking (which says a lot since I am an absolute vocal whore). From our position, the vocals sounded very artificial – it was as if someone went to the equalizer and just slapped it senseless. Take grating and high pitched black metal vocals and then pass some white noise over it (and add reverb!) – this is essentially what the singer sounded like. Now I've heard artists that use this style; hell, I like certain artists that use this style, but this just didn't come off well to me.
The bassist was one hell of an awkward head-banger too, so awkward that I couldn't stop laughing at him. Do I feel bad about that? No; after all, I'm not the one head-banging like a fucking mechanical cocksucker.
Winterthrall ended with a Pink coversong. It was fucking horrible.
Maybe they made it work, after all I certainly didn't recognize the song (then again, there is absolutely no chance that I would have recognized the original - so this is a moot point). If they didn't say it was a cover I would have assumed that it was just some female fronted melo band. I frankly would have preferred a hilarious, yet entertaining cover; instead they decided to take the rainbow bridge to San Francisco and FAIL all over the place. At least they had the brass to do something like that though, and I can respect that.
Allerseelen:
What is a metal show without some group of shaved headed white men neatly dressed in button-ups? As far as I have read in the last 10 minutes, Allerseelen aren't “neo-nazi's” (as I have read they're more “fascist" than anything), but god damn do they and some of the fans pull off the look (kudos to the mexican guy who dressed like a combination of Castro and Varg Vikernes).
“Militaristic Industrial” was the name of the game here, and boy did it trod on and on and on and on. I would think one could only march in place for so long before getting tired, but it seems I was wrong – the singer did it for what felt like an eternity. Although a majority of the bass-work was enjoyable, it really only stood out due to the combination of its repetitious rhythm and the contrast between the rest of the noises that were produced. At one point my dear friend Sean and I were wondering if we could get several of our dollars back for having to sit through this shit. The whole genre of neo-folk is pretty hit or miss with me, so my opinions are a bit skewed (albeit not in a particular direction); honestly though, the first thought that popped in my head was that this band would probably hold as much of my attention as Laibach did on my first and last hearings – turns out I was right. All the lyrics were in German, so I couldn't understand a single word; for example, this is what I heard for the most of the songs: VAS STRAH SNIGGLES! Euuuugh! EUUUUGH! Australlia... Ugh! Auuuustraaaalia ugh (repeat).
I must admit though that this was the only group I've seen where a skipping pit formed during the songs. Somewhere between 10 & 20 individuals just skipping in a circle being as merry as one can be while skipping in a damned circle. Some were even holding other individuals and swinging them around the floor as if they were mops. After the second song though, I too preferred to have my face slammed and wiped all over the floor as to get away from this band.
Agalloch:
Well, it was certainly worth the wait. Many of the songs were great and the band had a really good energy. Some oddities did occur, like the sound levels between songs; I don't understand how tracks played from The Mantle could be so much more crisper and coherent than the material played off of Ashes. The differences were astounding, several times did certain melodies literally disappear mid song from one instrument being drowned out only to reappear stronger later on. I mean christ I could see them playing the notes, but the sound just wasn't high enough in the mix in certain sections. Another thing that was odd was the difference in mic clarity: you would figure that they would have given Haughm the mic that was perfectly leveled since he is the lead singer. I was completely blown away by the tonal change and clarity of Anderson's vocals the few times he got on the microphone. It could be that he is a stronger vocalist, but it could equally just be true that someone fucked up the levels.
Other than those small complaints though, the show was a damn good one. Hopefully Agalloch will come back with some more bands that have some similarities. Perhaps Solstafir, Belenos, Fen, October Falls, Les Discrets, etc.