Sounds of the Underground

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

So, the "premiere" tour of the top "metal" and "hardcore" bands kicks off again this year, and yours truly is going to the July 14th show in Mansfield, MA. Now, this is a good idea for a tour, because most of the bands on the bill - both this year and last - were middleground bands in terms of popularity in the heavy music style. They were mainstream enough that the elitist metalheads knew of them long ago, but underground enough so that your average rock radio listener would think that their third album was their first. However, much like last year, this year's lineup is full of shit bands and is accented by a few good ones. Let's run down each one, aye?

 

AS I LAY DYING are this year's headliners. They're emokids that use double-kick and play in Drop-D. That's fucking it. I've hated them since the first time I heard them, and being forced to cover their songs "Forever" and "94 Hours" when I was in TDR was a big reason why I flipped on them a few times, causing them to kick me out.

 

IN FLAMES is a band I've never really cared for. I've never really cared for melodic death metal too much, though, since the entire point of death metal in the first place was to be brutal and rhythm-based. Melody is a staple of pop music, which death metal was the antithesis of. A few of the songs written by In Flames are really good, some even great, but most of it just seems pretty lame to me. That said...everything from Reroute to Remain until this latest album (so that's 2 or 3 albums, IIRC) is absolute shit. The latest one isn't that bad, but it's ultimately disappointing to see a band that was once the standard bearer for melodic death metal (Gothenburg, as the style is referenced as, seeing as how Gothenburg is the town where the majority of the old-school melodic death bands called home) break down into, essentially, music for fans of KoRn and Trapt.

 

Then there's TRIVIUM, who show a lot of promise in their heaviness and well-crafted songs (music-wise)...but are disappointing due to their reliance on the vocalist's terrible growl and mediocre singing voice. Every chorus of every song is sang, and the other parts are screamed/growled poorly. It's as if a bunch of kids got together after listening to Slipknot and 80's Metallica, and decided to write their own material.

 

CANNIBAL CORPSE brings the old-school death metal brutality as they support their new album Kill. Everything that can be said about Cannibal Corpse is true: it's grating, redundant, and oftentimes hilarious, but still heavy-as-fuck. I can't wait to get my ass kicked in a Corpse pit.

 

TERROR is almost as bad as Bury Your Dead in the sense that they're a second-rate Hatebreed, who are terrible by themselves, but at least Terror has some catchy riffs and breakdowns.

 

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER are probably the best of the modern death metal bands to come out of the States, just because their music is heavy, brutal, and only slightly melodic. Plus...they're pretty damn complex. Good musicians, the vocalist has a wonderful range of growls, and I hear they're just downright amazing live.

 

BEHEMOTH sucks, get the fuck over it. Pseudo-black metal, pseudo-death metal...they're like Cradle of Filth without the musicianship and well-written lyrics of Dani Filth (the one credit I will give Dani is that he does have a way with words).

 

THE CHARIOT are alright, I guess. Almost fashioncore, almost thrash, pretty hardcore...and they don't take themselves seriously to boot. No verdict, because they almost remind me of Darkest Hour, who I've been getting into more and more lately.

 

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD is a modern death metal band that my girlfriend likes a bit, and I'm indifferent towards. They're sorta like the modern-day equivalent of Testament (to how Testament was in the old 80's speed/thrash metal scene): a good band, but ultimately not a standout band.

 

And, of course, GWAR makes their second appearance on the festival as the "special guest" band, which means they'll go on halfway through the show, play for a half an hour or less, and put on amazing show. This is the band I'm most excited to see on the tour, since I've been listening to Gwar for 8 or 9 years now, and have never seen them live. I almost went to the Gwar/Misfits show in Worcester back in 2k, but I ran into some trouble at school (suspension), got grounded, and had to miss it.

 

As for the other three scheduled bands, who are only playing certain dates each...

 

CONVERGE is pretty lame hardcore that I haven't been able to get into, despite my growing affinity over the last year or so for hardcore.

 

EVERGREEN TERRACE is alright, but nothing special. They're worth a listen if they're being played, but aren't worth seeking out.

 

HORSE THE BAND is...meh.

 

Overall...sounds like a better lineup than last year due to a major lack of Lamb of God, but I wish Clutch was on the bill again. I just got into Clutch last summer after SotU had passed by, so I'd be interested in seeing 'em.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Just go see GWAR or Dave Brockie Experience on their own, it'd be more fun. The rest of that lineup is shit, except Converge. I've also never heard Horse The Band, though they sound promising.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Ok, so I just heard "Necrosadistic Warning" off of that new Cannibal Corpse album. They aren't even trying anymore.

[snuffbox 0]

Lot better lineup than the ozzfest.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Evergreen Terrace is from my town. They have an all-covers side project called xralphwiggumx. (Which is true and not just me making a Rando-stab at humor.)

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Just go see GWAR or Dave Brockie Experience on their own, it'd be more fun. The rest of that lineup is shit, except Converge. I've also never heard Horse The Band, though they sound promising.

Yes, but it's much easier to see them now and have the added benefit of seeing them later on their own (should they even come up here again anytime soon). And yeah, post-Vile Corpse isn't worth much...but, then again, Corpse was never worth a WHOLE lot to begin with. Good shit, though, and like it or not, they're icons of extreme metal.

 

I wish Darkest Hour was playing in MA on the Strhess Tour. Instead, I'm just going to see Shadows Fall (headlining) and maybe Suffocation. If I can get a set time for Suffocation, and it's right before Shadows Fall? I'm seeing 'em. Every other band on the Strhess Tour is pretty fucking horrible besides Shadows Fall, Suffocation, and Darkest Hour.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Probably a different tour, but Suffocation is touring with Hypocrisy this fall.

[snuffbox 0]

Is that the Fear Factory tour?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Yes, and I have no fucking idea why they're on the bill.

[snuffbox 0]

Because theyre famous! Cant take me apart!

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Probably a different tour, but Suffocation is touring with Hypocrisy this fall.

Aye, different entirely. Strhess Tour ends on August 12th in Worcester.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Got there early, around noon or so. Doors weren't 'til 1, and the show wasn't until 2, but me and Steph ran into a few of our friends in the parking lot and did a tiny bit of tailgating (had some burgers and sausages, but no drinking for us due to the 90+ degree weather).

 

Got in and grabbed water, then sat down and met these two cool cats Paul and Jay. Both are into nu-metal AND metal, both seem kinda dumb, but they were funny and, overall, nice dudes. They're looking for a guitarist, and their old band (they were handing out CDs) sound like a mix of S.O.D. and Static-X, if that makes sense. Sorta like hardcore/thrash meets nu-metal, you dig? It ain't that bad. But I digress.

 

1. THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD

We missed them opening for Bodom and Chimaira in February, IIRC, at Lupo's in Providence, and they're...alright. Nothing special, but a lot better than half of the bands on the tour. Especially the next one.

 

2. HORSE THE BAND

Fucking sucked. We were still chilling in the picnic area (which the Massholes will remember as the Chevy Stage, or 2nd stage, at the Tweeter Center, since SotU was held in the parking lot right behind the Chevy Stage) with Paul and Jay, and all we heard was double-kick, some weird Zelda-ish music on keyboards, lame screaming, and the band members telling awful jokes in between songs. I'm pretty sure they got boo'd off the fucking stage.

 

3. THE CHARIOT

Again, still in the picnic area, but they were fun to listen to. Paul and Jay got up to get food, and me and Steph refilled our cups of water at the bubbler by the restrooms (near the entrance), but they seemed decent enough. Something goes missing when hardcore/thrash/nu-core/whatever the fuck you wanna call it is played outside to a large number of people as opposed to a small club to a select few. Nothing too terrible.

 

Ran into my buddy Drew and a few of his friends, and spit water on him. Joked around, he gave me a knife-edge, and then we said we'd run into each other on the inside.

 

4. BEHEMOTH

You know, I'm not a fan, but let me say this: they're fucking AMAZING live. I may actually start listening to them just because of how much presence and power they had on stage. I only knew one of the songs, I don't even remember the title, but it's their 'hit" that's played on OnDemand and Headbanger's Ball all the time.

 

Heard from this chick I graduated with Taylor - who's kinda cute, but has a saggy-ass and likes to preach about metal as if she's been into it forever when she just got into it in the last year because of her roommates - that Gwar was signing shit at 3 at the Jagermeister booth, so during Behemoth's set (which was at 3) we waited in line. It was just Beefcake, so we got a SotU tour poster signed by him, and Steph got a picture with him. Seemed genuinely nice and thankful to see a lot of people that were there to see his band (I saw more Gwar shirts than any other band on the tour, and there was a SHITLOAD of fashioncore fucks there just to see Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying), and talked with this kid about how Trivium is lame.

They were signing shit at their merch booth, and the kid bought a Trivium poster earlier before coming and wanted them to sign it, but they refused because he didn't buy a $10 poster from their booth. He went on this rant about how everybody thinks Trivium is amazing when they have a couple of good songs, and that's it, and I was happy to see somebody that came with two nu-metallers wearing KoRn shirts that actually seemed like he knew something about REAL metal.

 

5. THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

Fucking insanity. Fucking hilarity. Fucking brutality. Amazing. Flat-out amazing. The frontman (fuck if I remember his name) joked about how they were all finally old enough to be sponsored by Jagermeister, and then I noticed Cannibal Corpse was set to sign shit at 3:45.

 

Waited in line with Steph to get Cannibal Corpse's autographs, and they were all EXTREMELY polite. Like...unbecoming of a classic death metal band polite. Corpsegrinder looked EVERYBODY straight in the eye, shook their hand, and said "thank you for coming out." Alex shook everybody's hand and smiled, and the rest of the guys were pretty damn polite as well.

Looked over at the Gwar merch tent, and Balsac and...the other guitarist, I always forget his fucking name...were signing. Rushed over there, and 4 out of the 5 members of In Flames were in their booth (right next to Gwar's) signing shit as well. Got our Gwar autographs, and then got our In Flames autographs. The first guy was a fucking prick, looked like he hated being there, and just scribble in a ballpoint pen. It was a bunch of circles and a line, not even in any decipherable language. Prick. In Flames has sucked for a while anyway, but dammit.

 

6. TERROR

Hurray for lame Hatebreed-wannabe STRAIGHTFUCKINEDGEbloodHONORdestiny bullshit hardcore! They sucked.

 

Went back to the picnic area for more water, and hung out with my buddy Burton. I always see him at shows now, which is cool because he lives down the Cape and I don't see him that often at all.

 

7. CONVERGE

Sucked.

 

Noticed that Gwar was coming on soon, so me and Steph rushed to the stage as Converge's set ended, and then ran into - lo and behold - Ilya and Paco, former members of TDR, and likely the deciding votes on booting me out. They were actually weary-as-FUCK at talking to me, but whatever. TDR broke up because Ilya and Paco couldn't stand Ricky anymore, and the drummer of their new band broke his hand over Ricky's head while he beat the shit out of him. I laughed at that.

 

8. GWAR

Fucking AMAZING. My first Gwar show, and I only knew two of the songs ("Bring Back the Bomb" and another one off War Party), but that's because they only play their heavier shit live. Why no "Saddam-A-Go-Go"? Or "Nitro Burning Funny Bong"? Or even "Fucking An Animal"? AND WHY NO "SICK OF YOU"?! Dammit. But I digress. Amazing show, and the Nazi Pope, George W., a T-Rex, the "President of the Gwar Fan Club," and a Piggy 5-0 were killed. My white Gwar shirt that I got as soon as I came into the parking lot looked tie-dyed from the fake blood and the blue-ish green shit they were squirting into the crowd.

Steph got a crowd surfer right into her temple, so she grabbed the guy's sack, squeezed it as hard as she could, and twisted it a little bit. I fucking hate crowdsurfers for that very reason. Injuries via mosh can be prevented by staying out of the pit, but crowdsurfers just fuck up everybody's day. Assholes. Like my friend Suzy's older brother Burak always says, "just punch every crowdsurfer that comes near you in the dick."

 

Steph felt really light headed, so we got waters and food and sat down during Cannibal Corpse.

 

9. CANNIBAL CORPSE

Brutal. Played "Hammer Smashed Face," "Devoured by Vermin," "Fucked With a Knife," "Decency Defied," "Make Them Suffer," and a few other tunes. Steph still wasn't feeling that good, so we decided to say fuck off to the rest of the bands (the only one she even cared about seeing that was left - since we both really came for Gwar - was In Flames anyway) and left.

 

Though I almost got a Killswitch Engage shirt, even if I don't care for them in the least. It's a fucking clever shirt. The front of it reads "KSE" in the ECW-style letters (same font, red, with the barbed wire silhouettes in them) and "EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP METAL" beneath it. The back was something similar, but I forget what it said exactly.

 

Got home, showered, got some food, and then slept. Fell asleep at 10:30 or so, the earliest I've fallen asleep on a Friday night in YEARS.

 

Overall, fun experience, and I just wish it wasn't so fucking hot.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

So it's almost summer again, which means Sounds of the Underground is coming back for a third time. And, well, there's been an announced lineup!

 

Headlined by...

GWAR: Of course! Beyond Hell may be a disappointment critically (though I actually find it more fun to listen to than War Party, even if it does lack the awesomeness of a "Bring Back the Bomb" or a "Krosstika"), but Gwar is always good live. Saw them twice after SotU last year - once at Rock and Shock in Worcester, and once at Lupo's in Providence - and had great times. Hopefully they'll play more shit off of Scumdogs, especially since I think a live version of "Salamanizer" and playing "Slaughterama" live again (BRING BACK SLEAZY P. MARTINI A.S.A.P.) would kick ass for the fans who weren't around when Gwar started, instead of sticking to Violence Has Arrived, War Party, and Beyond Hell.

 

Mystery Artist (possibly Shadows Fall): I'm really hoping it is Shadows Fall. Threads of Life is very "meh," not due to the production like some reviews have said but rather that all of the energy that was in the band for Of One Blood and the last half of The War Within was lacking entirely. If it's not Shadows Fall, who I haven't seen in nearly 4 years, then it better be somebody that could hold Gwar's thongs, because otherwise there'll probably be some pissed-off metalheads.

 

Chimaira: Lame-ass former nu-metallers who have decided to discover metalcore and play a generic version of it. This shit was cool...when Sepultura did it first back in the early-to-mid 90's.

 

Every Time I Die: Decent metalcore band. More straight-up hardcore at times than metalcore, and more straight-up metal at times than metalcore, so...yeah. Solid band, never seen 'em live, could be tight.

 

Also...

Necro: The only rappers who could possibly play a metal festival and not get boo'd relentlessly, and possibly murdered, would be Necro and Ill Bill. Death rap, motherfuckers. Necro's always throwing out metal references in his songs, even having metal legends appear to provide music (rather than samples) for his songs.

 

Darkest Hour: My love for Darkest Hour has grown exponentially since I started to really get into 'em last year. Undoing Ruin was a solid album, if not a little too melodic for a band that considers itself the next evolution of thrash metal, but the chance to hear "Oklahoma," "The Sadist Nation," "So Sedated, So Secure," and HOPEFULLY "The Last Dance Massacre" live? Fuck yes!

 

Amon Amarth: VIKING METAL INFERNAL HAILS!!! \m/ \m/

 

Job For A Cowboy: The "MySpace" metal band. Decent, nice grindcore stuff added to it, but...meh. Not bad for a listen here and there, but not amazing like most people think. Though maybe I just need to listen to it more.

 

The Acacia Strain: Generic metalcore. Meh.

 

The Devil Wears Prada: I've read about them in Terrorizer, never HEARD them, and I don't remember if the reviews in Terrorizer were any good.

 

Heavy Heavy Low Low: Que?

 

The Number Twelve Looks Like You: You know, I'm sick of bands whose names are probably longer than the thought process put into their songs. I'm waiting for a band to have a full paragraph for a name.

 

Goatwhore: Heehe...this'll be fun with all of the fashioncore that's going to be on this show (though not nearly as much as there was last year).

 

This Is Hell: Never heard of 'em. Might be good, might be amazing, or they might be God-awful.

 

2 Cents: See "This is Hell."

 

So yeah. Fuck Ozzfest, SotU kicks its fucking ass for the third year in a row! GWAR!!! FUCKING GWAR!!!!

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Heavy Heavy Low Low is really fun albeit not especially good. I'm seeing them live later this week.

[NoCalMike 0]

Amon Amarth BRING IT for the genre of Viking Metal.....they are fucking great!!!!

 

Suffocation/Skinless/Immolation in the fall....that is something to look forward too!!!

[Hawk 34 0]

Here are the tour dates, just to add to it. Looks like it's another trip to Columbus this time around.

 

 

 

Fri/Jul-06 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom

Sat/Jul-07 Corpus Christi, TX Concrete St. Amphitheatre

Sun/Jul-08 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theatre

Tue/Jul-10 Orlando, FL UCF Arena

Wed/Jul-11 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues

Fri/Jul-13 Worcester, MA Palladium

Sat/Jul-14 Sayreville, NY Starland Ballroom Outside

Sun/Jul-15 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory

Mon/Jul-16 Winston-Salem, NC Millennium Center

Wed/Jul-18 Toronto, ON Koolhaus Complex

Thu/Jul-19 Detroit, MI State Theatre

Fri/Jul-20 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom

Sat/Jul-21 Cleveland, OH Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre At Tower City

Sun/Jul-22 Columbus, OH Lifestyle Communities Pavilion

Mon/Jul-23 Chicago, IL Congress Theatre

Tue/Jul-24 Minneapolis, MN Myth

Fri/Jul-27 Calgary, AB Macewan Hall

Sat/Jul-28 Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference Center

Mon/Jul-30 Portland, OR Expo Hall

Wed/Aug-01 Salt Lake City, UT Salt Air Pavilion

Fri/Aug-03 San Jose, CA Events Center @ San Jose Univ.

Sat/Aug-04 Irvine, CA Irvine Meadows Side Stage

Sun/Aug-05 Mesa, AZ Mesa Amphitheatre

Mon/Aug-06 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues

Wed/Aug-08 Denver, CO Fillmore

[Guest jonnymack]

Finally caught GWAR on this past tour and it was damn good show. They kick ass and of course the story is totally twisted. Great stuff, you won't be disappointed in them.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I saw Horse The Band live once. I wish I hadn't.

[NoCalMike 0]

The Summer Slaughter Tour is coming to a local club here....Doors at $3:00pm

 

Bands include,

Necrophagist, Decapitated, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, The Faceless, As Blood Runs Black, Ion Dissonance, Arsis, Beneath the Massacre...more...

 

 

Also NILE is coming the following month with a cool looking Tawainese Black Metal Band named Chthonic

[Steviekick 0]

Gwar/Amon Amarth/Darkest Hour is enough reason to go to SOTU. Shadows Fall just puts it over the top.

 

I think the Nile/Chtonic show your talking about is an offdate for them, since they are both on Ozzfest.

[NoCalMike 0]

I wonder if any of these festivals will feature a Wall of Death........

[snuffbox 0]

Testament will play direct support to Gwar on the July 14th New Jersey stop of the tour.

Mushroomhead will close out the July 21st Cleveland, OH date and will also appear on the bill from July 22nd through to July 24th.

Suicidal Tendencies will close out the tour from August 03rd through to August 05th.

Lamb Of God, Hatebreed and Behemoth will all join the tour for the August 11th Louisville, KY stop.

 

-theprp.com

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

So yeah. SotU sucked a dick.

 

The opening band was GOATWHORE, who are fucking solid and put on a decent enough live show. A lot of energy on stage, not much movement, and the bassist's ridiculous wardrobe (fucking Road Warrior-esque shoulderpads) was chuckle-inducing, but solid enough. I screamed for an Acid Bath song, but their set was limited. Plus I'm not sure if half of the people there (LOTS of teenagers and Juggalo's to see Necro) knew who the fuck Acid Bath are/were.

 

Then THIS IS HELL took the stage. Generic fashioncore in the ways of Shai Hulud and Converge. Fucking atrocious and boring. It didn't help that the PA had the volume up WAAAAAY too high, to the point where it was hard to hear ANYTHING clearly.

 

Me and Steph then left as they started to allow re-entry (only took the cunts an hour and a half or so to start allowing it), and just hung around the area smoking butts before we went back to my car to chill until 4:15ish when Amon Amarth took the stage. We missed HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW, THE ACACIA STRAIN, and some other God-awful band I'm glad I forget the name of.

 

We got back in just as AMON AMARTH were taking the stage, and headed to the balcony of the Palladium (saving our energy for Shadows Fall and Gwar). Fucking great live set, just like the last time we saw them opening for In Flames a year and a half ago.

 

Went downstairs to smoke a BUTT, then came back in just as DARKEST HOUR took the stage. Manic stage presence that would work a lot better in a smaller club (which says something, considering the Palladium ain't that big), and their set was cut short due to the band before Amon Amarth going for too long (or so I overheard). Everything they played was either brand new or off of Undoing Ruin, aside from closing with "The Sadist Nation," so I was disappointed in that. I was hoping for at least "Oklahoma" or, if lucky, closing with "The Last Dance Massacre" (which has become my favorite DH tune), but no. At least we got "Convalescence" and "Sound the Surrender."

 

Saw a sign that Gwar was signing autographs at their merch booth, and asked some of the guys working there, who then said they were signing at the Hot Topic table upstairs. Go there, wait in line for a few minutes, then find out that the Hot Topic table has Heavy Heavy Low Low, so we go back downstairs, and they say Gwar signed shit at 5 and not 5:30. Go back upstairs to the balcony after getting a beer, and find out that Gwar cancelled their signings for the day which was uber fucking lame. Argue with some of the PETA fucks trying to get me to sign a petition to stop killing chickens with hammers to the head (no shit: that's what they had the petition for), and then tell the faggot to stop bothering me before I bashed HIS head in (later I wished I'd told him that my family owned a bucher shop that was vandalized and partially burnt down by some PETA eco-terrorist swine, but alas), and then back to the balcony.

 

Just in time for JOB FOR A COWBOY, as I call them: Skinless without talent. Generic death with some grind thrown in, and the only person with any minute amount of stage presence in the band is the vocalist. Lame trendy death, and I'm wishing I brought my iPod so I could listen to some Corpse or something to kill the time until Gwar.

 

Stage hands came out after JFAC and set up a drumset, a keyboard, and the guitar rack at the side of the stage...and then a turntable. Out comes NECRO. Necro's decent, Ill Bill is much better, and me and Steph figure that he'll have a backing band since he constantly samples metal and hardcore riffs. Nope. Just his DJ and a back-up screamer. It was an amazing show on the level of Lesnar/Goldberg from WMXX on everything that was WRONG with the event. Necro kept screaming for people to mosh, or as he called it "pit" (never knew that "pit" was a verb), and the ENTIRE balcony stood up at once halfway through his set flipping double birds. About 25% of the floor cheered for him after each song, and the rest of the crowd boo'd him mercilessly. It was amazing in every which way.

 

CHIMAIRA next, and they're boring as fuck. At least the light show during their set was entertaining. I watched the drummer for the whole set, and all he ever did was hit the snare, constant sloppy double-kick, crash, and high-hat. That's IT. And he had a decent-sized kit, too. Fucking lame.

 

After that, the banner for EVERY TIME I DIE was raised, who I'd never seen live but heard a few songs by and never liked or disliked it, plus I'd heard they were great live so I was a little excited. Fucking ATROCIOUS. To the point of ridicule, even. Horrible, horrible, horrible shit. Set ends, me and Steph are happy, and Shadows Fall is up next.

 

We make our way down to the floor from the upper balcony, and then wait. And wait. And wait. It seems too long.

 

SHADOWS FALL comes out and kicks things off with some tune from Threads of Life that reeks of mediocrity (take your pick), and then dedicate their next song to all of their "old-school fans." Cue "Stepping Outside the Circle," and the biggest circle pit I've seen at the Palladium since Slayer in '02. I'm left wondering how a song from their third, and up until Threads their worst, album is for the "old-school fans," but I digress. More songs I don't care about next, and I keep yelling in between songs for something, ANYTHING, off of Of One Blood. I even get a few stares when yelling "Threads of Life fucking sucks you sell-out bastards," but nothing from the band themselves. Whatever, fuck them. Decent live, nowhere near as good as they used to be, and the music sucks. Fuck them up their stupid sell-out fucking asses. Brian Fair, fuck you. You dreadlocked yuppie vegan scumbag. Go get a fucking ego somewhere else, because the only talent in your fucking band, Jon Donais, is sloppy as shit live. Play your fucking Journey-esque "metal" somewhere else, pal, because your original diehard fanbase can't stand you anymore. There's really no other term to describe Shadows Fall besides "sell-out," and that's me trying my hardest to find another one. Oh, wait, found one: corporate fucks. If I wasn't convinced of this before I am now, but Unearth is the only band of the supposed "New Wave of American Heavy Metal" that isn't named Mastodon that's worth a fucking shit.

 

And then there's Gwar. The victims of this evening's show were the kid who shot up Virginia Tech, Jewcifer (killed by both Oderus and Gor-Gor), Gor-Gor himself (seems like Oderus kept missing the hole made for his sword, and the blood spurting mechanism was screwed up as it just sorta dripped out and didn't shoot), the Sid Vicious-like "rock star" that made his debut late last year on their Beyond Hell tour, Melvin (for "The Ultimate Bohab," though the song played after he was introduced was "Womb With a View"), and Oderus even made a crack about Chris Benoit. The big highlights, though, were the playing of two OLD-school Gwar tunes: "The Years Without Light" from Scumdogs, and "I'm In Love (With A Dead Dog)" from their debut LP Hell-O. They shot the most shit into the crowd that I've encountered yet, and my bandana was tie-dyed at the end (black bandana, white designs, and none of them are white anymore).

 

Overall, lame show, and not worth the money. The two best bands were the opener and the closer, and I am INCREDIBLY pissed that Shadows Fall didn't play any old (ie. good) shit. Final rating of 6/10, D-, and it's only that high due to Gwar, Goatwhore, and Amon Amarth.