February 12th 2011
Ok so I'm huge death metal fan and I have been to three shows where death metal and Deathcore have been prominent in the bands. This week I wet to two shows, one of them was Dying Fetus and the other show was White Chapel .
Here you will read about the Dying Fetus Review
My Friend Reid and when it comes to metal shows tend to go either two venues: The 9:30 Club and A place called Jaxx. I'll be putting up more reviews of shows I went to that I wrote last year here as well. We arrive at Jaxx at approximately 6:30 and the show started at 6:15, unlike Jaxx's regular demographic which tends to range from college student age up, there were many young preteens and barely passable teens in the crowd of about 5-6 who were from 12 to 16 tops. The first band was a symphonic Metal band which was incredibly strange. Strange for the simple reason: WHY IS A SYMPHONIC METAL BAND PLAYING AT A DEATH METAL CONCERT!?!?!?!
It made no sense and frankly I think it was a dumb move on Jaxx's part since Jaxx are the ones who pick the local acts to play open for the headlining acts not the headlining band although there are probably exceptions that proove the rule. The band was called Spellbound and to be completely honest they weren't terrible at all. The Lead vocalist had a perfectly fine voice worthy of praise for a symphonic or power metal band. The instrumental playing was all fine, nothing out of the ordinary but nothing that would make me leave. But again had they been in a more fitting event they would have been more appealing at the time. Needless to say they were booed for the most part. I feel sorry for this band because again they weren't terrible, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and for a struggling new band on the scene this probably isn't an uncommon thing but C'mon Jaxx, THINK!
The second band was another one of those situations where Reid and I couldn't help but kinda mutter under our breaths. This time instead of sitting there in the confusion of why a symphonic Metal band was playing a death metal band, we we're trying to comprehend the band we were seeing in front of us period. I understand many bands start young but this was just ridiculous. The band members were all for the most part barely pubescent and some I don't think even hit that point yet, one of the members looked like they were 10. Musically the band was that of a band that will one day have the potential to do great things. I will not deny that but band has a long way to go on all fronts. This band which is called "Anarch" was very sub par in terms of instrumentation. They opened with an instrumental which sounded like an attempt to play drone metal which was fine, but it dragged on for a while with very little direction. The guitar player who I can only assume was roughly 12 or 13 did have an interesting delay on his lead sound but it was very somber and made us want to go to sleep rather than warm us up. Other guitar player was not much different. In the louder songs they were clearly trying to go for a metalcore approach to playing, their guitar players were certainly attempting to make that sound but lacked any moments where breakdowns happened which wasn't terribly great. The drummer on the other hand was very talented, if someone was carrying the band it was not the guitarists, the vocalists or the bassist (which I will address in a second) it was that drummer who needed a bigger kit. That leads me on to the next problem, they were underfunded in many areas. Their guitar players which were one of their weaker parts had moderately sized amps for a venue of this nature so gear wise they were fine. However their drummer's drum set could have used an extra bass drum and I honestly believe he could have made the band sound 10x better with some better equipment. The bass player was the same story, his bass was fine like the guitar players but his amp was a joke. It was a 10 watt maybe even lower solid state amp which could be hardly heard without the PA keeping it in the mix. Reid and I had to look away at times because we were laughing so bloody hard at the fact that this band thought they could pass their bass player off with such a tiny amp. I don't care if they're a young band that are probably not in the best financial situation when it comes to gear but to play in a venue like Jaxx with such an under equipped band is not a good thing when they're are so many better bands out there that could have opened. finishing with their lead singer (who was much bigger than any of the other members by about a whole foot and 40 pounds) who loomed over them trying to imitate someone like Frank Mullen or CorpseGrinder but with very little success since he didn't sound the part or look the part. I have to say he did try to increase his stage presence with some sarcastic dark humor such as comparing his songs to fairy tales but it just never landed. There was even a point where he started convulsing on the floor laughing during the first or second song but it didn't really work he even tried to get a mosh pit started but aside from a few kids in the audience who tried to start one, nothing was happening. I honestly believe these kids in the audience were just trying to support these kids who had formed "Anarch" because as soon as they left the fans did too. I can't say I was impressed at all with the bands performance, they will be great someday and I look forward to that day but until then they won't be hearing many things from me on the positive side.
The third band on the other hand... WOW.. just wow.. these guys were insane and they brought the crowd that should have been there from the start back in. This band was called Serial Audiophile and these guys were what people paid to see. They were an older band so granted they were more experienced but they were everything the first two bands were not. First of all they were death metal which is what everyone came to see. Second they were amazing performers. The guitars were loud and out of control, so were the drums and bass. The lead singer however is what drove this band to be one of the better performances of the night. He was insane, I thought I saw the devil himself on stage or at least one of his minions. He would go from being eratic and belting to moments where he would just look off to the side in a deranged fashion before going apeshit on the stage. These guys were good, good playing, good presence, good everything. And they included some really demented humor involving anal beads and later on explaining how to decompose a body. Serial Audiophile were definitely a band worth seeing again and I hope I see them again but not alone in a room.
The next bands were a blur almost literally, there was Fuck U All which were a band that were trying to sound death metal but overall were just very bland, the vocals were ok definitely one of the better bands out there but their instrumentation was that of a Punk band, very bland sounding guitars and bass that had no definition. It wasn't scooped, it wasn't sharp at all, just bland, it sounded like just noise and not in the good sense, it sounded like a radio with the bass turned up but no treble, again not good.
Resurgency wasn't bad, they leaned on the grindcore side of things which was good since they brought on their sound heavy and as fast as possible. The sound was refined, the vocals were great, still not as out there as Serial Audiophile but they were quite intense regardless and made up for Fuck U All. Not much to really add about them because they hit the bar pretty well.
Dying Fetus finally comes on and made everything that went wrong up to Serial Audiophile worth it. I was lucky enough to see the drummer Trey Williams before the show started and get his autograph and although I missed a chance to meet John Gallagher ( the guitarist and vocalist) the bass player and Sean Beasley. Their performance was non the less incredible. Reid and I headbanged like never before, I was able to make it to the top of the railing and headbang along with all the other people. Meanwhile I see in the pit that theres a guy dressed like a chicken... you heard me... a guy was dressed up in a chicken suit in the mosh area... I will send you a picture of this guy just to prove it.
They sound live very much as they do in the studio only louder and maybe a little faster as bands naturally do when they're playing this type of music live. Again I couldn't have headbanged more to their classics such as " your treachery will die with you" and "homocidal retribution" and in the end Reid and I left completely exhausted. I have footage of myself rambling my ass off after the show from how insane the show was. I was breathless from the moshing, from the ferocity of the sound and how insane the crowd was. It was a small show but it was a very legit show. The bands that weren't the first two pulled the crowd in and there were no hardcore dancers which was a relief for me. I got to meet all 3 members of Dying Fetus, having a very chill talk with John after the show about the bands' formation and their ability to fill their sound with just 3 members as opposed to 4 (they lost a guitarist and never bothered replacing him). Very nice individuals and overall it was great show
P.s Im sorry this review took such a long time to come out, the next ones will come out sooner
