EDIT: Thunderhorse vid is not as it appears live
I'll wait till I can upload my three 1-minute vids of the goings on during Dethklok's set to properly review them.
Let's get the meh opening bands out of the way first, making clear that keeping closer to the sounds on your record live can go a long way (I'm listening to a Soilent Green track I didn't care for live at all that's actually sounding cool now, not extremely impressive but better than what I heard nonetheless)and if you're going to have a keyboardist you may as well put him to work. I can barely hear the one-note ambiance shit so why even pay the guy really?
Ok to be fair Soilent Green sounded a lot closer than I'm letting on, but they still bored me live. We'll talk about this and keyboardists (make no mistake I still think Janne Wirman deserves ten times whatever he gets paid for being such a core part of far superior Bodom) more in-depth in these here reviews.
Soilent Green
I was pretty harsh to them in the opening of this blog, but to be fair their lack of money (I'm assuming, that or House of Blues in Dallas didn't think they needed a light show) was quite a factor against them as the following Chimera had lights to keep me amused and distracted at least for their first few songs, and of course the following band hardly had to show up in flesh and blood (though I'm glad they decided not to imitate Gorillaz and did) to be entertaining.
But considering 3 Inches of Blood, a band I love and are amazing live despite pesky sound problems don't rely on a light show and pinch pennies by giving their own sound check (which I suspect might explain the sound problems, particularly with vocal mics) still manage to blow me away despite impoverished odds means no excuses for Soilent Green's bare bones show.
They're yet another band that on the carefully produced level seen on their albums succeed at having at least somewhat veteran metalheads like me notice the melodic breakdowns but live are just fast-noise-slow-noise compositions because tuning so low and turning everything up so loud has made much of the finer aspects unrecognizable.
Daffy thought they had their moments because they're a southern-oriented band (which I didn't hear but I don't think I sound distinctly southern either and I've been told I'm wrong) and as I was reminded they'll be showing up at this year's one-off Ozzfest August 9th presumably on the local band stage. If no better band is on during that time I may check them out and see if they just had a bad acoustics night but I'm skeptical.
2/5
Chimaira I daresay I enjoyed them more than daffy but likely not quite as much as riff.
They were about a half step above what Soilent Green was doing as most of they're songs did tend to run together but unlike Soilent Green they had at least three with distinctive melodic riffs and far more technical guitar work than anything Soilent Green did.
I got excited when I saw their keyboard being set up but as I said earlier neither it nor the not aforementioned turntable were put to good or distinctly audible use. I don't get it, if you have the type of band that's going to overpower something like that and you don't have the sound crew necessary to make something like that work (as Bodom miraculously made work perfect and to a lesser extent despite also being one-note ambiance fare mostly, Type O negative made at least audible and ambiance is well-produced and not just there for the sake of it in that case) then why bother the expenses?
It was cool to see the guitarist and keyboardist switch places as well as for a few seconds the vocalist and the guitarist but it wasn't for full songs in the vain of old Metallica sets and it wasn't as if these parts of the songs were extremely complicated. However, some of the lead guitar parts were quite impressive and there were more melodic moments than with Soilent Green so that puts them at a
2.5/5
Dethklok: For what it's worth they're a 5/5.Seriously. Every metal band should have their own cartoon. Keeps the brutality element intact.
Dethklok!
And my favorite Dethklok song's video is uploaded on youtube.
Anyway, all that really needs to be said is that riff's "way more epic than they deserve to be" review was spot-on. I'm pretty sure they even extended some songs just slightly to include even more AMAZING guitar work (which is about ten times more apparent live).
Also, the idea of having well-animated bloody/perverted images would go a long way for certain metal bands that lose their appeal when you realize what you thought sounded brutal is just afew scrawny kids squealing like pigs and playing complex guitar licks at 120bpm (which is impressive when you think about it, but not when you see it). Chimaira's frontman's ability to kick my ass notwithstanding, there's a certain gothic oomph missing when you see these bands live.
That said, as if reading my mind while I wondered "what if the cartoons weren't on during songs?" they played their closer with no TV screen help and I was blown away both by that and how well the voice of Nathan ExPlosion kept in character while telling us Dallas fans that we're the most brutal city thanks to heat and the fact we can secede whenever we feel. (which is all of Texas, but hey, when in Dimetown).
Even without the cartoon they have an epic, CD quality perfect sound that translates very well live.
Quite simply one of the best concerts I've had the privilege to attend.
My own 3 videos to follow.
Oh right, also everything was perfectly synched and the bits etween songs especially a bathroom visit were great.
Basically everything that could go right did. EDIT: Except the center screen was slightly off-center and to the right but pssh.
EDIT: Thunderhorse vid is not as it appears live
:)
That's why Skwisgaar's my favorite: he's almost undoubtedly based on Alexi Laiho from Bodom, right down to the eastern origin.
I could see "Corpsegrinder" George Fisher of Cannibal Corpse fame (and who 1up best friend
Now I'm done.
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