:: Act III

01. Seemingly Endless Time

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6315446/01-SeeminglyEndlessTime.mp3.html

02. Stop

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6315526/02-Stop.mp3.html

03. Veil Of Deception

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6315569/03-VeilOfDeception.mp3.html

04. TheOrganization

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6315670/04-TheOrganization.mp3.html

05. Discontinued

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6315767/05-Discontinued.mp3.html

06. A Room With A View

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6327069/06-ARoomWithAView.mp3.html

07. Stagnant

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6327976/07-Stagnant.mp3.html

08. Ex-tc

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6328429/08-Ex-tc.mp3.html

09. Disturbing The Place

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6328836/09-DisturbingThePlace.mp3.html

10 Falling Asleep

http://www.ziddu.com/download/6329571/10-FallingAsleep.mp3.html

Ah yes, it’s another Bute-iful day in this neighborhood.  So, let’s get right to it.  An interesting thing came to my attention today. 

Long-time Bay Area thrashers, Forbidden, have released a new song on their MySpace page.  The song in question is called “Adapt or Die.”  You may be asking yourself why you should care about this fresh butt-nugget of information?  Well, simply, I’m telling you this is a big deal.  Take my word for it.  I grew up listening to these guys in the late 80’s/early 90’s. 

Forbidden put out a couple revolutionary thrash albums like Forbidden Evil (1998) and Twisted Into Form (1990).  The final two albums in Forbidden’s discography, Distortion (1994) and Green (1997) saw a vast array of lineup changes.  While these two albums are not terrible, they are not as good as their predecessors, simple as that. 

Forbidden seemed to disappear for awhile as Craig Locicero, the main songwriter in the group went off to form a couple different “trend” bands.  At this time in the music biz, circa late 1990’s,  metal was all but dead.  Not until recently when thrash as a genre began making a comeback with up-and-coming bands mimicking the “old school” sound.  I’m talking about bands like Skeleton Witch, Lazarus AD, and Warbringer–just to name a few.  There are now almost too many. 

However, old school bands started seeing a resurgence.  Bands like Exodus, Kreator, Pestilence, and Death Angel started gaining in popularity.  Hence, Forbidden started to talk about a revival as well.  Now, they’ve added Steve Smyth, formerly the 2nd guitarist in Nevermore (among others!) and have started writing again.  This is a grand day in metal, believe me.  Here’s to hoping the new Fobidden lives up to its name. 

Okay, now on to the song “Adapt or Die.”  If this is what the new/old Forbidden is going to sound like then there’s a chance they may be on to something.  While the new song is far from earth-shattering or revolutionary, it does sound a lot like 1990’s-era Forbidden.  The drums are a bit repetitive for my taste (NOTE:  MY TASTE!  Your taste may vary!  Yes, I know it’s a hard concept to understand…but try!), but that being said the track is still a fast, technical, sonic bludgeoning of what’s possibly to come. 

I was more impressed with Russ Anderson’s vocals than anything in this song.  Let’s face it, Russ Anderson was never a skinny guy, but his waistline seemed to expand a couple sizes with each successive album.  While Forbidden was on hiatus for several years, Russ disappeared.  When the band decided to do a one-off show in 2001 for the Chuck Billy benefit concert, Thrash of the Titans, there were questions about Anderson’s voice.  In fact, anyone can see his performances on YouTube.  They are not stellar.  However, in this wonderful digital age where nearly anyone can sound like Britney Spears with recording studio help (notice I said “nearly”), it’s refreshing to hear Russ wail those high notes again.  (I’m not comparing him to Britney so ease up!)  I’ve done a fair amount of studio work and know how this stuff works.  You only have to sing it correctly once, yes, this is true, but you still have to be ABLE to sing it once!  Anderson does this well in “Adapt or Die.” 

Secretly, I wish for another Forbidden Evil album, but this is not going to happen.  Look people, Slayer is NEVER going to do another Reign In Blood.  Metallica is NEVER going to do another Master of Puppets.  Queensryche is NEVER going to do another Operation: Mindcrime…wait…they did but it sucked.  Get over it.

For now we can revel in the possibilities.  Here’s to hoping.

Do you know the Japanese drink C.C. Lemon?

Supposedly it has the vitamin C equivalent between 22 to 210 lemons, depending on the size of the bottle or can.

Awhile back, the American cartoon characters “The Simpsons” were used in C.C. Lemon advertisements in Japan.
Many Japanese people don’t know that The Simpsons are a long-running cartoon show in America. They just think that those characters were drawn to promote C.C. Lemon.
(The Simpsons TV did air in Japan for a short time but was soon pulled because the humor based on English-language sarcasm didn’t translate well).

Here’s one of the C.C. Lemon TV commercials featuring The Simpsons (Homer comments how C.C. Lemon is a perfect after-bath drink. Marge tells him to get dressed so that Bart doesn’t copy him):

Speaking of C.C. Lemon…for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, a number of athletic halls were built in Tokyo. One of them was the 「渋谷公会堂」 (Shibuya Public Hall).

The first rock concert that I went to in Japan was at this hall. Back in 1991 I saw Death Angel on their “Act III” tour.

Death Angel "Act III" album cover

Well, a few years ago, the 「渋谷公会堂」 (Shibuya Public Hall) sold the naming rights to the hall to the highest bidder.
C.C. Lemon won. So the 「渋谷公会堂」 (Shibuya Public Hall) became the 「渋谷 C.C. Lemon ホール」 (Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall).
I think that’s a terrible name. And I hate the big lemon that they put on the front of the building.
Here are “before and after” pictures:

It was the 「渋谷公会堂」 ("Shibuya Public Hall")

Now it's the 「渋谷ＣＣ Ｌｅｍｏｎ ホール」 ("Shibuya CC Lemon Hall")

In May, I went to an all-day outdoor concert festival featuring a bunch of popular rock bands.  I had only gone to the concert to see the headlining band, but I decided since I paid what I paid for the ticket (which was good for all-day) that, what the hell: I’ll check out the other bands.  Who knows–I could be surprised.

Surprised, I was.  But not in a good way.

I have an odd personal connection with music.  Being an amateur musician myself, I have a deep appreciation for music that obviously takes a lot of musical talent and ability to perform.  That explains my love for progressive rock and heavy metal.  Lyrically and musically, it contains some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, and it’s not the kind of thing that any average person could just replicate easily.  Say what you will about the band Dream Theater, damn near nobody can play that stuff except for the guys who wrote it.

However, in addition to my connection with what I’d consider, “real music,” I can also develop a superficial appreciation for music that has little actual artistic depth.  I am perfectly content playing Rush in my room late at night as I write, just as I am perfectly content blasting Godsmack from my car on the interstate.  I believe I have enough personal integrity that I can at least afford a smidgen of banality every once in a while, and take it in for the mindless entertainment it is.  Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion.

Lines must be drawn, though, and such a line was drawn when, at this concert, I was treated to an hour-long set by a band named Boys Like Girls.  Below is the link to their MySpace Music profile:

http://www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls

Boys Like Girls is, by far and away, the shittiest band my ears have ever had the disdain of hearing.  To specify: I didn’t listen to it; I HEARD it.  There IS a difference–listening is voluntary; hearing isn’t.  I wish on my grave that I could un-hear what I heard, but that is physically impossible.

They are a pop-punk band to the worst degree.  Take My Chemical Romance, subtract all of the Queen influence, add a Pac Sun wardrobe, and multiply by autism: there you have Boys Like Girls.  Let me give you an idea of how much I hate this band.

I hate Nickelback.  I really hate them.  I wouldn’t be caught dead with one of their albums in my possession, or even one of their songs on my iPod.  That is no exaggeration.  I don’t listen to radio anymore because of them.  They are the posterchild for everything that is truly wrong with all of modern music, and the fact that they will not go away makes me hate them even more.  I wouldn’t even download their music illegally.

But Boys Like Girls?  I hate them so much that I WOULD download their music illegally, just so I could listen to it and FUCKING SEETHE WITH ANIMOSITY while it plays.  That’s a whole new pantheon of hate.  It’s almost musical sadism.

At the concert, I knew they were going to be bad before they even started playing, because at the very beginning of their set, the lead singer came out to center stage and shouted, “HEY, NASHVILLE, ARE Y’ALL READY FOR THIS SHIT?!”

And all I could think was, No.  No, we are not.  This looks awful.  Please spare us from your horrendous abortion of music.

But, nevertheless, they began to play, and as they played, I had an epiphany: the blinding lights, the blistering heat of the pyrotechnics combined with the scorching summer day, the hordes of the damned mortal heathens, the gnarling demonic sounds of death–I realized that if Hell exists, it is a Boys Like Girls concert.

For the love of God, they even tried to orchestrate circle pits.  Mosh pits.  First of all, a band with a name like Boys Like Girls should NOT be trying to start mosh pits.  Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth–those are appropriate mosh pit bands.  Dude, Megadeth even has the word “death” in their fucking NAME.  There’s even a band called Death Angel.  There’s even a band just called DEATH.  But a band named Boys Like Girls, quite possibly the most pussified band name I’ve ever heard, dares to organize a circle pit?

You know what, Boys Like Girls?  You wanna start a circle pit?  Fine.  But a word to the concert-goers: if you’re going to start a circle pit at a Boys Like Girls concert, you should form the pit AROUND THE ACTUAL BAND.  Teach them a damn lesson, from one metalhead to another, and run up to them and just pummel them right in their pop-punk faces.

To put it another way: when I go to a Metallica concert, the music gives me that vibe like, “Yeah, I wanna KILL somebody!”  But when I go to a Boys Like Girls concert, the music gives me that vibe like, “Yeah, I just wanna kill MYSELF.”

Until next time,

–Riley

Not easy waking up or stretching your bones after the night in the tent, but well, we managed to. We got at the festival ground before the gates were open for the crowd so we had the chance to see how those places look when CLEAN (yea, they cleaned all the mess during nighttime) and deserted. And experiened the birds who probably had a feast at night.

The day was opened by Inquest who had replaced Killswitch engage (due the death of one family member of one of the membewrs). Don’t remember anythign from them. So I went to meet Ron and his buddies at Metaldome and had a glance at Manic Movement, a female fronted band with good potential. But it’s one of the many. Later I stopped by Maruqee 1 to have a look at Keep of Kalessin. As I remember them, heavy fast black stuff with incredible head banging or actually head spinning skills. Moving along after like 1 song and since Mastodon got delayed I thought to pay a visit to Metaldome where Negura Bunget was playing. I stopped there for 2 minutes I think because on the way to the tent I heard some really nice music coming to my ears from the main stage. It was Black Stone Cherry so I walked out to see them. Now that had some pleasant tunes. The singer was also very entertaining, using the hose on the crowd and asking to be watered himself. Really nice solos, drummer used his drumsticks on the bass, the guitarists used his teeth or played behind his back  on Voodoo Chile. I should listem to them again.

Back to Marquee1 to see another heavy band, Kataklysm. I heard of them a very long time ago and it was obvious they have devoted fans who screamed their names and went mad during their performance. Really tough stuff, but not necesarily my taste, yet glad I saw them live. Then it was time for one of another favorite of mine. Mastodon, on the main stage. They placed a huge image of their last album cover as background of their stage and I don’t think they bothered with too many effects during the show. It was another one of the concerts based on quality of the music and I totally adored that and the switch between main vocals (not easy to copy on stage). Their playlist included songs like The Czar and Iron Tusk, and even Blood and Thunder but maybe due the heat, the energy was not extremly high. Yet, the bassist compensated as he was explosive. Other songs they played The Wolf Is Loose, Colony Of Birchmen and the crazy Bladecatcher.

A bit later on the main stage Hatebreed launched the madness with their totally hardcore punk style. There was a huge cloud of dust in front of the stage and the singer encouraged the crowd at some point to take off their tshirts, bras or anything else they have at hand and just spin them above their heads. Imagine the show offered by the crowd (besides the enormous moshpits). What was also nice of them was that they dedicated songs to the fans, to the organizers and to the guys from Killswitch engage who couldn’t make it.

I heard a big of Dagoba from France but I don’t remember being too impressed. And as Frenkie told me that Death Angel is an old school thrash band, I decided to go and check.  I was really happy with my decision. I don’t know how their music sounds on recordings, but live they made an incredible job seeming to play flawless. Energy, good vocals, lots of drums and bass and pure crazy music to heard and watch. Awesome. We later moved to Marquee 2 where we hadn’t been before. Duff McKagan’s Loaded  (Duff McKagan is an ex GunsNRoses member) was playing there. They played a lot of Guns covers, such as So Fine, Paradise City, but also from other bands such as Living after midnight, I wanna be your daddy. He dedicated the ‘So fine’ song to the chicks out there, and at some point a song about hate was dedicated to Mastodon and another band. Actaully his presence was kinda annoying so I didn’t bother watching all the concert.

Another legend was to start on the main stage: Journey. I knew they are quite an old band and I was so surprised to see how young the singer looked. And how powerful his voice was, although not the most pleasant ‘yellings’.  Their old fashioned guitar solos were quite delightful and of course the main hit ‘Don’t stop believing’. In between bands, there were two guys presenting the some news or the next bands. I’ll refer to them as the idiots, since they kept making jokes on MJ such as there is some sort of contest and the winner gets to play all London concerts with MJ cover band or MJ is alive and we can find him at the hot dog stand.

Two more bands left on the main stage. One crazier than another. First Korn with the new drummer in the band who actually seemed to fit in very well. I didn’t know many of the songs they played since I didn’t really listen to them, but they sounded good. They were very alive on the stage, sending very positive energy to the crowd who kept moving around. And they introduced bits of covers in their songs, such as Another brick in the wall, Enter sandman, we will rock you or Final countdown that thrilled the audience who was throwing more or less anything up in the air, including rolls of toilet paper.  Actually the crowd started singing quite loud before the band came on stage. I didn’t see this too often.

Before the last act, I went to see Volbeat. I got aquinted with them on the way from Eindhoven to Dessel since Frenkie keeps listening to them in the car and I was actually mad about their music. Was really looking forward for the concert and I didn’t get disappointed at all. They totally rocked and I am really considering to state that they were the best concert of the festival. Will keep thinking about it. They were supposed to play last year, but the singer’s father had passed away exactly on the same day so they had to cancel. Now, the singer said his father wouldn’t have wanted him to mourn, but to be where he was and rock the place. And hell yea they did. His Elvis like voice, accompanied by the rocknroll metal was a total blast. I think that even the tattoos on his body were jumping aroun as the perfectly entertained crowd did and they would have even went crowdsurfing if possible. Another cool surprise from them were playing covers like ‘Angelfuck’ from Misfits or Slayer’s ‘Raining blood’  I hope they will get on the main stage in the future. The small tent was too small for them.

Other went to Lacuna Coil and after reading another review on this page I can’t say I regret any bit not seeing them. The guy stated something like ‘After watching a few songs from Lacuna Coil (please Andrea Ferro, shut UP for the love of God you tone-deaf idiot) and getting bored’ Hihi.

Final band of the day and on the main stage, Slipknot. Can’t say they did anything out of the ordinary for a Slipknot show. Everyone had masks. Everyone ran around the stage, jumped on the drums while playing them, headbanged, you name the action. Total madness but it led to an awesome show. And I love Corey’s voice, even if not necesarily on Slipknot’s music.  They were excited to be headliners for the first time since they started playing at Graspop MM and stated that they believe in real music. I had fun watching the guys playing the drums as if they were part of a fanfare.  The next day I heard shared opinions about their performance, both of hate and of pleasure. I think that for a headliner, they did a good show druing nighttime.

Iowa (Intro)
742617000027
(sic)
Eyeless
Wait and Bleed
Get This
Before I Forget
Sulfur
The Blister Exists
Dead Memories
Left Behind
Disasterpiece
Psychosocial
Duality
People = Shit
Encore:
Surfacing
Spit It Out
Beat It (Michael Jackson cover)

I don’t think male metal fans understand how privileged there are. Let me explain. Conjure up a mental picture of your average common-or-garden I AM SO FUCKIN’ METAL female listener. Now, if we ignore the Avril nail varnish job, the Baby-Spice-in-97 platform heels and that weird shit they do where they seemingly take the inner tubing from washing machines, dye them purple, and weave them into their hair. If you ignore that, on the wholeal broads are usually pretty hot pieces of ass.

Now, the males, on the other hand, are the schlubbiest motherfuckers on the planet. I should know, for reasons explained later I recently spent four hours at a metal gig, and the male populace there looked like a Discworld convention gone feral. As a result, any male metal fan (henceforth referred to as “MMF”) who makes the slightest bit of effort suddenly becomes a dapper, Cary Grant-esque figure to the metal community. Washing your hair, cutting your nails, wearing a Kreator t-shirt that has less than four nacho cheese stains on it: this shit is peacocking to the metal community, and if you do this you will have crazy ladies in corset tops begging you to tie them up and rub a Ginsu across their cunnylips. There was a guy at this gig last night who was wearing a “khaki t-shirt and black tie” combo, a look last deemed acceptable to polite society back when Chad Hugo briefly achieved abdominal definition circa the release of “Lapdance”. They were around him like kohl-eyed flies around shit.

Anyway, metal. Long-time readers of ILB will recall some brief comments a few months back that we’d failed to lock down a female metal fan, despite the fact that said girl’s previous partner looked like Seth Rogen with progeria. However, you should also be hella aware that we stay representing for Duckies worldwide, so when the girl in question proffered up the chance to accompany her to a metal gig (Death Angel supported by Kataklysm and Keep of Kalessin), I threw on that mustard yellow jacket, quiffed up my hair, put “If You Leave” by OMD on my iPod, and made waves.

Before we get any further: yes I am aware that the “I have no sphere of reference for this cultural artefact, yet I am going to review it anyway” is the lowest form of criticism and one that shouldn’t really exist outside of freshman student newspaper features but… I dunno. I felt like 50% Bruce Parry, 50% Studs Terkel for the evening, which is a pretty good balance on the whole. Plus I know I could throw some cheap-ass zings at you people on here afterwards.

The main discovery of the evening is that, whereas I’ve spent the past decade of my life just assuming that all live sound engineers are incompetent, it’s just that they really don’t care about any form of music I listen to. Any of you who’ve struggled through a rap gig where the artistes appeared to be performing under eight feet of mud, or indie shows were the band sounded as if they were in another postcode district, would be stunned at the audio-cleanness of a live metal show, and without even 20 minutes of “Yeah, can we get this one turned down a bit… no, not that far” chat from the stage at all.

As for the music itself? It’s hard for me to judge, because I don’t have the faculties to earnestly tell the difference between various metal strands, which is probably why I found it hilarious to spend the build up to the gig going “So these guys will sound like Adema/Cold/Grand Theft Audio, right?” Anyway, Keep of Kalessin play black metal which is that “chugga chugga” stuff that sounds like the generic entrance music for minor WWE wrestlers. This led to me spending the first five minutes of the gig stoked up for the eventual appearance of Tommy Dreamer. He never came.

The band don’t really do much to help this confusion though, being as they are actually dressed like American independent circuit wrestlers circa 2001, swathes of limp blonde hair, sweat and pleather. Also, distractions are held heavily by the fact that their lead singer is apparently Annika Sorenstam with a hangover, and the way he decided that the best way to hold his pleather trousers up this evening would be to wear a belt from H&M’s S/S 05 range (like an ornate weightlifting belt with hella chintz on it. Remember when bitches were rocking those in Yates’ nationwide four summers back? Crazy, crazy times).

Gok Wanning aside, KoK get some vague ILB credit for, if not playing music we enjoy, at least music we can tolerate. To the untrained ear, the only way of enjoying this kind of met seems, to wank-hat wearing me, to treat it as a soundscape, like a kind of dubstep with 20,000 hammer-ons. Music that’s meant to wash over you rather than exhort you to jump around.

Which is basically why Kataklysm are a load of bullshit. Kataklysm are quite clearly a deeply insecure and scared band. Nobody really minds the occasional “ARE YOU READY TO TEAR THE ROOF OFF THIS PLACE” yell between tracks, but when one, and sometimes two or three, such screams bookend every single track played, the whole thing less resembles a clarion call for rocking out and more a girlfriend repeatedly asking you if the skirt length she opted for that day makes her look slutty. Their lead singer, who has the same haircut as fattey from Lost, should probably take notes from legendary PDC master of ceremonies Phil “Let’s… play… DARTS!” Jones to learn the correct way to gee a crowd up.

Death Angel are fronted by a guy who looks how, to me, metal musicians should look: cokey motherfuckers who resemble Daryl Palumbo if he took the wrong path on every single life decision. They then go on to play thrash metal and I briefly think about whether I classify as a thrash expert because my favourite Hold Steady song is the one that mentions The Locust. I’m probably not.

Look, I went into all of this with the openness of intentions, but the only possible summation of the whole evening is “lol white people”. I’m like 90% sure we can forget all about reparations if white people just agree to ban slamdancing from this planet. The guys doing it seem to be the sorts of kids who got beaten up at school enough anyway, why revisit it in later life? Or, alternately, wash their hair and get the metal girls from the second paragraph to live out their Suicide Girl fantasies with a switch and paddle. Everyone’s a winner…

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