If you are in the mood to get your ears bludgeoned, the Summer Slaughter tour is a great way to make that happen, so if it is coming to a town near you, you might wanna go check it out.
Even though this show had somewhere in the neighborhood of ten national level bands, which amounted to an all day metal assault, I'm not too proud to admit that there was no way I could attend the entire thing, let alone photograph and report to you on it. The headlining band was supposed to be Necrophagist, but because of visa issues they couldn't get into the country in time for the start of this tour. I understand they will do a special Jaxx show around the end of July to make up for missing this tour. So, I showed up in time to see the last four bands. The club was the most packed I had ever seen it and with the crew, bands and merch people of so many bands being in the club that might have been why. When I went into the hall, As Blood Runs Black was starting up their last tune. I didn't really see enough of them to make a judgement, but they seemed ok. Their sound seemed to be very similar to all the new bands these days. Screamo is what I think some people would call it. They were kids that might have been of drinking age and they had the high school look to them as opposed to a traditional metal style. If you saw any of them on the street, you would never guess that they were in a metal band.
The first band that was officially on my viewing docket was called Arsis. If my memory is correct, I think they are due back at Jaxx a few more times this summer. I had never seen them or heard of them, but a ton of people in the crowd knew who they were. They had a great following. The music had shredding solos, which made the people at the front of the stage drool with envy. The vocals were split 75/25 between the lead singer and the drummer. Their bass player was a wild man who was the "Mini-Me" version of Cliff Burton. He emulated Cliff in almost every way. His look, his sound, his style. The only real difference from cliff is that this guy was a lot more animated. The drummer really impressed me as well with his awesome blast beats. Very fast, very tight, very different. Hopefully I am right in thinking these guys are going to come to my area again this summer cause I wanna see 'em again. Rating? 7 out of 10.
The next bunch of dudes up was a band called Cattle Decapitation. I knew some of their stuff before this show and I was really wanting to see how all that madness played out live. Quite frankly, I liked them a lot more live than I like their studio stuff. The very first thing you would have to say about them after seeing them live is that their mild mannered looking vocalist comes of as a full blown psychopath. He was all over the stage in a rage. He poured what seemed like a case of water on himself and spent a good amount of time spitting it in the crowd too. He was making everyone laugh doing that old "spit a huge loogie up in the air and catch it in your mouth" trick. He thrashed the crap out of the mic, which I'm sure the sound engineers just loved. He also used the mkic cables to choke himself. There was even a point at the end of a song that he wanted to add a throwing up sound effect and he jammed three fingers down his throat and dry heaved into the mic. The dude is a loon! The guitarist of this band was a master with his effects pedals. He danced all over them the whole show making his guitar do circus tricks. The guitarist was also an incredible shredder, but that didn't make him stand still. He managed to go nuts, dance on pedals, and play cleanly the whole show. The drummer was one of the busiest I have seen before. He was lightning fast, never missed a beat, and had tons of variety. The bands songs were always blazing fast and most were pretty short. The crowd seemed pretty stunned by these guys. There was lots of jaw-dropping going on. I loved seeing these guys cause man they were fun! I rate 'em 9 out of 10.
Cephalic Carnage was up next and I had gone to their MySpace to check 'em out before the show. Damn was I interested! Their music was stunningly original. In person, it came across that way too. They were a blend of extreme metal and fusion jazz. Of all the bands I saw, their music was by far the most original. It really was some pretty wild and experimental stuff. Every member of the band was a Tasmanian devil onstage. The guys with axes used them like they were chopping wood or sword fighting. They were simply out of control the entire set. The bass player was playing a 6 string monstrosity that didn't keep him from going apeshit in the least. The guitar players were stellar and they did lots of "stereo swapping" in their parts. The guitar parts shifted all over the stage making for music that probably sounds wild on a surround sound system. The guitarists and bassist even had parts in which they were all fretboard tapping and "triple simultaneous" soloing. The tempos were all over the place yet never seemed out of place. Between the songs they would play clips from movies or tv shows like Seinfeld, or would play rap and country music. They were so much fun! Their drummer was SO fast. He was a blur and played as if the entire set was a drum solo. The music as a whole really came across as a group solo. Nothing ever stood still. When this band was done I was so glad to have seen them. I rate 'em 10 out of 10. I hope like hell I see these dudes again!
The band who became the official headliner due to the absence of Necrophagist was now to be Poland's, Decapitated. I have a few of their tunes and don't really mind them, but I can't say any of their stuff really excited me. The thing that I noticed almost immediately was that the singer wasn't singing the vocals in time with the music. He seemed lost. I don't know if it was because he was not good live or because he couldn't hear due to the monitor mix being right, but whatever the case, it happened a lot the entire set. The bass player was a dude that was hard to see (and photograph) because he spent the entire show doing he bent over headbang thing. The guitarists headbang style reminded me of a bobble-head doll. He stood upright and went forward and back and was very odd indeed. The guitarist had an awesome guitar tone and the band had the cleanest PA mix of all the bands. The bands music was more along the lines of traditional death metal. Nothing too fancy or different. Of all the bands, as odd as it is to say, Decapitated played the slowest music of the show. I found them to be boring to watch though because none of the members ever left their designated area, so if you were in front of the guitarist and wanted to check out the bass player, you had to wade through the people to the other side of the stage. The crowd did love them though. The band got a great reception. In the end they were a good enough band but I wasn't knocked over by their performance or music. I rate 'em 7 out of 10.
And now I am please to announce that after all of the shows I have been to since February, I have filled up my first whole notepad and now have to go buy another one! So thanks to all of you who have been reading all the stuff I have been writing! BTW- When you read an article, please feel free to leave comments about it at the bottom of the article. Whether you like them or hate them, don't be shy!
In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Doro/Belladonna show on 6/10 ! Stay tuned.
Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.
BE SURE to check out our friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! www.jaxxroxx.com
If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.
Comments Questions or Concerns? Hit me up! berube@braingell.com
And oh yeah...
Peace and Metal Grease!
berube
