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lost track of time
2003-05-19 09:57:41
I was too blitzed from Metalfest and subsequent activities to do any video work yesterday, so all you get is a report on the weekend's dealings. There will be video progress in the near future; I've got a hole in the schedule and good enough health to take advantage.
Even with the limited tickets that I had, Metalfest ruled. Almost without exception, the bands I was able to see were killer, and I picked up a bunch of essential swag I couldn't have gotten anywhere else (though I never did get that Carnal Forge CD -- I should be able to find in on retail somewhere around here, though).
Friday I got in way early by being able to somehow keep up an average speed of 70 mph on Massachusetts highways, and was able to hit the dealers' room before the main stage acts I had come to see started. If you thought the dealers' room at AniBo was small and packed, you've been living in a fool's paradise. This was the real deal; more like a dealers' alley, and absolutely jam-packed with shady-looking people in black t-shirts with illegible gory logos on them -- current writer of course included. It was a little more open on Saturday, because all the hardcore kids were in watching Converge when I got there, but that's getting ahead a little. Between Friday and Saturday I picked up 18 reviewable CDs from various sources, to be listed later, plus of course a bunch of pure promo materal that really doesn't need a review.
Anyway, I got out of the dealers' room with time to spare, so I actually caught most of Lacuna Coil's set, which I was pretty sure going in that I was going to miss. They were really cool; I hadn't heard much from them since their first CD came out, so I guess I'm going to be playing catch-up on this band in the near future. They've definitely gotten over just being a male/female-vox goth-metal novelty, which was a bit of a hurdle at first. Then was Killswitch Engage, because this was the New England Metal And *Hardcore* Fest, though they did have a good bit of a metallic edge on them. Since they're local, I really ought to pick up one of their discs; good metalcore always deserves support, especially when it's in your area.
After they wrapped, it came out that somebody with a little sense had shuffled the setlist and followed Killswitch Engage with Shadows Fall rather than Nevermore, which made a much better transition. Shadows Fall lived up to expectations and got the crowd pounding, as well as adding another disc, their new one (_The Art of Balance_), to my why-haven't-you-got-this-yet list. They've definitely come a long way in five years, from "house band" openers to headliners at the same venue.
Then it really started getting good. Nevermore blasted the venue open with the title track from their forthcoming _Enemies of Reality_, and premiered another two or three songs from this disc along with a lot of the best and heaviest of their back catalog. One in particular, "Ambivalence", seems that it's going to be plowing a lot of shit up in the live setlist for a long time to come. If any one is still concerned about Nevermore getting all gothic and mellow, this'll be a rude awakening. As of right now, Nevermore is the best currently operating Bay Area thrash metal band in the world. Testament? Not even in the building. Slayer? Totally lost the true Bay Area sound. Now as never before, the heavier of the old Sanctuary material actually sounds appropriate in the set. They were also probably the most fan-friendly, with Warrel Dane pulling up every crowd surfer who got to the stage to sing a chorus or two, then tossing them back. This last step got omitted in the set closer, "The Sound Of Silence", so by the end 30 random fans had gotten to meet Nevermore and watch them splatter Paul Simon all over the walls like flesh spray from a chainsaw at extreme close quarters. That's what SCENE is all about.
And then, of course, quite possibly the most talented band on the two-day bill, Opeth. They only played five or six songs, plus one encore, but Opeth fans have already read that as "played a mind-blowing 80-minute set of classics from every phase of the band's existence". Except for material from the new one, _Damnation_, which they're saving for the summer tour with Porcupine Tree -- another must-see show. That was Friday.
Satuday was a little different, and a little rougher; more people probably had been partying all night and were getting careless in the second day of the fest, plus the chance to drink more earlier on a non-workday, and the strain of thrashing for eight hours already by the time I got there. Meg said that there had been like two fights in the pit earlier in the day, and when I landed myself on the pavement out front, the cops and venue security were trying to eject this pencilneck hardcore kid who had apparently taken his pants off in the club, and presently there was a stir inside as security escorted out a guy who had gotten smashed in the face with something. Blood everywhere, a tooth gone, and a black eye the size of a pocket-CD, which developed as we watched. By the time the ambulance got there to take him off for professional attention, they bundled in another guy who'd drunk himself to incapacitation. There were another two casualties in the pits that I saw later that night, maybe more, but that's what you gotta take with good, violent, music: sometimes the people aint always so good about it, and they get a little too violent.
I didn't really see the appeal of Converge. Sure, they colored outside the lines a little for hardcore, but what little I saw of their set (only the last two songs or so) didn't really break from common standard. Fortunately, they cleared pretty quick and Suffocation came on. They haven't lost a step since 1997, and of course kicked monstrous amounts of ass, what with true old-school death metal being so rare in the scene these days, but they were a little too New-York whiny about the somewhat limited nature of their set. They definitely could have done more had the sets not been running half an hour late by this point; the management didn't want to extend things at the expense of stepping on Phil Anselmo's toes when it came time to tell him to cut off Superjoint Ritual's set before the cops closed the venue. The singer's little daughter was cute tossing out swag to the pit though; there's just something chou kawaii about a six-year-old in a kid-size death metal t-shirt (I had seen them outside earlier, but I didn't recognize him as the last photo I saw of Suffocation had him with hair). I was also pleasantly surprised at how many other people knew the _Effigy of the Forgotten_ material, given how young the crowd was.
Then, The Haunted. A nice tight set of smashmouth Thrash Fucking Metal, NSWOTM-style, with a good mix of old and new material. This was a lot better of a set than the one they recorded for _Live Rounds In Tokyo_; the time constraints of playing in a festival as opposed to touring environment really select in favor of good set planning. Anders gave the crowd a little tease with the opening riff of "South of Heaven" just before the last song, but there were no covers in this set, of either Slayer or At The Gates, neither of which would have been unwelcome.
Last up (well, of the relevant bands), Meshuggah. Where The Haunted were stripped-down and taut with energy, Meshuggah was a continuous explosion. They only deployed their trademark 8-string guitars for the first song, but the level of technical execution remained ridiculously high throughout. The music was reflected amazingly well in the stage production as well; in addition to the normal light/laser/strobe setup, there were several sections where a strobe light was apparently taken off its automatic pulse schedule and triggered on the machinegunning kick of the double-bass. Either that, or Tomas is precise enough with his kicks that the lighting techs can just design such an element into the light show and be sure that it will work, which I wouldn't have a problem doubting either. Whichever way it was, it's an accurate ilustration of how this monstrous performance went down.
After seeing that, Phil Anselmo would practically have to shoot himself in the head onstage to avoid getting disparaged, and we had no intention of seeing either that or watching him bellow like a goon in front of a band that very few people in the venue were going to care about, so we all split. Ben and Alex going back to camp out at Alex's place in Roxbury, and Meg and I to pass a few hours in exile together. Overall this was a hell of a show and a hell of an experience. Who knows, maybe in a couple years they'll be able to move it to the Centrum center a few blocks away; they got 3,000-4,000 people as it was, in just the fifth year of the festival's existence. King hell.
These are the CDs I have to review sometime (no order):
_The Mercury Lift_ sampler by Haste
_Freya/Darkest Hour_ promo split-EP by Freya and Darkest Hour
_Contamination_ (compilation)
_Fightforrock.com Version 1.0_ (compilation)
_promo 2003_ by Noctuary [ -- I got this free from a distro for buying 6 CDs]
_When Fires Breed Blood_ by Noctuary
_Magic And Wyrmfire_ by Valar
_Art of Ancient Seers_ by Atoll Nerat
_Cult of the Initiated_ by Pessimist
_Expanding Senses_ by Darkane [ -- this is the Russian pressing of this NB CD for some weird reason]
_Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath_ by Emperor
_Dictus de Necare_ by Bethlehem
_Niechaj przemowiq runy_ by Kraina Bez Wiatru
_Ezy i Krew_ by Perunwit
_Black Sun Shall Rise_ by Wind Of The Black Mountains
_The cold earth slept below..._ by Judas Iscariot
_Visions From The Gods_ by Usurper
_my Fruit PsychoBells...a seed combustible_ by Maudlin of the Well
I also got Vukodlak's _Blackest Autumn_ CD, but that's already reviewed since a while ago; I had it on mp3 but lost it in a HD-crash a couple years back. CDs to get in the near future:
_Damnation_ by Opeth
_Chaosphere_ by Meshuggah
_The Art Of Balance_ by Shadows Fall
_The More You Suffer_ by Carnal Forge
_Unleashed Memores_ by Lacuna Coil
Ben was making some noises about starting a label as well, but I'll believe that once he actually gets Point of Impact up and running. Of course, given what Exit 13 did to Relapse's bottom line back in the day, he'd have to be crazy to distribute or push Riverblind, but the possibility is always there.
There WILL be video progress announced tomorrow. Project Haibane WILL be completed before the end of the month. There can be no other way.
--Kai out
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i'll keep you all alive
2003-05-16 11:39:36
If you're reading this for some reason after 9PM tonight or Saturday night, then I'm at Metalfest and you're not. Revel in your loserness.
This is the current automotive playlist for the weekend:
Metal Church, _Blessing In Disguise_
Metallica, _Ride The Lightning_
Iron Maiden, _No Prayer For The Dying_
Testament, _The Legacy_
Slayer, _Show No Mercy_
Saxon, _Solid Ball of Rock_
I like old thrash metal, and there's nobody else in the car (AFAIK). Ergo.
Also over the weekend, I'm trying to get ahead of the Recca-processing curve so I can put more time into working on Project Haibane. I'll be churning through one MPEG2 output tonight while I'm at the show, and another Saturday into Sunday, so I can do the last prerender Sunday after I get back, output the two eps made over the weekend, and start the last ep render to finish Monday after work, leaving me with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to do clipping and finishing on the videos currently under production. Gambarusou!
Offtopic:
All of Meg's friends are getting after her to get us hitched. This despite the facts, as she's pointed out, that we've only known each other for like a month (exactly, come about 6:00 today) and there are no Elvis-chapels in the immediate vicinity. And the host of other minor issues, like me not having a real job, and that her family would throw a fit if they had any accurate idea about how old I am (23 come the week JoJo v.1 and Full Metal Panic v.1 come out), and all that kind of stuff. I love Meg, but it's too early to be thinking about such a major step with the deck so heavily loaded against it.
So, I won't be hearing my own wedding bells anytime in the imminent future. With luck, I'll be able to wrap this project before that happens </productiondelayjoke>. Either way I'm getting to see more better bands in the next two days than most people will see in a year.
--Kai out
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you don't even have to sacrifice a thing
2003-05-15 12:09:05
erm...no video work last night, and the likeliness of any between now and Monday is going down, down, down. I can take the delays, though, as long as it's from being with Meg and seeing kickass bands. Unfortunately, I've also got this huge drive building up inside to finish these sword-cursed videos RIGHT THE HELL NOW. I don't even think it took this long, really, to do any of the demos back when I was doing those. And it's worse because I'm so close. Two really good days is all I need (all right, maybe three), and I'll be ready to start editing and actually getting stuff done. Set 'em up, knock 'em down -- perhaps a week tops to polish off all four videos, so technically I can probably make my new goal of the end of the month. The problem is just getting the time and shoving my nose into the grindstone.
Once this project is done and out of the way, I can get to work on the other ideas that have been piling up since before AniBo. I've got a fair idea of the next four to five videos, which will be heading out for mid- to late-summer cons, but that's not until this current one clears. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this drive and spirit to smash through an ep or so on Sunday after I get back from Metalfest, and hopefully I won't have too many interesting new CDs to listen through at that point.
The downside of being a metal critic is that occasionally, you have to sit all the way through godawful albums in order to properly pan them. The last two days have been particularly hard on my brain. I've had to deal with a two-CD set of power metal bands that were unsigned for a reason, Megadeth's dreadful _World Needs A Hero_, Maiden's wrong-dude-singing _X Factor_, and Borgabor V's mini-CD, which thankfully was pretty short, as this is one of those bands who go into a recording session with the INTENT to make something that hurts your head and is next to impossible to listen to. Of course, this is a small price to pay to get CDs early and actually have a few people care about what you think of them. This block of reviews will be going off to Ben shortly -- I've still got about another seven discs lying around; hopefully, he'll take some time this summer and actually get the Point of Impact site up and running, or if it's going, tell me where it's at. I'm probably going to see him over the weekend, and if any of our ears are working I may be able to get some answers on this.
Yeah, there's like some huge movie opening today. I'm not going. I have no money. I may be employed, but I still have an anime habit, a CD-reviewer billet for a zine with no label contacts, and a girlfriend who lives nine dollars away by train. I'd rather save my cash to spend on limited releases imported from Slovakia out in Worcester this weekend and catch this flick sometime else.
--Kai out
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i'm killing pain
2003-05-14 10:06:39
OH FUCK YEAH. My Metalfest lineup (the bands I get to see):
Friday:
Killswitch Engage (end of set)
NEVERMORE
Shadows Fall
OPETH
Saturday:
SUFFOCATION
THE HAUNTED
MESHUGGAH
Superjoint Ritual (some Pantera guys in this band IIRC, but who cares?)
Unfortunately between these two days I miss Cephalic Carnage, Kataklysm, Lamb of God, Shai Hulud, Strapping Young Lad (AARGH!), Noctuary, DRI, and Lacuna Coil, but half of that is what I get for buying tickets so late, and half of that is what I have to put up with for having a 9-to-5 job. So many good bands, so little time. Thankfully I'll get to see Suffocation live; I'm not sure if they've done any other shows since reforming, but having missed their first incarnation due to still being in middle school in an area without access to cutting-edge death metal, I'm not about to miss this chance.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes", Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" and "Farewell", and Borknagar, "The View of Everlast", all to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 67%, 65%, 67% and 65%. Expected catalog numbers: #75, #76, #77, #78. I finished up the finishing on 11 last night as expected, and the end of the tunnel is clearly in sight. However, I've lost track of how much source I have. It's well over 700 unique cuts, but I don't have a time metric on that, because total volume is over a gig, and I can't do instant one-look math on that. An outside estimate puts it around 30 minutes, but of course there's no guarantee of any kind of accuracy on that.
In other projects, I'm not going to be in to club this week, obviously, because it's too much of a hassle to try to get in, drop off a tape, get the next CD from Ed, and try to make it back home in time to drive to Worcester in time to catch Killswitch Engage. So Recca volume 3 waits until next week, and I'll probably lug in a few CDs of Stratos 4 as well. Then the week after that will be maybe two volumes of Recca (4 and perhaps 5 if Ed's got enough eps for that). Tension gets a little lighter, and since I'm slowly getting better, the strain should slack off a little as well. Of course, the work I'm getting paid for should pick up, but that's built into the schedule.
Sooner or later, these videos are going to get done. I thought I was at a crisis point earlier, because I had marked #70 and #74 for Otakon, and one of the vids in this project for Fanime, but it turns that Otakon is wisely taking only one vid per creator, so I can send #74 to Fanime, which is actually better as there's very little chance of audience overlap between that and Shoujocon. California - New Jersey is a much better split than Maryland - Jersey. The videos in the current project may start making appearances at Anime Evolution, AFO, and other early/mid-summer cons.
--Kai out
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resurrection take me home
2003-05-13 09:26:48
RRGH.....work, video work, library work, relationship, and family life I can handle....but don't ask me to do it all with a head cold. Club was cool Friday (no Naruto, but Lupin), Meg and I had fun Saturday, and hanging out with Jake Sunday was interesting as well, but now I feel like my face is stuck in a vise and I've been gargling with salt water and rusty nails. Thankfully, I'm writing software, so it doesn't really matter if my voice is shot.
Hopefully, I'll get over this quick, despite the demands of continuing 18-hour days. I finally got Metalfest tickets, and now I have to see how I manage getting to Worcester and back Friday and Saturday nights. If I'm still feeling nuked Friday, I'll just sleep up, recharge, go out Saturday, and let Meg yell at me until she gets it out of her system. Of course, if that happens, I don't just get the chewed-out-by-girlfriend debit, but also the missed-Opeth-AGAIN, both of which I'd really rather avoid. I don't have that much processing work to do tonight, so I might be able to pick up some more sleep and get closer to recovery.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes", Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" and "Farewell", and Borknagar, "The View of Everlast", all to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 65%, 63%, 65% and 63%. Expected catalog numbers: #75, #76, #77, #78. I'll finish the finishing on ep 11 tonight, and depending on circumstances I may be able to clip 12 by the end of the week. Also, considering that I still don't have Recca 16, I should be able to get some extra time Sunday and next week for personal video work rather than library processing.
Con news:
I was the ONLY person who sent their submissions to PortCon Maine in the format that Scott wanted them. That's kind of sad -- especially since it's not HARD or anything to get a MPEG2 encoder. Also sent off the Animethon disc to Vlad. I have Otakon, Fanime, and Vlad's other con to still send off, but over the weekend I ran out of CDs and was too busy to buy more till yesterday. Fortunately, all these are in the US or two weeks from the probable mail date (next Monday), so there won't be the sense of urgency that there was on this one.
Oh, yeah, and #52 was at Bakaretsu-con this past weekend, and nobody's posted how the contest went. I know I probably didn't win crap, but it'd be nice to know who I have to dismiss offhand as an irrelevant pander-monkey.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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