So I think it’s time for another relatively-quality post on this blog, and I figured since my last post was a little bit late (not that this one wasn't...) and I pulled a lazy and did a list, now would be a good time to do that. Thus, I’ll be talking about three main topics with this post, the first of which is this:
New FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE Song-“Elegy”
Alright, so…as any repeat-readers of this blog are well
aware, I’m going to be seeing the mighty Fleshgod Apocalypse next month while
they support Wintersun on their upcoming North American tour. Being that I was very
fond of their previous works, Oracles,
Mafia, and Agony, I considered Fleshgod to be one of my favorite bands, and I
have for a while now. The first time I heard the song “Thru Our Scars” from the
Mafia EP, I was utterly hooked. It
was like nothing I’d ever heard before, seriously. I mean, I was a fan of death
metal and whatnot at the time, but Fleshgod was something completely new and
different for me. And this was just with Mafia!
The vocals were amazing, the clean vocals
were beautiful, the drumming was phenomenal and I’m not even one to take note
of the drums right off the bat…it was heavy, fast, brutal, and loud. And I
loved it.
This was how I felt about Mafia and, for the most part, Oracles.
Imagine my reaction to Agony. I’m a
huge fan of symphonic bands, especially of the death and black metal genres,
that do an amazing job with their execution. Wintersun, Carach Angren, and
Septicflesh are three of many prime examples of well-executed symphony.
Fleshgod became another example with Agony,
as it is truly a wonderful piece of symphonic death metal. “The Violation” and
“The Forsaking” are just two great displays of what sheer musicianship went into
this album: they’re polar opposites that came from the same album and band, yet
fit together in a cohesive, effortless way. Francesco Ferrini is a magnificent
composer and piano player, and the outro instrumentals to the three
aforementioned Fleshgod releases as well as “The Forsaking” are excellent
demonstrations of his skill. For you symphonic death/black metal fans out
there, imagine if Francesco Ferrini, Christos Antoniou, and Clemens Wijers
(Ardek) got together sometime and did a collaboration of some sort. If that
doesn’t make you drool just thinking about it, reevaluate your thought-process
while rereading that statement and try again.
Side note: that statement is why I consider the line-up of
Septicflesh, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Carach Angren in Europe one of the best line-ups I
have seen in years, as I have gone over previous tours that I did not attend. Maybe one of the best I've seen, ever.
Anyway…
After all that praise I just put on Fleshgod, I’m sure
you’re expecting me to completely tear it all down with how much I hated their
new song, “Elegy”, and how I have nothing but low expectations for Labyrinth and am already expecting to be
disappointed.
…
Ain’t happenin’.
Hell no! “Elegy” was great. Though, it was by no means the
absolute best song I’ve ever heard. Come to think of it, I couldn’t even tell
you what that would be, but I wasn’t really expecting this to be it. It is a
great song, but it’s a bit of a grower. Not as much as Turisas’ “For Your Own
Good”, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until I listened to it a few times. I
wasn’t exactly blown out of my seat with “Elegy” as I was with “Thru Our
Scars”, but I did find myself nodding along to it with ease. It’s very
“Fleshgod”, as Francesco Paoli liked to say, that much was clear, and it pretty
much picked up right where Agony left
off. After “Elegy”, I’m definitely expecting a superb album that fits nicely
into the growing Fleshgod discography.
HOWEVER.
With ups come downs, thus with praise comes critique.
Usually. Here is no different. Let me make clear this, first: I am not judging Labyrinth with this critique. I am
judging “Elegy”. Not the album. The song. Just the song. When I do
listen to the new album once it is released, I am not going to judge it based
of “Elegy”. I am not going to go into it with negative opinions I have on
“Elegy”. I will not let “Elegy” dictate how much enjoyment I get out of Labyrinth, be it a lot or a little. This
critique stands completely alone.
Clear? Okaaay.
I kind of had the same thought circling my head after I
listened to Agony for the fiftieth
time: where the hell are the guitars?
That’s one of the things that stuck out to me with “Elegy”. Tommaso is finally
adding a little variation to his vocals rather than just droning on with great
growls for 4-6 minutes like he did on Agony,
the drumming is once again a homerun courtesy of Paoli, the clean vocals are a
bit less prominent that I personally enjoy but are still wonderful when they’re
sprinkled in, and the orchestrations are incredible…but I can hardly even make
out the guitars until the solo which is about 3/4th of the way
through the song.
I also felt as though the track overall sounded too “clean”,
but that can be overlooked. The fact that the guitars were so low in the mix is
a bit hard to get over, especially since they were wonderful on previous
releases (perhaps excluding Agony
since they weren’t much different on that).
All in all, “Elegy” was a pretty good track that I was able
to enjoy without forcing myself to. It wasn’t a chore to listen to, and I’m
looking forward to Labyrinth, as well
as seeing the band live next month!
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE-Elegy
My Local Metal Scene
So I figured I'd do this small portion because I felt like sharing what the metal scene is like here (more so about fans, not bands, as I don't often hear about small, local shows until it's too late). I love hearing about the diversity in other peoples' cities/countries/etc., and it's so fun to think that, were you to go to a completely different country and wear, say, a Septicflesh shirt and walk around, there's a pretty good chance someone else wearing a Deicide shirt or whatever will acknowledge you and treat you as anyone you're familiar with back home would. I think the metal community is one of the absolute, if not the best in the world, and what I just said is only one reason why.
Where I live, it
seems like the metal-heads are pretty scattered. My neighborhood is
about 10 minutes or so away from from the popular venues, and it seems
like the shows are always pretty full. It's as if we all go into hiding
until a band comes around, which is when we'll all come out together. And we're all pretty nice, but it seems like most of the people
who go to the shows stick to those who they showed up with, while at the same time being friendly with those around them between sets and while in line outside the venue. For the most part, the metal-heads
all tend to be in their early-to-mid twenties, with few teenage
headbangers. Making new friends at shows isn't really uncommon, nor is hugging those you stood beside for the roughly four hours you were in the venue good-bye without knowing their name or if they're attending the next concert. Of course, it's usually pretty safe to say you'll see them again at some point. Faces often become familiar, and a good amount of the guys are usually sporting battle jackets. They're fun to inspect while walking around between sets if you don't have one of your own, and anyone is willing to strike up a conversation about theirs if you ask them about/compliment one of their patches.
The diversity at the Ghost show I attended a few months ago was incredible, and was described in my review which can be read here. Crowds aren't often as diverse as it was then, but Ghost caters to a wider audience than bands like GWAR, so it was a bit expected.
Going to Shows/Bands I’ve Seen Live
So this list (ugh, another list!) will be pretty short, as
I’ve only just started going to shows last September (it hurts to imagine all
the tours I’ve missed out on, I know) since I was a bit of a late-bloomer. Not
a late-bloomer as far as getting into metal goes – I’ve been a headbanger since
I was a tiny little thing – but for some reason it took me forever to start
being adamant about going to concerts. Now, however, it is an addiction and I
can’t seem to attend enough!
Before my list, however, I’d like to share the course of
events I go through before attending concerts. I tend to make a day of it all,
tense with anticipation when I know that I have a concert to go to that night.
Anyway, I usually spend the day watching the clock, waiting
until it gets to be in the mid-late afternoon hours no matter where I am or
what I’m doing. I’m usually calm, doing regular things throughout the day, like
reading or miscellaneous work or something on the computer (i.e. tweeting about
how anxious I am), up until it gets to about three hours before the doors to
the show are opened. At that point, I usually shower (it’s fine to leave a
venue sweaty and smelly but you should be courteous enough to smell relatively okay while walking in – you don’t need
to smell like a rose garden, but a little soap and deodorant never hurt anyone)
and put on whatever I decided on wearing that night. Usually jeans – need I
specify what color? – with sneakers (on rare occasions, boots, though not very
often since heels hurt) and one of the many shirts that hang in my closet. I
often go to shows for a specific band, and I usually have one of that band’s
shirts in my closet, so I wear that. In some scenarios, I go to a show just for
the hell of it with my brothers/friends and wear any random shirt. GWAR is a
great example of this, as I believe I wore my Dethklok shirt to the show and
picked up a DevilDriver one on the way out.
My tradition at a show, however, which I’m certain is shared
by many, many other people, is to at least buy a shirt on the way out. I
usually buy a shirt for the headlining band, whether I have one already or not.
Tour shirts are a huge plus for me, but, at the shows I’ve been to recently,
there haven’t been many. My first, and as of right now only, tour shirt is my
Cannibal Corpse shirt I got during the Decibel
Magazine Tour. On the off chance that the merch stand is out of shirts
completely or ones in my size (it’s happened), anything will do. Ghost is my
example, as I was dying to get one of the “Year Zero” shirts, and was pretty
sad when I saw there was none in my size left, so instead I bought a poster and
a copy of Infestissumam because I
didn’t have one yet.
Aside from all that, I like arriving to venues anywhere from
one to two hours early for obvious reasons. One other reason that may not be so
obvious, though, is that I don’t mosh.
“WHAT.”
Yep. I don’t mosh, and I don’t like being unintentionally caught in the mosh
pits. Not because I’m afraid of getting injured or I think it’s silly or I don’t
want to hurt anyone else (believe me, I can’t).
I don’t mosh for two reasons:
1.) I’m
pretty small, so I’ll get thrown around like a rag doll. I’m fairly certain I’m
not even 5’5”, and, while I do have some meat on my bones, I’m not what you
would consider a brick wall like some of the guys I know. I don’t want people
missing out on the fun in the mosh because they feel the need to look out for
tiny little me. Don’t think that it won’t happen, that I’m just being paranoid;
it will. And that brings us to reason
two.
2.) I
don’t want to slow anyone down. I can guarantee that male instincts will kick
in with someone and they’ll feel the
need to “take care of me” while I’m in the pit. I know metal guys know that
metal girls tend to be pretty tough and can take a punch or five, and we all
look out for each other all the time, male or female, but it’s human nature for
a male to feel the necessity to protect a female. I don’t want that guy missing
out on the fun in the pit because I’m there. He may not try to stand in front
of me or wrap his arms around me and push anyone away from me, but he’ll be
keeping his eye specifically on me. I promise
this is what would happen.
Instead, I just like being as
close as I can possibly be to the bands and bang my head until I can’t feel my
neck. Plus, there’s also a weird sense of satisfaction I get out of being
pinned against the guardrail so hard I can practically feel my ribs bruising
throughout the night, but that’s somewhat irrelevant. While my neck is
throbbing, my hair is in knots, my arms are tired from being up all evening, my
legs feel like cement, and my back feels as though I require an immediate trip
to the chiropractor, I head to the merch stand before I leave the venue. On
rare occasions, I stick around with some other fans to see if there’s a chance
to meet any of the performers, but if not, it’s always a fun time nonetheless.
So here’s a list of the shows I’ve
attended:
-MORBID ANGEL w/ Dark Funeral, Grave,
and Vadimvon, 9/28/12 (went for Dark Funeral, met Nachtgarm who was their
vocalist at the time, and bought a Morbid Angel shirt)
-GWAR w/ Devildriver, Cancer Bats,
and Legacy of Disorder, 10/12/12 (went for the hell of it, bought a DevilDriver
shirt)
-DETHKLOK w/ Machine Head, All That
Remains, and Black Dahlia Murder, 12/11/12 (went mostly for Dethklok, missed
Black Dahlia unfortunately, bought a Dethklok shirt; was originally supposed
to be Dethklok, Lamb of God, and Gojira until Randy went to prison in the Czech
Republic, then rescheduled from 10/31/12 to stated date due to Hurricane Sandy)
-GOJIRA w/ Devin Townsend Project and
The Atlas Moth, 2/16/13 (went for Gojira, bought a The Way of All Flesh shirt and an autographed photo of Joe
Duplantier)
-GHOST (B.C.) w/ Ides of Gemini,
5/12/13 (went for Ghost, bought a poster and Infestissumam)
-CANNIBAL CORPSE w/ Napalm Death,
Immolation, Magrudergrind, and Drugs of Faith, 6/6/13 (went for the first
three, bought a Cannibal Corpse Torture
tour shirt and got one of their set lists)
Shows I plan on/am attending:
-WINTERSUN w/ Fleshgod Apocalypse,
Arsis, and Starkill, 8/7/13 (going for everyone but mostly Wintersun and
Fleshgod)
-KAMELOT w/ Delain and Eklipse,
9/5/13 (going for Kamelot)
-VADER w/ Vital Remains and
Sacrificial Slaughter, 9/18/13 (going for Vader – late birthday gift to
myself…happy fuckin’ birthday to me!! also at a venue where my brother says, from experience, you're practically guaranteed to meet the bands...if I meet Peter, I shit you not, I will probably cry.)
OVERKILL w/ Kreator and Warbringer,
10/31/13 (going mostly for Kreator and Overkill, both of which are swapping
headlining throughout the tour – Overkill is headlining while in Philly)
-MORBID ANGEL w/ TBA?, 11/13/13 (as
of right now, going for Morbid Angel - first band I’ll see more than once!)
So that's about it with this post. Hope you enjoyed!
UP-COMING BLOG TOPICS:
-*NEW REVIEW*: Atrocity-Okkult
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-Latest Turisas Song - "Into the Free"
-That little girl on America's Got Talent
-"Irreligious" (a rant on obnoxious
practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
-My "Top 10" of last year
-Whatever else I feel like
VESANIA-Path XI: Legions Are Me
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