Listen folks, let’s start this review with a “not-so-short” little story, catching from what I call the evolution of the style.
Somewhere in the middle late 80’s, we saw the dawn of a new style of metal, which became more known as DEATH METAL, straight from the UK, where the most valuable acts were Carcass and Napalm Death. The US, of course, copied and adopted the whole idea, more specifically in Tampa, Florida, the place that brought us Death (the band, please), Obituary, and from NYC, Cannibal Corpse.
In early 90’s, the British bands started to get softer with their own style and sound, SURE, they got bills to pay, and quite notably, Carcass pleased us with two masterpieces, which would both become, well, “melodic death metal ( ?? ) “! O.o, yep, ladies and gentlemen, and then there were SCALES, TUNES, PITCHES, MELODIC GREEK SCALES AND MODES! |
 |
|
All those well known resources from traditional music, from metal to pop, from rock to classical, not only CHAOS. Even CHORUSES could be found here and there(!!). I’m talking about the albums “Necrotism” and, of course, the Immortal “HEARTWORK”. Just for the records, both counting with the presence of a still young bro called Michael Amott.
Then, Sweden, as we may see, got caught by the presence of his comrade doing his fine job at the British band and liked what he’s done with them. Of course, they DID copy it XD. So , Dark Tranquillity, In Flames (which did a REMARKABLE appearance in February 2009 at Santana Hall, São Paulo) were born, and both are still active nowadays. At the Gates also came out but they had a sad ending right before the 21th century, coming back recently but only as a revival, just for a few gigs, “that’s all folks”. Right after these bands got their places under the sun, another one came out and not less competent: Soilwork, bringing even more technical and melodic approach, sometimes even progressive, to what we now know as: new wave of Swedish death metal, or the gothemburg sound, or simply, melodic Swedish death metal. All active remaining bands are VERY well known, worldwide speaking, touring around the globe (even here in Latin America, with a little shyness, though), pretty well awarded too, which is a very nice fact to mention, because they’re not actually the Swedish metal version of the Jonas brothers.
And thanks again to some cosmic force, and this time, I bet my coins in the Nordic god Odin XD, the US folks just LOVED this very gothemburg sound , and finally, metalcore was born, from the ashes of what the VICIOUS American press usually spits from time to time: “metal is dead”. THEY are dead, not metal. And YES, KSE is still the most important and alive fortress of the style, a Sweden direct son, also a grandson from Britain’s death metal.
You know, that same story again in which “the Singer enters the stage and immediately starts to spin his index finger pointed up clockwise”, in less than 24hrs, THREE TIMES, for sure, it is NOT good for my back and spine. People were already there, crying, shouting their lungs out, in a kind of religious ecstasy, and you turn their cries into teeth-cracking stuff! They opened the evening with “My Last Serenade” – first, its first chords as a playback song – and then the real deal, literally a tornado of souls has become reality in the middle of Espaço Lux. Without any sign of forgiveness, mercy for our bodies, they lock and load another furious and fast track: “Reckoning”, from the most recent self titled album (2nd time in band’s history). Wanna feel another anvil falling right over your head? TAKE IT: “Fixation in Darkness” was the third one and I was like Apollo trying to hold my cam steady while trying to escape from tiny, mini, but dangerous blitzkrieg style MOSHPITS forming all around the place, just like “Twister” the movie: everything seems quiet and calm, then BANG, there it is, the whirl wind, of people of course, and then again, there it goes, vanishing as it was never there before.
There were tops, four stops for audience talking, which was pretty enough since the band members are quite funny from the start till the end, jumping, telling jokes, playing with words. Howard Jones, the vocalist who is all that “stuff bigga bro nigga”, about 6 feet tall, switches from grunts aggressive vocals to clean, and mid to high pitched ones in a blink of an eye, as easy as IF he were eating noodles. Not much talkative to the audience, so he can delegate this role to THE band’s most jester of all times, the axeman Adam Dutkiewicz (I JUST CAN'T pronounce a 10 lettered-name with 6 consonants XDD). The bass work seemed not much difficult to play, what makes the bass player Mike d’Antonio literally go wacko with his instrument, making him a show-man himself. The other guitar player, Joel Stroetzel, incarnates the low-pro style of guy, BUT he’s the most skilled and shredder of the strings trio. Last but not least, Mr. Justin “Hi, I’m the bald drummer with a long red beard” Foley raises HELL with a MINIMUM drum kit consisting of just one tom, two floor toms, a SINGLE bass drum and double pedal. He must prefer this drum config cause he’s quite FAST and precise in everything he does: blasting beats, grooves, fill-ins...
I shall mention shamelessly that all degrees of emotion reached high levels: coming from the audience so as from the band. The five members got shocked watching people sing along all verses, bridges and choruses (mostly the choruses, of course), almost bringing tears to Mr. Jones’ eyes. The audience, fair enough to mention the presence of many girls there, played its part, mosh pitting and singing non stop (and I was trying to do a bit of everything, without compromising my shooting XD).
In fact, re-watching the whole gig here, it was a short lived one: exactly 60 minutes of real music, putting aside all talkings and pauses. This must be a kind of standard for bands like these, once In Flames, as I mentioned before, performed only 80 minutes with no encore. Their last song was the almost a 2004 Grammy winner (no, I’m not kidding ), title track of their third album, debut of both, Mr. Jones and Foley (who raised the band’s handicap A LOT ): “The end of the Heartache”. This song is also the ending theme included in the movie “Resident Evil – Apocalypse”. This track, wow, Mr. Jones did not sang a single word, we did it for him XD.
The encore, so damn sure, asked by the audience in unison, and yet so predictable, was Ronnie James Dio’s “HOLY DIVER”, an awesome re-recording and also a respectful tribute paid to the metal godfather, also it has spawned an hilarious video clip, and talking about KSE it wouldn’t be any different, full of in-jokes, just to pick one, Howard Jones plays the role of a... BLACK SMITH... got it? BLACK... SMITH. For the records, this very song, SHOULD BE taught at elementary school for the children to know how to have metal manners. Seemed to me that all those people there at Espaço Lux, had got that kind of classy education and good manners XD.
The ONLY god dammit negative point of the show, is the shorted-duration itself, which is very common coming from extreme bands, so I could mention the lack of another powerful songs such as: “When Darkness Falls”, “Breath Life”, “Unbroken”, “Daylight Dies”, “Still Beats your Name”, “Never “Again”, “The Forgotten”.
I, EASILY, would watch these guys, MONTHLY, but the in next ones I’ll be fully ready with dental protection, gloves and helmet, and you’ll be seeing me at the Center of the eye of the storm... you the drill... AGING... the older, the wiser... ^^.
|
