Animals As Leaders are an extremely impressive
instrumental 3 piece based in Washington DC formed
by extraordinary guitarist Tosin Abasi back in
2007, tonight they have been dealt quite an easy
task of warming up an already excited Meshuggah
crowd here in Wolverhampton. Right from the get
go I was genuinely surprised to see how many people
actually already loved the band, I saw many people
with their t-shirts and the reaction was they
got from merely coming out onstage was ridiculous,
I obviously underestimated them. With instrumental
music live I sometimes find myself losing interest
because there’s not much in the way of a
huge show or means of bonding with their crowd
and admittedly the same thing happened this evening
but not on the usual scale, I was still finding
myself drawn to watching Abasi drift over his
fret board like nobody’s business and watching
Matt Garstka giving his drum kit the pounding
of its life. The reaction never diminished either
it remained extremely loud and aggressive after
each and every song, Abasi only said 15 words
if that the entire set and still managed to have
this bond which in all honesty warrants my respect
in a huge way.
Meshuggah then naturally came out and killed it,
and I mean really killed it. The weird thing was
though, I was expecting more, as good as they
played and as explosive as the crowd was I don’t
know what I was expecting but I feel maybe the
small venue has brought them down a bit. I think
that comes from hearing how aggressive lead vocalist
Jens Kidman was on stage but I just wasn’t
seeing or feeling that tonight, however the lighting
rig did render most people blind for the majority
of the set due to the sheer brightness of them
and vast amount. Having said all of that I thoroughly
enjoyed what I saw, if possible I think Kidman
said less words than Tosin Abasi from Animals
As Leaders did in their set! Never the less we
were treated to an hour and a half of straight
up red blooded aggression with songs like “Bleed”,
“Lethargica”, “The Hurt That
Finds You First” and many many more, all
accompanied with eye piercing lighting. A 3 song
encore concluded the set consisting of “Future
Breed Machine”, “Dancers to a Discordant
System” and “The Last Vigil”
putting a triumphant end to a great set, Considering
they didn’t really live up to my initial
expectations I still found myself thoroughly enjoying
myself, would definitely be up for it again.
Animals as Leaders – 3.5/5
Meshuggah – 4/5
Review By James Webb
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