It’s
an awful night in Brum, it’s the middle
of March and yet it feels like the middle of winter.
Its cold, it’s snowy and its miserable,
but a shining light beckoning cold metalers into,
the warmth is hear and it’s at the academy
in the shape of the Jagermeister tour! Tonight
has a line up of 3 great bands (it was 4 but the
local act cancelled due to the snow).
The Defiled are first up, this industrial metal
band from London, enter the stage in darkness
and pretty much stay in it throughout their set,
with minimal lighting on the stage its hard to
see their makeup and crazy
stage antics. They blast into Sleeper from their
upcoming album Daggers, and the crowd starts rocking
out. The defiled play their role well, being good
entertainers coming to the front of the stage
and posing with their instruments, including the
keyboardist who holds his keyboard upside down
whilst sticking his tongue out, its clear they've
gone to the kiss school of rock gigs. But while
their act may hold big comparisons to other acts,
their music doesn't, its crash metal, with bone
crunching double kick pedals all the way through,
with thrashing guitars and backing synth(which
doesn't come across well live, as it just stands
stagnant in the background),
the vocals are gritty and you could be mistaken
to think they're American by the sound of his
voice. They say the odd word to the crowd, telling
how there next song goes out to their sound man,
Garry Lee, as keyboardist The AvD says he pissed
in his suitcase the night before, after having
one of the heaviest nights in years, they also
thank Jagermeister for putting them on the bill
for the 3rd year running, before wrapping up their
neat little set with, Call To Arms. They get the
crowd warmed up, but on the coldest of days in
recent memory, they don't get everyone warmed
up fully as their sound just isn’t big enough
for this venue (yet).
Gojira
are next up, this French metal act take to the
stage with wind chimes playing in an eerie way
with deep feedback over the top, and then they
blast into their first number, Explosia. They
sound great, with a industrial backing of electric
drums in the background whilst double bass interweaves
along with steady guitar and bass progression,
before slowing right down into a deep dark breakdown
and speeding back up as before, all with the screeching
tones overlapping everything. The lighting has
improved with the band as it now shines brightly
and changes with the speed of the music including
the off strobe. The room seems more electric
now with the crowd surging forward to get a view
and a space to mosh along. The band are pretty
steady and normal staying in their places, that
is until the key change in Flying Whales where
they go crazy, moshing and flinging themselves
and their instruments around, this then continues
through the set, as if Explosia was a warm up.
They play a decent length set with songs including
Backbone, L’Enfant Sauvage, Toxic Garbage
Island and The Axe.
As
the set progresses the tracks get more erratic,
with pace changes happening all the time, tiring
out the crowd as they try and keep up with the
movement on stage, that is until they reach the
last quarter of the set, where things seem to
drag, they do a drum solo and have quite long
guitar wails as filler which really brings down
the atmosphere. If they cut the set short they
would have been great, but they go on to long.
They have moved the bar up though and have the
room thoroughly motivated for the final act after
playing the final song The Gift of Guilt.
Ghost
are up last and this mysterious group from Sweden,
They enter the stage to strange religious chanting
in almost complete darkness apart from a beam
off green light. They are dressed all black robes
with no skin showing and pentagrams around their
necks, along with strange masks with big noses,
all except for the lead singer Papa Emeritus II
or Papa for short, who enters the stage half way
through the first song Infestissumam, dressed
in a shiny black robe, with a white skull mask
a pope style hat and a staff. As someone who had
never seen the band before, I find it weird how
a band who sings in, what appears to be Latin,
and who dresses like the anti church can be popular,
but as they continue and their lyrics change to
English and I pick up on Hail Satan, I can understand,
they're a group that appeals to the darker side
of metal.
The
stage adds to this unholy look as its kitted out
with a huge alter, but its hard to know if this
is serious of its just mocking religion , but
I suppose that shouldn't matter as tonight is
about their live show which is phenomenal and
a sight to be seen. The stage presence is over
the top, the theatrics are immense and the sound
is crisp and clear, with all parts being put to
the crowd with lots of layers, as the gospel harmonies
and clean vocals overlap the sweet riffs and complicated
bass lines, along with the majestic keys and grand
drums. They play along set with songs such as
Con Clavi Con Dio, Elizabeth, Stand by Him, Satan
Prayer and Year Zero.
Papa
Moves around the stage slowly and creepily throughout
the set as the rest of the band (or Nameless Ghouls
as their wiki page calls them), move around the
stage behind him with a lot more vigour, which
includes moshing and posing to the crowd. This
is completely different to the other two bands
in the bill, and whilst still metal, it also feels
more unique as it mixes a few different genres
together to make a totally different sound. The
crowd laps it up, and everyone moshes slowly along
with the music. They end their set with Ritual
before coming back and performing Mostrance Cloak
before slinking of the stage the same way they
came on, but not before Papa bows down and blows
kisses to the crowd in a very churchy way.
Overall
it’s been an interesting gig, the crowd
loved it all but I found it hard to get my head
around, with the franticness of the Defiled mixed
with the true metal experience of Gojira, ending
with a truly unholy show of dark metal in the
form off Ghost. But the crowd loved it, so if
you like your metal, varied then tonight was the
night for you, and we look forward to seeing the
next mix of acts on the Jagermeister tour next
time around.
The Defield – 2.5/5
Gojira – 3/5
Ghost – 4/5
Review By James Daly
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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