As I wrote about in my first post on this blog, there are alot of awesome tours happening right now. I also wrote about in my first post that many of those awesome tours were happening near my area which could only mean one thing, SHOW TIME!! This past Friday I caravaned over to the fabled city of drunken debauchery New Orleans, not only to take in the sights and drinks(lots of drinks) on Bourbon st. or along the riverwalk, but to check out the 2012 edition of the Metal Alliance Tour at one of my favorite venues, The Hangar.
This year's Metal Alliance Tour features Devildriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For a Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, Impending Doom, and Wretched in one jam-packed bill comprised of old death metal favorites as well as the new breed of death, among power metallers 3 Inches of Blood.
I have to be honest, I missed both Wretched and Impending Doom(somehow I lived) due to an intensely important situation in the French quarter that required my(wallets) urgent attention. So for me, the first band to hit the stage was 3 Inches of Blood. They played a couple of impressive tracks from their upcoming album "Long Live Heavy Metal," as well as their signature hit "Deadly Sinners"that was featured in Tim Schaffer's "Brutal Legend."(Which as a side note, I highly recommend you play if you are a gamer, especially since it can be picked up on the cheap nowadays) I have always appreciated 3 Inches of Blood but I could never say I loved their music, however they were more than entertaining and the promising sound of the upcoming album has me intrigued to hear more[7/10]
Job For A Cowboy hit the stage next and returned us to metal of a slightly faster and distorted variety. Their fan favorite "Entombment of a Machine" opened their set much to the delight of those in attendance. JFAC followed with a few offerings from their upcoming album "Demonocracy," as well as two songs from "Ruination." JFAC wasn't at their best, but they were far from dull to watch. The band was certainly capable of a better show, but the fact that they can not be totally at the top of their live game and still be entertaining is a testament to them as musicians.[7/10](As a side note, JFAC's new bassist Nick is quite a find and a pretty cool dude I have concluded upon meeting him and discussing many subjects from Decrepit Birth to music venues in Mobile,Al)
JFAC is one of the newer bands, evolving from the deathcore movement into a more straightforward death metal sound. Dying Fetus however, is one of the bands that taught and continues to teach everyone what badass death metal sounds like. The instant classic "Your Treachery Will Die With You" off of the "Descend Into Depravity" albums leads off what was to be the beginning of an unrelentingly brutal assault of the eardrums of everyone present. This three piece(crazy right?) for 45 minutes committed what basically amounted to prolonged auditory rape, you know what brutal death metal "SHOULD"(lol) sound like. Simply put, Fetus rules and the new album has a 99.99 % chance of being awesome.(8.5/10)
The Faceless faces a tough challenge following Dying Fetus but they proved themselves up to the task. The technical proficiency of this group is still top knotch despite the fact that only one founding member remains in the band. Although I remain not fully a believer in The Faceless, I think that I know talent when I see it and this group of men are talented, at least the group that wrote "Planetary Duality" was, it remains to be seen what the new blood will do to the sound of the Faceless. Until judgement day comes, I say that The Faceless while not necessarily being the easiest thing to headbang to in the world deserved and sometimes demanded my attention.[7.5/10]
Devildriver took the stage last and unfortuantely seemed anticlimactic. After a night of super heavy metal it was seemingly a step below in the intensity level(for me anyway, the couple hundred people around me seemed to disagree). Nonetheless, Dez and crew put on an entertaining show. Devildriver was once described to me by one of my friends as producing "the best circle pit music in the world," and while I think a few bands might have something to say about that, Ddriver spawned quite a few pits while playing songs across their library ranging from "Fury of Our Maker's Hand" to multiple tracks from the new release "Beast." While not the most technical, brutal, fastest, or heaviest band on the bill, Devildriver proves to be the most popular of the night and are a entertaining bunch to watch to boot.[7/10]
This year's Metal Alliance Tour features Devildriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For a Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, Impending Doom, and Wretched in one jam-packed bill comprised of old death metal favorites as well as the new breed of death, among power metallers 3 Inches of Blood.
I have to be honest, I missed both Wretched and Impending Doom(somehow I lived) due to an intensely important situation in the French quarter that required my(wallets) urgent attention. So for me, the first band to hit the stage was 3 Inches of Blood. They played a couple of impressive tracks from their upcoming album "Long Live Heavy Metal," as well as their signature hit "Deadly Sinners"that was featured in Tim Schaffer's "Brutal Legend."(Which as a side note, I highly recommend you play if you are a gamer, especially since it can be picked up on the cheap nowadays) I have always appreciated 3 Inches of Blood but I could never say I loved their music, however they were more than entertaining and the promising sound of the upcoming album has me intrigued to hear more[7/10]
Job For A Cowboy hit the stage next and returned us to metal of a slightly faster and distorted variety. Their fan favorite "Entombment of a Machine" opened their set much to the delight of those in attendance. JFAC followed with a few offerings from their upcoming album "Demonocracy," as well as two songs from "Ruination." JFAC wasn't at their best, but they were far from dull to watch. The band was certainly capable of a better show, but the fact that they can not be totally at the top of their live game and still be entertaining is a testament to them as musicians.[7/10](As a side note, JFAC's new bassist Nick is quite a find and a pretty cool dude I have concluded upon meeting him and discussing many subjects from Decrepit Birth to music venues in Mobile,Al)
JFAC is one of the newer bands, evolving from the deathcore movement into a more straightforward death metal sound. Dying Fetus however, is one of the bands that taught and continues to teach everyone what badass death metal sounds like. The instant classic "Your Treachery Will Die With You" off of the "Descend Into Depravity" albums leads off what was to be the beginning of an unrelentingly brutal assault of the eardrums of everyone present. This three piece(crazy right?) for 45 minutes committed what basically amounted to prolonged auditory rape, you know what brutal death metal "SHOULD"(lol) sound like. Simply put, Fetus rules and the new album has a 99.99 % chance of being awesome.(8.5/10)
The Faceless faces a tough challenge following Dying Fetus but they proved themselves up to the task. The technical proficiency of this group is still top knotch despite the fact that only one founding member remains in the band. Although I remain not fully a believer in The Faceless, I think that I know talent when I see it and this group of men are talented, at least the group that wrote "Planetary Duality" was, it remains to be seen what the new blood will do to the sound of the Faceless. Until judgement day comes, I say that The Faceless while not necessarily being the easiest thing to headbang to in the world deserved and sometimes demanded my attention.[7.5/10]
Devildriver took the stage last and unfortuantely seemed anticlimactic. After a night of super heavy metal it was seemingly a step below in the intensity level(for me anyway, the couple hundred people around me seemed to disagree). Nonetheless, Dez and crew put on an entertaining show. Devildriver was once described to me by one of my friends as producing "the best circle pit music in the world," and while I think a few bands might have something to say about that, Ddriver spawned quite a few pits while playing songs across their library ranging from "Fury of Our Maker's Hand" to multiple tracks from the new release "Beast." While not the most technical, brutal, fastest, or heaviest band on the bill, Devildriver proves to be the most popular of the night and are a entertaining bunch to watch to boot.[7/10]
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