Temple of Doom: Obscura (d) + Spawn Of Possession (s) + Gorod (fr) + Exivious (hol)

15th of March, Templet, Lyngby, Denmark.

EXIVIOUS (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/exivious.aspx?ac=exivi):
The Dutch technical/progressive fusion metal act EXIVIOUS started the evening. The band self-released their self-titled debut full-length studio album in 2009. Guitarist Tymon Kruidenier is also known for playing on CYNIC´s comeback album "Traced in Air (2008)" and bassist Robin Zielhorst for playing live with CYNIC on the subsequent tour replacing Sean Malone.

The band entered the stage with a nice relaxed attitude and played their incredibly challenging progressive fusion metal with what seemed like ease. The songs were more energetic in a live setting that they are on the more calm album versions, which worked really well for the band. A great performance from what seemed to be a very sympathetic band.

GOROD (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/gorod.aspx?ac=gorod):
French technical death metal act GOROD entered the stage as the second act this night. GOROD were formed in 1997 under the GORGASM monicker, but to avoid confusion with the US act of the same name they changed their name to GOROD in 2005 and have currently released 4 full-length studio albums under this monicker. The latest being "A Perfect Absolution" from March 2012.

After a couple of minor sound rehearsals, which seemed a bit odd at that point, GOROD started their show. Great energy, tight musicianship and again a band that seemed to have a good time on stage (I swear the bassist was smiling throughout the whole concert). After the more nerdy fusion metal of EXIVIOUS, it was nice to have your head bashed in by some really brutal and technical death metal music.

SPAWN OF POSSESSION (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/spawn-of-possession.aspx?ac=spawn):
After a short break Swedish technical death metal act SPAWN OF POSSESSION took the stage. The band have released 3 highly technical death metal albums in "Cabinet (2003)", the much praised "Noctambulant (2006)" and this years "Incurso" and are widely considered as one of the Swedish leaders of this particular death metal sub-genre.

SPAWN OF POSSESSION are sligthly more old school than GOROD and my initial assumption that the two acts would sound very similar in a live setting was put to shame. The live sound was a bit more muddy than had been the case with the clear and very good sound during EXIVIOUS and GOROD, but I was still able to hear what was going on. The band were well playing and their music worked well in a live setting. Great energy.

OBSCURA (http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/obscura.aspx?ac=obscur):
Germam technical/progressive death metal act OBSCURA have been on quite a successful ride after they released their 2nd full-length studio album "Cosmogenesis" in 2009. An album that made quite an impact on the technical/progressive death metal scene. The release of "Omnivium" in 2011 have only further strengthened OBSCURA´s position as one of the most successful acts on the technical/progressive death metal scene.

It didn´t take long after SPAWN OF POSSESSION left the stage before OBSCURA, who was headliner this night, entered the stage to play their show. The band were obviously very well playing and delivered their songs with great conviction, but unfortunately the soundman fucked up the sound to a degree where the sound at times was downright painful to the ears. The sound was terribly distorted because he had turned up the volume way too much. Midways through the show he mananged to control the sound to a degree where it was actually pretty good, but towards the end he screwed up again and everything ended in a distorted mess. I don´t blame the band who did their best and seemed like nice guys with a great contact to the audience (and a really nice German accent that reminded me of Mille from KREATOR), but I´d fire that soundman (or at least give him a kick in the ass or a couple of new ears). I was standing right next to the mixing pult, so he must have heard exactly the same sound as I did, and he didn´t do enough to fix the problem IMO.

...all in all it was a pretty great evening, that unfortunately ended on somewhat of a low. EXIVIOUS was probably the most interesting act and GOROD and SPAWN OF POSSESSION also delivered great shows, so I guess it was one of those rare evenings where the support acts steal the show. I´m just sorry for OBSCURA because it wasn´t their fault.

MELVINS live, Lille VEGA, Copenhagen, Denmark, 17th of Oct. 2011

While MELVINS is a band I´ve always heard nice things about it´s not until recently that I´ve begun to check out their music, so before going to this concert I was only familiar with the 3 last albums out of an (at the moment) 18 studio album discography. I took a friend to the concert who had only listened to a few samples, so it´s safe to say we didn´t quite know what to expect.

After a DJ had warmed up people for about and hour and a half (there was no supporting act), the lights were dimmed and MELVINS entered the stage, starting the concert with an inferno of feedback noise and random drumming courtesy of their two drummers. Then they went into the first track which was a repetitive and extremely heavy track. To be honest the track felt a bit too repetitive and we got slightly worried at this point. We made our way to the front of the stage after the first couple of tracks (which wasn´t hard as the venue can only hold about 400 - 500 people. It was sold out though) and that´s when the experience of seing the MELVINS became extremely intense. After a while we simply couldn´t help ourselves and we banged our heads like madmen. My goodness MELVINS are heavier beyond heavy in a live setting. I don´t think I´ve ever experienced a more bone crushingly heavy band live. Even their more energetic punked up-tempo tracks are heavy as fuck.

The setlist consisted of quite a few tracks from the last three albums and especially "(A) Senile Animal (2006)" and the latest album release "The Bride Screamed Murder (2010)" were well represented. It didn´t bother me of course as those are the albums I´ve heard, but it was actually amazing how easy it was to understand and appreciate the tracks I didn´t know beforehand. MELVINS tracks are damn catchy and downright infectious and that had a contagious effect on the audience, who halfway through the concert started moshing (a single girl stagedived but was politely asked to remove her ass from the stage by a security guard). The mosh was actually so energetic that I missed parts of the JARED WARREN led track "A History of Bad Men", which is a favorite of mine, but who cares? I just like to see happy people go bezerk to music they love. The concert also included a shared drum solo and a quite bizarre and stoned ending to the night with JARED WARREN lying on his knees chanting into a microphone while electronically manipulating his bass for about 10 minutes. A bit unnecessary if you ask me, but because the rest of the concert was as great as it was we decided to forgive this odd way of ending the concert.

The musicianship is absolutely amazing in this band and deserves a mention too. The two drummers DALE CROVER and COADY WILLIS compliment each other very well playing little details all the time but they can also provide some heavy beats and as a consequence of having two drummers those beats come off as crushingly heavy. The vocals were also really strong this night allthough they were slightly low in the soundscape. The distorted bass playing by JARED WARREN bring a lot of heaviness to the music too.

The stage sound was really good this night. Raw and loud but without drowning the instruments in noise. The guitar tone of guitarist/lead vocalist KING BUZZO was particularly organic and his playing loose yet tight.

So it´s safe to say we had a very positive surprise seing MELVINS, and we both agreed that we would most definitely go see them when they come around these parts again. As my friend stated: "They opened my eyes to the fact that there are still original artists out there". I guess praise don´t come better than that.

1. Hung Bunny
2. Roman Dog Bird
3. The Water Glass
4. Evil New War God
5. AMAZON
6. The Talking Horse
7. It’s Shoved
8. Lizzy
9. The Kicking Machine
10. Billy Fish
11. It Won’t Be Long (The Beatles)
12. Electric Flower
13. Queen
14. At the Stake
15. Copache
16. Spread Eagle Beagle
17. A History of Bad Men
18. Ligature
19. The Bit
20. Shevil

MELVINS MMA artist page: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/melvins.aspx?ac=melvins

Exhumed/Cephalic Carnage, The Rock, Copenhagen, Denmark 12th of Oct. 2011

On a cold and windy October night I went with a couple of buddies to see EXHUMED and CEPHALIC CARNAGE at The Rock in Copenhagen, Denmark. Both Relapse Records signed artists have existed since the early- to mid nineties and have released a considerable number of releases. EXHUMED are usually labelled goregrind or deathgrind while CEPHALIC CARNAGE belong to the more experimental side of extreme metal, mixing deathcore, metalcore, sludge, avant garde, progressive grindcore and melodic death metal influences into a sound that´s unmistakably their own.

Exhumed MMA profile: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/exhumed.aspx?ac=exhumed

Cephalic Carnage MMA profile: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/cephalic-carnage.aspx?ac=cephalic