The Metal Thread 4.0

[Deus13]

Picked up Within Temtations,'Mother Earth' CD over the weekend, I found it to be a step up from their first album, 'Enter', which I really liked BTW. 'Our Farewell' and 'Caged' alone justified this purchase IMO.

[station82o]

yeah thats a good record, I file under Enya-esque however because it doesn't strike me as metal at all... just a new age pop rock band - something like that.

[Tracer]

I heard that one. I thought it was ok, but on the whole I don't think I came away very impressed. Nothing very special stuck out from it.

[station82o]

Yeah it wasn't very special at all, and I sometimes wonder why I ordered it, oh well its done. After the barrage of great metal albums that 2002 had to offer - 2003 seems relatively slow and tame in comparison, until the summer/fall time of course... but thats good anyway because its allowed me to delve into other musical genres such as hip/hop, electronic (ambient) and a touch of punk, newmetal, and revisiting alot of alternative rock.

[station82o]

saw in flames last night with tracer - my voice is damn near shot this morning. They were fucking phenomenal - just outstanding - I don't think I've ever seen as much energy presented on stage before - they even give henry rollins a run for his money. Before the show Jesper Strombald signed a booklet of mine - very cool.

[Rick]

In Flames are great showmen. Even though it seemed like a total of 8 people were there to see them at Slayer/Soulfly, they rocked those 8 peoples faces off. How anyone could possibly like Soulfly over In Flames as much as some of those people could, I'll never understand.

[Tracer]

In Flames ruled and the crowd was all there to see them. I imageine if Mudvayne was there they might have been well outnumbered and certianly over-powered. I was on the floor for In Flames and I was quite honestly mangled in the press of humanity down there. The mosh wasn't as imposing (but certainly more prevailant) as was in the Henry Rollins show it was however EVERYWHERE that wasn't so tighly packed with people. I was having a whole mess of fun but after heads to the nose and elbows to my eyes and at least 100 people stomping on my left big toe (it looks awful right now) and the sheer fact that I have absolutely NO stamina (I should quit smokeing) meant that near the end of thier set I was feeling like I was about to be dismantled down there. Sadly I saw no easy way out of the crowd and I didn't want to take my attention off of In Flames. When Anders said 'Episode 666' I knew I was in for it, the mob had been shouting for it the whole time. Maybe I was just in a bad spot (actually no I wasn't - There was 2 righously hot girls pressed up in front of me, getting just as smashed) with a mosh behind me and to the right of me and crowd surfers to the left.

Their performance was great though. If I had more stamina I would likely have been ok (and if I hadn't been piss drunk for a while) but I am all kinds of sore. My neck does hurt, but not as much as everything else. God I look battered right now :/

As a note, the opener sucked very very hard.

ºTracer

[station82o]

yeah - all three shitty fucking opening bands sucked. i'm sorry i can't stand alot of that straight nonmelodic death metal stuff - listening to it at such a volume was making me nausceous and grating my hearing after awhile (that fucking crap mead didn't help either) - but when in flames came on my heavy head was lightened and i felt alert - their music was just as loud as the other bands but I was amazed that it actually made me feel better for reasons other than it just being In Flames. Sweet melody.

Rick - you're right - In Flames are amazing showmen - Anders Friden especially - he got the entire place fucking going - and I took a shitload of pictures. I hope they came out ok - I'm sure there will be some duds but I hope at least a couple make it out fine - I'll post them here when they do.

[CynicalSphere]

Just out of curiosity, were they doing that "Jump! Jump!" bullshit at the show you were at? :P

I've never even heard of Marzi, Four, or Sore, which is kinda unusual since I usually hear of Texas metal bands at one point or another. Marzi's soundfiles were unavailable and there's no point in looking up names as generic as FOUR or SORE. I love straight-up death metal if it's in the old thrash-based death metal school, but the more typical grindcore-strum-and-hit-the-drums-as-fast-as-humanly-possible bullshit is against my metal religion...

I got the latest TUATHA DE DANANN album, so here's a review gratis...

TUATHA DE DANANN - The Delirium Has Began (sic)

The third CD from Tuatha De Danann arrives and nothing much has changed. The band is still cranking out music that sounds like a band of minstrels, a death vocalist, and a European power metal band had an enormous clusterfuck somewhere in the forests of ancient Eire.

This album differs from Tingaralatingadun in two respects: it doesn't have a chorus as singable as Tan Pinga Ra Tan, or any deliciously silly drinking tunes as Finganforn. That said, the band has tightened up considerably and the songs flow a bit better now. While the choruses aren't quite as memorable, the music itself is even more infectious now and will catch in your brain even after one or two listens. TDD also experiments a bit on this album, bringing in some female vocals (without making them sound like shit).

Furthermore, this album doesn't have any instrumentals, which is good because Tingaralatingadun had way too fuckin' many.

Something I want to mention is the album cover. I have to say that this album cover, which has caricatures of the band members as elves drinking and embracing cartoon gnomes, is one of the fucking silliest and most faggoty covers ever. That said, it's great! It's nice to see a fantasy-metal band that doesn't take themselves as seriously as bands like Manowar and Crapsody try to. You won't see any frilly shirts or band members with solemn faces brandishing swords that they have no idea how to really use. It's nice to see that TDD, for all their cheesiness, don't take themselves particularly seriously which automatically puts them ahead of the bands that act like there's something serious about The Triumph of My Magic Steel (actual Rhapsody song title, no shit, no lie)...

Let's hope that makes sense, I'm a bit drunk right now...

[station82o]

Four had a great drummer and guitarist - but thats it. Sore I completely hated, although the singer singing in midst of the mosh pit was interesting. Marzi could go fuck off really.

I dont recall Anders ever doing that "jump jump" thing along with the crowd - but he'd do this head down knees up high jump occasionally just as the song lurched into a faster or heavier section. I don't mind the "jump jump" stuff though (part of the crowd started doing that for a while) because it gets the crowd going and it just adds to the energy. It may be a nu-metal thing but I think its cool.

I remember the december 2000 inflames show I went too - and that was damn intense - but I must say that In Flames performance on Thursday night just destroyed their other one - they were just fucking on that night - i don't think i've heard live metal sound soooo good. And the Reroute to Remain songs sound killer live.