I have a confession to make. I am a metalhead. I enjoy going to loud concerts and headbanging 'till my ears bleed. One such concert happened last Friday at Barley's on West Federal. It featured Chaos Reigns, Meteorfall, and Motion Sickness.
Motion Sickness, a band from East Liverpool, opened, and as they set up their equipment I looked at their too-tight jeans, diagonally-swept bangs, and general angsty teen vibe, and thought, “Great, another annoying screamo band.” When they started playing, I was impressed by the lead guitarist and drummer, but underwhelmed by everything else. The vocalist was a screamer, but it was just a little too high-pitched to be considered mainstream metal. The bassist was inaudible, and the rhythm guitarist was vanilla.
Then they warmed up.
About three songs in, they somehow morphed into a really solid band. Their inexperience still showed, but it was tempered by their raw talent and potential. The vocalist, A.J. VanNorde, dropped an octave to sing a heavy piece with a Scandinavian feel, the guitarist, Alex Emmert, started shredding some stellar solos, the bassist, Nick Richardson, started playing louder and meshing more with the rest of the band, and the drummer, Zach Richardson, kept doing what he was doing. Why mess with a good thing?
Just about the only element that didn't pull together was the rhythm guitarist, Garrett Lyle. I later learned that this was because the vocalist, VanNorde, usually plays rhythm for them, but had injured his hand, and Lyle had to step in at the last minute. With that in mind, he really did the best he could with the short end of the stick, and he certainly didn't bring the band down.
The highlight of their set was a cover of Lamb of God's “Laid to Rest.” Those of you who've played Guitar Hero 2 probably know the song. It's an incredibly difficult piece, with a lot of fast guitar riffs, but with the help of Chaos Reigns' guitarist Mike Gismondi, they pulled it off with flying colors.
After that, their set wound down and they ended on a pretty good piece.
Then the audience demanded an encore.
They were clearly not prepared for an encore, but you give the people what they want. They started the opening chords of “Nightmare,” by Avenged Sevenfold, and I instantly knew something was wrong. The song is heavy on tight harmony with only occasional screaming, and until now they had done nothing but scream.
Their harmonies fell apart into cacophony, their lead and rhythm guitarists weren't on the same page, and the whole song just flopped.
Overall, I'd say they were incredibly good for their age, they just need to get more experience and practice in before they can make it in the big leagues. Also, they need to stick with what works. They shouldn't try to sing elaborate harmonies. It just falls flat.
The second band to take the stage was Meteorfall. From their first note, I knew they'd be awesome. They have a sort of old-school thrash metal feel. They've clearly drawn their inspiration from Megadeth, Black Sabbath, and early Metallica.
Vocalist slash rhythm guitarist Marc Latronico soldiered through a horrible cold to belt out some heavy melodies. The lead guitarist, Shaun Brown, shredded solos that rival Slash or Dave Mustaine. The drummer, Christopher Meeker, surrounded by an alabaster-and-brass monstrosity that rivals any drum set of Neil Peart's, kept up an intense metal beat, using his many drums to create a barrage of diverse timbres. Bassist Patrick Havas managed to do something that's fairly rare in thrash metal: he blended with the rest of the band. Usually in thrash, the bass is either inaudible or too loud, but Havas blended it perfectly to provide the low register that the guitarists weren't hitting with their squealing, shredding solos.
The highlight of their set happened to be a cover of one of my favorite songs, “War Pigs,” by Black Sabbath. They perfectly captured the primordial sounds of Sabbath while keeping the grungy, bold feel of Megadeth and Metallica, blending the qualities of all three into something that incited the crowd into an absolute frenzy.
If anything, my only real problem with Meteorfall was their lack of stage presence. They need to work on playing the audience and bringing them more into the performance. As it is, they just stand onstage behind their instruments and play, occasionally headbanging or pulling out the Darth Vader “join me” hand gesture. While their music is solid and energetic, that energy just doesn't carry over into their performance.
Coming out of Meteorfall's set, I was wondering how Chaos Reigns could top them. I was apparently drastically underestimating them. Their first song had the entire house on their feet, screaming and headbanging, myself included. They played two stellar songs and then informed the house that they hadn't actually started.
That was just their sound check.
They then proceeded to repeatedly blow my mind with repeated blows of awesomeness. Singer Vaughn Schmidt would wail like a banshee, then immediately drop down to the depths of his register and belt out a bass growl that had the windows rattling. It was a toss-up which of the guitarists was better at shredding, Mike Gismondi or Dylan Mays. Bassist Andy Lockso brought up the deep end of the spectrum, and drummer Matt Snyder had a tiny drum set consisting of maybe four drums and a handful of cymbals, but did more with it than most professional drummers can do with an inexhaustible supply.
Their sheer skill alone would have been enough for an amazing concert experience, but they also knew how to play a crowd perfectly. Schmidt would thrash around onstage in a dance that evoked primeval savagery. He'd curl around his microphone in a lover's embrace, then thrust it into the faces of the people pressed up against the stage and demand that they sing. Schmidt has a flair for the dramatic and a stage presence that is very reminiscent of glam stars like David Bowie or Iggy Pop, if seen through the gritty, hairy filter of metal.
The other members of the band also kept up their end of pleasing the crowd. Gismondi and Lockso sang just about everything Schmidt did, without mics, and their facial contortions were timed to perfectly coincide with just the right moments in the songs. Mays would dance around his little section of the stage, putting a leg up on an amp here, lifting his guitar to his shoulder in a rifler's stance there. Snyder would twirl his drumsticks and thrash his limbs.
By the time they whipped out Megadeth's “Hangar 18,” one of my favorite metal songs, I had set aside my notebook and lost myself in the beautifully hideous music.
I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this band. If you're a metal fan and you get the opportunity to see Chaos Reigns in concert, you must see them or revoke your headbangers' club membership.
No comments:
Post a Comment