Concert.

I visited Renee this past weekend. This has no relevance to this blog besides the fact that we attended a concert on Saturday. The headliner was Soilwork, but we, like any underground metalheads, went solely for the opening bands and weren't really interested in Soilwork. They're an okay band, but they play such a tired style of music. Maybe they're good live, we don't know, but regardless, it's worth the seventeen dollars.

Swallow the Sun started off the four band set, and theywere the band I wanted to go and see the most. They play a unique style of aggressive yet tranquil and melancholic style of doom metal, obviously influenced by melodic death metal. They came on under a Darkane banner, so I thought they were Darknane until they played. It didn't take long to recognize that the style wasn't, indeed, testosterone packed thrashy melodeath that Darkane plays. Besides all that, the band played their set flawlessly with "Don't Fall Asleep" being the centerpiece. The crowd, who probably expected to just get drunk during the sets of some shitty Soilwork knockoffs, got instead a rare treat of very nicely layered keyboards, clean guitars and distorted guitars. The venue was so small, you couldn't possibly miss any of it, and many people were coming from the bar to watch the band in awe. The drumming was also a high point, with the fills being done with mastery and finesse. The only disappointment was that they only got a half hour.

Daylight Dies didn't disappoint either, with a style of music not completely different from that of Swallow the Sun, but sans the keyboard and most of the clean vocals. We had a good laugh during Daylight Dies, because the leadsinger was throwing his hair back and forth right into the faces of the guys in the front row. It smelled like a flowery meadow. Only badasses use Herbal Essences, I guess. But that's besides the point. I don't have much to add about Daylight Dies, but it's hard to play a memorable set in between such great live bands.

Darkane was third, and as opposed to sending depression over the audience like a storm cloud, they blew the place apart with riffs, quick tight drumming, and good old facemelting solos every ten seconds. Their set was upgraded to 45 minutes after the previous two only getting 30, but they still didn't waste any time. The guy next to me tapped on my shoulder, made a mosh pose, and we rushed each other. Before you knew it, seven or eight people were battling to stay up and make themselves known in the pit. It's the greatest workout ever, after two minutes, you're sore all over. Everything was just like thrash should be: catchy, tight, technical, and full of energy. If this band doesn't get you moving, you either don't like the style or you're wheelchair-bound.

Soilwork came on and just showed that after seven studio albums and a share of mainstream success, you tend to slow down, gain weight, and don really gay schoolboy uniforms. We left before their second song was over.

It was all in all a good night. On the way home, I listened to Boris' Absolutego for a change (usually I do Feedbacker both ways because it's such a fucking masterpiece and I don't get a lot of chances to listen to it all the way through before I have to stop what I'm doing). It tired itself out before it was completely over, mostly because they last fifteen minutes or so just seem like the same industrial noise over and over. I always say that there's beauty in repetition, but only if the sound evolves noticeably. It's hard to keep my attention when you lay an hour long song out for me, but again, if there's evolution with soft spots, buildups, and catharses, I can definitely enjoy it. Feedbacker is an hour long song, and it's my favorite album of all time. I'm gonna have to review it one of these days.

Anyway, back to Absolutego. I can honestly say that I'm done with all of the bad stuff that this album offers. I never expected such a run-of-the-mill drone album to be so dynamic. It starts off like any drone/doom album should, with a single and extended guitar chord. It repeats, eventually adding another guitar, a bass, drums, and at one point, even vocals. I will listen to this again eventually and add more about it, but I was generally impressed with all of the climaxes the album offers. It's a solid slab of drone, definitely.