Manitoba Metalfest 2016 (Day 1)
Live @ The Park Theatre, Winnipeg
Live @ The Park Theatre, Winnipeg
April 15, 2016
Dangly key and dickeycore. Fast, straight-up crusty cruchy dbeat grind. Pretty great.
West Of Hell
They tried every trick in the book to get the crowd going but nobody was having it.Grinding metal to make sparks fly, bouncy balls, fake snow (in house? do they take those things on tour with them?), Roman leggionaire helmet, smoke gun. The guy was like Carrot Top out there. Fast Judas Priest speed metal, pretty thrashy. Good but a tough sell tonight for a very sober-looking early crowd that was looking to grind.
They tried every trick in the book to get the crowd going but nobody was having it.Grinding metal to make sparks fly, bouncy balls, fake snow (in house? do they take those things on tour with them?), Roman leggionaire helmet, smoke gun. The guy was like Carrot Top out there. Fast Judas Priest speed metal, pretty thrashy. Good but a tough sell tonight for a very sober-looking early crowd that was looking to grind.
Fast fastcore. Crowd is back into it. At one point it seems a guitar lead got tripped over and the amp and head collapsed in a heap on the stage. Lost the guitar for a bit but the army of techs that would make regular appearences from here on out were able to resurrect it. Never seen that before. Great stuff (the band, I mean).
Don't know what that means. Touring band from Alberta. Claims to have played the city three times last year, crowd still loves them. Generally fast blackened thrash kind of stuff. Nice guitar work, definitely the most melodically adventurous of the bands so far but still brutal. I wonder if bands who play fast and shreddy and thrashy gravitate towards the flying V guitars based on historical aesthetic influence alone. Then I wonder if the appearance of these guitars influences which conceptual genre space that I as a listener place them in. I suppose once the tradition is established it perpetuates itself.
Immortal Possession
The second Immortal Possession concert in two decades. Laying off the intros and interludes for the most part. Exactly what you would expect from an early 90s demo death metal project from the guy who went on to bring us Serrated Scalpel and Psychotic Gardening before touring with Broken Hope. I've also seen him with prog metallers Grand Master, so I guess he likes to branch out a little bit. Anyway, just what you would expect from that guy - meaning primitive, raw, virtually hook-less old school death. Simple, lots of repetition, brutal. Crowd standing in approval, moving to some significant moshing by the second half of the set. Tons of drum kit problems, at different points I believe three guys were up there working on it. Seemed to be trouble centered around the high hat pedal area. Despite the technical distractions from the would-be ritualistic atmosphere, still a fantastic set. Come back, play some shows, do an album. The city needs a band like this to come out once or twice a year. There is a real appetite for the raw, brutal death and grind. Let's embrace it.
Terrorizer
Played World Downfall and a new song. Major moshing, riff city. More drum technical difficulties (with a completely different kit now). Tons of fun. Second time seeing them for me, but I was far more sober and appreciative this time around.
Great show up and down, apart from the somewhat puzzling inclusion of West Of Hell. Next year go all out for metalfest, one death/grind/black night and one with the melodic stuff for the kids and guitarists.
