Spearheading the events were practiced local (body) openers, Scalpel, who are honestly one of the few forever-local-band-syndrome Death Metal bands that I can enjoy seeing repeatedly. They’ve done the honours of opening ceremonies for Aborted, Morbid Angel, and Gorguts, just to name the recent ones that stick out. It’s nasty, brutal, primitive, and hairy, technically proficient when appropriate, and inciting brainless pit violence the next. By “brainless pit violence”, I kinda mean a few guys tossed each other around and bumped shoulders like so many rams, but clearly the music is working the way it should. For fans of Brutal Death Metal, as you may have guessed.
California’s Exmortus (not to be confused with Tampa old school death metal) embraces antiquity without shunning modernity. With influences equal parts scorching NWOBHM licks, Black Thrash barbarity, and classical sensibility to taste. A welcome contrast to Scalpel, awash in gore, Exmortus’ rousing, anthemic approach is the meeting ground between Holy Grail -represented by the bassist’s choice of shirt- and that bygone Baroque swagger of early Children of Bodom, sans keyboards, plus signature ESP models. Melodic, but not too much so, there were hints of power metal scattered throughout, but never in danger of erupting into an inflatable swordfight.
As much as I wish I could sing praise to Allegaeon for their brand of admittedly decent Melodic Tech-Death, I found this Colorado crew to be ultimately uninspired. Though vocalist Ezra does have an animated stage presence and the band is certainly competent, I’ve heard so many similar acts that I can scarcely feel as impressed as others seem to be. I think of Sylosis, who play a very similar style; Scar Symmetry, who have, in my mind, captured a distinctive take on the Melo-Death sound; and Dark Tranquillity, whom we may ‘blame’ for this strain of Gothenburg mysticism. Their breakdowns seem obligatory rather than energetic, and the solos, while thankfully, not long-winded, don’t seem constructed to the best of their ability. If this is their best, then it’s just not my cup of tea. Or maybe it’s a cup of tea I’ve had too many times.
Technical Death Metal poets laureate in Virginia’s Arsis have once again given us a sermon in the obscure day to day sorrows of humanity. Their title pays homage to a poetry term running counter to thesis; it is the unaccented beat in a work of verse, and/or the unaccented part of a measure. Indeed, Arsis’ particular style meshes the ‘Elegant and Perverse’, a mournful take on death metal that incorporates both the twisted brutality and the flowing melody it is capable of, with equal portent.
Conducting the proceedings with a symphonic grandeur was of utmost importance, this year marking the 10th anniversary of the band’s landmark album, A Celebration of Guilt (Willowtip), an album whose corrupting influence has blackened many a heart with its majestic hooks, its malicious, sharp-edged sheen respected by both Technical and Melodic camps; opening, as expected, with out favourite love song, ‘The Face of My Innocence’, to exposing the folly of falsity in ‘The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters’, and the chronicles of bestial nightmare itself through the venomously sweet ‘Wholly Night’. It was like a walk-through of essential Arsis, with ‘We Are The Nightmare’ and the abbreviated, but no less brilliant, version of ‘A Diamond For Disease’ making much appreciated appearances. Breaking the pattern of ‘Maddening Disdain’ (I tried), we were treated to an amusing cover of ‘Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)’ by W.A.S.P., which James Malone says they learned mainly to get laid. I suppose the fact that they play it now means either it works, or it has yet to. I’ll stick to their originals, myself, and would have preferred to hear ‘The Cold Resistance’ in its place, but a rare talent like Arsis deserves to succumb to their baser instincts between composing some of the more brilliant Death Metal this side of Keats. The video for ‘Forced To Rock’ will be all the evidence I need, I’m sure.
SEAN PIERRE-ANTOINE