Cannibal Corpse: Nov. 20, 2018

I have been to a fair number of concerts, especially over the last few years.  And yet, I have not been to too many pure death metal concerts.  I have seen Suffocation, but they were supporting The Black Dahlia Murder.  I have seen Obituary, but they were with Skeletonwitch and Pallbearer, among others.  So the concert last night was the closest I have been to a real death metal concert.  Cannibal Corpse was the headliner, with Hate Eternal in support, and local band Ezra as the opener.  Of course there was one more band, and I will get to that.

Ezra was the opener, and the Lincoln natives remain one of the longest tenured Nebraska metal bands, having formed some time in the late 80's/early 90's.  I have seen them before and they impressed me once again.  The bassist and guitarist are brothers of former Nebraska football standout Cory Schlesinger.  Just kind of an interesting note.

The next band was Harms Way, a group I had not heard of before looking into this concert.  I was not terribly impressed.  Harms Way is a hardcore band and much of their music sounded basically the same, with chugging riffs and shouted vocals.  The singer is a muscle-bound ball of energy who blasted around the stage.  But I just could not get into them.  I will not be checking them out further.

Hate Eternal, the band formed by former Ripping Corpse and Morbid Angel axe-man Erik Rutan, was next on the stage.  There were no real surprises from them, Hate Eternal has a fairly straightforward sound, with fast-paced riffing, blasting drums, and Rutan's decayed vocal style.  It has been awhile since I have checked in with the band, and I am not shocked that not much has changed.  Their hyperactive blasting style works for them.

And finally Cannibal Corpse took over and delivered a blistering set featuring a wide variety of new and old songs.  George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher was feeling a little under the weather and was not able to hit some of the deep roars the band had become known for.  The other aspects of the band's sound were present from the grotesque lyrical themes and slightly technical riffing.  The band played a number of their classic tracks, such as "The Wretched Spawn", "Skull Full of Maggots", and "Make Them Suffer".  Of course they also had to play "I Cum Blood" and close out the set with "Hammer-Smashed Face". 

It was a fun show and it is great to cross another legendary band off the list of groups I need to see.  I am not the biggest Cannibal Corpse fan, but I enjoyed the show quite a bit nonetheless.  They can definitely still get the crowd worked up. 

2011 in Review: Disappointments

MEGADETH: TH1RT3EN
I have mentioned time and time again how big of a Megadeth fan I am. Even when they were declining rapidly in the 1990s and early 2000's, they still usually put out something at least somewhat interesting, which is what makes this album such a disappointment. It is just so bland. I loved their last album Endgame, so this was a smack in the face for me. It's unfortunate.

SCAR SYMMETRY: THE UNSEEN EMPIRE
It's official, Scar Symmetry no longer has anything left. They went from being a wildly talented and catchy band to boring mainstream metal in the span of just a few albums. I blame the loss of singer Christian Alvestam. After he left, the band lost its most recognizable feature. Their last album still had a few good songs, but this one is just sort of there.

HATE ETERNAL: PHOENIX AMONGST THE ASHES
I just do not get it. Metalsucks has a massive hard-on for this band and has for years. I hear middle-of-the-road death metal with pounding and incoherent drumming. It's not that I dislike Hate Eternal really, it's that I do not think they should get the adulation that they seem to get in Metalsucks and Decibel. It just is not anything that a ton of other bands are doing better.

PENTAGRAM: LAST RITES
The U.S.'s original(?) metal band returned for the first new album in several years. While it is not a bad album really, it just did not really meet my expectations. I was hoping for some great traditional doom metal, and there are some tracks that meet that, but many sound like typical modern rock fare. That just is not going to cut it for me. I loved it on the first few listens, but that eventually changed as I continued to listen to it.

I DID NOT EVEN BOTHER WITH:
METALLICA AND LOU REED: LULU
MORBID ANGEL: ILLUD DIVINUM INSANUS

Initial Impressions: Hate Eternal: Phoenix Amongst the Ashes

I must have been asleep the day it was decided that Hate Eternal would be the critical darlings of the death metal world. Metalsucks and Decibel both have major hard-ons for the band. I can't say that I really agree with the fellating these band get, personally. Don't get me wrong, I think they're decent, but they have never really been a favorite of mine. To me, they have mostly been a standard, run of the mill death metal band.

The biggest problem I have always had with Hate Eternal has been the production. The drumming is always much too high in the mix, to the point that it really drowns out everything else going on. Which would be okay if the drums were doing something truly interesting, but they aren't, it's just blasting. It would still be okay if the music wasn't doing anything interesting. Honestly that's hard to tell, because it can't be heard over the blasting.

So, I was curious to hear this album, based on my relative disdain for the band in the past, King of All Kings notwithstanding. I will say the band has grown. Musically, there is some interesting stuff going on for the most part. Of course the blasting drums are still very much present which does detract from the music. Of course at other times it can be pretty awful, such as the opening riff to "The Art of Redemption" which would not sound out of place on a Dillinger Escape Plan song. By the way, I hate The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Hate Eternal is definitely an intense band. And very few other bands can match their brutality and energy. Unfortunately, this all becomes a bit overwhelming when not even the sparse melodies can ever really be heard. I still don't get the love this band receives, but this album is decent enough. It just won't make my Top 10.

Weekly Recap: Mar. 14-Mar. 20

This was a fairly busy week. I had a court appearance and a deposition this week. The deposition was a good example of why you should never ask a question unless you know what the answer is, particularly if it has a major effect on your case. I was not the attorney deposing the witness thankfully. I won't go into details, but I believe it safe to say that this attorney will not be calling this witness to the stand at trial.

Not much metal news this week. At least not that made much of an impression on me.

I bought the new releases from Landmine Marathon and the newly reformed Armored Saint. I also got my state income tax return in this week, so I placed a couple of online orders with Moribund Records and Century Media. The haul will be posted about in the near future. I am still awaiting my federal income tax return and then will place an order with Hell's Headbangers.

I've listened to a lot of black metal and black metal-based bands as you will see reading through my list this week.

Aeternus: Burning the Shroud
Amon Amarth: With Oden on Our Side (Bonus Disc)
Angelcorpse: The Inexorable
Anthrax: Persistence of Time
Archgoat: The Light-Devouring Darkness
Armored Saint: La Raza
Behexen: My Soul for His Glory
Besatt: Hail Lucifer
Bestial Warlust: Vengeance War 'Til Death
Blood Stained Dusk: Black Faith Inquisition
Burn to Black: Mach 666
Carcass: Heartwork
Cavalera Conspiracy: Inflikted
Cenotaph: Saga Belica
Cirith Ungol: One Foot in Hell
Corrosion of Conformity: In the Arms of God
Danzig II: Lucifuge
Dark Tranquillity: Skydancer/Of Chaos and Eternal Night
Darkthrone: Transilvanian Hunger
Daylight Dies: Dismantling Devotion
Death Angel: Act III
Deathspell Omega: Fas-Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Dodsferd: Cursing Your Will to Live
Estuary: The Craft of Contradiction
Fear Factory: Fear is the Mindkiller
Fear Factory: Soul of a New Machine
Gorgoroth: Incipit Satan
Gwar: Ragnarok
Hammerfall: Legacy of Kings
Hate Eternal: King of All KingsHoly Moses: Finished with the Dogs
Horna/Behexen Split
Hour of 13: Hour of 13
I: Between Two Worlds
Iced Earth: Horror Show
Iced Earth: The Crucible of Man: Something Wicked Part 2
Ihsahn: angL
Impaled Nazarene: Nihil
Incantation: Onward to Golgotha
Incantation: Primordial Domination
Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast
Khold: Hundre Ar Gammal
Krisiun: AssassiNation
Laethora: March of the Parasite
Landmine Marathon: Sovereign Descent
Lethal: Programmed
Lord Belial: Nocturnal Beast
Lord Belial: Revelation-The 7th Seal
Meshuggah: Catch Thirtythree
Metallica: Death Magnetic
Obituary: Cause of Death
Opeth: Blackwater Park
Pan.Thy.Monium: Khaooos and Kon-fus-ion
Ravencult: Temples of Torment
Reverend Bizarre: II-Crush the Insects
Root: Black Seal
Sabbat: Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays)
Sadus: Swallowed in Black
Samael: Solar Soul
Sentenced: Crimson
Shadows Fall: Threads of Life
Sigh: Hangman's Hymn-Musikalische Exequien
Solitude Aeturnus: Beyond the Crimson Horizon
Soulless: Betray the Light
Symphony X: The Odyssey
Testament: Practice What You Preach
The Wizar'd: Smouldering Sinners
Thornafire: Exacerbated Gnostic Manifestation
Thornspawn: Horns to the Kult
Tsjuder: Desert Northern Hell
Vreid: Pitch Black Brigade
Xasthur: The Funeral of Being
Zyklon: World ov Worms