Raise your flag of hate!!!!
Mar. 4th, 2006 02:02 amWell, everyone else has done their post-concert post so I guess I shall too. Last night, ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
megiloth and adonijah74 joined me for an excursion to Lawrence, KS to see two veteran heavy metal bands, Napalm Death and Kreator. I have to explain that this is something of a holy pilgrimage for me. Back when I was around 12 years old and first getting into music I listened to bands like Bon Jovi and Warrant and thought I was listening to "heavy metal." Then, I stayed up late one Saturday night to watch Headbanger's Ball on MTV where I was promptly subjected to some of the most frightening heavy metal music of the era: King Diamond, Metallica's famous "One" video, and a video by Kreator. My glam band mind was unprepared for the ugly speed metal onslaught of Kreator. I liken the experience to losing one's virginity at an early age: it was frightening, I didn't understand everything that was happening, but I knew afterward that I definately wanted to do it again.
So yeah, the me you see before you now, you owe partially to Mille Petrovich and the band Kreator. And now all these years later I finally got to see them live. It was, as U2 would say, a sort of homecoming.
First couple of bands were the usual faceless opener types. Not terrible, but not outstanding. Although to be truthful, I was kind of intrigued by the first band. They had a female singer doing the whole scream-core thing and who could do it well, and some very cool, technical riffs in their music. However, I got to their merch stand and found all their stickers, shirts, and CDs to be covered with slogans about how "MEAT IS MURDER!" and "GO VEGAN! IT'S THE HUMANE THING TO DO!" Sorry dears, but der Uberreiniger does not swing that way.
Instead I went and bought a Kreator longsleeve shirt and impressed their roadie/salesman with my knowledge of German (Kreator kommen aus Deutschland.) I came quite close to getting the shirt which had ENEMY OF GOD emblazoned along the sleeves since "Enemy of God" is one of my favorite songs. Then I remembered that very few people who saw it would know what it meant and would simply think I was bouncing down the street proclaiming myself God's enemy. Not the image I want to create and it can lead to some awkward situations. It's okay, though. The shirt I wound up getting is pretty awesome looking.
The headliners... Napalm Death are famous in the metal scene for being one of the heaviest, fastest, most dissonant bands around and they did not disappoint. Sadly, their chubby lead vocalist Barney tends to jiggle to the music in such a fashion that he looks like a Special Ed. child having a seizure and his explanations of the band's largely politically-themed songs were, for all their passion, disappointingly lacking in exposition. ("This song is about governments who wiretap people's fucking phones. What's the fuck is up with that?" *THRASH THRASH THRASH SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM!*) In the end, Napalm Death remain, for me, in the same category as a band like GWAR: someone who's fun to see live and have a wild time to, but whom I'm not in any hurry to collect their albums.
Kreator... Ah, Kreator... I have been to many brutally heavy concerts over the years. This, however, may have been one of the heaviest live acts I have ever encountered. Their albums do NOT do their live show justice. The lead singer, Mille, is the consumate rock star, really knowing how to work the crowd and use his menacing persona to deliver the music's full effect. The band and the crowd really fed off each other to create a really enjoyable, intense experience. And while the pit was as wild and crazy as anything, it was the friendliest mosh pit I've ever seen outside of a non-Christian show. No fistfights broke out. People were considerate and helped each other if someone fell down or accidentally took too hard a blow. There were even quite a few girls in the pit and none of them got groped. The only unpleasant part was tthat I stood at the front of the stage very near this one Tom Araya-Looking Motherfucker (herein after refered to as TALM) whom I've seen at several metal shows around here. He seems like a nice guy, but when he headbangs he REALLY gets into it and his waist-length wiry black hair whips to and fro in such a fashion that it WILL enter any exposed orifice of any individual standing nearby. I never stood farther than three feet away from TALM and try as I might to avoid it, TALM's tempestuous locks whipped into my mouth more than once. I swear I haven't gotten that much wiry black hair in my mouth since I did that stint in prison!
But all is well. My journey to Thrash Metal Mecca is complete. Oddly enough,megiloth and adonijah74 were both speaking of all the aches and pains their joints would give them in the morning and how they're getting older. I expected the same thing, yet after hours of headbanging and getting shoved, slammed into, and dragged in various directions I have no pain at all. In fact, I've never had this little discomfort following a show. I screamed myself hoarse, but that's the only thing wrong. Of course, megiloth and adonijah both have a couple of years on me so we'll see if it's still like that once I'm at where they are! ;)
megiloth and adonijah74 joined me for an excursion to Lawrence, KS to see two veteran heavy metal bands, Napalm Death and Kreator. I have to explain that this is something of a holy pilgrimage for me. Back when I was around 12 years old and first getting into music I listened to bands like Bon Jovi and Warrant and thought I was listening to "heavy metal." Then, I stayed up late one Saturday night to watch Headbanger's Ball on MTV where I was promptly subjected to some of the most frightening heavy metal music of the era: King Diamond, Metallica's famous "One" video, and a video by Kreator. My glam band mind was unprepared for the ugly speed metal onslaught of Kreator. I liken the experience to losing one's virginity at an early age: it was frightening, I didn't understand everything that was happening, but I knew afterward that I definately wanted to do it again.So yeah, the me you see before you now, you owe partially to Mille Petrovich and the band Kreator. And now all these years later I finally got to see them live. It was, as U2 would say, a sort of homecoming.
First couple of bands were the usual faceless opener types. Not terrible, but not outstanding. Although to be truthful, I was kind of intrigued by the first band. They had a female singer doing the whole scream-core thing and who could do it well, and some very cool, technical riffs in their music. However, I got to their merch stand and found all their stickers, shirts, and CDs to be covered with slogans about how "MEAT IS MURDER!" and "GO VEGAN! IT'S THE HUMANE THING TO DO!" Sorry dears, but der Uberreiniger does not swing that way.
Instead I went and bought a Kreator longsleeve shirt and impressed their roadie/salesman with my knowledge of German (Kreator kommen aus Deutschland.) I came quite close to getting the shirt which had ENEMY OF GOD emblazoned along the sleeves since "Enemy of God" is one of my favorite songs. Then I remembered that very few people who saw it would know what it meant and would simply think I was bouncing down the street proclaiming myself God's enemy. Not the image I want to create and it can lead to some awkward situations. It's okay, though. The shirt I wound up getting is pretty awesome looking.
The headliners... Napalm Death are famous in the metal scene for being one of the heaviest, fastest, most dissonant bands around and they did not disappoint. Sadly, their chubby lead vocalist Barney tends to jiggle to the music in such a fashion that he looks like a Special Ed. child having a seizure and his explanations of the band's largely politically-themed songs were, for all their passion, disappointingly lacking in exposition. ("This song is about governments who wiretap people's fucking phones. What's the fuck is up with that?" *THRASH THRASH THRASH SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM!*) In the end, Napalm Death remain, for me, in the same category as a band like GWAR: someone who's fun to see live and have a wild time to, but whom I'm not in any hurry to collect their albums.
Kreator... Ah, Kreator... I have been to many brutally heavy concerts over the years. This, however, may have been one of the heaviest live acts I have ever encountered. Their albums do NOT do their live show justice. The lead singer, Mille, is the consumate rock star, really knowing how to work the crowd and use his menacing persona to deliver the music's full effect. The band and the crowd really fed off each other to create a really enjoyable, intense experience. And while the pit was as wild and crazy as anything, it was the friendliest mosh pit I've ever seen outside of a non-Christian show. No fistfights broke out. People were considerate and helped each other if someone fell down or accidentally took too hard a blow. There were even quite a few girls in the pit and none of them got groped. The only unpleasant part was tthat I stood at the front of the stage very near this one Tom Araya-Looking Motherfucker (herein after refered to as TALM) whom I've seen at several metal shows around here. He seems like a nice guy, but when he headbangs he REALLY gets into it and his waist-length wiry black hair whips to and fro in such a fashion that it WILL enter any exposed orifice of any individual standing nearby. I never stood farther than three feet away from TALM and try as I might to avoid it, TALM's tempestuous locks whipped into my mouth more than once. I swear I haven't gotten that much wiry black hair in my mouth since I did that stint in prison!
But all is well. My journey to Thrash Metal Mecca is complete. Oddly enough,
megiloth and adonijah74 were both speaking of all the aches and pains their joints would give them in the morning and how they're getting older. I expected the same thing, yet after hours of headbanging and getting shoved, slammed into, and dragged in various directions I have no pain at all. In fact, I've never had this little discomfort following a show. I screamed myself hoarse, but that's the only thing wrong. Of course, megiloth and adonijah both have a couple of years on me so we'll see if it's still like that once I'm at where they are! ;)
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