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Post by metalcrypt on Oct 6, 2022 17:28:30 GMT -5
When Anthrax played in August, there was a big merch tent for Anthrax, Black Label Society and Hatebreed (Sword had a separate thing on the side). The line was long at least until Anthrax were about to play. A hell of a lot of money was spent there. I didn't buy anything - the Sword merch wasn't great and overpriced, and I'm not into Anthrax enough to wear their t-shirt. lol. I didn't even watch BLS and Hatebreed, I was outside drinking beer while they played.
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mjolnir
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Your observations of my nonsense fail to excuse your bad sense
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Post by mjolnir on Oct 9, 2022 17:30:04 GMT -5
Went to the Metal Devastation Festival yesterday. Basically an attempt to get a regular fest going in Tennessee, and I'd say this was a great first step towards that, even if the quality of bands was a bit spotty. I even got a press pass for the event, which probably makes me the most accomplished journalist on here.
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Post by metalcrypt on Oct 9, 2022 18:40:16 GMT -5
Went to the Metal Devastation Festival yesterday. Basically an attempt to get a regular fest going in Tennessee, and I'd say this was a great first step towards that, even if the quality of bands was a bit spotty. I even got a press pass for the event, which probably makes me the most accomplished journalist on here. lol That's probably Luxi. I'm regularly offered press passes, but when I go to a show it's for entertainment and I'm not interested in reviewing them, so I never bother with that. But it's cool. Did it a couple of times many years ago. I've been hearing a lot about that festival in the past few weeks since Metal Devastation PR has been promoting it a lot, plus of course there was the religious freaks' backlash with them trying to prevent the festival from happening.
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mjolnir
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Your observations of my nonsense fail to excuse your bad sense
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Post by mjolnir on Oct 9, 2022 21:02:21 GMT -5
Went to the Metal Devastation Festival yesterday. Basically an attempt to get a regular fest going in Tennessee, and I'd say this was a great first step towards that, even if the quality of bands was a bit spotty. I even got a press pass for the event, which probably makes me the most accomplished journalist on here. lol That's probably Luxi. I'm regularly offered press passes, but when I go to a show it's for entertainment and I'm not interested in reviewing them, so I never bother with that. But it's cool. Did it a couple of times many years ago. I've been hearing a lot about that festival in the past few weeks since Metal Devastation PR has been promoting it a lot, plus of course there was the religious freaks' backlash with them trying to prevent the festival from happening. Yeah, didn't hear a peep from them the entire time, so either security is good at what they do or no one cared enough to actually protest. Probably would have shit their diapers when Summoner's Circle tore up a bible as part of their song about why Christianity sucks, let alone any of their other antics during their set.
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Post by metalcrypt on Oct 10, 2022 7:03:59 GMT -5
haha I wonder what happened, as they seemed pretty riled up just a couple of months ago. Too much work to get their asses off the couch.
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metalmike
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We need it as a liquid in our veins instead of blood
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Post by metalmike on Oct 20, 2022 6:06:02 GMT -5
Saw Raven’s Wiped Out 40th Anniversary show. Wiped Out was the first Raven album I bought (Neat Records cassette, wish I still had it)
A band I’d never heard of called Wicked opened. Young guys that play hard rock/heavy metal with a lot of energy. The singer/guitarist and bassist move around a lot and the singer has a lot of moves he uses repeatedly while the lead guitarist is more of a stay at home player so the combo of music and stage presence reminded me of Kiss sans makeup. Entertaining
Next up was Riot Act, a band from New York that plays mainly classic Riot covers and features original Riot guitarist Rick Ventura. The singer sounds similar to Guy Speranza and the band was tight, especially the bassist (I’m always impressed when someone plays a fret less instrument) so as a fan of Riot’s early albums, I really enjoyed their set. The list was focused on Fire Down Under but also featured a couple songs from Rock City, one from Narita and what I believe was an original. Would see them again anytime
Raven came on to the “roar” of the maybe 40 people on the club (it WAS a school night, after all) and proceeded to kick ass like it was Donnington. They started with a few tracks from early albums All for One and Rock Until You Drop and a couple from the latest, Metal City. The newer songs went over well and while not as distinctive as their older material, they still rocked us pretty hard. They then played all the songs from Wiped Out, which all sounded great. They broke it up with each member getting some solo spotlight (John played the instrumental 20/21 on his bass vs Mark playing it on acoustic guitar like the album). They ended the show with a couple more classics (“Wiped Out” & “Mind Over Metal”). A great set for fans of early Raven. Bummer that so people were there but Raven didn’t seem to care and gave us all a great show
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Post by metalcrypt on Oct 22, 2022 9:30:39 GMT -5
I saw Apes, Scorching Tomb, Serpent Crown and Hardened last night. I didn't know any of the bands (I did check out the two that are on Spotify a couple of days before the show). I was worried about end time because that's four bands and the first one went on stage at 8:45pm, but by 11:30pm the show was over. Pretty decent stuff, though Hardened didn't do much for me musically (the frontman knows how to get people going, however). Things went a little crazy during Apes, there was a small mosh pit and it's a small venue, so a table with a bunch of beers on it sustained some injuries. lol. Grabbed a couple of t-shirts, LPs and a tape.
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Post by metalcrypt on Nov 7, 2022 16:11:38 GMT -5
Saturday... Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Immolation and Black Anvil. Sold out venue, capacity 2,300. Lots of energy in that place. The line for CC merch was insane. I ended up buying only a DF hoodie and t-shirt with tour dates. Right there that was $125.
It was my third time seeing CC (2000, 2009, 2022), but it's the first time I was able to see them play. The first two times the front of the stage was so packed that I couldn't see the band (the stage at the venue wasn't very high off ground). Saturday I was on the second floor which is a seated area and could see everything, so that was cool. I've also discovered that, standing or sitting at shows, my body is very tired. I think this was my 20th show this year.
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Post by doomyguy on Nov 10, 2022 13:08:00 GMT -5
I ended up buying only a DF hoodie and t-shirt with tour dates. Right there that was $125. That... must surely be a typo?
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Post by doomyguy on Nov 10, 2022 13:22:18 GMT -5
Oh. Of course, this is Canadian dollars. That helps a bit. Still not exactly cheap...
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Post by metalcrypt on Nov 10, 2022 16:21:29 GMT -5
Oh. Of course, this is Canadian dollars. That helps a bit. Still not exactly cheap... No, it's not. Most merch this year was pretty expensive. Sometimes smaller bands at local shows had much cheaper merch, but any "big" band the prices were pretty high. The DF hoodie was $80, probably because it's a zip-up hoodie. Testament has a pullover one at $60 and zip-up at $95 so I got the pullover. T-shirts were $40 on average this year, I'd say anywhere from $30 to $50. Despite this, merch booths were pretty busy.
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Post by metalcrypt on Nov 12, 2022 15:37:29 GMT -5
Mercyful Fate, Kreator and Midnight in Laval, north of Montreal. First time I went to that venue (built 2017) which is an arena that can hold 10,000 spectators in hockey configuration. Surprisingly, this being the only Canadian date, it wasn't sold out. Still lucky the area wasn't locked out by police as I found out once I was seated that 3-4 people had been shot just a couple of blocks away just around the time I arrived.
Midnight killed it, not wasting too much time as they had 30 minutes to play. Lots of good songs on that setlist. I would have expected the crowd to be more responsive to them. Kreator, well, that's a favourite, so things got noisy. A decent setlist for 45 minutes, with some old and newer favourites. They started with Violent Revolution which is one of my favourites. Everyone around me was hoping for this or that of their favourite songs. They're apparently coming back next summer for an headlining tour. Mercyful Fate. Well, that was insane. I saw them in 1999 but the stage was nothing like this. Very impressive yet relatively simple, all things considered. They were so much louder than the openers, I could feel the floor shaking under my feet. The songs were from the first EP and first two albums. I think one of them was a new song, though I'm not sure if I heard right. Couldn't remember having heard it before.
The merch... Well, this was my 21st show this year and this was by far the most overpriced. T-shirts at $55. Hats $45. Hoodies $110. Can't remember the other stuff. Nothing was cheap. That did not prevent very long lineups, but people were almost crying walking away with stuff. The merch was handled by venue staff, so they had several people working and they flagged you when it was your turn. No people cutting in line, no elbowing, and with several people handling sales, the long line was moving quickly. That's quite different from when I saw Testament and later Cannibal Corpse at a venue in Montreal where they had one roadie doing everything. However I get the feeling the high prices had to do with the venue taking its cut.
Big fuck off: One thing I like with assigned seats is that, well, you have a place to sit if you're tired, and in an arena like that you can actually see the stage no matter what. However, you're also prisoner of your seat. I went for a walk between Midnight and Kreator and when I got back some people had arrived in the row behind me and one of them had his feet on the top of my seat and I couldn't lower it (you know those "folding" arena seats). I motioned him and he looked at me exasperated that he had to move his feet. I thought that would be the end of it. He was with his father who decided it would be a good idea to smoke (cigarette). I ended up reeking of cigarette smoke. Plus he was obnoxious, though largely because he was so excited to see Kreator and Mercyful Fate. His son, however, was drunk and slept through the two bands. But he often ended up with his feed on the back of my seat again. Fucking seats in that section were $117. So his father paid for the moron to sleep through the show, and he also ruined my experience. Anyway, unfortunately no escape with assigned seats, unlike general admission where you can move to another spot if you're standing next to assholes. Fuck.
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metalmike
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We need it as a liquid in our veins instead of blood
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Post by metalmike on Nov 14, 2022 0:12:32 GMT -5
Mercyful Fate/Kreator/Midnight First, I’ve NEVER, been to a show where the bands went on so early. The doors opened at 7, I go into Boston around 7:15 and my friend wanted to grab a bite so we stopped at a place he liked. My assumption was Midnight would go on around 8, Kreator around 8:45 and MF maybe 9:45. We got to the venue around 8:30, a little later than I expected because I’m a dope and forgot my phone at the restaurant about a half mile walk away and since the tickets were electronic… Anyway, after grabbing a $40 shirt (shirts, hoodies and flags only, no patches, pins or any kind of music, which sucked) we made our way to our seats in time for the last two songs of Kreators set. WTF? I wasn’t upset about missing Midnight, I’d seen them open for Mayhem earlier in the year but this was my first time seeing Kreator. Ah well, at least I got to hear “Flag of Hate” and “Pleasure to Kill” MF came on around 9:15 and was awesome. Great stage set up, not overly complex but very cool. King Diamond and the rest of the band sounded great and they played a bunch of their “hits” including my two favorites “Come to the Sabbath” and “A Dangerous Meeting”. They played for about 75 minutes, so a short set but it was hard to find any other faults in the performance and KD hung around on stage for several minutes after the last song telling us how much cooler an audience we were than the previous one in Laval had been (just kidding, Michel!) a great bill, don’t miss it if it comes to your town.
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mjolnir
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Post by mjolnir on Nov 16, 2022 18:28:17 GMT -5
Saw Hath at a local dive bar (by local, I mean two hours away) last week. The supporting band were Ire and Uprise (shitty melodeath from the state), Reeking Aura (decent old-school death metal from the old singer for Artificial Brain, who has fucking great stage presence as he stomps off stage and into the pit), and some third band so boring I forgot their name. Hath were pretty great despite the obvious limitations of a dive bar, and the new material they premiered may be some of their best. Shirts weren't my size, but I did get their entire discog for $30. Signed, too.
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Post by metaldomdom on Nov 26, 2022 17:16:49 GMT -5
Hi guys!! I finally rejoined after 4 years of absence!!
I too went to see Midnight, Kreator and Mercyful Fate at Place Bell in Laval. It would have been way better in a smaller venue. I don't think there was more than 3000 people (Epica and Sabaton 2 weeks earlier at the same place was jam-packed at least 5000 with no assign seats on the floor).
I hate it at Place Bell, you only have to pay credit no cash not only at the Merch tables but for food and beer too. And since Place Bell takes a cut on merch sales because it's their employees that run the tables, buying a shirt at 65$is way too expansive. I was on the floor but with seats... I don't know why they put seats on the floors at metal shows.
On to the show, Midnight killed it like Mike said. For 3 guys only they give quite a show.
Kreator, don't know them except the name, I didn't find them to be awesome just good thrash nothing more.
Mercyful Fate was awesome but quite short. Same thing when I saw King Diamond in 2019, short and sweet he played for 1h15.
Overall, a nice evening with some great music!
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