Concert: The Red Chord, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Despised Icon, All Shall Perish, See You Next Tuesday, Life Ruiner
Posted on July 01, 2007 at 10:00 am by admin
Wednesday June 27th was my first time at The Reverb in Toronto. With The Opera House and Kool House, it’s looking like Toronto is able to accommodate just about any size metal show.
Life Ruiner, who I thought had recently been signed (although their MySpace page is a little unclear about this) went on first. I ha no idea they were going to be playing, and neither did any of the bands there.
Seeing Life Ruiner play live, I can really sense that seem to adhere to a lot of metalcore and hardcore stereotypes, such as the adamant straight edge attitude. I know they mentioned something religious onstage, but to be honest, I don’t remember whether is was for it, or simply just a passing mention.
Breakdown, after breakdown, after breakdown is what all their songs were focussed on. It’s actually to the point where I can’t figure out what kind of metalcore they are, since the breaks between breakdowns seem to grab at almost every sub-genre of metalcore, although sometimes they would rip off The Acacia Strain. Life Ruiner, much like The Acacia Strain used to, have three guitarists. I think I heard one song, with one part that had two different guitar portions going at the same time, which makes me wonder exactly what they’re getting from so many guitarists. Bigger breakdowns? Bands like this really limit what metalcore can (and has) done. For those of you who don’t like the genre, don’t worry, Life Ruiner is most likely helping to ruin the lives of all lower-tier metalcore bands by making the lifespan of the scene even shorter.
See You Next Tuesday was a band that I was only slightly familiar with. They were completely noisy unstructured chaos, which is always one of my favourites. See You Next Tuesday are the ones who helped get this show off to a good start, by throwing themselves and their instruments around on a stage crowded with practically every amp and cab from the other bands on tour.
I had heard some of their songs on MySpace, and strangely for songs that are usually under two minutes, most of the songs from See You Next Tuesday felt a lot longer, and were very engaging. With one guitarist, every riff, note, and dissonant chord came out clear and powerfully, proving that more isn’t always better.
I’ve always liked All Shall Perish ever since I got my hands on the re-release of “Hate.Malice.Revenge”, and I ended up listening to their more recent album, “The Price Of Existence” all summer last year as well. I was really looking forward to seeing them, as I’ve missed every tour I wanted to see them on.
The crowd was incredibly receptive to them, and as soon as they started, people quickly got up on stage to jump off. Vocalist Eddie Hermida schizophrenicly screamed his lyrics while sporting an old-school fu-manchu, while bass player Mike Tiner displayed his proficient his skills, and their fill-in rhythm guitarist made just about every mean looking face he could. I have to admit though, I think the fill-in must’ve been around 17 years old. What a way for a kid to spend his summer, by touring for a band!
It seems the Toronto audience was anticipating one band more than the rest. I have to admit, any time I hear that Despised Icon is going to play a show I can get to, I’m there. They’ve had me hooked ever since I saw them the first time, in the worst venue I’ve been to, in the dead of a harsh winter, in front of a minuscule audience. What did Despised Icon do on a tiny stage, in a dump, in front of only a few people? They went as nuts as possible! They set a standard for all their live shows to come. It seems as though the venue favoured them more than the other bands playing, as the room was dark, except for the very bright lights focussed right on Despised Icon. They sweated buckets as both vocalists moved around and owned the stage.
Direct support came from Through The Eyes Of The Dead. I have to admit, I thought that their album “Bloodlust” was quite a bit derivative, but they did have some very good unique vocals on that album provided by former vocalist Anthony Gunnels. I’m an even bigger fan of current vocalist Nate Johnson though, as I’ve heard him live with Premonitions Of War, and when his vocals are recorded well on an album, he has one of the most powerful death metal voices around.
The songs from “Bloodlust” come off very different live. The song they opened with sounded like a slow, powerful, heavy, long lost Morbid Angel track, and damn did the audience go crazy for it! One of the songs ended with some riffs sounding similar to something Cannibal Corpse might do, and Nate made sure to make mention of it. The second last song titled “Failure In The Flesh”, was the one featured on their MySpace page from their upcoming album, “Malice”, and of course they ended the set with “Two Inches From A Main Artery”.
Nate Johnson is simply one of the best frontmen ever, so if Revolver or some other magazine compiles a list about that subject, he deserves a very high rank.
Headliners The Red Chord didn’t end up with the same amount of people that All Shall Perish, Despised Icon, or Through The Eyes Of The Dead did, perhaps due to the fact that with so many powerful bands on tour, many people were worn out by that point. They played a wide variety of songs, mostly focussing on songs from “Clients”, with some old famed songs such as “Dreaming In Dog Years”, “Nihilist”, and “That Certain Special Ugly” showing up, right along with two brand new songs from their upcoming album, “Prey For Eyes”. Such a long set really allowed them to play a huge amount of memorable songs, which is monumental feat considering they’re a grind band.
Gunface made sure to try and push his personal band, Beyond The Sixth Seal, as they released an album recently titled “The Resurrection Of Everything Tough”, which was on sale at the merch booth for The Red Chord. Along with providing much of the humour between songs, Gunface exclaimed, “Here’s a riff from one of the songs on that album!” as he played some random notes as a joke. “So yeah! Go buy it!”
At the end of the night, vocalist Guy Kozowyk was swarmed by what must’ve been 20 people trying to steal his mic. When the pile of human beings toppled, audience members not caught in the pile-up had their chance at the mic while security was busy trying to pick the other people off in attempt at preventing Guy from getting smothered.
This concert has been one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Grind and death metal can come off so very intense in a live environment.
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