Concert: Hate Eternal, Soilent Green, Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust
Posted on May 06, 2008 at 8:12 pm by admin
This was the first time I’d ever been to Detroit’s I-Rock. It’s only a block or two down from Harpo’s, but it’s a small bar-style venue with tons of rock and metal memorabilia, and a decorating scheme from 1985. I loved every part about it, except for all the forced in cigarette smoke. Being in Canada, hanging around cigarette smoke indoors has become intolerable.
The first band to take the stage was a local 3-piece doing punky, crossover 80’s revival thrash. The bass playing vocalist had raw, gritty bark, and really only said the name of the track titles between each song, which in a way was disappointing, as they didn’t tell anyone who they were. The guitarist had a sharp and pointy BC Rich Warlock, and cut that fretboard to pieces with their generally raw attack. They were the kind of band you’d lock to listen to on a 7″ with the vocals and snare drum living in reverb land.
Up next came Toxic Holocaust, with their own raw take on this revival of 80’s thrash. Joel Grind, the vocalist, guitarist and pretty much the mainman of band played away with his current touring band. It remains to be seen whether the current members, one being the drummer from Zeke who will appear on the next Toxic Holocaust album will be permanent or not, however, they provided plenty of headbanging mayhem while owning their prospective spots on stage. Joel was a bit more mobile between the times he wasn’t half sing/destroying his throat between songs. For one song in particular, “666”, two denim and studded long haired 80’s thrash dudes who could’ve been in their 30’s took the stage to attempt to sing the chorus of the song, simply saying “6, 6, 6”, but the dudes who almost looked like twins could barely keep time. I’m not sure if they had the right number of 6’s either…
Then came the rising stars from Skeletonwitch, playing their own mixture of black metal, death metal and thrash. Onstage were red lights focused on the animal skulls in front of their amps. All members wrecked their necks as the destroyed what they could with their songs. Quite entertaining.
I hadn’t seen Soilent Green for a very long time, and that was back in 2004 at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. I must say, seeing them up close is an intense experience. I’ve always wondered how bands with such huge tempo jumps are able to keep everything together, and in Soilent Green’s case it was extra tight too. Ben Falgoust of course owns the stage, being a tall guy with tons of hair whipping around, myself being whipped by it once myself, and more than a few times having sweat thrown on me. I know Rory was sold by seeing them.
Hate Eternal finally came on, and opened with the instrumental opening to their 2nd album “Our Beckoning”, before leading into “Bringer Of Storms”, and leading into “ Whom Gods May Destroy”. Being quite familiar with their work, they went through the songs from their newest album, “Hell Envenom”, “ Tombeau (Le Tombeau De La Fureur et Des Flames)”, “Fury Within” (a big change-up from their mostly blazing fast songs), and perhaps “Proclamation Of The Damned“, although I’m not entirely sure about the last one. They played the title song from “I, Monarch”, as well as “Two Demons”, “Behold Judas” and “To Know Our Enemies” and also the title song from “King Of All Kings”, “Obscure Terror” and “Powers That Be”. Being mostly fast all the time does keep the action intense, but the slower songs from their newest album, such as “Hell Envenom”, “Bringer Of Storms” and “Fury Within” really helped to change pace. Unfortunately the bands new 2nd guitarist and backing vocalist Shaune Kelley didn’t provide many backing vocals, and wasn’t able to get into the songs very much due to the onstage heat, and neither was the bands fill-in bass player, who mostly stood there while playing. The power pouring off was still very intense though.
The biggest downside of the night however was not the bands, as all 5, including the locals put on a great show. Instead, it was the audience support that was lacking. The crowd was made up of denim jacket, studded, tight pants, high-top 80’s resurgence fans who gladly gave support for the first 3 bands, but afterwards support dwindled for Soilent Green, and was even worse for Hate Eternal, whom the crowd got smaller for towards the end of the night. It was disappointing to see people hopping on a trend to support bands who haven’t been around for very long, who are noticeably playing music which has been done before, when bands such as Soilent Green and Hate Eternal have not only put their work in over the years, helped the scene, supported newcomers, and put effort into the creative aspect of their sound. Will people understand that creativity is another facet a band can put “hard work” forth on?
I’ll admit, I can have a small, slight degree of understanding for those people unfamiliar with Soilent Green and Hate Eternal. They both intentionally play very abrasive forms of extreme music. Hate Eternal can also be difficult for new fans to get into sometimes, as a very high percentage of their songs are fast. Perhaps when they get opening slots on their upcoming tours, they can show these kids a thing or two, and scare the living daylights out of those who are unprepared.
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