I like it! I like it better than American Doll Posse. She does a lot more with synths on the album and a lot of the songs are pretty long. Welcome to England, Curtain Call, Lady in Blue, and Fire to Your Plain are my favorites.

I like it! I like it better than American Doll Posse. She does a lot more with synths on the album and a lot of the songs are pretty long. Welcome to England, Curtain Call, Lady in Blue, and Fire to Your Plain are my favorites.

Good enough for me! I'm on it *heads to CD store*

[EphelDuath666]

just got back from the Summer Breeze festival and it was pretty great. I'm feeling pretty fucked though. 3 festivals, 3 weekends (or weeks rather) in a row...that is quite a lot! Anyways, at the Summer Breeze festival I saw the following bands:

Anaal Nathrakh:
They were absolutely amazing, ass kicking and ball crushing. I was very, very excited and did sing and scream along a lot, heh. I had a very good time. The set list was pretty good, they played songs from each Album but the material was more focused on the current Album 'In the constellation of the black widow'. Seeing 'More of Fire than Blood' and 'Submission is for the weak' live was pretty damn cool, to say the least. The crowd loved them and the band was obviously happy too, it was their first gig in Germany and they didn't know what to expect. Dave even thanked the audience for the great reception in fluent German. So yeah, that was a gig that I won't be forgetting. So here's a few pics that I took. They're not great because I suck at taking pics and I'm a small dude too, but I tried!

[EphelDuath666]

I also saw:

Cynic:

they were really, really, REALLY great too. If you had the chance to see them live then you know what great musicianship is. They played a lot of songs from their latest Album 'Traced in Air' and a few from 'Focus'. The audience really loved them too. There was a lot of applause for them and I'm sure there were lots of jaws dropping too. Paul Masvidal seemed to be a little shy but that's ok I guess, heh. He's pretty fuckin awesome on the guitar though. Anyways, here's a few pics. Not too many but a few...










aside from those 2 bands I've also seen Misery Index (for the second time within 1 week, heh) and they kicked TONS of ass again. They are my favorite Death Metal band aside from Behemoth so I just had to see them again and get my ass kicked once more. If you don't know them and dig some Death Metal then you can hardly ignore them.
I also saw Opeth and did take some pictures but they turned out shitty because I was more too far away from the stage and well...I'm a dwarf. But they were great. They did have technical problems (one of the guitars died) and it did take a while to get that resolved but once it was resolved, it was simply an amazing show. As far as I remember (they played yesterday but yeah, my memory IS that shitty) they played Heir Apparent, Soldier of Fortune, Harvest, The Leper Affinity, Deliverance, Ghost of Perdition and Closure...not entirely sure about the order but that is what they played, I think.
Anyways...great festival. Good times!

Cynic:

they were really, really, REALLY great too. If you had the chance to see them live then you know what great musicianship is.

I agree completely (I saw them last December). Before that show, I wasn't entirely impressed by the new album, but when they played the songs live it sounded fantastic. You wouldn't think that a band this technical with such precisely structured music would manage to sound better live than in the studio, but Cynic does

Nice pictures, by the way.

Cynic:

they were really, really, REALLY great too. If you had the chance to see them live then you know what great musicianship is.

About Cynic, does the singer have some gadgets or something to get the uh.. octave effect, if you know what I mean?
From the songs I've heard, he's got the crazy octave harmonizing going on, just wondering if they do that live. Anyways, great pictures, glad you had a good time!

Yeah, if I remember right Masvidal had some effects on when they played live.

aside from those 2 bands I've also seen Misery Index (for the second time within 1 week, heh) and they kicked TONS of ass again. They are my favorite Death Metal band aside from Behemoth so I just had to see them again and get my ass kicked once more. If you don't know them and dig some Death Metal then you can hardly ignore them.
I also saw Opeth and did take some pictures but they turned out shitty because I was more too far away from the stage and well...I'm a dwarf. But they were great. They did have technical problems (one of the guitars died) and it did take a while to get that resolved but once it was resolved, it was simply an amazing show. As far as I remember (they played yesterday but yeah, my memory IS that shitty) they played Heir Apparent, Soldier of Fortune, Harvest, The Leper Affinity, Deliverance, Ghost of Perdition and Closure...not entirely sure about the order but that is what they played, I think.
Anyways...great festival. Good times!

Misery Index is hard for me to get into, and I like a lot of stupid heavy stuff like them.

Wow Opeth plays The Leper Affinity...That's still one of my all time favorites of theirs =/ and I've never seen them play it live. Deliverance is absolutely astounding live though.

It's also funny because Akerfeldt posted a blog on his myspace about that show!

[EphelDuath666]

Misery Index is hard for me to get into, and I like a lot of stupid heavy stuff like them.

Wow Opeth plays The Leper Affinity...That's still one of my all time favorites of theirs =/ and I've never seen them play it live. Deliverance is absolutely astounding live though.

It's also funny because Akerfeldt posted a blog on his myspace about that show!

hmm, ok...I must admit I like Misery Index much more than a lot of that modern Deathcore stuff. And they really kick a lot of ass live!
And regarding the blog...I just read it on myspace. He's not 100% right about 'Harvest'. There were lots of people singing along...they just were all behind me, heh. And I was pretty far away from the stage. So I guess he couldn't hear 'em. Odd but true. The show was fantastic anyways and he shouldn't worry about the technical problems. Shit happens and people loved the show anyways.

Mikael posted about the Bergen concert I was at with my friend too. Wish we would've gone out, found them and gotten drunk with them. Would've been awesome.

Misery Index is hard for me to get into, and I like a lot of stupid heavy stuff like them.

Wow Opeth plays The Leper Affinity...That's still one of my all time favorites of theirs =/ and I've never seen them play it live. Deliverance is absolutely astounding live though.

It's also funny because Akerfeldt posted a blog on his myspace about that show!

hmm, ok...I must admit I like Misery Index much more than a lot of that modern Deathcore stuff. And they really kick a lot of ass live!
And regarding the blog...I just read it on myspace. He's not 100% right about 'Harvest'. There were lots of people singing along...they just were all behind me, heh. And I was pretty far away from the stage. So I guess he couldn't hear 'em. Odd but true. The show was fantastic anyways and he shouldn't worry about the technical problems. Shit happens and people loved the show anyways.

Yea the whole "deathcore" movement is pretty interesting to me. There are a lot of good bands in it (After the Burial, Born of Osiris, Despised Icon) and some that just suck (Oceano for example)

Misery Index is a band I've wanted to get into, but have yet to hear anything that has piqued my interest enough.

About Cynic, does the singer have some gadgets or something to get the uh.. octave effect, if you know what I mean?
From the songs I've heard, he's got the crazy octave harmonizing going on, just wondering if they do that live. Anyways, great pictures, glad you had a good time!

Yeah, it's some kind of vocoder. It's very distinctive to their sound, so naturally they have to reproduce it live.

On another note, I saw no amps or cabs on stage, so I think they run all their guitars through Axe Fx's or something. The sound was very clear, which suits their music very well.

they were really, really, REALLY great too. If you had the chance to see them live then you know what great musicianship is. They played a lot of songs from their latest Album 'Traced in Air' and a few from 'Focus'. The audience really loved them too. There was a lot of applause for them and I'm sure there were lots of jaws dropping too. Paul Masvidal seemed to be a little shy but that's ok I guess, heh. He's pretty fuckin awesome on the guitar though. Anyways, here's a few pics. Not too many but a few...

Nice touch at Cynic gig I've been to was when the show ended band went to the merch stands and hanged around there till every willing metalhead had a photo with them, signed everything that could handle ink on it and had their hand shaked. They were like a christmas in august. I wasn't that fan back then, went out of curiosity, but went away with a ticket signed by all of them (and bought Traces in Air instantly afterwards). Class act.

In June I went to bike week in New Hampshire... without a motorcycle. In a sea of parked bikes and trailers, my Accord stood out like a sore thumb. And speaking of standing out, I was one of like five people who wasn't wearing either leather or bike gear. The other four people were barely-dressed bartenders. Myself in plaid shorts and a shirt with a deer on it, there were stares. Old men froze in admiration. Ladies ogled. I was a diamond in the rough, and I mean rough.

Mainly went up to see Bang Camaro play. With like ten singers to complement nonstop rocking, you gotta check 'em out. I think they've got some new biker fans now. But man, bikers are terrible dancers. And I thought I was bad.

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Ok, so I went and saw Dream Theater, Zappa plays Zappa, Big Elf, and Scale the Summit Sunday night.

Scale the Summit- For those who don't know, they play all instrumental, kind of post-modern whateveryouwannacallit melodic/math/core/REPLACEtrendydescriptionhere. They were highly entertaining and fun to watch.

Big Elf- Yawn. What the hell are they doing on this tour? I know Pain of Salvation cancelled their US leg, but man. I know DT could have found someone more fitting. Maybe I am just a prog nerd or something, but these guys are another one of those bands stuck in the 70's playing Black Sabbath meets Deep Purple psychedelic/stoner rock. The singer/keyboardist was entertaining, and talented, but dude needs to find some better musicians.

Zappa plays Zappa- WIN. I will try and keep this short, because they were so good I could go on for pages about it. Dweezil has assembled a band full of flawless musicians, and he makes sure you know it. Every one of them, even the backup singers, had solo sections. But, they weren't tacky solo sections. They were jaw dropping, mind-fucking pieces of improv. Check it out- Xylophone Solo?? This dude had 4 mallets in his hand, playing harmonies....shredding....ON A XYLOPHONE. It doesn't get anymore WIN than that. Then there was this chic who played Sax/keys/flute/vox and RULED at all of them. Those were the highlight players, but the other guitarist was great, the bassist did a solo that was like a jazz guitar solo...with his fingers. Drummer was solid. The guy singing most of Frank's parts looked like Johnny Knoxville, but sang like Joe Cocker and Ray Charles. He did a vocal solo (!) Mike Portnoy came out and played on a hilarious rendition of "Broken Hearts are for Assholes". Dweezil fucking RIPPED. I never knew he was that good. BUT....the most important thing to remember is that FRANK ZAPPA wrote all of it. Maybe not the improv solo parts....but it all originated from that genius of a man. Word of advice- If you are a Zappa fan...Don't miss it.

Dream Theater- FAIL. I say this as a hardcore fan. DT is still in my top five of all time, but when you know what to expect from them, esp. sound-wise....FAIL. The production was awful. It sounded like they took Labrie's vocal track and ran it through the worst (Behringer) processor on the market....turning on a cheap reverb and turning up ALL the high mids. MP's drums sounded like absolute crap. No snare at all. I have hated his drum sound ever since 98 when he switched to TAMA. Not to mention...he had so many mics on SO MANY drums, it was bound to sound like garbage with all that open mic space. The keyboards sounded no better than the vocals. The only thing that did sound good was the guitar...the bass was muddy as hell. Even StS had a better bass sound....
PERFORMANCE- Rudess and JP were in tip-top shape. That is still the best part about DT, the string section. Their tandem solos were perfect. Myung was spot on as always. And of course....alot of peeps may not like James Labrie's voice, but ability wise he is excellent and he obviously takes care of his voice. Too bad about the production for him. AND....last but certainly not least, the amazingly annoying Mike Portnoy. Like Biert said, his ego matches his drum kit in size. He stopped actually playing his drums about 10 years ago, when he started thinking he can sing. And to add to that...now he thinks he can growl, AND scream.....and BLAST? Give me a break. You aren't fooling me. i can see through the ridiculous attempts at keeping up with them times. I wish he would just SIT DOWN (standing up on every "groove" beat), SHUT UP, and play his drums. UGH. I used to love this guy. Anyway....JP is a bear. That is all. I thought his guitar might either start on fire from the ridiculous speed of his picking, or break in half cuz of his enormous muscles. Kick ass. +1 for JP. MUSIC- Nothing special. Mostly new stuff....they didn't even play Pull Me Under, which I didn't mind...but spare me the new stuff. They have NO new ideas.

So....My verdict? Dream Theater should hang it up and stop phoning it in. They are just paying the bills. They think their fans are stupid, and some of them are...but, until they just either do what they do best and stop trying to keep up...or until they come across some new ideas, I won't care. I also don't think I care to see them live again. No big deal. They really should have thought twice before putting ZpZ on the bill, esp. the slot right before theirs.