Tour Reviews


MARTY FRIEDMAN, THE FINE CONSTANT, SCALE THE SUMMIT In Baltimore! [Photo Galley]

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Marty Friedman

 

Here is a short story. A long time back a young kid growing up in a small hamlet by the Himalayas had chanced upon some guitar/music magazine with Marty Friedman on the cover, on the very same day he had first listened to the opening solo of “Hangar 18”. An article in the magazine had mentioned that Marty Friedman had grown up in a city called Laurel in a certain state called Maryland in the US. The name of this nondescript city of Laurel in a state called Maryland stuck in his head, maybe it was due to the magical solos in “Rust in Piece”. The kid developed into a fan of Megadeth eventually. He had also heard of a city called Baltimore that was in a book of the Tarzan series. When he moved to Maryland from a remote corner in Asia to pursue his studies he had no real clue of how close Maryland was to Washington DC or Baltimore for that matter. And little did he know that one day he was going to cover a show by the man himself Marty Friedman in a venue located in the heart of Baltimore. The boy of course is none other than me.

Megadeth has been my favorite thrash metal band, since I discovered them at the age of 20! At the cost of sounding like a very old guy I must mention in my defense that back in the days before the internet, western music reached the developing world quite late. As an example, disco was huge in the late eighties and early nineties in the Asian subcontinent! Can you imagine that? I regretted not being able to attend the Baltimore show of the Inferno tour, and out of nowhere appeared this Wall of Sound tour. I was not sure if I would be able to attend this show until the very last moment. Thank you very much painkillers! Believe me, they do a phenomenal job of subsiding the pain associated with wisdom teeth extractions. Attending this show came with a lot of emotions and is a very personal story to me. Hence, contrary to my usual style of dedicating individual section of a review for each band, I will let this be a potpourri of personal emotions that I felt at the show. Continue reading →

SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, and BEHEMOTH Annihilate Nashville 7/30/17

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“This is the grown man tour.” –Randy Blythe

For metal heads, going to a REAL metal show and seeing your favorite metal band is the ultimate goal.  Thankfully, that’s a goal I was able to mark off the list a week ago in Nashville, TN when Slayer, Lamb of God, and Behemoth paid a visit to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.  In a city where country music is prevalent, it was a nice change to bring a metal touch to the city, and what better way to do that, than to bring the heaviest tour of the Summer right to its core?  Of course, Nashville has seen its fair share of metal bands, but none of which compared to the lineup it witnessed on the night of July 30, 2017. Continue reading →

Sepultura & Aborted With Support Of Killing Cult Society Live In Hedon Zwolle, Holland!

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When I heard that legendary thrash metal band Sepultura would be playing near me in Hedon Zwolle I instantly got my tickets to the show. They weren’t coming alone, they brought death metal band Aborted with supporting band Killing Cult Society. Even though I had never heard Killing Cult Society I had high hopes because you don’t become the support band for Sepultura for nothing! Before we go any further I need to talk about the venue, Hedon Zwolle. This has been my second time being there and yet again right after the doors were open you felt welcomed. Everything was well organized and the staff was friendly and easy to talk to. I am really happy about this venue and I am glad that I am lucky enough to live close to it. Already looking forward to being there again!

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Live Review: DEMONIC RESURRECTION, GRAMMY WINNING EFFORT & THE COSMIC TRUTH Live At AntiSocial, Delhi, India [Photo Gallery]

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Some couple of days back this month at AntiSocial, New Delhi when DEMONIC RESURRECTION, the king of the rings of Indian metal brought absolute havoc and belted forth destruction along with GRAMMY WINNING EFFORT and THE COSMIC TRUTH, they further established the fact that even after a battering 17 years of existence, pulling through thick and thins, why they are one of the best Indian heavy music acts one can cross his paths against with. On the 14th of July, DEMONIC RESURRECTION brought the new album tour party to the country’s capital city, New Delhi. They are touring in support of their new album ‘Dashavatar‘ that came out this year earlier in March to widespread positive reception. I was waiting for this gig eagerly since it was announced a month earlier, mainly cause I am a DEMONIC RESURRECTION fan and also I wanted to check out the new kids on the block, well they’re grown ups but you get it what I meant. The line-up represented a diverse range of bands on the heavy metal spectrum, from the in house Delhi talents GRAMMY WINNING EFFORT who play some hard hitting hardcore and punk along with the newly formed band of THE COSMIC TRUTH who are more into the new age genre of experimental and ambient metal thing. They also released their new EP on that very night which goes by the name of ‘Stroboscopic Illusion‘, and they put it up for a ‘pay what you want’ price. I paid them 200 INR or 3.10$ for the same, cause why not, they were rad as fuck and for the sake of supporting original music. Support live music people! The headliners were obviously as stated above none other than Mumbai death metal giants DEMONIC RESURRECTION. Now for those who were there, you know what an epic meltdown it was and for those who missed, I am here to accentuate your regret. Also before we plunge ourselves in the gig autopsy, I want to apologise our readers for the absolute crap quality pictures, we did not have any professional camera or equipment, so we had to settle for my cellphone camera. I hope that is not much of a big deal and won’t stop you from having a good read. Now let us dissect how the gig went, shall we?

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Chicago Open Air 2017 Day Three: Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Lamb of God, Amon Amarth, Behemoth, & More

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We have finally arrived to the last day of Chicago Open Air. Sunday was the reason many of us made the trip for this huge three day weekend. By the time it rolled around, some fans were calling it “Death Day”.  You could definitely understand where they were coming from. There were several heavy hitters taking the stages today including Ozzy and Zakk Wylde, Slayer, Lamb of God, Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Behemoth, and more. Lots of running back and forth would lead to a very tiring day. Luckily, it ended up being the coolest day of the weekend, which made it a bit more bearable. Continue reading to see our review on the most electric day of the festival. Continue reading →

DRAGONFORCE & ONCE HUMAN Dominated Washington D.C. [Photo Gallery]

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Dragonforce

 

On an extremely hot and humid summer Tuesday, The Reaching Into Infinity World Tour by DragonForce, arrived at Washington DC. This show certainly delivered with one of the most intense & intimate shows I had ever witnessed! We had recently reviewed ‘Reaching Into Infinity’, the latest album of DragonForce that hit the shelves during mid May (read review here). This was the first time I had attended a show at Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington DC, and I did not really know what to expect of the venue. Well, I have been to a lot of concerts of big bands, and let me tell you, for the crowd in the front rows, a concert cannot get any more intimate. The tiny stage at the venue means that you can nearly touch the band members with your nose. I had to literally lean backwards with my camera glued to my eye to make sure that my camera does not end up touching the guitars, or worse I get hit by the guitars. Just take a look at the photographs and you will see that even with my wide angle lens, I could barely get the musicians in the frame. These are the kind of shows in which I depend upon the kindness of metalheads attending the concerts to give me 5 minutes in a good spot to get the photographs, and then I move out of the way. It would have been damn near impossible to photograph this event, without the kindness and help of front row crowd. If you were one of the guys who helped me get the photographs, a big shout out to you, thank you for all the help, Metal Nexus & I really appreciate it!

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Chicago Open Air 2017 Day Two: Korn, Godsmack, Avatar, Clutch, Body Count, & More [Photo Gallery]

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After an electric first day, it was time to get back up early Saturday morning to head in for day two of Chicago Open Air. Several great performances from bands like Rob Zombie, Megadeth, Anthrax, Crobot, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Code Orange, and more had all of us very interested to see if the second day could top it. With Korn, Godsmack, Avatar, Body Count, Clutch, and several others, we knew it would be very close. It only took a few performances and we already knew that Saturday would be on an even higher level. Continue reading →

Chicago Open Air 2017 Day One: Kiss, Rob Zombie, Megadeth, The Dillinger Escape Plan, & More [Photo Gallery]

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It has been a few days, but we are still recovering from an absolutely legendary weekend at Toyota Park. We witnessed several remarkable performances across the rock and metal genres from bands like Code Orange, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Clutch, Body Count, Godsmack, Amon Amarth, Avatar, and more. There were the classic artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, and Metal Church while new comers like Aversed, Whores., Code Orange, Crobot, and more lit it up early in the day. Without these younger bands, there won’t be any of these festivals in the future, so make sure you get out early and support these young talents. The wide variety of bands playing the festival made for an eventful weekend as there was something for everyone attending. Today’s article will be about the performances on Friday. Before I dive into that, I’d like to talk about the other experiences at Chicago Open Air. Continue reading →

TesseracT Dominate Silver Springs! [Photo Gallery]

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TesseracT

Last Thursday night the latest incarnation of the Dystopia tour with Megadeth hit Silver Spring, MD. When the tour was announced, I just could not believe how good the lineup was. A powerhouse supporting lineup of bands like the doom metal band Lillake (who we have interviewed recently), prog metal/djent giants Tesseract & Meshuggah is not something that you generally see in a short summer tour. With our upcoming coverage of Megadeth and Meshuggah at this months Chicago Open Air festival, we decided to focus our attention on TesseracT.

TesseracT

The show started early, with TesseracT, the second band of the night, taking the stage sharp at 7-10 PM. An early weeknight show meant that the venue was not packed yet. The setlist of TesseracT was short, with only six songs, and I was little disappointed with that. I really like the last couple of albums the band has released. This short set was started off with the single “Smile”, which was released late last month and will be a part of their upcoming album. This is the first single the band has released since the last album ‘Polaris’, which was released aeon ago, back in 2015. If this single is a sign of things to come, which probably is since the band says the new album will be a concept album, then things are looking great for the fans of the band. The opening track ‘Polaris’, Dystopia was the second song of the night. This was my first time seeing TesseracT live, and the guitar work and the drumming was precise from get go. The vocals by Daniel Tompkins did not hit the album like precision until the end of the first song, however from that point on it was razor sharp. I love bands that can deliver album quality sound while playing live, and TesseracT deserve full points for that. If you have followed the work of TesseracT, you are familiar with the band you know how they blend an atmospheric sound with melodic clean passages and synchronizing guitar work with short riffs. The last song of the set, “Nocturne”, which by the way is my favorite TesseracT song ever, is one of the perfect examples of this method. Many people in the crowd were not super familiar with TesseracT before this show. By the end of the set the band had made their presence felt with the blistering final track “Nocturne” and deservedly got rousing applause from the crowd.

TesseracT

So what is my take from this live performance ? Well, I hope they release their album soon and head out as the headliner on another US tour. By the time this review is published, only five more dates remain on this tour, and most of you will probably not have a chance to see them live. TesseracT have headlined at Baltimore Soundstage, the other regular venue from which I bring you reviews, in the last tour and I don’t see why they can’t do it again. Heck, I do want to see them play a long set. A headlining tour exploring the length and breadth of the country will probably be the best way to appease all the fans who are missing out now. And I am really keeping my fingers crossed here. We will be bringing more reviews to you in future, so stay tuned!

Carolina Rebellion 2017 Day 3 Review [Photo Gallery]

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The final day of Carolina Rebellion was upon us. Some people were completely wore down from the previous two days of non-stop metal, crowd surfing and moshing and others were sad that the weekend was coming to a close. Sunday’s lineup was headlined by Avenged Sevenfold, The Offspring, Volbeat, and Papa Roach. If this wasn’t already enough metal packed into one day we were also lucky enough to get a great group of undercard bands as well like Seether, Three Days Grace, Skillet, Coheed & Cambria, and Taking Back Sunday. Most of these second tier bands could headline a show on their own any night of the week. Fozzy of course was on Sunday’s lineup as well featuring WWE’s Chris Jericho. Then you have the amazing up and coming bands like Kyng who have already put their name on the map with their true trio power rock blend, Sylar who is one of the bands leading the nu-metal charge, Goodbye June, Fire From The Gods who is another nu-metal/hardcore kind of band that is picking up fans by the 100’s, Citizen Zero, Beartooth and Dutch metallars The Charm The Fury who have recently been compared to a female fronted version of Pantera. Sunday was truly one of the best lineups of the entire weekend. We didn’t get a chance to see everyone due to completing interviews and overlapping schedules. There was a few bands we missed that we really wanted to see, but we are hoping to catch most of these bands again in the near future. Continue reading →