Show Review: He Is Legend, Chimaira, Dragonforce, Killswith Engage

March 20, 2007 - House of Blues Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino

Those who know me, know that I am a huge Dragonforce fan - I mean, a huge fan. A maniacal, obsessive, really quite pathetic example of the effects of great power-metal on the fragile human psyche. What you may not know, though, is that my wife (she's the chick on the right) is an even bigger fan than myself. A woman of refined metal tastes, she expects only the best in all things, including her power-metal. We caught Dragonforce together on their first full US tour, on a ridiculous tour lineup with All That Remains and HORSE the band, and when we discovered they were bringing Inhuman Rampage across the United States again, we had to check it out.

What's better: They were playing the House of Blues in Las Vegas. If one really needs an excuse to take a vacation to Las Vegas, this is it. But you really don't need one.

I'll start by saying that, in theory, the Las Vegas House of Blues in Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino is a great venue - it's spacious while maintaining a cozy club vibe, it's stylish, well-lit, and the waitresses are friendly. However, that's where it ends - my lady and I decided to get a couple of drinks to get us loose for the show, a beer for me and a whiskey for her. The total came to a whopping $20 - for two drinks! So, if you go to a show at the HoB in Vegas, drink in the casino first or take a well-concealed hip-flask. My other issue was the security - okay, I know, security sucks at every venue, but these guys were dicks. I won't go into details, but really, there's no reason to be that much of a prick, guys.

First up on the lineup was North Carolina's He is Legend - a well-dressed, southern-rock loving hardcore band who, to be perfect honest, we utterly painful to watch. While their style of metal was unique, it wasn't really in a good way. Lead vocalist Schuylar Croom pranced on stage like Robert Plant (in pants tighter than any Mr. Plant would have dared tried to cram into) while guitarist Adam Tanbouz (a short, emo-looking fellow) thrashed around like Angus Young with a nasty case of crabs. Mixing elements of hardcore, metal, and good ol' whiskey-drinkin' southern rock, these dudes meant well, but they were sloppy, screechy, and really, really annoying. Their songs bled one into the other, one overused breakdown after another, and ended up sounding like a chuggy drone to start the show.

Then, Chimaira took the stage. I had low expectations for this band, based on their 2003 album, The Impossibility of Reason which was, really, just okay. The band showed some promise as an up-and-coming post-hardcore metal band, but I didn't expect anything out of them. That was, until I saw them live. Holy shit. The first thing I noticed about their live show was their sound check - yeah, they're that good. In the ten minutes leading up to the show, the band set up a rather modest-looking keyboard ensemble that, when tested, sent a shock-wave of synthetic sound out over the audience, and nearly stopped my heart. Come show-time, the effect was used in conjunction with the drummer Andols Herrick's impressive double-bass skills. The result: Oh em gee. These guys play a tight, loud, visually overstimulating set, complete with an insane light show, shredding solos, and, oh yeah, a kick-ass half-cover of the Pantera Classic "I'm Broken". The band had the best sound system of the show as well, and made use of every inch of it. If you're looking for a band that will punish you, and possibly cause permanent neural damage, Chimaira's your band.

Then, the mighty Dragonforce. The first time I saw them, on the Inhuman Rampage: The First Strike tour, I caught them in a shitty little club in Salt Lake City that's used as a religious community center during the week and hosts metal bands to fill in time slots. Even when sharing the stage with ridiculous synth-metal bands and second-rate death metal, Dragonforce shined, bringing an hour and a half of pure epic greatness. So, my expectations were high this time around, and I was not let down. While their set time was cut in half from the previous tour and the band didn't have time to play their 10-minute ballads (which are killer live), they spanned all 3 of their albums, playing the highlights from each, including their singles Through the Fire and the Flames and my wife's favorite Operation Ground 'n' Pound.

My only complaint that I took away from seeing Dragonforce play live the first time was that their solo work was a bit sloppy and, at times, off-key. This is a common complaint amongst even the most rabid fan, but on this latest tour, the band has resolved that issue, and it makes the live Dragonforce experience that much more powerful. Dueling guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman are tighter and more proficient than ever, while enigmatic, energetic lead vocalist ZP Theart remains a joy to watch perform.

And lastly, Killswitch Engage. Their set was ... oh, okay, I'm not going to lie. I left before Killswitch took the stage. I honestly just can't stand these guys and I think it's utterly blasphemous to the mightly D-Force to open for these clowns. But that's nothing new - Dragonforce has a really bad habit of touring with lesser bands when it comes to the United States - so while Europe gets the powerhouse duo of Firewind and the 'Force, we get them with trendy hardcore-metal-hybrid bands.

I'll certainly be catching Dragonforce the next time they tour the 'States, but I can only hope they choose better bands to take to the road with. Perhaps bring that glory of the Dynamic Duo with Firewind next time? A boy can dream.

Album of the Week: Echoes of Eternity - The Forgotten Goddess

I'll make a confession right now - I've usually shied away from female vocalists. It's not a sexist thing, but somehow, it just doesn't seem to work, juxtaposing the aggressive nature of metal with a sweet, soaring (however talented) woman singer. However, newcomers Echoes of Eternity are quickly changing my mind.

With their Nuclear Blast Records debut, The Forgotten Goddess, Echoes have set themselves up to join that illustrious girls' club that includes the legendary Nightwish and fellow newcomers Epica.

The record begins with a brooding, delicate acoustic riff, interrupted in true epic fashion with enough distortion to split your skull. By the time Francine Boucher, the band's incredibly versatile, overwhelmingly talented vocalist comes in, you're hooked. The Forgotten Goddess is ten tracks of technical, perfectly produced progressive metal, full of everything a boy (okay, or girl) can ask for in a perfect metal record: chugging riffage, songs about antiquated dieties, and, oh yeah, killer solos courtesy of Brandon Patton, who co-founded the band with powerhouse drummer Kirk Carrison.

The band shines most brightly on the record's title track, a multi-lingual, time-signature-bending song that is equally adept for head-banging and interpretive dance. The metal squeals are enough to make any metal kid shoot his proverbial load, but the crescendo leading up to the double-bass laden solo about two minutes in is almost too perfect for words.

And what epic metal record would be complete without an acoustic number, complete with a string quartet and layered vocals? Well, you get it for about a minute on The Kingdom Within before the band returns to black metal-inspired thrashery and some killer arpeggios. I'm not complaining.

Echoes even gets all Swedish on yo' ass with the technically-adept, pitch-perfect guitar work on Lost Beneath a Silent Sky, which would be perfectly at home on, for example, an In Flames record.

In all, The Forgotten Goddess has what you're looking for - whether that be just a great metal record, an exercise in feminism, or a crash-course in pagan religious history. For me, it was a lesson in expectations - never discount a band based on the gender of its members - because in the case of Echoes of Eternity, they kick the shit out of half of the all-male bands out there.

Check them out if you like: The Gathering, Nightwish, Dragonland

State of the Union: A Good Time for Metal

As I glance around the world today, I can't help but think that, while it may be a sick, horrible world we live in, it is a great time to be a metal-head. With all the political bullshit, the drama of life, the economy, the judgments of religious radicals, and the tortures of pop music, we metal lovers will always have this vast, deep ocean of metal to survive on. It is our Mana in the desert, an oasis of reason in a world gone mad - and I thank God for it, I really do.

The fact is that metal's had a rough history in the 30-some-odd years it's been in existence. From that first brilliant lightening strike that came with Black Sabbath and gave life to a new, perfect genre of music, it's been an uphill battle for us. In the early 80's, the establishment found its latest scapegoat in metal, blaming bands like Judas Priest and Twisted Sister for any and all of the world's evils - murders, rape, violence ... all of these things no longer became a matter of personal responsibility, but a result of listening to a particular type of music. From this battle, arose that giant, perpetual enemy of metal (and free speech) - the Parental Advisory board (also known as the Parents Music Resource Center).

The Parental Advisory label banned kids from buying up their Pantera records their souls so ached for, while pop music (which openly encourages objectification of women and hedonism) was readily available. This plunged metal into a Dark Age, a time when commercial, dumbed-down music was presented as the only proper entertainment for growing adults, the only media worth listening to, and most egregiously, the only acceptable thing for people to be into - and as such, if you were a metal-lover, you were an outcast, a devil-worshiper, even evil.

As a result, for the better part of the 90's, metal survived essentially as an underground counter-culture movement. The drama of the previous decade gave rise to bands like Death and Cannibal Corpse; And the result, as is the case with most counter-culture movements, was an extremist view of metal. They don't like violence in music? We'll give them raped nuns, decapitations, and Satan worship like they've never seen.

Fast-forward to today: Now, after an apostasy of so many years, metal is back, and it's badder than ever. Fueled by a new medium in the internet and a world sick to death of pop music, metal has made a comeback unlike anything we've seen in history. Especially power metal, with legends Iron Maiden still going strong and relative newcomers Dragonforce, Rhapsody, and Hammerfall gaining massive followings, has proven to be formidable. Obituary, Daath, and Gorgoroth continue to push the envelope when it comes to black and death metal. And, the recent reformation of one of the greatest metal bands of all time, Black Sabbath (in the form of Dio's Heaven and Hell) is an omen of great things to come.

While the hangover still lingers from those drab days of nu-metal and rap-metal, the developments of the last few years should give every one of us hope - hope in a more accepting, inventive tomorrow for the world of heavy metal. For everyone, a metal band, and for every metal band, an audience. There may be no better definition of Utopia.

I sincerely hope that, as it develops, Throw the Goat can become a part of the reinvention of heavy metal. I predict big things ahead for my beloved heavy metal, and I can only hope to be a small part of the oncoming storm.

An Introduction: How to Throw the Goat

Despite warnings from a few friends about even mentioning the word "goat" in an internet setting (my eyes still burn from the last time I opened that awful forward), I went ahead and named my "All Things Epic and Metal" blog Throw the Goat for two reasons:

a) It's a really catchy, neat name for a blog, and

b) Throwing the goat has been a tradition in metal since it was introduced by the Godfather of power metal, the magical elf himself, Ronnie James Dio. For those who don't know, the "Goat" is what is commonly called the "Metal Sign", the symbol of one's forefinger and pinky finger outstretched while the other fingers remain tucked into the hand. It looks as follows:


And, since this blog will be dedicated to all things metal, it seems only fitting to name it after a symbol that has come to embody the world of Heavy Metal.

I will begin with an introduction. My name is Jeremy and I am a metal head. I can't pretend that I've always been out of the closet - there was that whole Jr. High period when I listened to a lot of punk rock, and before that, my radio days. But looking back on my life thus far, there has been one constant: the soaring solos of Iron Maiden, the crushing riffs of Slayer, the moving shreddery of the late Dimebag Darrell. And so, in my early 20's, I finally accepted my fate as one of those social outcasts, God's most pathetic creation - the Metal Kid.

Throw the Goat will bring album reviews, band dedications, musings on metal culture, educational material, and hopefully (someday) interviews and such. Consider this one of many voices in the vast desert that is metal.

And so, I Christen this insignificant corner of the internet universe a haven for freaks, geeks, and dungeon keeps. Here, there are no limits to where metal can take you. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, because we're sailing off the corners of the map ... and here, there be metal.