Oh My Fucking God, I couldn't breathe. I simply couldn't breathe. Opeth rendered me absolutely breathless. I couldn’t breathe or speak or even think. For me not to be able to form words is pretty fucking impressive. I was mesmerised. They just blew me away from those first few seconds, and I was enthralled until we all started piling out of the theatre. Mournful guitar riffs, amazing bass, haunting solos and their trademark intricate harmonising melodies - and intertwined through it all was Mikael Åkerfeldt's gorgeous voice, both crooning to the crowd and gravelling growls just exploding from him. Heaven incarnate! I love their albums, but even that cant compare to Opeth live in full glory! I didn’t think they could get any better - boy was I wrong! The first song wasn’t even half way through, and I could already tell that it was the best gig I've ever been to. They played a selection of songs from across their back catalogue, and it was a range of sounds too. Opeth seems to have that contrast. Some of their songs are slow and dreamy, others are fast, wicked and brutal - and others switch back and forward through the styles.
It was a religious experience for me. Bewitching, beguiling, engaging, enthralling. I was already obsessed with Opeth, but now i would follow them to the ends of the earth to hear them one more time... Can anyone piggy back me to Melbourne and sneak me into the show? Mikael said that this is the last time they will be in Australia for some time. They have been touring for two years, so they are off back home to Sweden to rest and start on their new album, but they plan to come back when its finished. Its not soon enough! They need to come back next week!! Mikael has such a sense of humour too - he was quite jovial, cracking jokes and making comments between songs. Especially when the guy in front of me started flashing LOL When they had played their last song, the crowd started chanting "OPETH! OPETH! OPETH!" - it was rhythmic and rose to a crescendo... The lights were flashing in time to the crowd, and then peaked, orgasmed into silence... and then the crowd started singing it. Crooning their name... We all got into it, and eventually Opeth just walked back out on stage. Apparently it gave them goosebumps - it definitely gave them to me. Mikael promised just one last song, but before that, there were the solos... and god did they play well.... drum solos, guitar, bass... Fredrik Åkesson is a fucking genius on guitar!! Such speed and precision.... he took my breath away. And after that they played Hex...
+++
Me and the boys from Contrive
Contrive from Melbourne was the Support Act - and I loved them. I sort of didn’t know what to think at first, not what I had expected from listening to some of their tracks online. They seemed to have a few sounds - but they really got into it, and i loved their performance. You all know I'm a fan of The Racket - the metal and hard rock radio program on triple j - Andrew Haug, Contrive's drummer is the host of it. I met the guys after the show - they seem like such nice guys! I think I can tell the twins apart, but I wouldn’t swear that in a court of law ;-p Their new album was mixed by Devin Townsend, and Paul Haug filled in for Slayer's Tom Araya when he had laryngitis in Melbourne last month. That is pretty fucking impressive!
I got a photo with the boys from Contrive! They were hanging round out the front of the Enmore after the gig. The twins, Paul n Andrew Haug n Tim Stahlmann. Andrew is haugs from The Racket, the australian wide metal show on triple j radio.
I went to the first ever Australian Metal Awards with my best friend Sami on Saturday. I have photos! Too many photos actually... I haven’t uploaded any of them yet... And have no idea when I will be doing that because I am going away for the weekend, tonight I have the VIP party at Galaxy, and tomorrow night I'm going shopping for a TV... Anyway, the gig part of the awards was fucking awesome! The awards part was disorganised and poorly planned.... They had the "stage" on the third story - where only the VIP could see anything... We had to go to the second story bar on the right of the building, and even then we couldn’t really see anything. I think if they had have regulated that part of the awards they would have been better. They also needed their microphones to be louder... People mostly kept drinking because we couldn’t hear what was being said.... So you cheered and wolf whistled and clapped when you heard the name of a winner you liked.... or just because everyone else was. Realistically, they should have blocked off the bar on the left and held it there... they had three bars in the public area, so this wouldn’t have been a problem. I think that is the biggest problem I had with the Awards. They had some technical difficulties with the big screen so they posted the intro video on YouTube...
We left before Sadistik Exekution played. They took ages and ages to come on stage... it may have been technical difficulties, but it wasn’t announced. We had to catch buses and trains home, so after like 45 minutes of waiting, we started walking to the bus stop... one of the band members came on stage and fiddled with his guitar for 5 minutes, but that is all I’ve ever seen of that band. I have a little rule of not buying band tshirts unless I’ve seen the band.... wonder what I do with my AMA SadEx shirt now? LOL luckily it’s already my sleep shirt LOL I bought an AMA 09 shirt for $35 - they are selling the leftovers for $10 now... I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE OUROBOROS SHIRT! ;D no drama... they are selling hoodies to apparently... I want one!
Okay, for the good stuff... we got there on time (missed the bloody door prize as we couldn’t find our bus grrr!) so we saw all the bands, excepting SadEx. The bands playing were: Sadistik Exekution, A Secret Death, Chaos Divine, Five Star Prison Cell, Eyefear, Death Audio, Bane of Isildur, Ouroboros. Of those I particularly wanted to see Ouroboros (seen ‘em before and loved it!) and Eyefear (who I had heard on JJJ and had planned to see at Abduction one nite but had a change of plans). I loved them!! I liked most of the bands actually... Bane of Isildur were great! Good Viking metal! it was great to see parents there... we shared our balcony with the band's mum and dad... these old conservative couple rocking out supporting their son... fantastic! And I loved the music too... mmm I think it was Eyefear (I need to check my photos) who had the lead singer with the hair that reached his ankles? Seriously, he looked like a ring wraith... it was awesome, and I was mesmerised.... and his voice was very unexpected... you know how sometimes you get a mental image when you hear a voice? Or you get a mental sound when you see a singer? Well it didn’t match LOL but it worked!! He slinked around that stage, his hair flying like a cape, and sung in his unexpected voice... plus, one of the band members had lights on his guitar/bass/whateverthefuck... fun times! Ouroboros were terrific!! Blew me away - again... love these guys... Also liked Death Audio, and other one... and god, one of the guys in one of the bands (gotta check my photos) was so fucking hot... seriously, looked like Jensen Ackles if he had been doing some good solid work for the last ten years.... nice and built! yumyum! There were a couple of hot guys there actually... not half as many as the All Hallows Eve Ball the weekend before (that was heaven for both boys and girls... discovered men look hot in corsets that weekend! LOL) but enough that I wasn’t bored... it was funny seeing the cross culture comparisons.... you had your guys with long fluffy blonde hair and demin vests, your staunch metal blokes with their band shirts and their beers, your Gothed up, your typical hardcore types... and the women were just as diverse. I guess most of the gigs I go to are one specific genre... like I might go to a death metal one night, and thrash the next... anyway, I digress... the highlight of my night was seeing Chaos Divine! Brilliant!! Loved them!! Decided on the spot I MUST buy their album.... (I couldn't find them at jbhi-fi last night *sigh*). And they won best album and best overall band! Oh, and Dave won best vocalist... I concur!! I wish they lived on this coast instead of Perth... wanna see them again! Oh, I found their fan page on facebook, and now Dave Anderton is my friend on facebook! Wacked! ;D
anyway, here are the winners... I'll post the photos next week....
Best Metal Fan/ Web/ Magazine: Metal Obession.net
Most Popular Merch: Psycroptic
Best Album Cover: Psycroptic - (Ob)Servant
Best Band Name: Psycroptic
Best Film Clip: Psycroptic – “Initiate”
Best Producer / Recording Engineer: Jarrad Hearman (Sing Sing Studios) – “Avalon” Chaos Divine
Best Drummer: David Horgan – Ouroboros
Best Bass Player: Michael Conti – Ouroboros,
Best Regional Band: Alchemist
Best Youth Band: Asphyxia
Best Export: Psycroptic
Best Live Band: Psycroptic
Best Guitarist: Jimmy Lardner-Brown – Killrazer
Best Vocalist: Dave Anderton – Chaos Divine
Best Keyboard Player: Chris Stevenson - The Eternal
Best New Band: Death Audio
Song of the Year: “Refuse the Sickness” – Chaos Divine
Best Unsigned Band: Ouroboros
Best Album: “Avalon” – Chaos Divine
Overall Best Band 2009: Chaos Divine
Congrats to all the winners... Well except Psycroptic because they were still in Bali, and they kept winning things... But weren't there LOL
I hope to see good things next year!! These awards have such potential!! (stupid 3rd story stage *sigh*) and I think it is a great thing for the aussie metal scene!! Bring it on!
Do you have any recommendations for me? either gigs to catch in Sydney (or nearby), or bands/artists to check out? if so, can you comment here? thankee if you do!
I just thought I would share this write up from The Enmore Theatre mailing list. Im going to see them at this gig already.. tis pretty... and so are they.. :D i am SOOOOO fucking excited... unless you are a major fangirl/boy about something, you couldnt understand how excited I am... its a total *squee* moment... one that has lasted since I found out they were coming to australia........... its gonna be a-fucking-mazing!
In a metal world starved for integrity, intelligence and beauty, Opeth shine like a beacon through dark clouds. They are artistic visionaries and their transcendent live shows have gone down in music folklore.
Combining towering blasts of blackened death metal with the intricacy of 1970s prog rock and the more subtle, gentle beauty of folk, Opeth continue to create epic and iconic music; inventing and reinventing the rules as they go along.
No wonder the metal world stops whatever it’s doing and pauses with bated breath each time the band announce an album or tour. In just over a decade and across nine studio albums, they have become the standard bearer for modern metal.
Opeth have reinforced their hold on the mantle of the most innovative, creative and revered heavy artist of recent times with the release of ‘Watershed’. These Swedes continue to venture where others couldn’t fathom and have returned with a treasure trove of songs that makes most so-called sonic adventurists seem positively one-dimensional. ‘Watershed’ picks up where 2005’s flawless ‘Ghost Reveries’ left off, beginning contemplatively before erupting into full-bore chaos…”it defies all expectations and moves in completely new and wholly unexpected direction”- Metal Underground
I live and breathe music. It is very rare for me not to be listening to something... and that is normally when I am with a friend and it's impolite for me to keep my earphones in ;-p
My music tastes tend to run towards metal (I seem to gravitate towards Death Metal and Melodic Death Metal but i love all subgenres..) and industrial, but my tastes are quite ecelectic, so you will see some indie, folk, post-rock, punk, and whatthefuck featured in this blog. If you have any reccomendations for me, can you please make them here?
I tend to share links, thoughts, videos and lyrics at my various blogs, and decided instead to share them here.... While I may still post them at other blogs, I will be posting them here mostly. I will post any music related discussions here and will also have a current playlist linked.
THE NAME "From A Whisper To A Scream" is a novel written by Charles de Lint (published as Samuel M Key, because it was to scary & violent for some of his fans). I think it really encapsulates my taste in music. It starts soft, maybe some folk music, gets a bit louder, throw in some rock and indie, and suddenly its a scream - death metal, hardcore, industrial, thrash etc. It also describes the sounds you get out of a guitar... lightly strumming acousitic strings gives you a very soft whispery sounds, shredding an electric gives you screams. Quite apt, dont you think? \m/. (^_^) .\m/
I survive on a diet of books and cds. I snack on dvds and gigabytes.
Into alternate cultures, geek culture, environmentalism, art, archaeology, cultural heritage, and social awareness.
Me and the boys from Contrive
