By Andrew Bansal
June 16th 2013, The Joint, Los Angeles CA: It had been a while since a good full-on extreme metal tour came to town, but Melechesh’s short two-week headline run with Norwegian black metal band Vreid and Los Angeles-based bands Lightning Swords Of Death and Reign Of Lies began at the Joint last night. By the looks of things, it promised to fulfill that extreme metal void for all fans of the genre in this city. The last time I saw Melechesh was in 2011 when they opened for Rotting Christ, I hadn’t seen Vried in almost two years since their gig with Kampfar at the Whisky, and strangely enough, this was going to be my first time seeing Lightning Swords Of Death in more than three years, having missed each and every one of their shows for a number of reasons since they opened for Immortal at the Avalon in early 2010. So for me this show had a lot riding on it, and my expectations were high but fair.
Local opener Revenant Vrykolakos, the first band of the night, took the stage at 8 PM. Although their music had nothing new or different from your standard black metal, they were tight with their performance and undeniably entertaining in their on-stage appearance. The vocalist was truly the entire package with his devout black metal outfit. Corpse paint, spikes, boots and a red cape to top it off, he had it all going on! If you were at the show early enough to catch this band, you definitely wouldn’t have regretted your decision. The absence of a bassist was perhaps the only negative aspect of their music but aside from that, black metal fans could easily find peace with the songs played by these guys. Their tongue-twister of a name makes little sense to me, but except for that they were a more-than-decent opening act for this show, a show which was about to go downhill real fast.
Reign Of Lies, another local band but somehow part of this touring package, took the stage next and drove everybody nuts, in a bad way. I was absolutely ready to lose my mind as this band attempted their Pantera-clone style of musicianship up on that stage. If you know me at all you already know that I’ve very open-minded when it comes to musical styles and such, but on an otherwise all-black metal lineup, one band sticking out as oddly as this one is certainly not a great thing by any means. Besides, they weren’t even impressive in the style they tried to pull off, and need to work a lot harder on their songwriting and live performance aspects. I was told that they bought onto this tour, and that explained a lot because I wouldn’t think anyone in their right mind would put this band on a tour with Melechesh, Vreid and Lightning Swords Of Death.
After what seemed like an an eternity, Reign Of Lies were done playing and the moment I was waiting for had arrived with Lightning Swords Of Death taking the stage. To be honest, when I saw them three years ago I wasn’t the biggest fan of their performance that night, but last night was completely different and the band seems to have gone forward by leaps and bounds during this three-year period. They have headed in a more focussed musical direction, and as a result their on-stage sound is a lot stronger and more compelling. Autarch’s vocals were fierce and combined with his band mates to unleash a punishingly brutal onslaught onto the audience. I thought it was ritualistic in its own ways, without the need for stage gimmicks of any kind. Through this gig, they’ve found a new admirer in me, and for those going to see this tour in the next two weeks, make sure to get there in time for Lightning Swords Of Death.
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Next up, I was stoked to see the arrival of Vreid on stage. I refuse to call them black ‘n roll because that term is stupid. Almost 40 minutes went by and they were still setting up their gear on stage, which baffled me to no end. It took so long that the effect of the two pints of good beer that I had consumed over the course of the evening was starting to wear off, and my facial hair was growing. Anyhow, they finally started playing, but before that there was an intro on the PA as we were made to wait for the band to make their ‘official’ appearance, which seemed quite redundant because all of them were out on stage setting up their instruments for this whole time anyway. But once they got into the actual playing, they made up for it by delivering a fantastic set that gave us a fair taste of their latest album ‘Welcome Farewell’, with half of the 8-song performance comprising of this new material, blended in well with some of the older tunes. They’ve embraced the artistic side of black metal in a manner that appeals to metalheads in general, and not just strict black metal fans. They have a very mellow, barebones stage presence and certain elements of their music are also mellow, but there is no clear divide between that and the heavier stuff, so I wouldn’t go to the extent of calling them a progressive metal band. With that said, it’s clear that they put a large amount of thought and creativity into the music, and last night they did complete justice to it on stage.
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Set List:
1. The Ramble
2. The Reap
3. Arche
4. Disciplined
5. Sights Of Old
6. At The Brook
7. Raped By Light
8. Pitch Black
Vreid were done at exactly 11.55 PM, and the wait for our headline act began. 30 minutes passed by, and we were still waiting. Another 15 minutes went, and the wait continued. At that point, I was doubtful that Melechesh were even going to play the show, and went up to the promoter to verify that this was indeed just a delay and not a cancellation. They started the set at 50 minutes past midnight, which was ridiculous in every sense of the word. No band in the world, and I really mean no band, is worth that much of a wait. During this entire time, the crowd was thinning as quite a few people began to depart the venue. I wandered around, hopelessly trying to find other means of entertainment. One of two journalists were seen sucking up to record label publicists even as those poor publicists rolled their eyes and sighed heavily, while Mr. Erik Danielsson from Watain was seen hanging out in the crowd as he seemed to be enjoying his Los Angeles press tour. A drunk dude had the audacity to ask him, ‘So, how do you like your women?’ The look on Erik’s face was fucking priceless, as he simply replied, ‘Come on man, why don’t you stick to asking about my band’, turned around and walked away.
The band and their crew were taking literally forever to set up, spending an unnecessarily huge amount of time taping their banner onto the stage backdrop. The sound-checking of the instruments and microphones didn’t even begin until 00:40. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the band and even did an interview with Ashmedi prior to the show, but by the time they started playing, I had completely lost interest in them. Despite taking an age to set up, the band was apparently still not happy with the sound up there. Ashmedi kept gesturing to the sound guy to raise the volume of his vocals on the monitor. I couldn’t take more than 15 minutes of that set, and decided to leave.
All of this was by no means the fault of the venue or the promoter, and I would place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the band and their crew. There is no reason to take that long to set up, on a Sunday night. Granted, it was the first night of the tour which is always testing ground for certain aspects of the show, but it’s not like they’ve never toured before. So all in all, Vreid and LSOD were the silver linings in this otherwise horribly dark cloud of a show. The turnout was good in terms of the numbers, but the actual response of the crowd for all bands was pathetically weak, with the cross-armed plague spreading far and wide throughout the room. I don’t know what the deal is, may be the hipster revolution has invaded the extreme metal scene and damaged it beyond repair, because the place looked and sounded absolutely dead despite being packed.
Anyway, if you plan to attend any of these upcoming shows on the tour, be advised. You might need to keep a pillow or sleeping bag on standby in your vehicle.
Related:
Lightning Swords Of Death interview | Vreid interview | Melechesh interview
Remaining Tour Dates:
6/17/2013 DNA Lounge – San Francisco, CA
6/18/2013 Hawthorne – Portland, OR
6/19/2013 Studio Seven – Seattle, WA
6/20/2013 TBA – Vancouver, BC
6/21/2013 Pawn Shop – Edmonton, AB
6/22/2013 The Exchange – Regina, SK
6/23/2013 TBA – Winnipeg, MB
6/24/2013 Station 4 – St. Paul, MN
6/25/2013 Mojoe’s – Joliet, IL
6/27/2013 Wreck Room – Toronto, ON
6/28/2013 Foufounes Electriques – Montreal, QC
6/29/2013 Railroad Tavern – Keene, NH
6/30/2013 Gramercy Theater – New York, NY