Monday, July 18, 2011
One thing I forgot to mention, or make that two things, is that I was actually interviewed on a couple of occasions recently. Nothing really big, mind you, just some questionnaire style pieces, but all were fun. At Hellbound I participated in a second anniversary project where all of us staffers were interviewed. Over at the Polaris Prize website I finally took part in the “get to know a juror” series, which was fun, I go over my long list ballot from this year. Also, at Decibel’s Deciblog I took part in a fun piece where all of us writers were asked what our oldest band t-shirt is. Mine is of a Canadian band, and is now nearly 26 years old. Can you guess? And speaking of Canadian metal, Hellbound’s Canada Day special was about our favourite Canadian metal songs, and like my oldest shirt, my song choice also hails from 1985.
As I mentioned the other day, July is always a very busy month for me, but it’s gotten so crazy this year thanks to a bevy of great shows that have rolled through town. It’s been a very weird year. Spring and fall are usually the busiest times for concerts in this part of the country, but after a first five months that was absolutely dead, things very quickly picked up in June, and now midway through July there’s been so much going on that I’ve had to pass up on a couple shows out of sheer exhaustion. There are still plenty more ahead, the big climax being the Slayer/Rob Zombie/Exodus show on July 29th. It’s been five years since I last saw Slayer, so I’m really looking forward to that one. But in the meantime, I might as well recap some of the more recent shows I’ve been to as of late…
The most recent one was last night, as I headed out to Louis’ on the university campus to see Handsome Furs, who were making their first ever appearance in Saskatoon. I’d liked the husband and wife duo of Dan Boeckner and Alexei perry from the start, but three albums later I now consider them a superior band to Boeckner’s Wolf Parade, which is on “indefinite hiatus”. Their shtick is fairly straightforward, juxtaposing Boeckner’s penchant for rock ‘n’ roll anthems with a heavy dose of synths and drum machines, and what sounded fairly tentative on 2007’s Plague Park has steadily become something very cool. Their new album Sound Kapital plays up the synth angle big time, serving as a minimalist, less bombastic but propulsive backdrop for Boeckner’s vocals, which have a tendency to evoke big-‘80s Springsteen. It just came out a few weeks ago but it’s quickly becoming a personal favourite of 2011, and I was really looking forward to seeing the couple play the new stuff live.
After Vancouver trio Basketball played an opening set heavy on the abstract vocals and tribal beats, Boeckner and Perry took the stage, flicked on a cheap Chinese laser light, and proceeded to throttle the lively crowd for the better part of an hour. Granted, things did start of a little understated, as “When I Get Back” just wasn’t quite long enough, but the sound steadily got louder and louder until the entire room was pulsating with those gigantic beats and thrumming bass synth. And what energy they bring to the performance too. Boeckner is in full rock star mode, guitar slung on his shoulder, while Perry is a force, dancing maniacally for the entire set, kicking, jumping, headbanging, posing, often ending each song by flopping dramatically to the floor. She’s fun to watch and her energy is contagious, which got the people going quickly. And the pair have definite chemistry. They’re doing something they love and are so clearly having fun doing it together. It’s as if they’re aware they’re really on to something special with this project, playing nearly the entire album with even more passion than what you hear on record. Hopefully they return soon, they’re so much better live than I expected. Great show. Here’s the setlist (mostly in order):
When I Get Back
Damage
All We Want, Baby, is Everything
Memories of the Future
What About Us?
Repatriated
Radio Kaliningrad (I think!)
Bury Me Standing
Serve the People
No Feelings
Agony (with Basketball)
Saskatoon might be one of the better cities around when it comes to supporting indie music, but we’re still a “B” or “C” location, so we often have to wait for the bigger centres to have their fill of bands before we get them. That’s the case with a band like Broken Social Scene, as we here had to wait five years before they came back last October. This summer, though, the band decided to play some outdoor shows with the Tragically Hip across the country, and they were kind enough to set up an off-date headlining performance here at a charity event. Granted, a wakeboarding competition is a rather weird event for an indie band to play at, and it sure made for a strange mix of beered-up “bros” and hipster dudes & ladies more accustomed to Amigos. But it was a good cause (all proceeds go to fund inner city youth), and despite the severe disparity between indie rock bands and blaring house music between sets, it was a fun time.
It was held at Victoria Park, a big sprawling grassy area along the rive on the city’s west side, a place I’d never actually visited. A comfy 25 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and a nice breeze keeping the mosquitoes away, just an overall pleasant setting. It’s situated just south of the city’s notorious high-crime area, and I was amazed at the police presence, far, far more than any other city event I’ve ever attended. So it was good for peace of mind at the very least. I got there around 8:00, checked out the band playing (I forget who it was), went for a beer, changed my mind (six bucks for a can of Coors Light? No thanks), took a walk down the River Landing thingamajiggy, which is very nice, saw a surprising number of tourists. Headed back, watched some boarders do some cool jumps at a neat stunt pool, and caught a set by Calgary’s always likeable The Dudes. It feels like a lifetime ago when I first wrote about The Dudes, and it was cool to hear them play a couple of oldies I knew well, “Drop Kick Queen of the Weekend” and the charming “Cup of Blood”.
By the time Broken Social Scene came on, the sun had set, a big full moon was visible across the river, and dragonflies were buzzing and divebombing 20, 30 feet over our heads. It wasn’t your usual epic two-hour set by BSS, but it was a solid 85 minutes that played a few crowd-pleasers and a surprising number of deep cuts. However, no “Stars and Sons”, “Almost Crimes’, “Lover’s Spit”, nor “Ibi”, interestingly enough. The mix was fantastic too, as the band (eight members this time, you never know how many you’ll get) got over a few minor tech glitches and clearly enjoyed themselves, frontman Kevin Drew ironically sporting a cowboy hat that was tossed at him at the Calgary Stampede a couple nights earlier. They played an old song they said “no one would know”, a riff-oriented tune (unusual for BSS) that had the repeated line, “Let’s hear it for the stuff,” or something to that effect. If anyone reading this knows what the song is, let me know! But a real highlight was the cover of Modest Mouse’s “The World at Large”, which topped the original, starting off very understated and climaxing with waves of shoegazey noise the band always does well. It was a wonderful show…Broken Social Scene is one of those Canadian bands whose shows I always savour, in fact I’d say they’re the best band in Canada right now, and I had a total blast as usual. At the rate they’re going, who knows where in the city they’ll play next? Wherever it is, I’ll be there. Here’s the setlist, or what I can remember…there might be one song missing, and the order is about 75% correct:
Cause=Time
7/4 (shoreline)
Texico Bitches
Fire Eye’d Boy
All to All
Shampoo Suicide
Ungrateful Little Father
The World at Large
(that old song I don’t know)
Water in Hell
Meet Me in the Basement
KC Accidental
Also, a little over a weeks ago I saw Children of Bodom yet again, and they brought along some great bands: the always bizarre and entertaining Devin Townsend, the insanely talented Obscura, and flashy Greek black metalers Septicflesh. I reviewed the show for Hellbound, so I won’t waste much time going over everything when I did in great detail in the piece (which I highly recommend you read!), but I will say it was the hottest show I’d ever been to, the combination of severe heat, humidity, and poor ventilation making it nearly unbearable. Anyway, for organization’s sake, here are the full setlists for all bands:
Obscura
Septuagint
Ocean Gateways
Anticosmic Overload
Celestial Spheres
Centric Flow
Septicflesh
The Vampire from Nazareth
Communion
A Great Mass of Death
Pyramid God
Persepolis
Anubis
Five-Pointed Star
Devin Townsend
By Your Command
Truth/OM
Supercrush!
Stand
Kingdom
Juular
Children of Bodom
Not My Funeral
Bodom Beach Terror
Needled 24/7
Shovel Knockout
Roundtrip to Hell and Back
In Your Face
Living Dead Beat
Children Of Bodom
Hate Me!
Blooddrunk
Angels Don't Kill
Follow the Reaper
Downfall
Encore:
Was It Worth It?
Are You Dead Yet?
Hate Crew Deathroll
Monday, July 11, 2011
I always forget how crazy late June through July gets for me, and this year’s version is insane. Birthdays, weddings, shows, events around the city…couple that with a staggering pile of writing assignments, as well as a big new writing job that I’ll formally announce in the next week or two, and I just don’t have much time to devote to the blog as I’ve wanted. So with a little of that thick smoke cleared right now, I thought I’d get back on the horse here and deliver my annual mid-year list before it’s too late!
The Best Album of the Year So Far:
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Could it be any other? It’s hands down the finest record I’ve heard all year. What I find so exciting about Fucked Up is how they continue to spit in the face of punk rock convention. Marry hardcore with bloated art rock? Sure. Embrace mainstream rock ‘n’ roll and the layered production of shoegaze? Why not? Put together a sprawling rock opera that turns out to be the best concept album in years? By now, such an announcement hardly came as a surprise, because we all know that the Toronto band can pull it off, and indeed that’s just what happened. Sonically David Comes to Life is a little less dense and headphone-friendly as 2009 Album of the Year The Chemistry of Common Life and the songwriting is a lot more direct, but it’s incredible how cohesive this massive 78 minute opus is. No bad songs, each track holding up extremely well on its own. Plus the storyline is not only ambitious but affecting and pretty easy to follow (underneath all the postmodern pretensions is a message so deceptively simple), something that so rarely happens in rock operas. Plus you’ve got killer tracks like “Queen of Hearts”, “The Other Shoe”, “Ship of Fools”, and “A Little Death”, which rank as some of the greatest song the band has ever recorded. It’s the closest to a perfect album I have heard in 2001, and although there are a couple more biggies on the horizon (hello, Opeth), I honestly don’t think another album will have topped this one come December.
As always, here are some more leading contenders for my year-end top twenty, in alphabetical order:
40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room: Not your typical doom metal album, singer/songwriter Pat Walker offsets the gigantic, slow riffing with truly heartbreaking lyrics and plaintive vocal melodies few singers in metal have the guts to pull off. And he does so with such grace.
Austra - Feel it Break: The debut by the Toronto band is a rare thing: a Canadian indie album with genuine mystique. Singer-songwriter Katie Stelmanis mines the back catalogues of Kate Bush and Siouxsie, tosses in a strong Knife/Fever Ray influence to create a striking, unforgettable debut.
Boris - Attention Please: The Japanese trio put out their best album to date, and all they had to do was completely ditch their sludge riffs and drones to do it, a seductive blend of Krautrock, shoegaze, and honest-to-goodness pop music. Boris has never been as accessible, and better, as they are here.
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years: After starting out as a fairly understated home studio project, Wesley Eisold took the darkwave sound of Cold Cave and blew it through the roof, embracing the bombast of Sisters of Mercy and the Mission. This wonderful album wouldn’t have sounded out of place in 1987.
Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots: I wasn’t expecting this more low-key DBT album to impress me as much as it has, but it’s turned into my favourite record of theirs since The Dirty South, loaded with great, storytelling songs ranging from laid-back to tense, as well as a pair of knockout Eddie Hinton covers.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake: Polly Jean Harvey has never been a stranger to bold sounds, but did she ever throw us for a loop with her latest, taking up the auto-harp, adopting a new singing style, and singing about England’s war history. And she pulls it off in classy fashion with a fascinating, weird album.
Hell - Human Remains: An obscure, forgotten NWOBHM band is brought back together by their biggest fan who just happens to be a famous producer, and the end result is one of the best traditional heavy metal albums to come out in ages. Truly ageless music, this is the kind of incredible comeback story people love to hear.
Krallice - Diotima: The more Krallice puts out new music, the more they show they’re one of the most inventive metal bands of the new century so far. Always evolving, Krallice tweaks things again on their third full-length, creating a challenging work that proves to be their most rewarding to date.
Liturgy - Aesthethica: The most polarizing band in metal, Liturgy has been the target of some very unfair criticism by metal fans when in fact they’re taking black metal, expanding it and creating something new and very exciting in the process. Indescribable yet insidiously catchy, you haven’t heard anything like this.
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes: Lykke Li has never been above wallowing in melodrama, and she goes all-out on her much-anticipated second album. Darker and more atmospheric than Youth Novels, she delves into the world of Phil Spector, unflinchingly, bluntly singing songs about misery and lust.
Obscura - Omnivium: Already well known as one of the better technical death metal bands out there, Germany’s Obscura absolutely knocked me out of my chair with their latest, combining jazz fusion and extremem metal yet at the same time emphasizing melody a lot more than brutality and technical prowess.
Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand: It takes so long for Primordial records to come out that each one is a big event, and not only did the Irish band not disappoint, they put out their finest one to date. Bracing, Celtic-inspiured pagan metal bolstered by the bellowing roar of singer Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill.
Favourite Singles of the year so far:
1. Austra – “Beat and the Pulse” (video)
2. Those Dancing Days – “Can’t Find Entrance”” (video)
3. Fucked Up – “Queen of Hearts” (video)
4. Nicola Roberts – “Beat of My Drum” (video)
5. Lykke Li – “Sadness is a Blessing” (video)
6. Visions of Trees – “Sometimes it Kills” (video)
7. Cold Cave – “The Great Pan is Dead” (video)
8. Drive-By Truckers – “Everybody Needs Love” (video)
9. Deadlock – “State of Decay” (video)
10. Ringo Deathstarr – “Imagine Hearts” (video)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I've long been a fan of concept albums and rock operas. When I first heard Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1984, it was an eye-opener: a rock album that tells a story. It seems naive, but I'd never heard of the idea before that. As I soon discovered though, there aren't a lot of great rock operas out there. I hate Tommy. I think The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is too goofy. And so on. For the longest time The Wall was the measuring stick as far as I was concerned, that is until I heard Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime in 1988. There was a smart album that not only told a riveting, richly layered story, but the songs were all superb as well. In recent years there have been a few good ones, namely, the Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free (not to mention too many bloated metal rock operas to mention), but nothing that really took me aback like those two classics did.
When I first heard that Canadian punk greats Fucked Up were going to be putting together a big, sprawling rock opera (named after one of their previous songs, interestingly enough), I was intrigued to say the least. Strange as it seems, there's no band more perfectly suited for such a record as Fucked Up. Punk's ultimate rebels, they've always audaciously embraced the more bombastic side of rock music while remaining within the confines of punk, and coming on the heels of the double album Hidden World and the ambitious The Chemistry of Common Life (my choice for 2009 album of the year), this seemed like a logical step for the band. So I was pumped at the idea from the start.
One of the great perks of being a Polaris juror is that it's a lot easier to get advances of new Canadian albums, and the kind folks at Matador wasted no time in FedEx-ing me a copy of David Comes to Life, along with the complete lyrics and liner notes. Over the course of four days in early May I got to know the massive, dense album, listening to one of the four "sides" per day, poring over the lyrics, trying to make sense of the plotline while getting to know the actual music as well. And believe me, there is a lot to digest. This is a record that needs time to sink in, but as I found, it turns out to be an extremely rewarding experience.
First off, the story is a challenging one. It starts off as your usual boy-meets-girl plot, but after tragedy strikes things get "meta" very fast, as the album starts questioning the role of the narrator, whom the protagonist thinks is manipulating him for the benefit of the audience (almost as if singer Damien Abraham is apologizing to his fictional characters for putting them through the wringer). It seems incredibly dense, but the way it unravels in the third act is quite clever. In the end the lesson is quite simple, and the last song ends on a surprisingly touching note, directed toward the listener: "Cast a seed to the sky as my valediction / That you could be the vine to grow a truth from the fiction / Empty the theater, rush through the door / Start living the life you never could before." So it goes from cliched, to pretentious, to genuinely affecting. It's ingenious, not to mention devilishly sneaky.
As for the songs themselves, they're a lot simpler and direct than the last two albums, nowhere near as layered as on Chemistry (this despite having added one more permanent guitarist). But while they remain rooted in punk, the songs stretch out toward other styles, namely classic British rock, as serious Who and Kinks overtones pervade this record. Sure, Abraham still barks out his lyrics in the same monotone hardcore growl, but I've never had a problem with that. Must be my metal background. But vocals aside, the songs are still insidiously catchy thanks to the arrangements primarily by guitarist 10,000 Marbles. My favourite individual songs include the rosy-hued "Queen of Hearts" (complete with sweet guest vocals by Madeline from Cults), "The Other Shoe", "Ship of Fools", "A Little Death", "The Recursive Girl", and "Lights Go Up". What's so amazing about this album is how varied the band keeps things, even though, aside from maybe one or two, the 18 songs basically go at the same pace. There's very little dynamics here. Yet it's a cohesive, enthralling album from start to finish, a testament to the band's extremely smart songwriting.
After a full month of getting to know David Comes to Life, I can say with all honesty this is one of the best rock operas I have ever heard. Compared to Green Day, who spent the 1990s ranting against mainstream rock only to sell out with American Idiot the album and even more heinously American Idiot the Broadway musical, Fucked Up deliver a full-on rock opera while remaining true to their punk roots. No other band on the planet could pull off such a stunt. But the bottom line is, no matter what you want to call this album, it's a rock 'n' roll masterpiece, simple as that. If there's a 2011 album that's going to top this, it's going to have to be something special. Until then, it's going to be a lock, not only for my 2011 album of the year, but my 2012 Polaris Prize ballot too. You owe it to yourself to get this.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Two shows in two nights? What is this, Toronto? I always say, for all my groaning that Saskatoon doesn't get enough metal shows, I know if I lived in a big city I'd be far too exhausted to see everything, even if I had press passes to everything. This stuff can be taxing...I'm not 25 anymore! But here, you have to take advantage of opportunities to see a great bill once it does roll through here, and there was no way I was going to miss seeing Winnipeg's KEN Mode and Ottawa's Fuck the Facts playing at Amigos.
Until I heard the new album Venerable back in December or January, I was never the biggest fan of KEN Mode. Their doom-infused noise rock has always been potent, especially live, but while other Canadian critic heaped praise on their early records, I was a bit less convinced. Not enough of the songs grabbed me, and the potency of their live show felt somewhat lacking on record. The promise was there, though, and when I learned last year that a) they'd signed to the esteemed Profound Lore and b) employed the services of Kurt Ballou, the best producer in metal/hardcore today, it seemed like the kind of perfect combination this band needed. And indeed, when I heard the new record I loved it immediately, from its ferocity to its much-improved, more dynamic songwriting. What was not a surprise was how great these songs would sound live. The band only played for 45 minutes or so, about seven songs' worth, but plenty of new material was played, and they translated extremely well, especially "Book of Muscle", "The Irate Jumbuck", and "Never Was". Be-stetsoned guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson has a real imposing presence onstage, steely-gazed and intense, zero acknowledgement of the crowd until the very end (a band like KEN Mode doesn't lend itself to clever stage banter), and new bassist Therese Lanz (she of Mares of Thrace notoriety) not only replicates those massive Jesus Lizard basslines, so crucial to this band's sound, but she and Matthewson have an undeniable chemistry up there, which translates to the music you hear. Near the end of a monstrous two month tour across North America, the band didn't look exhausted at all.
As I mentioned on twitter yesterday afternoon, for all the reviews I've written for decibel over the last five years, the one I totally regret doing is my lukewarm reaction to Fuck the Facts 2008 album Disgorge Mexico. Stuck listening to an online stream without the benefit of lyrics and forming an informed opinion over the course of mere days, I struggled to take it all in, and the best I could manage was a 6 out of 10-rated write-up in which I praised the straight-up grindcore more than the longer, more progressive pieces (that's what can happen, on short-notice reviews you sometimes are drawn more to the more immediate sounding material). Anyway, after I got the CD in the mail from Relapse and let the thing actually sink in, I started to realise how much my assessment mis-fired, and I've felt awful about it since.
Fuck the Facts is a band whose records need time to sink in, but that's definitely not the case when it comes to seeing them live. You don't have to know their music, you just stand there and take it in. Live, they are an absolute force. While on record they've worked as a trio, they've since expanded to a quintet, and they are taut. However, it's all about vocalist Melanie Mongeon, who is one of the most extraordinary frontwomen in metal today. Here's a lady, five-foot-nothing, 90 pounds, looking more like a student than a grindcore singer, who when the band starts playing turns into a wickedly powerful frontwoman. In metal singers are generally expected to come off as larger than life, and indeed, the strength Mongeon projects in incredible to witness in person, as she roars, screams, gesticulates, and swaggers. Like KEN Mode, she and her mates played for a solid three quarters of an hour, inciting mayhem on the Amigos floor more than a few times, and aside from a microphone glitch at the end, it was generally flawless, not to mention huge fun. I'd seen Fuck the Facts before, when they toured with Impaled a few months after the release of Disgorge, and this set left me even more impressed than the last time they visited. An extraordinary band, and I can't wait to hear their forthcoming new album. Meeting Melanie after the show I couldn't bring myself to apologize for the tepid Decibel review, so if you're reading, Fuck the Facts, I'm terribly sorry. The album truly deserved an 8. Anyway, it was a great time overall, one of the better Amigos shows I've seen in a while.
New writing to plug as well! My 57th or 58th installment of Blood & Thunder over at PopMatters has been published today, in which I tacke the frustrating subject of Sabaton. Never have I seen a band so alternately fun and unbearably stupid...when they're on, they can be great, but their cartoonishness always ruins it for me, not to mention unintentionally cheapening the real-life stories of war they like to sing about. They're very popular, and starting to get a lot of attention in North America, but I was never sold. However, when I got the reissues of the first four Sabaton records, I thought I'd dive into them and figure out what people see in them. It was a fun little project (I learned that The Art of War is their best, most consistent album), and the piece turned out rather well. Plus there are some killer photos by Hellbound's own Albert Mansour, taken back in January when we were on the crazy cruise with those Swedish goofballs. You know what the most frustrating thing about Sabaton is? They seem like the nicest, most genuine guys, the way they happily interacted with teir fand on the cruise. It's a shame their music isn't more consistent.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
As disappointing as it is to live in a good-sized city and not get enough metal shows coming through, one thing I'm thankful for is being able to see 3 Inches of Blood on a regular basis. Since the very beginning, the Vancouver band has toured Western Canada like crazy, and now, seven years and four albums later, they have a very strong fanbase, especially across the prairies. While we might not get many other traditional metal tours, we can always count on 3IOB to give us a rare true metal fix. And never mind the fact that this was the first honest-to-goodness metal show featuring a non-Saskatchewan-based band in seven months...unbelievable!
I've seen 3IOB many times in many different venues in the city, each place with its own quirks. The Fez, formerly the Roxy, and before that formerly the infamous Wash & Slosh, is quite the weird little dive, a spacious, black-walled basement bar with the stage off in one corner...the stairs from the street lead down to a doorway that puts you right between the stage and the "backstage" area, so whenever you arrive you'd best keep your head up, because there will likely be a band member carrying a guitar or a cymbal unintentionally aimed at your head (this happened again on this night, the first band was playing as I walked in, and I nearly got clobbered by a kid running back to the stage with a restrung guitar). But weird as the place is, I have seen some great metal shows there, the best probably being Cryptopsy/Suffocation/Decapitated way back when. It's got a great, intimate vibe, and more often than not the sound is pretty good. So it was nice to be back there, as it had been ages since I'd seen a show in the place.
Strangely, there were three local bands filling out the show, about one too many. I tried to arrive late, my sole intention to see the headliner and Saskatoon's thrash phenoms Untimely Demise, but when I got there an emocore, Atreyu-knockoff band of children was good copping/bad copping onstage. Ugh. Prong-y band Thresh was next, and they were a decent respite from the "scene" kids, but Untimely Demise totally delivered, serving up a taut set of technically proficient thrash, resembling Destruction with a little bit of Annihilator's shredding tendencies. Aewsome stuff...I really should pitch an article for Decibel.
It's incredible to think I've seen 3 Inches of Blood three times on their current touring cycle alone. Crazy. But each time I see them, they just get better and better. It's been a steady process of subtle improvements...all that time on the road has really gelled the band, they're tighter than ever, growing into quite the live force. And the good-sized crowd was more than ready, complete with "We want blood!" chants. 3IOB played a rather short set, about an hour's worth of material, but it was the best 3IOB show I have seen to date. Tight, ferocious, a terrific mix, with singer Cam Pipes in fine form. Starting out with "The Goatriders Horde" and "Destroy the Orcs", they gave the fans what they wanted. It's weird, of all the songs in the band's catalogue, none gets crowds going like "Destroy the Orcs", yet I consider it only an average song. But the reaction to the opening riff and the first lines ("Kill the Orcs! Slay the Orcs! Destroy the Orcs!") is so much fun to witness. They played a pair of new songs from the upcoming 7" single, "Lords of Change" and "Strength of the Grave", both a lot more aggressive than the last album, as well as one rarely-played nugget ("Fear on the Bridge"), but the set was dominated by fan faves: "Trial of Champions", "Forest King", "Silent Killer", "Night Marauders", and of course, the ubiquitous "Deadly Sinners", a song I'll never get sick of, and which always makes the pit go nuts. They ended tidily with "Battles and Brotherhood", with no encore sadly. But that's alright, the hour-long set was a total blast, so much fun. Nothing puts a smile on your face like a 3 Inches of Blood show, and no form of metal is as enjoyable live as good old traditional heavy metal. Totally worth sitting through the other bands, not to mention the drive back home in the treacherous rainstorm!