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Gwar Concert Review & Photos

GWAR are one of those bands that tour excessively, but not in a bad way. I the past five years, the band have come to Edmonton within the first half of November four times. Last year was different, as just before coming into Canada to play the Edmonton show it was discovered that longtime guitarist Corey Smoot has passed away. It was assume that the show, and even remaining tour would be cancelled, however GWAR went on stage and worked the untimely death into their usually epic stage story. This year was different; there was not underlying media attention surrounding the band, and the tour seems more of a celebration to introduce the Pustulus Maximus character to the world.

The “Fate of Chaos Tour” had come to Edmonton like clockwork, bring along DevilDriver, Cancer Bats, and Legacy of Disorder as well as the intergalactic space mutants GWAR. It always amazing me the crowd that comes out of to see GWAR, it’s a strange mixture of crust punks, your stereotypical redneck trailer trash, idiotic rig workers that just want to smash something, sprinkled with your normal metal audience that are here to see politicians and celebrities get dismember on stage. I didn’t get to see the entire Legacy of Disorder set, but from what I saw and heard it seems as if they had just gotten a shipment of Pantera albums in New Zealand and had decided to try and form a cover band of sorts. They were not great, but I only had to endure them for maybe ten minutes.

The Cancer Bats have been around for years, being a Canadian bands we have probably seem them open up on tours at least ten times. Its unfortunate that they never really took off outside of the hardcore community, they put on a great live show and try really hard but their lack of variety really gets tiresome. The only bright part of their set was they announced they would be playing a Beastie Boys cover. At least they were better than the next band up: DevilDriver. I have never understood why people love this band, either way they went on stage, played the same song for 45 minutes except for the 30-second interruption that featured vocalist Dez Fafara having a complete melt down on stage and screaming at the sound guy to make this sound better. It was the closest thing that I have ever seen that even comes close to a Dave Mustaine freak-out. It really isn’t surprising, as watching the band move around on stage it seemed as if everyone else in the band was scared to even come near him, almost as if they had an invisible box that they were forced to stay within. The eventually stopped playing, and the stage was transformed into an area where GWAR would take on their fiercest enemy.

GWAR always put on an amazing live show, but it was this year that I really noticed how far their props, and costumes had developed, from the brand new stilts that Balsac wore on stage or how when Hitler’s face was ripped off his tongue still dangled there spraying blood and puss. Its weird, but a GWAR show is always the same: they fight something (in this case it was God, Jesus, Hitler, and Super-Bionic-Jesus), spray blood all over everything, all while playing a wide variety of music from over their entire career. The band even played “Have You Seen Me” which is essentially a jazz song which I recommend you check out if you have no idea what I am talking about. Overall GWAR is a great band that I look forward to seeing when the come to town, it doesn’t matter if you want to go crazy and get drenched in blood and have your skin died red for a few days or just stand back and watch how space aliens can take over an audience.

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Published on:
November 20, 2012 5:51 pm

Author:
invertedmag

Categories:
Blog, Features, Inverted Blog, Reviews, Show Reviews

Tags:
CANCER BATS, DevilDriver, edmonton, gwar, live, photo

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Anthrax Concert Review

Anthrax is a band notorious for 80’s thrash metal, music that makes you want to drink, thrash around, and have great time. It had been 32 years since they were Edmonton last – which was well before my time – so when it was announced that Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel would be making a stop in the city I was thrilled. Of all the bands I have seen, both at big festivals or tours that pass through I have seen Anthrax.

Death Angel started off the night, and quickly rifled through 30 minute set. I have seen Death Angel a few times in the past; with the latest over a year ago on the 2011 70000 Tons of Metal cruise. This performance was quite a change from on the boat; maybe it was the open water on the cruise that made them seem boring. I personally would have loved to have seen Testament and Anthrax bring along one of the “new generation” of thrash metal right now such as Holy Grail or Bonded by Blood as an opening act, but either way Death Angel were a solid opening band.

Testament always put on great performance, this was our third time seeing the band I the past six weeks. I just can’t get over how good Gene Hoglan playing drums for the band sounds; he is literally a machine back there. I didn’t realize that Chuck Billy was also a giant of a man, he has to be at least six foot six or taller; however he still moves around stage like an eighteen-year-old kid! I was shocked that the place was only half full before Testament went on stage, however after playing a selection of new material, and older music the band left the stage and the venue completely filled up. I found it strange because the band had been to Edmonton a couple years ago and completely sold out a 5000 person venue, however there was maybe 600 people watching their set this year.

After a quick set change, the Anthrax banner was raised and Scott Ian led the way onstage for Anthrax. It’s hard to believe that not only has Anthrax been around since 1981, but that they have aged quite well for being in a full-time tour band. They quickly pounded through Fight ‘Em, Caught in a Mosh, and Antisocial. The set also included Deathrider, which most people over thirty were quick thrilled about. With a combination of newer music, as well as older songs the band was able to play thirty years of music without losing a beat in just over 90 minutes. I’d have to say that this was one of the best concerts I have been to in 2012, and advised anyone that is close to one of the stops on this tour to check it out.

Make sure you take a look at photos from Testament, and Death Angel in our Photo Gallery section as well!

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Published on:
September 26, 2012 7:47 pm

Author:
invertedmag

Categories:
Blog, Features, Reviews, Show Reviews

Tags:
Anthrax, chuck billy, concert review, Death Angel, edmonton, joey belladona, photos, scott ian, Testament, thrash

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Refused Concert Review & Photos

Refused are fucking dead. We heard it for years, however after not playing around since since 1998 the band got back together over the Coachella Festival in 2012, and a North American tour was soon announced. Last night the Swedish hardcore group performed in one of the largest shopping malls in the world, located in Edmonton, Canada; it was ironic yet the band admitted during their set they they have never planned on playing such a venue with the band formed over 15 years ago.

Overall their performance was great, sure everyone has aged and the members have gone on to form other bands and do different style of music, however after playing through a solid 60 minute set it felt like I have in high school again. I mean, I had never seen the band before and never thought I ever would; maybe it was me being nostalgic but unlike other “reunion tours” it seems as if the band was just as passionate about their music as the day the songs were written. I was definitely excited to see the band, however only time will tell if this is a one off thing, or if they will get back together full-time and record another album. The musical landscape has changed since Refused pulled the plug in 1998, and their influence can be found is every hardcore and metal band since then, however I hope that this is a one-off thing because Refused are fucking dead.

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