Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Taste of Chaos Tour

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 11 December 2009

Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen, Germany
9th December 2009
Taste of Chaos Tour 2009: In Flames, Killswitch Engage, Heaven Shall Burn, Every Time I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

It was cold, wet and simply unpleasant outside, so not the kind of weather you’d actually be keen to get out into under normal circumstances. But the “Taste of Chaos Tour” wasn’t a normal circumstance. Thus, it didn’t surprise me to find already countless people waiting to get into the venue, some wearing t-shirts. I had hardly entered the venue as somebody told me the first band was already playing, nearly 45 minutes before the event was supposed to officially take off…

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

The band was established in 2005 and just a year later began touring the US. During the same year they’ve released their self-titled debut album. In 2006, the band signed to the Ferret Records label and released an EP in February and their sophomore ‘II’ in March 2007. The following month was full of touring in support of the new record and in May, they took part in the “Dirty South Tour” also featuring the bands UNDEROATH, NORMA JEAN and THE GLASS OCEAN. Before starting to record their new album ‘III’ which was eventually out in June 2009, the band played a full US tour. MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER are Dallas Taylor (lead vocals), Roman Haviland (bass, backing vocals), Chad Huff (guitar), Kelly Scott Nunn (guitar), Jake Duncan (guitar) and Matt Clark drums). http://www.mayleneandthesonsofdisaster.us/ / http://www.myspace.com/mayleneandthesonsofdisaster

Music & Performance
The too early start meant I had to store all the redundant jackets in the bag, get the earplugs ready and catch the rest of the set which was 3 songs actually. Bad luck for our photographer who was stuck in heavy traffic and did not arrive early enough to see the opening band, a troop with good temper and joy of playing who expected me when I took a position close to the stage, playing a blend of Southern Rock and Hardcore. One song was more Hardcore than anything else, and another, the last one had Blues written all over it, just like one guitar had a sign mentioning “Clap” on his back, and the guitarist didn’t tire of showing it to the audience with some moves to make them do what the sign said. A short but entertaining start!

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6.7 / 10

Every Time I Die

EVERY TIME I DIE was founded by brothers Keith and Jordan Buckley. The line-up soon got complemented by an additional bassist, guitarist and drummer. On their first local gigs they would meet the guy who would produce their first EP ‘Burial Plot Bidding War’, released in 2000. The debut album ‘Last Night in Town’ was released a year later, followed by a tour together with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. While the other positions in the band’s line-up remained constant, the position as bass player was in a state of flux throughout the years and on the following albums ‘Hot Damn!’, ‘Gutter Phenomenon’ and ‘The Big Dirty’. The band’s newest and fifth album ‘New Junk Aesthetics’ has been released in September 2009. EVERY TIME I DIE is Keith Buckley (vocals), Jordan Buckley (guitars), Andy Williams (guitars), Kevin Falk (bass) and Ryan Leger (drums, percussion). http://www.everytimeidie.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/everytimeidie

Music & Performance
The second band of the evening started exactly when the first was supposed to and marked the start of the event for many people. The guys came on stage quite relaxed gave a cheers to the audience and took their positions. Next thing you saw was them rocking insanely to the rolling rhythms of the opening track and Keith adding the other 50 percent savagery with his screams, making it hard to understand a word that’s been sung. Did that hinder anyone in the audience from following them suit, starting their own rock spectacle and letting the sweat flow in torrents? Definitely not! What’s been so intriguing for sonic purists in their music was their capabilities to switch from one tempo to the other within the fraction of a second sometimes catching you completely off-guard. Still not entirely my cup of tea but the mood was awesome.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.6 / 10

Heaven Shall Burn

HEAVEN SHALL BURN was born in 1996 with the name BEFORE THE FALL changed to CONSENSE. Sort time before the first studio recordings for the second demo took place , the name was changed one last time into the brand HEAVEN SHALL BURN taken from the third MARDUK album, who released their debut album ‘Asunder’ in 2000. Within the following years, the band played a lot of live shows including performances at such renowned festivals as With Full Force, Wacken Open Air, and Summer Breeze. Following the release of ‘Antigone’ their third album and label debut on Century Media Records, HEAVEN SHALL BURN headlined the first Hell-On-Earth festival tour together with e.g. AS I LAY DYING. With ‘Deaf to our Prayers’, their fourth album sees the light of day in 2006. Countless touring meanwhile brought them an almost iconic live reputation with people literally freaking out at their shows. ‘Iconoclast (Pt I: The Final Resistance)’ is the title of their latest album released in February 2008. HEAVEN SHALL BURN is Marcus Bischoff (vocals), Maik Weichert (guitar), Alexander Dietz (guitar), Eric Bischoff (bass) and Matthias Voigt (drums). http://www.heavenshallburn.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/officialheavenshallburn

Music & Performance
A real institution was about to give a short guest play now in Oberhausen: HEAVEN SHALL BURN! And even if the people in front of the stage mostly had come for KILLSWITCH ENGAGE or IN FLAMES they were with them from the very first second of the opener ‘Endzeit’, blasting through the building with brachial sonic violence. The following ‘Counterweight’ picked up the thread and overran everything that was in its way. Meanwhile, you could see several people outspending themselves almost entirely to the tunes coming from up there, and who’d follow every order unquestioning. The encouragement to do some crowd surfing for the last song of the short set ‘Black Tears’, then was like adding fuel to the fire and numerous people jumped up the hand’s train to kind of swim on a wave of euphoria which ended the rousing gig of HEAVEN SHALL BURN.

Setlist
01. Intro / Endzeit
02. Counterweight
03. Profane Believers
04. Forlorn Skies
05. Voice of the Voiceless
06. The Disease
07. The Weapon They Fear
08. Black Tears

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.9 / 10

Killswitch Engage

When their former band METALCAST disbanded in 1998, two of its former members began searching for musicians to form a new one, and eventually found them when a befriended band, AFTERSCHOCK ceased to exist as well. Within the same year, the newly formed band recorded its first demo and plays a show supporting IN FLAMES. 2000 saw the band signing with Ferret Records and releasing their self-titled debut album some time later. The album caused quite a stir in the scene and led to the band getting a record deal with Roadrunner Records. ‘Alive Or Just Breathing’, their second album, then came out in May 2002 and marked the breakthrough for the band. Following the release, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE embarked on a tour together with KITTIE; POISON THE WELL and SHADOWS FALL. Work soon started for the third album ‘The End of Heartache’, released in 2004 and certified gold later. The band since has released two further albums, the latter one of which has the same title as their debut. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE are Howard Jones (lead vocals), Adam Dutkiewicz (lead guitar, clean vocals), Joel Stroetzel (rhythm guitar), Mike D'Antonio (bass guitar) and Justin Foley (drums, percussion). http://www.killswitchengage.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/killswitchengage

Music & Performance
I was looking forward that performance very much, as several people had told me they’d put up a great show. During the rebuilding break, the attendee count seemed to go way up and when the first sounds of ‘My Curse’ sounded, coinciding with the band entering the stage, you could hardly move anymore, let alone see much if you were in the unlucky position of standing behind a wall of giants. Anyway, the band appeared on stage and directly started racing around. To say the crowd went mental here would be the understatement of the decade, and the chorus, coming with amazing clean vocals, was sung along together with the crowd without even the slightest need of encouragement. With ‘A Bid Farewell’ and ‘The Forgotten’ it was the same thing. But it was also good to see the band’s reaction. They were visibly pleased by how they hit with the crowd. Completely honest!

After stating that Germany’s got the most delicious beer in the world, the show went on with the blistering ‘Reckoning’ and ‘Fixation on the Darkness’. By the time these songs were played, the mood was completely off the scale. The effects of the pits formed in the middle even could be felt if you were at least 10 metres away from the epicentre. The set already ended after 10 songs with a cover of the DIO track ‘Holy Diver’ and for one last time everyone, either in front of or on the stage, gave everything to bring this to an exhausting end for everyone. It was indeed a strong performance.

Setlist
01. My Curse
02. A Bid Farewell
03. The Forgotten
04. Reckoning
05. Fixation on the Darkness
06. Starting Over
07. Rose of Sharyn
08. My Last Serenade
09. The End of Heartache
10. Holy Diver (Dio Cover)

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.9 / 10

In Flames

The band was founded in 1990 and is one of the pioneers of what nowadays is called Melodic Death Metal. With the initial line-up, they recorded a demo and sent it to a label which would go on to sign them. Not having a singer at the time the band asked Mikael Stanne of DARK TRANQUILITY who agreed to do the job on their first album ‘Lunar Strain. The same year, they would release the ‘Subterranean EP’ with a different singer filling in the still vacant position this time. In 1995, Anders Fridén became singer of the band who’s still having the job. First album with him taking vocal duties was the band’s sophomore ‘The Jester Race’ from 1996 which is nowadays considered a genre classic. 13 years later, they’re amongst the real big names of the genre, have won the Grammis (Swedish Grammy) 3 times and released 9 successful albums and one DVD. IN FLAMES are Anders Fridén (vocals), Jesper Strömblad (guitar), Björn Gelotte (guitar), Peter Iwers (bass guitar) and Daniel Svensson (drums). http://www.inflames.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/inflames

Music & Performance
As I feared I’d ultimately become claustrophobic where I was standing now when IN FLAMES would start to play, I opted for a change of position and made my way through the masses towards the back and found a decent place to watch the show for which we all still had to wait some time. But once it started, all hesitations broke away and the band entered the stage under thundering applause, backed by their shadow doubles on the huge LED wall. ‘Cloud Connected’ started the set and Anders directly took control of the stage, just as the rhythm took control of the audience. I spotted people running wildly to the middle of the crowd where the real action was, heavy forms of head banging and stuff. Those guys really do have a dedicated audience. The announcement of ‘Pinball Map’ raised a wave of excitement, and even if there was no music, it wouldn’t get boring for the following as Anders knew exactly how to rile them up and entertain them in those short intermezzos.

After a fair package of adrenaline raising tunes, ‘The Chosen Pessimist’ struck calmer tones with the stage all bathed in blue and the focus being placed on Anders. You could feel the song was building up to something, how it sometimes developed almost unnoticeable and erupted eventually. With ‘Trigger’, ‘The Hive’ and ‘Only For The Weak’ it would go on in a more stirring manner. A contrast program of sorts and a much diversified mixture that entertained most of the nearly 3.700 attendees of this evening very well I guess. But think it was too packed.

Setlist
01. Cloud Connected
02. Embody The Invisible
03. Pinball Map
04. Delight And Angers
05. Disconnected
06. The Chosen Pessimist
07. Trigger
08. The Hive
09. Only For The Weak
10. Artifacts Of The Black Rain
11. March To The Shore
12. Come Clarity
13. Leeches
14. Alias
15. The Mirror’s Truth
16. The Quiet Place
17. Take This Life
18. My Sweet Shadow

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 7.3 / 10