Ow, I've just been sonically slammed by 3 acts whose choppy time changes and terrifying energy brought me similtaneously back 15 years and forward to the present day. Anthrax used to chop about a bit occasionally, but these guys were truly spectcular.
First act on were Ephel Duath, who we missed a small part of in a cool pub just up the road (where we decided to wait with an excellent hoegarten) - these guys were tight as anything, with an excellent drummer who was on a click all the way through and looked totally chille all the way through. Top drummer. Great bassist, mad vocalist (all 3 bands tonight had the napalm death style of vocals in common) and a trombone player who used several great effects, including delay, pitch shift and distortion. Really complex songs, with intricate guitar and bass interplay overaid on some very shifting rhythms. Dream theatre meets Slayer meets Snuff? Eek!
Second act Poison The Well were even more brutal, and the pit got frantic after the mixture of space and light/shade in their dense and (again!) complex tight sound whipped the nutters into a royal tribal frenzy. Some great full-on Brent-esque moshing.
Dillinger were the most impressive 5 person machine I've ever seen, I think: they broke 2 guitars and a bass during their set with sheer force of playing and the stagediving (one of the guitarits took to leaping from the bassists' 8x10 Ampeg goliath cab!) so the guitar tech with the maglite clamped between his teeth gave us some extra light effects. Nice.
I don't know any Dillinger tracks, but I'll be finding some soon. It's a trite thing to say, but this is a band which seemed right on the edge of falling apart in several songs, only to pull back into another brutally heavy tempo change. Some of the most complex rhythms I've heard in this genre: at points I actually heard some stuff which really reminded me of Rush. Honest!
Music Update:
I've had Joost's track on constant rotation for the last couple of days, nice slow funky slick triplet version of superstition by stevie wonder. Now all I need to do is sit down and learn it properly so when it comes time to record next friday I can really impress. Could be tricky to find any time this weekend - but I will. Nothing should stand in the way of my music, otherwise there's no point in continuing.
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