Boom’s babbling

Sean and I spent Saturday at Gigatour, in Columbus.  This is the second year that Dave Mustaine, of Megadeth, has put together a lineup of diverse metal bands at a great price.   Headliners were Megadeth and Lamb of God.  The other first stage bands were Opeth and Arch Enemy.  The second stage bands included new bands Sanctity and the Smash-Up, with Into Eternity and long time thrash vets Overkill.

A 2+ hour drive gave us time to listen to Gojira and Opeth, to get in the mood.  A little rain couldn’t dampen the spirits.  The doors opened and we headed in.

The show started with a 20 minute set from The Smash-Up.  While some might (and one metalhead in front of me did) complain that The Smash-Up are not really metal and they would be right.  However, they put up a selection of blazing songs that set things off well (a definite step up from Bobaflex last year).  Good energy on the stage, even if their guitarist reminided me a bit of that Jedi kid video from a few years back.

Following The Smash-Up were a new band from North Carolina called Sanctity and they were the highlight, for me, of the second stage bands.  Their first CD will be coming out next year and I am looking forward to it.  Zeff Childress on guitar  was tight and fast; Jared MacEachern on vocals raged and blazed through their songs.  I headed up to the signing booth to meet the band afterwards and can’t wait to get their CD when it comes out.  Check out their song Zeppo at http://www.myspace.com/sanctity .

I didn’t get a good listen to Into Eternity, as I was at the booth meeting Sanctity, but what I heard sounded good.

Back to our seats in time for Overkill, who closed out the second stage bands.  Overkill showed why they have been around for 25 years.  Blazing energy, some great guitar work, and a vocalist that both taunted and encouraged the crowd.  I have their recent RelixIV album, and it is a great listen.  Listening to some of their earlier work also shows why they were a second stage bands, even after 25 years.  Not a lot of variety.  I doubt that I will pick up any more albums, but I would certainly love to see them live again.

I was not particularly excited about Arch Enemy.  I have Doomsday Machine and while I like the band, I don’t care much for the growled vocals.  It didn’t take long for my attitude to change.  Two excellent guitarists are never a bad start, and while I still don’t care for Angela’s vocals, she has an amazing stage presence, and not because she is a hot blond (well, not just because she is a hot blond.)  She stalks the stage and rages at the crowd, gives the guitars room to shred, and shred they did.  Definitely will be giving Doomsday Machine another listen.

Next up was Opeth, a massive change in direction.  Almost totally static on stage, I don’t care if you call their music Nordic, Death or Prog, but they are amazing.  Intricate musically, alternately growling and blazing, then clean and almost Pink Floyd-esque, I am ready for a 3 hour show.

Now it was time for the two headliners.  Lamb of God was probably my least favorite band of the evening.  They were not awful, their guitars were fast, if not terribly interesting, Randy Blythe was all over the stage, delivering unintelligible lyrics with rage and energy, but, in the end, they were a bit ‘meh’.

Finally Megadeth capped the evening.  Pyrotechnics, great songs, great guitars and a crowd ready for them was a perfect combination.  The crowd was shouting along, every solo was greeted with a roar from the crowd.  Dave mentioned the 11 o’clock curfew, then proceeded to blaze past it.  Peace Sells was a highlight, with a Angela of Arch Enemy and some of LoG’s guys belting out the close along with Dave and the crowd.  Holy Wars was also great.

In the end, I thought that this years show was more solid than last years.  There wasn’t a bad band in the bunch, start to finish, while last year’s show had 2 awful bands (Bobaflex and DEP) and another that I could do without.  This year’s second stage bands were great, Arch Enemy was much better than I expected, Opeth was fantastic, LoG was not great, but I still enjoyed their set, and Megadeth was…well…Megadeth. ’nuff said.  Already looking forward to next year, and bookmarking the pages of a couple bands to see if they will be playing nearby in the future (Overkill and Sanctity especially.)

BTW, thanks to tysdaddy for clueing me into Mastodon.  I downloaded their newest album and it sounds great.