It's been too long.. Also Sonisphere!!

It's been to long guys. I've had problems with house building or something like that. Anyway today’s long overdue article is about the glory that was Sonisphere 2010.

So for the one day I could afford, I'm a dirty poor person, I ventured once more into the depraved metal microcosm that was Sonisphere. The air was excited yet still placid, for it was still 9:30! Exhausted from the previous days activities I saw many a weary face rise from the camp site.

But the ethereal beings we passed were still plenty friendly. Screaming `Butt scratcher!!` got me a beer so it was a good start. Beer before I even entered!

So for those who've never been to a metal festival it is a very surreal experience, especially when giant metal bands such as Iron Maiden are set to perform. This causes the usual ranks of manic young metalheads to be bolstered by an older more experienced metalhead. These metalheads often bring smaller metalheads which helps to keep the festival a little calmer. Whenever young (13-22 year olds) metalheads are thrust together, the energy they give off is manic, and can lead to some rather idiotic behaviour. This isn’t usually a problem, but having broken my wrist in a mosh pit because of an overzealous Chimaria fan I tend to be more wary, so the presence of the older metalhead was welcomed by me. This did not subtract from the atmosphere at however just helped to regulate it.

Anyway Sonisphere utilises a set up which I love, they shuttle the performances of the main bands between the two main stages, so you are not going to miss the main bands. Unfortunately this year’s line up was one which, whilst still good, could not top the splendour of the previous Sonisphere. It was up to the bands to earn my money.

The day started off with a brief tour around the site, finding the locations of various necessities, such as the location of toilets and beer! The fantastic thing a bout a metal festival is I’m always a normal person, I’m not being extreme just average, which is unusual.

Having wandered, eaten and Jagermeistered we proceeded to watch Karnivool, to be honest the band before them was Madina Lake and they’re not my thing. Anyway Karnivool, poor Karnivool. Having played difficult gigs I always feel sorry for bands that play first, because people often don’t know their material and the crowd aren’t warmed up. Despite a fairly active and involving set the crowd’s response was minimal, but it happens. Their blend of Dredg/Incubus-esque vocals and ambient metalcore brings out a sound akin to a more mature version of Disturbed. It’s good but not quite heavy enough to rouse a metal crowd from their usual lethargic to head banging in a short set.

So feeling slightly warmed up I urged my friends to see one of my slightly wildcard entries into the days line up; CKY. I am a fan of them, I find that their sound is very individual and when they are good they are very good. 96 Quite Bitter Beings, Disengage the Simulator, Attached At the Hip and Sink into The Underground being very good examples. They are not in the popular metal spotlight however, leading to them, in my view, being underappreciated. This band performed admirably but again whilst the crowd was warmer than with Karnivool, they could not be roused even by their anthem 96 quite bitter beings. Even the enthusiastic attempts made by Chad I Ginsburg (lead guitarist) to engage the somewhat lacklustre audience were met with confusion by the general audience. Despite the audience’s reaction I enjoyed their set immensely and would love to see them again sometime.

So to avoid The Fab Beatles we ended up wandering into the strongbow tent. Whilst I do love The Beatles, there presence at a metal festival (covered or otherwise) is for me unwelcome. Inside the strongbow tent we waited for several minutes for the next band to come along. On came The Bendal Interlude. From the first note that was struck I was shocked. This band was excellent. Their heady mix of death metal and stoner metal really got me going. For the first and only time that day I went apeshit. The groove based melodies of the guitar and bass really worked with the tight drumming and shrill screaming. Fantastically tight and energetic. Whilst my friends left the tent to see Skindred, I couldn’t leave; I was transfixed by this band. I stayed for their whole set and my god was it worth it. When they were finished, I was stumbling like a drunken old man and my neck was so painful I could barely turn.

So still on a high from the last band, I expected a complete let down from Skindred. I was surprised, the banter that Benji Webb (singer) had with the crowd was entertaining and certainly made the set more enjoyable. He was spinning a good yarn. Their silver tuxedos were also a very nice touch. Whilst for me their songs were a little weak, the energy that they made the crowd exhibit was extraordinary. They however could not top what T.B.I did for me. By far they were one of the most communicative bands of the day. They, like all good bands, were there to make you move, unlike the next band.

I have to admit I was expecting a lot from slayer. I like them but I wanted them to make me like them more. They failed in this aspect. I am aware that part of the Slayer performance is the technical aspect of their music. They were playing the songs brilliantly. I however did not feel that they were feeling it. I didn’t enjoy their performance at all. In fact I left half way through the set. I even saw Slayer T-shirt wearers muttering negatively. They were, flat, deadpan and lacklustre. They did not seem happy to be there.

So after wandering around from stall to mysterious stall, each one related to an aspect of metal culture, my friend urged me to see a band he had one song from. Now I’m a cynical guy a lot of the time and this was no exception. I felt suspicious of this band but as soon as they started playing we knew we were in safe hands. Turbowolf are very good. Their old school style (similar to Led Zep) also draws from a very male adolescent aggressiveness which makes for a very lively show. The lead singer had to work hard to get a really small and quite self conscious crowd going, but by the end of the first song a 5 man mosh pit opened up. Then the singer sees his chance and jumps in! So in we all jump this groovy fast band really gets people jumping. The singer jumps in again and suddenly another pit starts up and the security have to pull people off the singer. Having listened later to this band on youtube if you want to experience the same Turbowolf that I saw you will need to see them live, they are much better live.

So after getting a fairly good mosh pit experience I was raring for another, unfortunately the next band doesn’t really have songs that you can mosh to. Alice in Chains was up next on the main stage. Another fantastic performance for a rather seasoned band. Even the new vocalist seemed to fit in perfectly, recreating but not copying, Layne Staley harsh, droning vocals. He was an effective figurehead and performed like a professional vocalist of that style of music should do. Controlling the crowd with few words but merely with gestures and body language. In other words Alice in Chains were a lot better than I had expected and have encouraged me to start listening to them again.

The next band on the main stage was Pendulum. While last years electronic main act were the emotional Nine Inch Nails, whose metal infused teen electronic angst, were too much of a drastic change to some of the more die hard metal Nazis in the audience. This year’s electronic buzz was controlled by the Drum and Bass poster boys Pendulum. While I enjoy pendulum, regularly putting their music on my party playlists, I did not enjoy their set at all. They tried to make their songs more metallic by adding crunchier, distortion to almost everything and then extending the songs by a minute each. This led to quite a monotonous set, which I would have welcomed had I been in a club. Unfortunately, here at a music festival it just got on my nerves. Their on stage enthusiasm could not quell the irritation that they caused me. Yes their songs are good but I came to listen to metal not Drum and Bass. It, for me, was like getting a cup of coffee and finding out someone had switched it for tea. Both are very good, but if I’m expecting metal I don’t want to hear Drum and Bass. Some very small very tame mosh pits started up but these were quickly inhabited by La Coste polo shirt wearing chavs. So a good set; just the wrong place and time for me really.

The last band was what 75% of the people were there to see, that’s right, Iron Maiden. They were of course no less than exceptional. Even their lesser known songs garnered a refreshingly enthusiastic response from a tired crowd. On many faces one could see that the excesses of the past two days had begun to catch up with many a metalhead. The set was tight and the show was extravagant to the point of shaming Spinal Tap. With Iron Maiden you know you are safe, which for me taken away some of the edge to their performance, but I feel that with many live bands. I can’t really describe much about this band that hasn’t been said before, for me the acid test is this- would I see them again live for £40? Yes I would!

So all in all a fantastic festival, which unfortunately was blighted by a couple of mismatched acts. The Bendal Interlude are still my unsung heroes of the day whilst Slayer were defiantly my Anti climax.

The big question is who’s bigger than Iron Maiden and Metallica? Who can they get to play which is bigger than these guys? There is only one band they can get to top this really. It’s going to have to be Black Sabbath. But will they play? Who knows. Will I go again next year? You bet your ass I will!


Shai-Hu-Lud Scuttles away to the kitchen again.

Tooling Around....

Good morrow! Todays sordid article shall deal with a band which probably has that wonderful ability to create equal numbers of gasps and sighs, Tool.

To describe Tool as a band is quite tricky at points, some do not care for the avant-garde and progressive tinged band. Many, however adore the band. I myself am in an unfortunate group of people who like Tool, but do not worship them.

It is always hard for me because there are always certain bands whose fans/dispisers are pretty die hard, consistantly. I am willing to bet that many of you who read this article have come across the die hard Metallica hater, `I can't believe you like them` `Mustaine is far superior!` often come out there, the obsessive HIM fans (with their heart-o-grams and Bam Magera Skateboards) or even Those bloody radiohead fans!

Tool have many a fan, usually prolific drug users, in my experiance, who are very taken by them. They are very good but leave me often feeling luke warm. While a perfect circle (A band which the lead singer of Tool also fronts as well as one of the guitarists) are, for me, consistently listenable, I find Tool can get a little hard to swallow at points.

A perfect circle to many Tool fans, I believe, are considered to be the radio friendly version of Tool, while this may be correct where does that leave tool as a band?

Tool themselves can never truly be set into a genre and while this is makes describing and recommending them difficult it does mean that they are individual. So where to start? What is the most important part of Tool? Is it the obsessive fans? The complex rhythms? Personally it is the heady mix of heavy pounding guitars, the complex and syncopated drums and the superb structural intricacies.

This band's work is often quite progressive but often I find progressive metal bands tend to overdo it. Alas our genre that we love is a genre which is built upon extreme things, extreme sounds, bands and people. Many a prog band is often all-to-willing to sacrifice their common lay audience (I use lay in the sense of non-musicians) in order to try and obtain a hardcore musically talented audience. Often this is a bad idea because they are usually bastards to engage but mostly they can be very quick to make up their minds on things, rarely rewriting their view point.

So do Tool sacrifice normal songwriting in order to sound more `prog`? - er... not really, admittedly there are points where I find my attention waning away from the music and onto the paint drying on my wall, but mainly they manage pretty well to keep me interested. There are some complex almost (but not quite) wanking passages, but on the whole you can still hear the songs.

The staccato, syncopated feel of songs like `Part of Me` from their Opiate EP bear a striking similarity to song's like Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo A La Turk. The fusion of Jazz like accuracy with a metal like heaviness suit the band well. Again to compare with Dave Brubeck's work several of Tools songs, including their irresistibly haunting `Schism`, have extremely unusual time signatures.

Schism, as a guitarist is fun to play and has some very interesting phrases but as a drummer it is bloody difficult! It has 47 different time changes! Now many bands would use this song as a gimmick, only using it to show off musicianship whilst leaving the song with a minimal of character. Tool have managed to create a very clear and ordered song even with all these time signatures. The song in general is one of those songs that slowly and surely builds to a climax. The hard and staccato (stop start) drumming helps to edge this song forward with slight breaks only afforded by the choruses which contain open chord like passages only to to be pulled back and the original pattern reset. It feels like the energy behind this song is barely contained and that any minute an extraordinary burst of energy will light up your ears. the climax suddenly comes in the form of a nu metal type guitar chord progression and a chanting of `I know the pieces fit`.  Before this is a perfectly sculpted lull of very light bends and slides.

Parabola is another track with which to hold the band aloft with. It achieves what creep by radiohead always wanted to achieve, harsh chords which overlay the song and serve as a means of mood change. The floating emotion of the lead singer (James-Keenan) and the thunderous and inventive drums are juxtaposed with each other and are only brought together with the help of he guitar and bass. Then a beautiful break occurs.  Here the drummer (Danny Carey) really shows of his talent, and my god what a talent he has got! The guitars soft reminders serve to anchor, again, the dream-like passages. This tells the listener where they are as much as the drummer and singer.

Ticks and Leeches starts with a very bass and drum heavy inception, with some nice gold filigree from the guitars for embellishment. The drums completely drive this introduction, as well as the rest of the song. This song would almost be very new metal, if it wasn't for the very strict rhythms which the band conform to, for they are far to complex to be classed as nu metal. This song only truly works if the band are together, any mistakes would ruin the sound. Again Tool show their mastery of song as the song naturally waxes and wanes like a demented full moon, and it is this use of dynamics which make this song seem almost like a fanfare at points and a lullaby at others.

The song Sober starts with thick smooth bassline which then groans beneath the weight of a squealing guitar solo. Maynard's voice softly glides over the guitars lending a tired and almost mournful quality. This song's bassline controls most of the song, which is frankly refreshing as many bands merely use the bass a supporting instrument. 

There are however, in my opinion, some flaws with some of Tool's songs. No band is perfect. Tool suffer from what I claim to be nonsense songs. While most of their songs are very strong and stable creations, some of their songs are simply minimalistic spoken word/sonic landscape pieces. (-) ions, Intermission, Cesaro Summability, Useful Idiot and Message to Harry to Name but a few. This is one of the problems I have with progressive music, while progressive music is a way of finding new ways of creating a song, sometimes what comes out of the really experimental moments is, to be honest, just filler. Filler which has impressive and challenging ideas behind it sounds the same as filler which is just there. While nine times out of ten, Tool will create a sonic experience which few bands can claim to fashion, it is in these moments that I fell they cross the line.

 

`pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs]
adj
1. making claim to distinction or importance, esp undeservedly
2. having or creating a deceptive outer appearance of great worth; ostentatious` (Collins English Dictionary- Complete and Unabridged)

I choose not the first definition to describe these so-called nonsense songs but the second. whilst I enjoy music that challenges me I enjoy it to be in the form, of what I consider, music. I feel these sonic pieces are not musical, most being devoid of time signature which can be considered the most basic prerequisite of music. This is of course my opinion and I would like you to tell me if you disagree. 

If these musical oddities are such an annoyance why listen to Tool? Well to be honest these sonic moments (I'd call them creative wanking) and the long carefully made introductions to some of their songs have put me off listening to them in the past. Sometimes music should be able to just grab you and hold your attention. However this music can sometimes be forgotten and it is the music, like Tool's, which plants itself quietly and covertly in your mind and tweaks your mind until you need your fix of it which can make more of a lasting impact. It is for this reason that Tool are a good band. The best players in the world may be placed in a band but without the songs to go with it, the band is useless. Tool have fantastic musicians with gorgeous songs to boot, even if a few are poor! 

If you have not heard any of their work before, possibly the best/easiest place to start is with the song Schism. Let it plant it's roots in you, then maybe you'll become more than just a Tool.

   

See you later,

Shai-Hu-Lud Frantically searches for his spanner.