### Nile, Hypocrisy, Decapitated, Soilent Green, Raging Speedhorn, With Passion, 2006-02-10

#### 25/02/06 || Global Domination

This review was written by ex-staffer/cocksmoker Ambugaton.

The Masquerade in Atlanta, GA, USA:

The first really big death metal show I went to was several years ago, and Nile were the headliners. Thanks to the shitass venue I had driven 3 hours to get to, I was denied my right to witness Nile tearing up the stage because of an idiotic “no re-entry” policy that they failed to inform me of until I was trying to get back in. Needless to say I was raging pissed to the tenth power when I was forced to drive 3 hours back home after seeing just two bands, just because I bought a shirt and put it in my fucking car. So now that all of that bitching is out of the way, you see where I was coming from when I showed up at this show which was incidentally at the same said venue. I immediately walked to the front of the line, and upon entry I planted myself in front of the stage and stood there the entire fucken time…I was not going to miss Nile again.

Now here’s a general writeup of how each band performed, and how the fuck I felt about it:

With Passion: I had never heard these guys before this show, and so I must admit I was biased based purely on their name when I walked in the door. There is always at least one shit band that opens for every tour I go to, and I assumed these guys were going to be just that. “With Passion” sounds very similar to the names of dozens of shitty untalented whiny straight-edge screamo/hardcore bands that seem to be taking over the Southeast U.S. and ruining the everlasting shit out of the few things that are actually good about it in the first place. Seeing as these guys were from Florida, I assumed the worst, and was fortunately proven wrong.

For the first couple of songs I kept glancing over at my friend with a somewhat disgusted look on my face, mainly because I was being critical of the drummer. Being a drummer myself, I get pissed off when I see people playing on stage who I could run circles around unless they are playing some really interesting or generally kickass music, and this kid wasn’t cutting it. But after a couple of songs, I started to change my mind. The music was somewhat forced, and very metalcore influenced, but overall it was very technical and well delivered. I would place these guys in the vein of The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, and perhaps Dillinger Escape Plan. Really cut-and-paste technical metalcore with a hardcore edge…not really my style, but all these guys were talented and they put on a good show overall. If you dig either of the aforementioned bands, you should check these guys out, you might dig them.

Decapitated: Now here comes the band I was probably second most anticipant to see on the tour. Not being the headliners, I knew they would have a relatively short and underappreciated set, but I sat there with sweaty palms in anticipation of having a good old death metal time nonetheless…a nd Decapitated did not dissapoint. Their new singer, Covan, is really what made the show I think. His stage presence is fucking phenomenal. He doesn’t waste time bullshitting with the audience, he just goes from song to song bending down and outright screaming and growling right the fuck in your face the whole time. The rest of the band carried quite nicely as well; Vogg and Vitek held down their end of the deal to a T. I didn’t really recognize the bassist (which may be a product of my own ignorance, I haven’t kept up with Decapitated in a while…?), and heard from a friend that they were using a session bassist for the tour, but whoever the fuck he was he did his job just as well as the rest of the band. All in all, the show was really good, however relatively short…and the soundboard guy screwed up their sound just a little bit, but my rant for that is yet to come. If you haven’t already heard Decapitated then you probably don’t belong on this site, and if you haven’t seen them yet I would totally recommend it.

Raging Speedhorn: These guys were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t know who the fuck decided to enlist them on a death metal tour, but it was a profoundly idiotic decision on their part. Basically this group is a bunch of British college age kids who are playing an EXTREMELY generic from of rock/metal that had absolutely no business being at a death metal show. Two singers wandering about the stage screaming a bunch of bullshit, two uninspired untalented guitarists, and a fatass drummer playing a 4 piece who didn’t even have a double pedal. Every song was the same beat, same tempo, and same boring structure. Basically this is a band you would like if you were really blitzkrieg style loaded at a bar at 3 A.M. and felt like thrashing out to something while this happened to be playing. A few members of Soilent Green and With Passion even came out and played some songs with them, but their support didn’t change anything about the audience perception. They got booed alot, along with people yelling “YOU FUCKING SUCK!!!” and whatnot in between songs. All in all, these British fuckers were trying to serve a “spot o’ tea” to several hundred metalheads who had been drinking a handle of whiskey all night. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Soilent Green: This was my 3rd time to see Soilent Green, so it was old news as far as I was concerned. Every time I see them they put on a great show, but all in all their music is kind of difficult of bang your head or thrash about to. I really dig their blues/rock/metal style because it is really unique, but I have owned two of their albums and I just never really managed to get into them. Ben Falgoust just seems like a massive fucking dude every time I see him. He kept wandering from side to side on the stage throughout the show, getting right in everyones face and giving high-fives and fists to everyone in his path, all the while yelling his heart out and pumping up the audience even more. For the last song he actually jumped into the crowd and crowdsurfed for the last half, screaming and growling all the while. The rest of the band played really well, obviously Soilent Green is a very well rehearsed band. Other than a couple of tuning problems with the guitars from time to time, it was a perfectly executed set. Anyone who likes Soilent Green and hasn’t seen them should definitely check them out, they keep it real Dirty South death metal style.

Hypocrisy: So this is where the big guns come in. While it was my third time seeing Soilent Green, this was my fourth time seeing Hypocrisy, and truthfully I have never really liked them that much. I know they are oldschool, and I’ve always had respect for them, but it seems like every time I see them Peter Tägtgren as well as the rest of the band look like they just really don’t want to be there…like they are all about to fall asleep. This was the show that would change my mind.

The second that Hypocrisy came on stage I was smashed into the stage railing by a mass of several hundred raging metalheads who were eager to hear these guys throw down. It’s been over a week and a half and I still bear a massive bruise on my side from these fuckers charging into me as soon as they heard the first note. The entire audience was primed and ready for Hypocrisy, and their energy didn’t stop through the entire set. This was the first time I ever saw Hypocrisy that Peter Tägtgren actually didn’t look pissed off at the audience. Hell, he actually looked pleased, or at least awake this time (By the way, as a side note, I have decided he is not Swedish. I know that sounds stupid as hell, but every time he spoke both on stage and off he sounded like Chuck fucken Schuldiner. He sounded like he just got off a bus from California). I don’t know, maybe I just had a run of bad luck with these guys in the past and caught a string of shitty shows, but this is the one that cured me of that shit; Hypocrisy fucking rules live, and if you are in the mood for some straight-up oldschool fucken metal action then definitely get out and catch these guys the next time they come around. When they played “Eraser”, the whole audience was screaming along with the entire song, and there were so many heads banging you were basically forced to bang yours too or be left with a headbut concussion. If an audience like that doesn’t get you equally hyped to see these guys tear it up live then you might want to pry that stick out of your ass while you’re on your way to the Kenny G show.

Nile: Finally, the moment I had been waiting for. After being deprived my death metal fix of seeing these guys several years beforehand, I was hyped beyond description once they finally made it to the stage. They started it off with “The Blessed Dead”, and proceeded to attempt to blow the audience away with their righteous metalosity and all that crazy Egyptian mythology shit they dig so much…and did an absurdly piss poor job of it.

Why? How? Who the fuck in their right mind would say such a thing about Nile? Me. Why? Here’s why, you needy little shit.

THEIR SOUND ON STAGE SUCKED ASS

I mean, here they were, rocking out as hard as they could and shredding their instruments to tiny little pieces, to what should have been bowel rupturing full volume and brain mutilating speed, and all you could here was cymbals crashing the the bassist growling occasionally. After the first two songs the whole audience started screaming every chance they got “TURN UP THE FUCKING VOLUME!!! FIX THE GODDAMNED SOUND!!! HAIL SATAN AND ALL THAT NONSENSE!!! MY ASS HURTS!!! I’M HUNGRY!!! WHERE AM I!?!?…. OH YEAH, TURN UP THE FUCKING VOLUME… YEAAAHHH!!!!” After about song four I just gave up headbanging because I couldn’t even tell what song they were playing. I relinquished my so hastily acquired and steadfastly maintained front row spot and made my way back to go look at merch because I was so fucking bored…it was awful. I had heard from several people that Nile is plagued with live sound problems, but this was just uncalled for.

After about half the set passed I think they got the point and made soundboard mixer dude fix it so the audience would shut the hell up and stop whining. Then things improved significantly. They went through some classics, including the ever infamous title track to “Black Seeds of Vengeance”, after reprimanding this stupid drunk Mexican that took my spot up front after I left because he kept screaming for them to play it through the entire goddamned set. Eventually Dallas just looked at him and said “Dude, shut the fuck up. You KNOW we are gonna play that song. Now let me play what I want first, dumbass!” It was quite funny, and decidedly advantageous to that Mexicans continuity of well-being as well since he was starting to piss off alot of big scary dudes in the crowd.

All in all, Nile were good live, but they need to listen when the entire audience is screaming at them to fix their sound because it ruins the whole show. Everything seemed to be perfectly executed so far as I could tell, but I really can’t be certain because it all sounded like a muddy pile of cymbal crashes and bullshit by the time it made it to my ears. Fix your sound guys… it’s disappointing as fuck to ruin your awesome music with terrible mixing.

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Overall: Good shit. Got introduced to a decent metalcore band, got turned away from a shitty nu-metal band, and most importantly, got my mind completely changed about Hypocrisy. I will surely go to see those guys again the next time they come around, because this show fucken ruled… To Decapitated, keep up the good work, to Nile, fire whoever is running your soundboards, for fucks sake…please.