NJ Metal And Hardcore Festival!
Danzig kicks our asses at the NJ Metal And Hardcore Festival (Photo Credit: Rachel Starlett)
November 15th-16th, 2003
Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ (Dig that funky Flash intro!)
Presented by Mass Concerts and Concerts East
-Steven Van Zandt as Silvio, doing his Al Pacino impression
A few quick editorial notes before I get into the Metalfest coverage: first off, this review is going to have to take the place of our usual Monday interview this week. After 2 months of chasing down these overpaid drug addicts, I needed a rest. Not to worry, as I’ve got several interviews in the works as I type this, but for this week, please, for the love of Jeebus, let me rest. ;)
Second, I’ve been a bit concerned of late about the sheer volume of metal coverage I’ve had here at My Big, Black Cock, because while I love metal, it’s not all that I love musically. I listen to all sorts of music (even beyond Richard Hackley!), but as a rule, the metal bands have been the most cooperative and available of the artists I’ve contacted of late. Just to let some of you know, there will be many artists featured here who aren’t necessarily ‘eavy (as the Cathedral guys would say), and I don’t wanna hear any crap out of y’all when they do show up. :D Despite the possible outward appearances, this is not necessarily a metal site, it’s just a site that happens to like metal a bunch. Having said that, it’s time for me to get off the soapbox, and onto the metal once more…
I arrived at Convention Hall a little later than I’d have liked to Friday night, so regrettably, I missed Hypocrisy and Children Of Bodom. Hopefully, I’ll make it to L’amour on December 12th to catch them both. As I was walking into the main hall to see who was playing, I ran into Devin Townsend! Having never met him before, I said hello, took a second to thank him for the interview he did with Mark Yeddeau and Jamie Olmsted from our Canadian bureau, and we headed on our separate ways.
Nevermore were playing their last song or two on the main stage when I showed up (nothing especially inspiring about what I heard), and “unnamed band on second stage #1″ weren’t really doing it for me on the 2nd stage, so I wandered around, checked out the merch tables upstairs (filled with many CDs I couldn’t afford at the moment even at their very reasonable prices, including one that’s intrigued me with its title…”Cunt Of God”, by Rupture…with a name like that, it HAS to be good…), and got comfy before Dimmu Borgir started their set.
Dimmu Borgir were pretty much as I remembered them, save for the fact that they don’t dress quite as sp00ky as they did back then. I’d last seen them opening for Samael in 1999, and have listened to very little of their stuff since, mostly for lack of time than anything else. Their keyboard player has improved a good deal since then, but the rest of the band sound the same, sort of like an “Emperor Lite” sound. “Curious about European black metal? Check out this incredibly accessable band, until you get your sea legs!” It’s certainly listenable, entertaining music, but if I’m going to listen to this stuff, I’m going to skip the “tastes great, less filling!” variety and head straight for “Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk” or “Mayhem Live At Leipzig” or something.
From there, it was onto Devy’s first set of the evening with his Devin Townsend Band. The set was sadly cut to 3 songs because the entire festival was about an hour late, but one of those 3 songs was “Seventh Wave”, so I can’t complain too loudly. Maybe just a little, to overcompensate for the high ceilings in the main promenade of Convention Hall, where the 2nd stage was set up (it made the sound a bit, um, dicey in parts). The other 2 songs were from DTB’s “Accelerated Evolution” record, but I’m blanking on which ones they were at the moment. Good, albeit all-too-short set. From there…
Morbid Angel were FUCKED UP. No, really. FUCKED. UP. I couldn’t stop laughing, just because that was some retardedly heavy stuff. One of the heaviest bands I’ve EVER seen live, just ridiculously fast, even less “musical” than I remember them being when I saw them in ‘94, a completely senseless bludgeoning. This was music to do crank and beat your kids to, and I loved it. After their set and before SYL’s, Devin provided his review of the Morbid Angel set: “Fucking awesome!”
Onto my main reason for showing up on Friday…Strapping Young Lad. Great as always, if too brief (5 songs) and on the wrong stage (2nd, instead of the main stage). Sound was a bit better for their set than the DTB set, though. Heavy as a motherfucker as per their norm, band looked like they were having fun (especially drummer Gene Hoglan, who seemed a little more feisty behind the kit than usual), and the action in the pit was respectable and steady (my only trip into the pit on this evening). Highlight of the set was “Aftermath”, which is just a fantastic song off their must-own self-titled new album.
When I walked back into the main hall after SYL, Phil Anselmo was already busy lecturing the crowd on “the Pantera sound” and how everyone rips it off. Ah yes…Superjoint Ritual. Band sounded good, tight, and heavy when Phil Anselmo would actually shut up and let them play, which was rare. Seriously, he talked more than they played, and the set was already abbreviated because everyone was behind schedule. Despite the scheduling issues, he took time out of his busy agenda of slurring the words “badass” and “lose your fucking minds” ad nauseum to threaten to kick the ass of someone who told him to shut up and play (echoing the sentiments of more than a few of us who wanted to hear what Superjoint had to offer beyond his mouth). I like some of Pantera’s stuff as well as anyone, particularly “Far Beyond Driven” and “The Great Southern Trendkill” (which are probably the closest relatives to the Superjoint material), but they’re hardly justification for this guy to think or act like he’s the second coming. He stopped songs in the middle repeatedly because the violence in the pit wasn’t up to his high standards, he RAMBLED like Courtney Love after a bottleful of Oxycontin, and he just didn’t spend enough time getting down to business, which was a shame, because when they played, they kicked a reasonable level of ass.
After Phil’s Lecture Hour, it was time for Danzig. It had been 9 years since I last saw Danzig, and since then, he fired the great band he had for his first 4 Danzig albums, parted ways with longtime producer Rick Rubin, switched record labels at least once, and released 3 albums that I really didn’t care for at all, so I wasn’t expecting much going into this. Plus, it took nearly an hour between the end of Superjoint’s set and the start of his, so I had no patience left by the time he took the stage. Despite all of this, Glenn Danzig and his band came out there and kicked many asses, leaving me very happy (and hoarse) by the end of the set. Glenn still sounds GREAT, looks about as good as he did last time I saw him (credit where credit’s due there, in this age of Vince “Jon Lovitz” Neil), and seemed like he was having a great time up there, smiling and playing to even the diminished crowd of the faithful who’d hung in there until nearly the 1 AM hour to see him perform. His band did a fine job on the Danzig I-IV material, and breathed new life into the few songs they did from his last 3 records, which were freed of the burden of their heavy-handed production in a live context. The set had a nice mixture of material from the first 4, including the obvious choices like “Twist Of Cain”, “Mother” and “Her Black Wings” as well as some nice surprises like “Bringer Of Death” from “Danzig IV” and “Am I Demon” from “Danzig”. Awesome set, all in all, and a really pleasant surprise to end the night.
(Photo Credit: Rachel Starlett)
On Saturday, not really having any great desire to see most of the lineup, I drove down again just to catch Deicide, and I arrived just as the lights went down for their performance. Mmmmm…Deicide. Glen Benton and co. turned in a tight, workmanlike performance that overcame the technical difficulties that the Hoffman brother with the shaved head (I always get them mixed up) was having. Glen really can deliver the goods vocally, going confidently from Cookie Monster to Blood Curdling Scream with barely a change of facial expression. Highlights of the set were “Once Upon The Cross” and “Bible Basher”, by my reckoning (the latter was a definite crowd favorite…the guy with the mullet who was to my right really seemed to be having a good time during it). Great to finally get to see Deicide after admiring them from afar for about a decade, since I snatched the “Legion” cassette from the promo closet of my previous employer, and decided as soon as I heard the sheep baaing at the beginning of “Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon” that this band was a keeper.
After Deicide, I walked around just a bit more to take in the sights, and took off maybe 20 minutes later. Sorry kids, you’ll just have to read the boards at Metal Sludge or Blabbermouth for those Type O and Cradle Of Filth reviews! No talk here about how dreamy Pete Steele was, or how ridiculous Dani Filth was (well, when I saw him in ‘98, he was pretty ridiculous, just so you know…).
All in all, though, I had a fun, if slightly abbreviated weekend checking out the bands. The highlights in my opinion were both of Devin’s sets, Morbid Angel, and Danzig on Friday, and of course Deicide on Saturday. Thanks to he who provided the hookup with the guest list (he knows who he is), and to my filthy assistant Rachel Starlett for getting some solid Danzig pics to share with us all on Friday night.