Review
with supporting acts: CANDY STRIPER DEATH ORGY,
RED RIGHT HAND, BAD KARMA
at Jarrod's, Attleboro, MA
September 14th, 2001.
Review by Ultra
Boris
Used under permission.
Yeah, I went to the
show. And (this applies for an overwhelming majority of you) - YOU
DID NOT.
You are a pathetic loser that deserves to have
a squid inserted into your inner ear.
But anyway, after a borderline hilarious incident
getting lost, we made it
to the show (we = Craptic Reign and I) and despite
being 2 hours late, we
got there before the opening band even set up!
I met (finally) Eric from
Candy Striper Death Orgy, and also Local Bootleg
Gods Jim and Brian. I got
an
t-shirt and made it to the front for the opening band, which was
Bad Karma.
BAD KARMA - they played about 6 songs total,
they were pretty good power
metal in the vein of the last few Riot albums
but thrashier... their drummer
is Stu Dowie who was in Meliah Rage in the late
1980s and early 1990s. This
band doesn't sound much like Meliah Rage but
they were pretty good.
Unfortunately I forgot the song titles, and failed
to grab their setlists,
so I don't know what any of their songs were.
These guys got the most
support of the night - a lot of the friends of
the band turned up. There
were about 80 to 100 people in the audience for
them. Again, pretty decent
power metal and worth seeing. * * * 3/4
RED RIGHT HAND - Next up were Red Right
Hand, who were labeled as
thrash/speed, but they sounded more like a Cowboys
era Pantera, not bad at
all, except their guitar was too soft in the
mix and the bass too loud,
making their riffs less distinct - they had good
riffs, just didn't present
them well. Their lead singer, Chris Kozdra,
looks like Rob Halford, and
sounds nothing like him. His stage act
involved walking around in circles
and grimacing and attempting to poke a hole in
his skull with his fingers.
I met him and bassist Rob Leo after their set
at various points. I managed
to snag a copy of the setlist off the stage (my
new hobby) and got Chris's
autograph on it! Whoo hoo! The songs
they played were:
Hate
Alibi
Good Day to Die
(I Don't) Need You
Embrace Me
Darkened
Wonderland
The setlist also mentions "So Still" but they
didn't have time for that due
to the set running long... I think those are
the correct titles, the setlist
only has abbreviations for the song titles (i.e.
Good Day to Die is listed
just as Good Day, I just remember Chris announcing
the full title.) Anyway,
they were quite good, though again their guitar
needs to be louder in the
mix! * * * *
After the Red Right Hand set, I met speed metal
guitar God John Ricci, the
founding member of
and the genius behind most of their songs... I
got my "Blood of Tyrants" t-shirt signed, and
requested they play "World
War III" but they didn't... oh well. Doesn't
usually work to request their
second most obscure song! (Yes, I consider
it more obscure than "Death
Revenge", but less obscure than "Sail On"!)
Next up was...
CANDY STRIPER DEATH ORGY - saw these guys open
for Overkill a few months
back - they kicked ass then, and they kicked
ass again today. They're
extremely riff-oriented thrash... the riff consistency
and changes of
Beneath the Remains era Sepultura, with the actual
construction being more
along the Nuclear Assault line. Great set
- no lead guitars, since Eric
Paone (guitars/vocals) was constantly playing
riff after riff! No printed
setlist - Eric kinda winged it but the song titles
I remember are "(NTC)
Nuclear Termination Cycle", live staple "Holocaustic",
a Nuclear Assault
cover ("Radiation Sickness"), and an instrumental
version of "Megaton"
since Eric mentioned that the lyrics that he
had made up a few weeks
earlier were too similar to recent world events,
so they were going to
leave it an instrumental. They played some
others, but I forget the titles. These guys kick ass - they're full out
thrash metal!! The bad part is,
the crowd had dwindled to about 40 by this point.
* * * * 1/2
So after that, the people had started really filing
out... so here is where
my obligatory rant of the day comes in.
So let me get this straight, speed
metal legends
play Boston for the first time in their 22+ year
careers, and about 100 people show up.
That's bad enough... but it turns
out most of them are here for the opening band
- and don't get me wrong, for
once the opening band didn't suck, and that is
my point exactly. The
opening bands were all METAL, and if you like
metal then you will like
!!!
I mean, these are fucking metal GODS, a total throwback to the
time when men were REAL men, and little beady
eyed furry creatures from
Alpha Centauri were REAL little beady eyed furry
creatures from Alpha
Centauri, and EVERY ONE, men and furry creatures
alike, played on eleven.
They turned it up so their neighbours could hear
it too - here is a band
from that bygone glorious era before the sample
DJ and the three extra
percussionists on garbage cans defining what
the general world thinks of
as "metal" (yeah right.) These people were
METAL. These were the guys that
started it all - the guys that the people in
the opening band looked up to
and worshipped for inspiration - and when they
took the stage, the members
of Bad Karma and all their friends were... where?
Who knows, but not
banging their heads off to ,
that I'm sure of. Poor pathetic souls -
at least the members of Red Right Hand and CSDO
stuck around... but a lot
of their fans left, and they missed out on one
Hell of a show. End of rant.
So yeah, by the time
took the stage there were like 15 people in the
audience. Pathetic. It took all the
challenge of getting to the front,
but I was there anyway...
- so they took the stage sometime between 11 and midnight, and I do
not exactly remember when. The stage lights
were turned down and they
started out with a tape of "Warcry", which is
the intro to I forget which of
their albums, (yeah I know, I'm a sucky fan!)
Then they launched into "The
Dark Command", which is of course the title track
to their 1996 comeback
special album. The lead vocals were almost
inaudible through the first 2
or three tracks, unfortunately, before they fixed
them up. But of the
people that were there, at least everyone had
the sense to sing along to at
least the chorus. The next song was from
their latest album, Blood of
Tyrants, and was "Rain of Terror", and then they
played "Stand up and
Fight", which is of course from the very first
album, Heavy Metal
Maniac. By this time they had managed to
get the mike fixed up so lead
singer Jacques Belanger was quite audible.
He did a masterful job leading
the crowd - pretty much he's a 100% heavy metal
frontman. John Ricci is of
course a metal guitar god, and he played the
part, with lots of flourishes
and madcap soloing.
Next up was "Rule With an Iron Fist" from Blood
of Tyrants, and luckily most
of the crowd knew the lyrics - the crowd was
small, but at least it was
completely loyal - no occasional hangers-on,
this was all real fans all the
time. They then played the classic "Heavy
Metal Maniac" in full asskicking
style like it was still 1983, and then "Burn
at the Stake", which is from
The Dark Command. They really mixed up
the old and the new, managing to
leave out the forgettable middle period... next
up was "Brutal Warning",
another Blood of Tyrants song.
Next up was the cool guitar solo "Ritual Death",
from the Long Live the Loud
album - yes, a real live authentic guitar solo,
complete with facial
grimacing and everything - not only Yngwie J.
Malmsteen has guitar soloes
anymore, fortunately. It may not have been
the most absolutely technically
mind blowing thing ever, but it was nonetheless
very very good - again, John
Ricci is a speed metal God. Yeah.
Then of course they played "Victims of
Sacrifice", and then "Pounding Metal".
Next up was "Martial Law", then
"The Rising of the Dead", and "Long Live the
Loud", and they finally closed
with "Violence and Force". The setlist
actually listed "I am the Beast" as
the last track after "Violence and Force", but
they didn't play that... they
had to be off the stage by 1, unfortunately.
So they got cut short... which
kinda sucks. But they totally and completely
kicked ass - a very good set
list that only was missing "Cry of the Banshee"
in my opinion - and "World
War III" of course, hehe... from the first demo
and the U.S. Metal 2
compilation from 1982. Oh yeah and the
crowd was unfortunately small. Did I
mention these guys are speed metal Gods?
The crowd was enthusiastic, and
every member played competently - John's guitar
tone was very very good,
the best of the night. The only problem
was that the vocals were just a bit
too soft. Marc Charron on bass and Rik
Charron on drums completed the set -
Marc was cool enough to look up at me for a brief
second so I could take a
picture of him! Rik was an animal on drums,
and I couldn't detect any overt
mistakes by any of the band - they played practically
flawlessly, and their
stage show was also remarkably cool. At
one point during "Violence and
Force", John bumped into Jacques, but he kept
playing...
So yeah, they kicked ASS!! As much as Overkill?
Not quite... but
definitely close. I would've gone and seen
them today too, except
unfortunately today's show was 21+. Oh
well... they rule!! * * * * *
So that was the end of that, they herded us out
like cattle and we
disappeared without further incident. Overall,
an awesome show - I mean,
none of the bands required me to hurt them due
to their excessive suckage,
the only bad thing was the size of the crowd.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SPEED
METAL LEGENDS, YOU PATHETIC FOOLS!!!!!!!