Sounds Of The Underground review

Sounds Of The Underground
First Midwest Parking Lot, Tinley Park
Sunday, July 9, 2006

Highlighted by stunning back-to-back sets by In Flames and Trivium, the sophomore year of Sounds Of The Underground tour bids fair to be one of the best of this summer’s many multi-band concerts. Last year’s version was thin on metal, heavy on the hardcore. Now it was metal’s turn to shine.

The experience wasn’t an unalloyed pleasure. The stage, set up in the parking area behind the Tinley Park amphitheatre, required fans to stand in the blazing sun without access to shade or grass. Vendors profitably strode through the melting crowd with their $5-dollar-a-pop lemonades. Had someone been selling some SPF 1000 sunblock, they’d have made even more money. The audience area was ringed by tents for the each of the dozen bands on the bill, where merch and meet’n’greets were easy to visit between sets. Other tents in the area were for tour sponsors, including several indie record labels, and drinks.

SOTU was conceived as an alternative to the now long-in-the-tooth lucrative touring juggernaut Ozzfest — where many bands pay-to-play on the second stage. Ozzfest was a creation of Clear Channel’s concert division, now spun off as Live Nation, whereas SOTU’s national promoter is House Of Blues. But the recent acquisition of HOB by Live Nation makes SOTU a bit less of an alternative. Also, several of the bands on this year’s bill played Ozzfest last year (and might have done so again had that tour not discouraged playing in consecutive years).

Despite the diversity of styles, from industry-standard Cannibal Corpse’s purest death metal to the cathartic metalized hardcore of Converge, the audience, no longer a boys-only throng, was enthusiastically receptive to all acts. GWAR, with their horror-comics tableau-vivant show, were, of course a crowd pleaser; hands were in the air throughout their set. Many wore white shirts just so they could be dyed (this year’s color was an attractive teal) by the expected GWAR crowd-showers delivered by a more-than-oversized penis. Over a metalcore soundtrack, GWAR’s most critical messages are probably missed because of the spectacle. But you couldn’t miss their attack on the American president (the Bush figure, his familiar babbling heard loud and clear, as he is given a blood spurting evisceration) and their attack on the papacy (with the Pope’s red robes sporting cross-emblazoned swastikas).

Religious diversity was evident as the variety of underground sounds. The final act of the evening was As I Lay Dying, a Christian quintet from San Diego. Their death metal is strongly influenced by melodic Swedish bands like At The Gates as well as by American hardcore. Among the numerous tattoos sported by vocalist Tim Lambesis is one of a dragon, pierced by a cross. Far earlier, during the heat of the day, Poland’s finest export since Vader and pierogies, Behemoth extolled Satan. Their set was visually interesting but musically disappointing. They showed their black metal roots in their warrior garb (huge spiked metal leg guards, slit black leather skirting over black pants and corpse-paint), but their brutal death metal seemed to wilt in the heat. Behemoth were followed by a stronger showing from Black Dahlia Murder who lacked the visuals (the singer was dressed for the weather in nothing more than pumpkin-colored shorts) but killed musically. Then a newly reinvigorated Cannibal Corpse, sounding better than ever, showed that old-fashioned pure death metal can be as rousing as its later incarnations.

New kids on the block, Trivium, from Florida, were winners of the most seen T-shirt count. Over a stately thrash beat, Matt Heafy’s vocals are reminiscent of an ’80s-era James Hetfield. His soaring guitar solos played on a white flying-V also hark back to metal’s glory days. But Trivium’s is no nostalgia act, their music freshened with melodic death and touches of prog rock. When Healy asked the adoring crowd to jump, they happily complied, leaping into the sunset as they continuined headbanging and throwing the sign of the devil.

Trivium’s thrilling set was, unbelievably, surpassed some minutes later when In Flames took the stage. The Swedish quintet is only marginally deserving to be called underground; they’re on an indie label, but last year they played Ozzfest’s main stage and their current release, Come Clarity, debuted at 58 on Billboard’s chart. Infused with shifting tempos, varying dynamics, and thickened vocals, the set never dragged. The melodic ferocity of these avatars of “the Gothenburg sound” was performed so tightly that one could barely focus on specific musicians. Innovative illumination befitting their glorious sound came from rows of led strips behind the musicians, bathing everything in pale blue, or gold, or aqua. The tough beauty of In Flames’ thrashed-up melodic death may very well be the perfection of the metal genre.

— Deena Dasein

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly