Opeth, High On Fire live!
Opeth, High On Fire
House Of Blues, Chicago
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Before Opeth and High On Fire even rolled into town last week, their House Of Blues show became more about what wasn’t than was. This tour looked can’t miss when it was announced: progressive metal wizard Opeth with support from stoner king High On Fire and black metal mindbender Nachtmystium? Easily one 2008’s best metal packages. Then, two days before Nachtmystium’s homecoming and less than a week into the tour, the band dropped off (or was kicked off, depending on the story), turning a potentially great lineup into merely a good one.
Of course, if Opeth fans were as indifferent to Nachtmystium as they were to High On Fire, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Nachtmystium’s departure meant HOF had an expanded set, and 60 minutes gave guitarist/frontman Matt Pike, drummer Des Kensel, and bassist Jeff Matz the freedom to not only plug last year’s unbelievable Death Is This Communion (title track, “Rumors Of War,” “Waste Of Tiamat”) and hit catalog staples (“Cometh Down Hessian,” “The Face Of Oblivion,” “Devilution”) but also dust off songs like “Baghdad,” from the band’s 2000 debut, The Art Of Self Defense. Pike, shirtless, covered in crude tattoos, and dripping sweat – nobody in rock ‘n’ roll sweats like Matt Pike – looked about as out of place in House Of Blues’ sterile confines than he would at Sunday-morning church service, but the venue’s high-powered PA was a well-deserved perk for the Oakland trio, which has been obliterating ear drums for years at Double Door.
To the few obvious Fire fanatics present, an hour set was bliss, but for Opeth fans it was nearly unbearable, at least judging by the blank stares. HOF’s brand of metal is grimy and gritty, stinky and sweaty, rakish and reckless. Compared to Opeth’s technical excellence and flawless execution during its nearly two-hour (only 10 songs!) Pike and co. might as well have been the Sex Pistols.
“Opeth fans seem to like the hardest songs to play,” guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt said before “Serenity Painted Death.” He was right, because the crowd, so reserved during High On Fire, went completely ape-shit during “Serenity Painted Death,” “Night And The Silent Water,” and “Deliverance,” three of the night’s most technically dazzling songs. The band’s musical proficiency was truly awe-inspiring, and there’s definitely something to be said for how Åkerfeldt, Opeth’s driving force from day one, has shaped the Scandinavian death metal landscape, but holy indulgent! Sure, it’s prog, but too often it felt like Opeth was in its own world, and audience members were just privileged to be witnesses. They were merely peeking in the rehearsal space while Åkerfeldt, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, bassist Martin Mendez, drummer Martin Axenrot, and keyboardist Per Wiberg indulged in epic jam sessions like “Bleak” and “The Grand Conjuration.” (Opeth’s newest release, Watershed, and 2001’s Blackwater Park were the only albums with more than one entry on the night’s setlist.)
That’s not to say the group didn’t care about its audience; Åkerfeldt was surprisingly congenial and funny between sets given the clinical – and grim – nature of his music, only that watching Åkerfeldt, Åkesson, and Mendez fidget with their Millennium Falcon-dashboard of blinking foot pedals and reel off 100 riffs per song isn’t so much a show as a practice, albeit a very tight practice.
How would Opeth fans have treated Nachtmystium, which, like their beloved Swedes, is adventurous and psychedelic in songwriting, but like High On Fire, fast and loose in execution? It would have been intriguing, for sure. Too bad nobody in Chicago got the chance to find out.
— Trevor Fisher
Category: Live Reviews, Weekly
