Show review: hellgoat, quinta essentia, eyes of ligeia (hellgoat cd release party)
posted on 22 Nov 2005 under category Meta
##Show Review: Hellgoat, Quinta Essentia, Eyes of Ligeia (Hellgoat CD Release Party) Masquerade (Hell), Atlanta GA, Nov. 17, 2005
It was a pleasant convergence of circumstances - Hellgoat organized the entire show to celebrate the release of their new CD, “Blasphemy from Serpent Tongues”. It was to be the first ever live appearance of Eyes of Ligeia. And, to top it all off, some shitty christian pop-punk band was playing in the “Heaven” part of the Masquerade, making for a bit of poetic symmetry and a lot of offended little christers. Arrangements were made for a merchandise table at the back of the hall, so upon arrival I set up a couple of boxes of stuff from the ADR distro, laid out some flyers, and then just hung out while the bands set up and did soundchecks. I had met Jim from Paragon Records earlier in the day, so he hung around the back and talked with me and Evan from Deathgasm Records, who was also present with a couple of boxes of stuff from his store. In the course of setting up stage gear I also managed to meet Jason from Quinta Essentia and Amon from Hellgoat. The line for will-call tickets for the christer show upstairs went right by our merchandise table, and all these little kiddies looking at the boxes of CDs and the new Hellgoat t-shirts was worth the price of admission alone.
The lights dimmed and intro music started as Eyes of Ligeia took to the stage, and I ran to the front to watch the show. The stage band was only two members - Dante on guitar/vocals and Amon of Hellgoat guesting on drums. Both members stood still, corpsepaint on, horns raised, stock-still as the intro music wound up to its inevitable conclusion, and then with a scream and a drumfill the band kicked into the opener “Polaris”. Rather than sounding ‘empty’, the extra clarity (as well as a big, fat guitar tone) helped things come across in a very focused manner. I suppose I had always thought of Eyes of Ligeia as a ‘doom’ metal band more than anything, chiefly due to the original style of the band combined with the traditional instrumentation used on the albums. When the new material on “What the Moon Brings” came out I thought it had a lot of black metal overtones, but was still fundamentally doom - however, hearing this material in such a stripped-down manner showed me how wrong I was.
After “Polaris”, Dante gave a croaked greeting and invocation, and then started into a new song, “What the Moon Brings” - not a rewrite of the song by the same name from the last album, but a totally new song that also dispelled my notions of EoL as a ‘doom’ band - the fast blasting and slightly more conventional riffing at the start of the song blurred the lines between doom and black even farther, and the rest of the song wound on with developing, evolving dynamics and guitar lines. Finally, EoL closed with “The Thirteenth Atu”, also reworked from the last album as “Polaris” was. Too soon, it seemed, the set was over.
During the break I had a busy time at the merchandise table. Dante had made up promo CDs of rehearsal versions of the songs they played at the show to be given out free upon request. Well, that stack disappeared pretty quickly, along with plenty of flyers. A few minutes later, after switchover and some soundchecking, Quinta Essentia took to the stage.
Earlier, when talking to Jason from QE, he told me to expect a lot of ‘shredding’. Well, damn if he wasn’t right. This was my first time seeing and hearing this band, and I was quite impressed. Stylistically I suppose ‘black metal’ might be the closest to appropriate, if you look at the more technical types of bands playing today, but there was a lot of progressive-type influence, from the unusual song sections to the sheer technical wizardry of the guitarists - both Jason and his fellow six-stringer were whipping out string-skipping blazes, lightning-fast arpeggios, tradeoff solos, and harmonies galore, without wimping out the music one little bit. Some of the work was unfortunately lost in the mix thanks to a soundman who didn’t give a shit how it sounded, but the band persevered and just laid down a furious assault. Unfortunately, since I don’t know any of the song titles, I can’t really give any more details of the show, but needless to say they acquitted themselves quite well. They have their debut album coming out in January on Deathgasm Records, and you can bet I’m gonna pick me up one (and if you’re smart, you will too).
After another set changeover, the lights darkened again, and four blackened shapes took to the stage as the intro music played - and then BAM! Hellgoat exploded on the stage and didn’t stop for 35 minutes. Furious, blasting, pummelling raw black metal was the order of the evening, and Amon moved on stage like a man possessed. His vocals were caustic, rabid, and perfectly hateful. They almost never stopped for a breath, so again I can’t relate song titles or give too many details about what they played, but I do remember certain highlights. During one of the songs, Karnivean Astaroth from Legions of Astaroth joined Amon onstage for a dual-vocal attack. During another, Amon dedicated the song to the ‘enemy upstairs’, perhaps prompted by the look of offended christlings who kept wandering into the side door while they waited for their band upstairs to get started. The looks of horror on their faces were priceless - but not anywhere near as priceless as when Amon took out the razor blade and started cutting his own arms, then gave the blade to someone in the crowd. The piece de resistance, though, was in the break of one of the songs when he took out a bible, cursed it, and then began tearing it to pieces and throwing it into the crowd. I got a few bits of Deuteronomy.
All in all, I have to say it was a good show all around - every band was spot-on in delivery and gave an interesting and fitting stage show. I can’t wait for the next one…
(Until I re-read this I had totally forgotten about the christian hardcore band playing upstairs and about all the offended little kiddies freaking out at the real metalheads. It’s why I’m glad I always wrote show reviews when I went to them. It was great seeing the showmanship that Amon put into the gig, something many bands overlook. And while some of the more uninformed may put it up to ‘cheap theatrics’, I’d say 1: given the music, it’s at least fitting, and 2: it beats the shit out of just standing there playing and pretending you’re too good to descend to ‘cheap theatrics’ - something critics of bands from KISS to Ghost always fail to grasp. The record is one thing, and if it works there it works, but for fuck’s sake if you’re going to put on a show make it more than just guys standing around while you hear the album in a boomy, sloppy environment with tons of cigarette smoke around. They already have something to hear - why not also give them something to see?
Besides, watching the christian hardcore kiddies shitting bricks at him ripping up a bible was hilarious.
It sucked not selling a single thing that night, though I did give away the full stack of 50 promos that Toby duplicated to give away. I still have a DVD that a co-worker of Toby’s filmed of this gig - I need to re-listen and watch it.)