Wow, what a great weekend to be a metal fan in
Cleveland. The first ever Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles 6-Pack Weekend took
place, bringing a total of 21 hard rocking bands together to provide America
with a fantastic European style metal fest. The Cleveland metal scene
showed up in force, as well as fans from over the world, and I seriously
doubt if anyone went away disappointed. The lineup featured both new and
classic bands from all parts of the globe and represented just about every
prominent subgenre of metal.
Things got off to a good start on Thursday with a
locals only bill that included Soulless, Archetype, Aftershok, Destructor,
Somnus, Boulder, and Abdullah. Jamie Walters earned the MVP award by
playing with three of the bands: Destructor (bass), Abdullah (drums) and
Boulder (bass and vocals). Soulless began their set by paying tribute to
Canada, home of the Brave Words magazine. The band all wore shirts for
Canadian bands and opened with a cover of a Razor song. With the exception
of their lead singer, the guys in Archetype displayed very little
enthusiasm, and for the most part the crowd felt the same way. Great
musicianship, but no energy. Aftershok brought the energy level back up,
thankfully. The band features ex-Shok Paris vocalist Vic His and as the
name implies they sort of pick up where Shok left off. A bit dated perhaps,
but fun nonetheless. Destructor used their set to showcase the material on
their newly released ‘Sonic Bullet’ EP and proved to me anyway that they’re
still a force to be reckoned with. Although these guys have been around
since the mid eighties, their new material sounds fairly modern without
abandoning the style that made them popular to begin with. Maybe Metallica
could take a few lessons from these guys. It was also great to see
Cleveland’s premier dark metal band Somnus reunited for the occasion, and
they sounded great despite the time apart. Abdullah tends to be either
loved or hated by area metal fans, but there were plenty (myself included)
present who fall into the first category. Boulder was their usual raging
self, although unfortunately a large portion of the crowd had hit the road
by the time they took the stage. Those who stuck around were treated to a
typically strong set including a surprise cover of Y&T’s “Meanstreak”. For
pictures click here.
Going into Friday’s show I didn’t’ really know what to
expect. I had been looking forward to seeing Entombed, but due to illness
within the band’s camp they had to cancel their show. That left a slate of
bands that frankly I wasn’t vary familiar with, although I had high
expectations for Force of Evil, the new project for Mercyful Fate guitarists
Hank Sherman and Michael Denner. I arrived a little late and missed
American Dog’s set, but was just in time for Cage. The band reminded me of
Judas Priest at their heaviest and was a nice discovery. Canada’s Kataklysm
were left as the sole death metal band for the international portion of the
festival with Entombed’s absence and delivered a tight and brutal set. The
band was definitely above average for the genre, and like Cage probably
worth further investigation. I couldn’t say the same for Elegy, but then
I’m not a big power metal fan. My opinions aside a fair portion of the
crowd seemed to enjoy their set. Next up was Force of Evil, and they not
only met my expectations but exceeded them. Essentially the band is, and
sounds like, Mercyful Fate with a more traditional metal vocalist. In
addition to playing a good portion of their debut album, the band also did
killer versions of Fate’s “Evil” and “Curse of the Pharaohs”. I had heard a
few songs by Falconer on college radio before and the band had impressed me
as being much better at songwriting than most of their power metal
contemporaries. Their live performance confirmed my suspicions that this
band is at the top of their genre. There was some grumbling by some fans
about the new vocalist, but that’s to be expected any time a band changes
singers. To my unbiased ears he sounded just fine. Finally Nevermore
closed out the evening with some technical thrash. While I’m not really a
fan of the band, their performance was flawless and the crowd’s response
showed they deserved their position of headliner for the evening. For
pictures click here.
I made it down to The Odeon on time for Saturday’s show
and started another long day of metal off by catching Beyond the Embrace.
This American band plays melodic thrash in the vein of In Flames but with
more melodic vocals. Not bad, but nothing I’m going to race out and buy
either. I pretty much felt the same way about Eidolon. Great performance
but the songs didn’t leave much of an impression. The next band won me
over, though. Wolf’s enthusiasm was hard to deny, and the band played an
excellent set of trad metal that owed a good deal to classic Iron Maiden.
While not the most original band in the world by any means, the had some
good songs and this is the kind of stuff I grew up listening to so I just
went with the flow and enjoyed the band’s set. I liked Evergrey, as well.
I’m not sure exactly where they fit in the scheme of things (which is a good
thing in my book) but if I had to describe them I’d say dark progressive
metal. I’d never heard the band before, but I’ll probably be checking out
some of their back catalog when I get the chance. Jag Panzer go back to the
early eighties, and for those fans that go back with them their performance
this evening was a special treat: they played a set drawing only from their
earliest days. Although I’m not a big fan of the band myself, it would be
hard to find fault with their performance. Trouble, on the other hand, is
one of my favorite bands. The stoner/doom rock pioneers played at least one
song from each of their six albums and were absolutely amazing. I figured
this was going to be the highlight of the fest for me, but I was wrong.
Maybe it was because this was my first time ever seeing Candlemass live, but
they just crushed as far as I’m concerned. Vocalist Messiah Marcolin had a
grin on his face almost the whole time as he belted out his lyrics of pain
and suffering to the ultra heavy accompaniment of his band mates. I don’t
know why music that should be depressing is so much fun, but the band was a
blast. For pictures click
here.
Overall this was just an incredible, if somewhat
draining for an old bastard like me, weekend. Any complaints would seem
petty (although next year a black metal band on the bill would be nice), and
every single band seemed stoked to be involved. Aside from the
performances, there were several meet and greet sessions with musicians like
Tim “The Ripper” Owens of Judas Priest and Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir, plus all
the bands playing were out in the audience chatting with fans when they
weren’t on stage. There was also a great assortment of vendors selling CDs
and T-shirts at reasonable prices, real metal on the sound system between
bands, and just a general fun vibe the whole time. Thanks so much to the
Brave Words magazine staff and local metal boosters like Bill Peters for
making this happen. Can’t wait til next year. (Bob Ignizio)
