Live-Metal.Net - Concerts: Devastation Across the Nation

The Trocadero
Philadelphia, PA.
November 27, 2004

By JEFF MAKI

Intro/The Haunted
It was with great anticipation that my brother and I attended this show. Shadows Fall, to me, are the premiere metal band today and their album The War Within is possibly the best heavy release for 2004. Damageplan of course includes ex-Pantera members so some old school shit could be in store on this one. The Haunted are raising eyebrows with their brand of Swedish metal and a No. 1 album, rEVOLVEr on the CMJ Loud Rock Chart.

The Trocadero is a converted movie theater with sculptures on the walls, curtains, a balcony which contains a back bar and a capacity of about 800. We arrived right on time (sort of, as parking isn't too great in the area) but entered just as The Haunted had started playing in front of about half of the crowd (why on so early?). The Haunted’s melodic death metal is similar to In Flames or Slayer (vocalist Peter Dolving even introduced one of their songs as “In Flames.”). However they stand out from most other thrash/death metal bands with roaring vocals, double bass, fast guitars, breakdowns – basically anything you would want from a heavy band. If you're into metal then there's no reason you wouldn't like The Haunted.

Dolving was funny as hell with his onstage, almost standup comic routine between songs, making fun of people in the crowd, asking his drummer for blast beats and so on. I didn't realize until recently that former members of the legendary At The Gates are in this band. You can clearly hear it in the music. The Haunted were fast and fucking loud and I look forward to their U.S. headlining tour next year.

Damageplan
I'm not too impressed with Damageplan’s album, New Found Power but the songs are a whole lot heavier live than on disc, and I must admit they put on a good live show. The sound mix was a bit muffled but the crowd was into them and they did a good job of keeping us into the show. Former Pantera members Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, and bandmates Pat Lachman and Bob Zilla must have slammed back about 12 shots of Jagermeister during their set. At one point they even broke out into a jam during which some guy named "Best Dude" came out with pitchers of beer for the crowd.

Dimebag had a pretty impressive guitar solo including the loudest, most screeching sounds I've ever heard come from an instrument. The band played several songs from their debut but then came something special. Upon being asked if they wanted old-school shit the crowd went nuts. When the opening riffs of "Becoming" started the place went fucking crazy. Vocalist Lachman did a good job, sounding like Phil Anselmo but not too much like him. "Walk" was the set closer and seemed to be about 10 minutes long with members of Shadows Fall and some Elvis-looking guy joining them on stage. Given the public feud between these guys and Anselmo you would figure something might have been said but it never happened. This night was all about the music.

Shadows Fall
This was who I came to see. I got into Shadows Fall with The Art Of Balance album but The War Within is several notches better. The acoustic guitars started for "The Light That Blinds" and for the rest of the show I was blown away. The sound was absolutely perfect. Brian Fair is the perfect metal frontman, screaming, growling and singing with the best of them. Shirtless with his five-foot-long dreadlocks almost hanging to the floor, he looked like he was part of some primitive tribe. A couple of times his comments turned to Philadelphia sports throwing in a little bragging about his hometown New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox. Guitarist Matt Bachand vocalist sings more than I realized, covering death metal-style parts, clean vocals and leads in most of the songs. His work combined with Fair's and the rest of this band makes them one of the best live bands I have ever seen with possibly the best overall sound. Go see them! Go buy The War Within! Go do this shit! Do it now!!!

They played for about an hour with a pit going throughout the entire set. No bullshit, no pauses, just straight Shadows Fall music. Possibly the best damn live band I've ever seen.