Megadeth, Machine Head, Suicide Silence, some boring shit ass band from Colorado...

I need not describe the 10 years too late uber-boring opening band too much. Coal Chamber isn't cool anymore dudes!

Suicide Silence- Best SOUNDING band of the night. The mix was flawless. Yeah, they are a bit trendy on this groove deathcore thing, but they are the best band doing it right now. Ultra tight and brootal...it got me moving and warmed up for MH nicely...

Machine Head- The reason I went. The guitars were WAY too loud from where I was standing, and I was really pumped, so I grabbed my friend and we punched and shoved our way to the pit. I invented a new thing- The all limbs body bang. I really needed a release, and when they played the end of "Davidian" ultra slow, I went ape shit. I NEVER pit, or even bang my head really, but with them I can't help it. It wasn't as tight as I've ever seen them, but the energy and attitude were there in spades, and that is all I needed. They still got it...

Megadeth- Hmm. Yawn. I dunno, it was great seeing a legend and all...but Dave Mustaine's voice is just awful. All I could hear was a random whimper or whine every few seconds, like the mic was cutting out. But, it wasn't. He just sucks at singing. But, the music was feckin' excellent. Chris Broderick does Marty Friedman impressions very well. The drummer was air tight as well. The guitar sound was a little muddy for me though. I am used to the classic Megadeth albums having that ultra clear guitar tone, and live, it is just too saturated. Not enough definition. They played all the expected classics...Peace Sells, Wake Up Dead, Holy Wars, Symphony of Lamestruction, Sweating bullets, etc. Good stuff, but after Machine Head's bludgeoning...I dunno. Maybe I was just totally drained.

All in all....totally worth it.

Barren Earth, last week. It's a new Finnish progmetal "supergroup", and this was their very first show! The first time I heard of the band was a about 3 hours before the show, and immediately decided this can't be missed. The band features Sami Yli-Sirniö (Kreator, Waltari) on guitar, the singer from Swallow the Sun, drummer from Moonsorrow, and a couple of ex-Amorphis guys; so these musicians are obviously established professionals. The music can best be described as some kind of mix of Amorphis (90s era), Opeth, and Kingston Wall.

They played tight and well, but still with expression. Only thing lacking was some energy, but that can be attributed to it being their first gig, and probably they haven't had too much time to rehearse considering the busy schedules of each member.

They've released one EP, and the debut album is coming next spring. Recommended!
Some music here: http://www.myspace.com/officialbarrenearth

Animals As Leaders, Veil of Maya, and Between the Buried and Me. The sound overall at the show was half decent. The sound guy definitely needs to learn the difference between "loud" and "just right"

Animals As Leaders - Flawless. Tosin Abasi is truly a master of the instrument. His guitar work was astounding, and for the fact that he is the only guitarist in the band is even more amazing. I got to meet him, and he's such a chilled out person, very cool. Told him I drove over 200 miles for the show and he was kind of blown away! Got a full video of Tempting Time and part of CAFO. Going to find out if they turned out ok soon enough.

Veil of Maya - Awesome as usual. Still amazing they pull off their music with one guitarist as well. Their new song was a little different for them. Met their guitarist Marc as well, very chill guy. Very soft spoken actually. Definitely glad I got to see them again.

Between the Buried and Me - 4th time seeing them live, 2nd headlining show. They played a good mix of songs, 1 or 2 from Alaska(I already forgot...), 2 The Silent Circus, two from Colors, and 2 from The Great Misdirect. They were perfect, as usual. The sound for them was actually the best of the night. Cannot wait for February to see them play The Great Misdirect in its entirety. Also cause Dev will be there

Nile - excellent sound, perfect playing, good setlist, but too short for a headliner, i think (60 minutes and no second longer).

Opeth.

They didn't play any of my favourite tunes (TGC, BP, Bleak), but it didn't matter shit. That's my 4th time and it becomes more of a religious experience every time. Flawless, Peerless, magnificent!

Dethklok and Mastodon w/Converge and High on Fire

High on Fire - First time listening to something other than "Devilution." Also my first time seeing anyone play a 9-string guitar. A lot of energy and a great opening act. Definitely got the blood flowing.

Converge - The energy was there, but I just could not get into this band. The singer was jumping from the left side of the stage to the right about 30 times per song, like he was trying to break a record. The poor security guy at the front of the barricade had the mic cord wrapped around his neck every song! I thought he was gonna choke...

Mastodon - Second time seeing them live. They played the entire Crack the Skye album (flawlessly) and really utilized the video wall! They were a lot more "into it" than the first time I saw them. They ended their set with a few songs from earlier albums. I hoping to hear "Blood and Thunder" or "March of the Fire Ants," but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Still, a great performance!

This is the point of the show where my ex-girlfriend (who is not into any form of metal) walks up to me and wants to talk. The whole time, I'm thinking, "Don't let her ruin this. Don't let her ruin this..." She tried, but she didn't.

Dethklok - Second time seeing them live as well. The story they used was EXACTLY the same as the first time I saw them, which was a bit of a letdown. Only a few songs were played from Dethalbum II, though. Still, all of my favorites from both albums were played sans "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence." I will say this about them: What they did, they did well.

All in all, with the exception of my ex-girlfriend it still wasn't the best show I've seen, but still pretty awesome. Definitely worth the money!

I meant to post something about that show, I loved Converge though! Those guys were absolutely insane on stage, sucks that the venue I saw the show at did not allow moshing...People were going insane because they couldn't haha.

Oh, there was moshing by all! I tried to get some decent footage or pics of each band, but it seemed like every time I tried, someone was crowd surfing directly over me and I had to put my phone away! Where did you see them?

Hard Rock Live in Orlando. Awesome venue, but people hate it because of the no moshing rule. (People still moshed though haha)

Just came home from a Volbeat show... bit earlier than planned though About half an hour into the show the singer collapsed. He was taken to a hospital and the show was stopped... Hope he'll be alright.

Dream Theater, my 3rd time. Astounding as usual. Wasn't ecstatic with the setlist but overall enormous. I'll go see them every time they come out here...

Dream Theater, my 3rd time. Astounding as usual. Wasn't ecstatic with the setlist but overall enormous. I'll go see them every time they come out here...

How was Pain of Salvation?

last band i saw was Meshuggah in Manchester (England) last year...trigger the bloodshed sucked ...but Meshuggah well its Meshuggah THEY FUCKING RULED!

Dream Theater, my 3rd time. Astounding as usual. Wasn't ecstatic with the setlist but overall enormous. I'll go see them every time they come out here...

How was Pain of Salvation?

Was standing in the merch queue for a DT T for almost the entire length of their set. A bummer coz I did wanna catch them. What I did hear sounded pretty good. Have to say though I'm disappointed they didn't have a local support, and so were alot of other people...

Laibach & Juno Reactor.

Laibach gave that totalitarian disco show I expected - complete with "triumph of the will" footage on screens and stuff. Lineup was all synth players and drummer (with electronic drums as well), but fortunately it was really live show without that much backing tracks. Not bad, if bit conservative. But

Juno Reactor - well, THAT was impressive. Psy-goa-whatever trance performed by a live band. There was a couple of African mentalists playing all sorts of African percussion, an MC, lady vocalist, drummer and two guitars - one played by a Juno Reactor main bloke Ben Watkins (who looked like an even more undead version of the Cure's Robert Smith) and the other by Japanese guitarist Sugizo (all Visual Kei, I think he gathered fair amount of girls in front of his part of the stage). Excellent set, ton of energy and band members clearly had a great time playing it, dancing around the stage and being generally bunch of nutters. Quality stuff, audience went completely crazy.