Friday, April 28 2006, 2:45 AM

In what may or not be a sweeps week, we here at WMGN bring you this news flash: God Forbid is an awesome band! I've just been informed that the news actually broke Saturday night, but this reporter didn't get the full story until he bought two of their albums ("Gone Forever" and "IV: Constitution of Treason") and gave them a shake down. Our sources confirm that Coyle brothers, guitarists for God Forbid, have serious guitar skill, and that they should be considered along side any guitar tandem in existence as one of the best. Their sheer riffing prowess and elegant yet agressive leads will surely lead to many hours of listening enjoyment for any fan of metal. Authorities on the scene recommend that any metalhead purchase albums by this band as soon as possible.

Ok, yah, that was lame. No more fake news reporting for me. On a similar yet less talented note, I've uploaded some guitar clips I've recorded over the past few days. All have included a couple beers at least. Apparently I'm more apt to play when I'm sans sobriety. I honestly don't remember if the first one is any good. The second one is pretty scatter brained, and if I remember right, my fretting hand was on fire that night, but my sense of time was not. The clip I recorded tonight was pretty quiet and mostly clean until the end, where I kicked on the amplifier's overdrive, a distortion pedal, and the wah pedal, and had a total Eddie Van Halen moment. You'll know it when you hear it. There are a few short parts that almost sound like they could have been plucked from "Eruption." Then again, they might sound like they were plucked out of a steaming pile of dung. You be the judge.

godforbid guitarclips music

Sunday, April 23 2006, 1:59 PM

Last night I checked out Chimaira, Arch Enemy, God Forbid, and Hate Eternal down in the eternal shithole known as Harpos in Detroit. This concert marked a few firsts for me. Foremost, it's the first concert I've ever gone to alone. Why you ask? Because all the other people that said they would go bitched out. I wasn't about to miss the show though. The second is that this was the first time I've brought earplugs to a show. I didn't use them for the whole show, because they were crappy industrial type earplugs that muck up the sound completely, as opposed to other earplugs that I've heard of that let all of the sound through relatively undisturbed, albeit at a much lower volume.

Hate Eternal was the first of the "known" bands on the stage. I'd never heard of them before, and frankly, I wouldn't have been worse off if I hadn't seen them. Each of the guys in the band seemed talented, but for me at least, it didn't seem to add up to something good. To me, it just sounded like a wall of noise, and hence, I had the earplugs in for most (if not all) of their set. If I were to guess, I think this is the kind of music that metal-haters cite when they say that all metal is just neanderthal and barbaric in nature. I give them credit for being solid on their instruments, but not much more than that. Grade: C-

God Forbid was the next group up. I have to say that God Forbid was the first metal band I've ever seen where the non-caucasians outnumbered the stereotypical metal white guys. It's good to see that metal is reaching out and touching more people. It's also good to hear a band that rocks, and these guys most certainly did that. Their singer was a screamer, but he was counterbalanced by the two guitarists, which did some sweet harmonized backing vocals. It's always good to have throw that change-up to keep things fresh. The music was very heavy and had a serious groove. Each of the guitarsts have serious skills, and ripped off tons of solos each. There were also plenty of times where they met in the middle of the stage and played extended harmonized leads, which are always totally sweet. All in all, I'd give these guys two thumbs up, and would definitely check them out again. Grade: B+

Arch Enemy was up next. I've heard of them many times before, but haven't really taken the plunge and listened to them all that much. Well, I will be checking them out further, because they were awesome. More killer guitar work, to say the least. Lots of sweet riffs and hard driving rhythms. Tthey also have one of the only female singers that I've ever seen in a metal band. She's no candy ass either... she gets out there and lets it rip, and there's no doubt she's metal to the core. She's pretty hot too, but she's also vegan, which in my now-biased eyes, that reduces her hot factor. But that's a completely different story. Anyway, Arch Enemy is awesome, and they will definitely be getting more attention from me, and quite soon most likely. Grade A-

Implements of Destruction. And a phone.

Chimaira was the reason I made the 90 mile journey alone, and while I would like to say that they didn't disappoint, they did in a way. More on that later. I was beside myself when they broke into the first song - Implements of Destruction. My favorite Chimaira song. I didn't really think i would ever see it live since it's an instrumental weighing in at about twelve minutes, but they played it. And they nailed it. It may have been slightly abridged, but they played the vast majority of it. After they finished, the lead guitarist stepped up to the mic and said that we were in for a 'different' kind of Chimaira show tonight. The lead singer had a death his family, so he had flown home to be with his family. So, rather than cancel the show, he asked some of the guys in the opening bands to help out on vocals along with their keyboard/sound effects guy (who does backing vocals anyway). The singer for God Forbid came out and did their next two or three songs, and he did a pretty good job, although you could see that he was fishing around for the lyrics at times, and was putting the microphone into the crowd an awful lot. One of God Forbid's guitarists came out and sang the 'clean' vocals in "Down Again," and he did a pretty good job as well. The singer/guitarist from Hate Eternal came out and sang the next two songs, and he did a decent job as well, although you could tell he didn't know the lyrics either, and had to keep looking down at the lyric sheets they had written up and placed on the stage monitors. After that, the keyboardist moved his setup to center stage and took over the vocals. He at least knew the words, and the 4 songs or so he sang sounded pretty coherent and Chimaira-like. I think he pretty much wore himself out though. He looked pretty beat by the end. For the last song, which was "Pure Hatred" I believe, they gave a fan his biggest concert dream ever - they pulled him up on stage to sing. They called out for someone who knew every word, and this guy did. He nailed it. The only time he missed is when the band threw in a pause that wasn't in the album version, and he started too early. No fault of his own... it's not like he rehearsed with them.

All in all, their set was pretty good. They played all of the songs I expected them to, which made me happy. The disappointment factor stemmed from not seeing them as a unbroken unit, which led to some of the general vocal disarray. I can't fault them for it though. They soldiered on, and with some help from the opening bands, did the best they could and still made it a memorable show. I would probably have given the show a B-range grade, but they played Implements of Destruction in its (almost) entirety. Because of that - Grade: A-

archenemy chimaira concerts godforbid music reviews

Monday, March 20 2006, 3:33 AM

I was just looking through my cached posts from the Metal Underground RSS feed and put together a list of concerts I want to see in the coming months. The list is pretty good so far, and this is a good thing.

4/22/2006 - Chimaira and Arch Enemy @ Harpos, Detroit. I've been wanting to see Chimaira for a while now, and now I'll have the opportunity. Nevermore is on this tour up until 4/14, which kind of chaps my ass. I'll miss them by 8 days. Not such a bad thing though... keep reading.

5/13/2006 - In Flames, Evergrey, and Nevermore @ The Orbit Room, Grand Rapids. This show has awesome written all over it. I'll finally get to see Nevermore after the near miss at last year's Gigantour. Evergrey and In Flames are also top notch. I've seen Evergrey once, and their show was a lot of fun. I can only expect that this will be great as well. I might have to put together a pilgrimage for this one given its saturday night timeslot.

7/6/2006 - Slayer, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom @ Cobo Hall, Detroit. This concert is going to be like a ten ton wrecking ball with guitars. I saw Slayer and Mastodon last year, and barely escaped with my life. This one should be even better. I'm a huge fan of all four bands mentioned, so this concert will be something to remember.

archenemy childrenofbodom chimaira concerts evergrey godforbid inflames lambofgod mastodon music nevermore slayer

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