I told you I'd have some thoughts from Heavy TO, and here they are, even if it did take me a week to write them down. And I have so many thoughts that I think I'm going to make this a two-parter. In this first installment, I'm going to go through each of the bands we actually payed attention to (ie: the ones we went to see) and give little baby reviews of their sets. I'm not going to try and remember set lists or anything like that (mostly because it's 2012 and the Internet does that shit for me), I'm just going to give you my impressions of each band's performance. So let's go!
Periphery - We got there a little and so caught only about half of Periphery's half-hour set, but what we saw was pretty good. Even with three guitarists and the sometimes crappy mixes you get at shows, there was still some definition to their tones and some division between each guitar and between the guitars and bass. Spencer sounded pretty good too, something I wasn't sure about given his pretty impressive range on some Periphery songs - sometimes vocalists just can't duplicate that kind of thing live.
The Faceless - These guys were disgustingly tight, considering how complex your average Faceless song can get. The crowd wasn't super-duper into it (don't get me wrong, they were digging it, and there was a pit going) since it was still pretty early and The Faceless isn't necessarily the easiest to mosh to. They played a song, "Deconsecrate", from their new album Autotheism, and its was pretty fucking tasty. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album (it's sitting on my desk right now waiting to be ripped to my hard drive).
Between the Buried and Me - Absolutely fucking ferocious. I was really looking forward to seeing these guys and they did not disappoint, playing every note of the 2 songs (!) in their epic half hour set with album-like levels of technicality and precision, a feat of endurance if I've ever seen one. Neither of the songs ("White Walls" and "Fossil Genera") was new material, but seeing BTBAM live definitely has me excited for their new record.
Killswitch Engage - Despite being a fairly long-time Killswitch fan, this was my first time seeing them live, but hopefully not my last. Killswitch is the kind of band that even if they're not quite your cup of tea, you can't help but be headbanging right along with everyone else by the end of the set, big goofy grin plastered all over your face, thanks in no small part to the onstage antics of guitarist Adam D. (with whom you are no doubt familiar if you follow Killswitch at all). As an added bonus, original vocalist Jesse Leach rejoined the band not too long ago, following the departure of Howard Jones, so it was cool to have the opportunity to see the line-up that created the awesome Alive or Just Breathing a decade ago.
Deftones - Bucking the trend of most of these bands, I have in fact seen Deftones before, almost ten years ago when they were touring behind 2003's self-titled disc. Ten years on, and Chino and company have still got it. Unfortunately for the band and for fans, bassist Chi Cheng continues to recover from a 2008 car accident, although fill-in bassist Sergio Vega continues to do a thoroughly fantastic job filling Cheng's roomy shoes. Deftones are a great band to see live because they've got such a deep catalogue, meaning they can play some really good newer stuff ("Rocket Skates" was a great opener) and still pull out some classic nostalgia songs for the long-time fans. And speaking of nostalgia songs...
System of a Down - In my never ending quest for bigger and badder heavy music, it seems I left bands like System of a Down behind in favour of faster, techier, heavier things, but when I was in high school, my friends and I lived System. I would bet (and likely win) easy money that either System's self-titled debut or its follow-up Toxicity was in at least one of our cars at any given time for several years. So maybe it's just my high-school self talking nostalgic bullshit, but System was a great band to close the day with. I don't know if I've ever been in a crowd with so much energy and connection to a band (OK, what I remember of Sabbath at Ozzfest back in 2001 was pretty epic), to the point that when Serj asked for help with "Toxicity" it felt like every single person belted out every single word. Electric. Not the heaviest or most metal band of the day (or the weekend), but a pretty good way to end things off on a note pleasing to both older and younger fans, and fans of a pretty eclectic (and awesome) variety of bands.
So there you have it. Part 1 of my Heavy TO observations, in which I talked a little about the bands I was there to see and what I thought of them. In Part 2, which will hopefully be up in the next couple of days, I'll give some general thoughts about the day, including some of the stuff that was not so awesome... like the mud. Yeah, yeah, it's a metal festival, I should have been ready for a little mud. Fuck off.
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