It’s been a while since Nova got invaded by a legion of metalheads, and I couldn’t recognize most of these young faces, as I realized that ‘the new generation’ has found its way to local events (one can tell from their excited expressions). Looking back on the event, I’m puzzled to see that cover bands are still attracting large audiences (I guess they’ll always attract the newcomers), as I’m becoming less and less satisfied with local events. The Freak Show showed good organizing skills here: providing proper tags for personnel and press, selling earplugs at the door and managing to get 6 bands before 1 AM. Here’s how the night went:
Assault
The first band of the evening was basically formed by members of local band Scar which I also watched at Nova recently. Their style is very similar to Scar if you take Rammstein out of the equation. Metallica’s “Harvester of Sorrow” and Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction” were the highlights of their performance but I wasn’t quite honestly impressed, especially with the distortion tone coupled with sloppy transitions and musicianship. Still, this is a starting band and I hope everything they’ll improve as they play more shows.
Kult
These guys have been playing for quite some time now (ex-BloodOath) and their setlist included some challenging songs (especially drum wise). Given these guys’ stage experience over the years, I’m really disappointed that they are still insisting on playing covers. It’s about time they show us their own creativity! It’s a tight band in general so I hope they sit down and work on some originals for their next gig because the crowd enjoyed their energy throughout the show.
Primal
Primal is primarily a Pantera cover band with good stage performance and crowd interaction (charismatic vocalist). Their setlist included Pantera’s best from “Hollow” to “Cowboys from Hell” and “Domination” with an additional collaboration from local band Element 26’s vocalist on “Slaughtered”. There’s nothing to be said here except for another reminder for talented musicians to express themselves through their own material because for those of us who have been attending events for quite some time now, cover bands have nothing genuine about them. Best of luck for the band in the future!
Ataxia
Ataxia played many groove metal songs, bringing energy to the crowd for their entire show. Still, as we all know it, groove metal isn’t about technicality, with little musicianship required, and with that noise dominating the sound (mainly from distortion pedals), they sounded a bit repetitive to my ears. I read somewhere that the band plays Brazilian thrash metal, and what I heard was way far off thrash metal in general. I’m anxious to see the band perform a different setlist!
Before We Drop Dead
The crowd was worn out by now and the noise level was at its highest point which really wasn’t good for the band. Although the members are experienced and energetic, they couldn’t get to the crowd with their choice of songs and overall style. I’ve seen better from this non conventional band and I hope they settle on a style and work on it for future gigs.
Demons
The highlights of Demons’ show were Lamb of God’s “Walk With Me In Hell”and Sepultura’s “Territory”, although the latter one didn’t sound too good, especially at the very end. Their energy wasn’t bad at all but again they were facing some real technical difficulties with their 7-string guitarist and that kinda put off the crowd for a while. I wouldn’t mind watching this band again if they spice up their setlist a bit; we’re all bored with the same cliche songs you guys. Best of luck!
Although Nova was packed, Made of Metal showcased 6 bands and 4 hours of metal, sadly without any original music to please those who had enough of hearing covers. As for the newcomers, enjoy hearing your favorite songs for the time being, hopefully after your 20th time hearing the same old Pantera, Metallica and Lamb of God songs, you’ll join me and many more in supporting bands who are working on and performing their own songs.
