Made of Metal III was one of those headbang till you break your neck events… The bands were mostly perfomring covers of international bands with great skills.
I haven’t much to say about the event, it was very entertaining for the people who came to the event but not interesting for the people who missed it. Most of the event was centered around cover bands and extreme music. There was enjoyable moments of course, raging crowd and some crazy acts.
S.K.U.D.D was the first band on stage and the enthusiastic crowd was already cheering. The band had a great vibe and the sound system was very good, giving the bands decent quality, as all instruments were heard clearly.
Kult was the second band on stage performing two originals , dying fetus/nile covers in a very decent manner. They got some Metalheads jumping like raging bulls.
December Dies Alone was the third band playing mainly originals, with a usual great performance of “core” music.
After D.D.A. it was time for Highway 69 which mainly played System of a Down’s greatest hits. The band showed experience in playing music that is commercial but unique and they almost performed the same way SOAD does.
Final band was Wrath which apparently is one of the newest bands and with theyoungest members. Nevertheless, they had a good performance and did not let the other bands outshine them. The king of the event was Kevo Kelougian, performing vocals with almost every band.
For the typical Metalhead going for beer, fun, some headbanging and maybe some moshpitting, this event was GREAT, it had all the required elements and the perfect blend of bands for the crowd to go crazy from start to end.
As an observation, one cannot but notice that the crowd was mostly friends of the bands. Such events rarely attracts curious metalheads to attend and rarely sustains or builds new audiences. The effort the bands are making is a major one, but they must be encouraged by friends first to widen their scope, broaden their knowledge of music styles and tolerate then accept other genres. The bands which succeed in doing that are the ones who really make a difference. The events that are considered “memorable” and enjoyed the most are the ones including well crafted originals.
New bands should always be given the chance to perform live, to build up their skills, and old bands should consider evolving with style and maturing with original material.
As a final note, the fresh new generation of metalheads always enjoy cover bands, the old people in the scene mostly get bored of it (we were young once).
One more thing, us at Lebmetal.com had a stand at the event, where we distributed a Free compilation CDs entitled “Prog 101”. For more info on that, check this article.
