- Kult
This death metal band (with members from BloodOath) had some sound issues in my opinion (being the first band and all, that couldn’t be avoided) but still they performed with full throttle throughout their set list. Kudos for guitarists’/bassist’s technical musicianship and for the vocalist’s powerful growls. On the other hand, although the drummer was impressive, the sound didn’t help him much (the sound engineer was still trying to “calibrate” the sound at this point so one could hear the double pedals sounding too high at one point then totally going off at another). Overall Kult’s show was pretty good but it still wasn’t something out of the ordinary.
- Level 7
I’ve got to give some credits for this band’s energetic show. Although I’m getting less and less interested in groove/thrash metal nowadays, my opinion was overshadowed by the crowd’s reaction to this band’s performance! Regarding the sound, I’d say it was the best this night offered, although that can be considered as mediocre. Level 7 put on a decent metal show; I’m looking forward to hearing their original work.
- Engraved
These guys are one of the main representatives of the Lebanese Core bands and they make sure that fact is known in their live performances: people jumping and head-banging to the multiple breakdowns in every song. Still, some would argue about the repetitiveness of such patterns in a certain song (those are mostly non-core fans), but I shall give Engraved credits for their good musicianship, aggression and finally their solid live performance.
- Venemy
The other main Lebanese Core band played an impressive show as well! They appealed to me more than Engraved since their songs had more melodic parts rather than full scale aggressive riffing and breakdowns. I personally wasn’t impressed with the vocalist’s crowd-interaction (saying “F#$% Me” repeatedly to the crowd was a bit childish and unnecessary), but I admired the guitar work (both melodic phrasings and solos).
- V.O.T.S
V.O.T.S went on stage with their new lineup and were welcomed by a less than full attendance (time issues were catching up with the event organizers at this point). Nevertheless, I enjoyed this break from breakdowns while they played interactive songs such as S.O.A.D’s ATWA and Psycho amongst others. (Scars on Broadway and Rage Against the Machine). I personally enjoyed the guest performance by Alain Abi Sleiman on V.O.T.S’ cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in The Name Of”: that was a killer! I do have a little remark regarding their setlist: it requires good lead and backing vocal skills which many attendees commented on during Vots’ fun performance!
At this point, I’d like to apologize to Primal, the last band in this event’s lineup, for not sticking around to watch them perform. As I pointed out earlier, I didn’t like the organizers’ time management! The event started out late, which isn’t good for a +4 band event! Usually no event ends past 1 AM, but VOTS finished their set after 1 AM and I couldn’t stick around to watch the final band (which I guess ended their show at 2 AM?!). Anyways, for those who stuck around and watched that final band, please do give us feedback regarding their performance!
