'Twas a cold and rainy February night in Nashville when myself and about ten other resilient metalheads journeyed forth to our most metal-friendly of local clubs (The Muse, bless its blackened concrete heart), ready to put the self-described Metal As Art tour to the test. The attendance was regrettably weak (embarrassingly so for us natives), but the performances were far from that.
I missed the two local openers, arriving just as The Binary Code were finishing setting up their gear and preparing to hit the stage. Despite an audience with arms crossed, daring the band to impress them, this New Jersey-bred progressive-minded death-metal-slash-hardcore collective ripped through a vicious set, earning their money by simply doing what they do and doing it well. I wasn't familiar with their record, I'll admit, and sadly, I think many of the subtleties of their compositions were lost in the ultra-loud confines of the Muse, but even devoid of jazzy subtext or wheedle-doodle guitar runs, their brand of metal still pounds, even if it's a bit too spastic for my own tastes.
Boston's Revocation followed, and of the three acts, I was most interested in hearing them because I was most familiar with their recorded work. Metal Review's own Patrick Rennick introduced me to this band many moons ago--his praise of a local (for him) thrash band piqued my interest, and I pursued his lead to discover the band's frantic technical savagery every bit as killer as he'd described. I was excited to see them live, if only to see if Revocation could bring the proverbial noise in that setting as well as they do on record. The presence of a touring guitarist allowed vocalist/guitarist David Davidson freedom to shred, which he did in spades, and between the tight performance and Davidson’s occasional wisecracks and goofy persona, the band’s set was equally frenzied and friendly.
By comparison to my emotional excitement to see Revocation, it was the last band by which I was most intellectually intrigued. Hypno5e travelled all the way from France to play for all ten of us, which was a bit of a bummer (and probably more so for them than for me, of course). Or perhaps the band didn’t care at all—their stage presence was introspective, quiet, reserved, almost oblivious to the audience. Regardless of the lack of rock-star antics or garrulous interaction, the band's cinematic, cerebral Gojira-meets-Isis metal was impeccably constructed and nearly perfectly performed. Vocalist/guitarist Emmanuel Jessua’s microphone was too low in the mix, but given that vocals are sparse in Hypno5e’s atmospheric attack, the loss was regrettable but not insurmountable. Jumping effortlessly from off-time crushing riffs to spacey post-metal, the band were easily the most musical act of the evening, even above and beyond Revocation’s finger-bending fretplay. I had heard their sole release, 2007's Des Deux l'Une Est l'Autre, and I'd been impressed by it despite being somewhat bored by the whole post-metal tag these days, but their live performance exceeded my expectations, to say the least. Regrettably, thanks to the combination of a late start time and an early start the following morning for Day Job Me, I missed the last bit of their set. Here's some video of the band live (from Chicago, not Nashville--thanks to Sasha Horn for the cinematography):
To the three bands on hand, I assure you that, though the show may have been sparsely attended, the music was thoroughly enjoyed.
--JWitt
Posted
Feb 11 2010, 08:35 PM
by
JW