lamb_of_god_2010_03

» Lamb Of God 2010 03 12

Reviewed by Martin
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Special guest: Job For A Cowboy, August Burns Red, Between The Buried And Me
City: Lund, Sweden
Venue: Mejeriet
Date: 12 March 2010
Between The Buried And Me set length: 30 minutes
August Burns Red set length: approximately 30 minutes
Job For A Cowboy set length: approximately 35 minutes
Lamb of God set length: 65 minutes

Between The Buried And Me

Holy shit! Yes, dear readers, this is my first and immediate reaction to Between The Buried And Me. For a spectator such as yours truly, the North Carolina outfit makes for a staggering opening act for the evening. The overpowering skill of these musicians is fantastic - Blake Richardson displays such a total control of odd meters behind his drum kit that I'm left utterly speechless, and he is a true powerhouse driving the rest of the band like a madman. The rest of the group is not far behind in skill on their individual instruments, but as a group Between The Buried And Me is exceptional. Jawdropping I stand wishing for more songs from this fantastic band, and the only thing that I feel somewhat dismayed by is that Between The Buried And Me doesn't get more than 30 minutes on stage.

7 chalices of 10

Setlist:

Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain
White Walls

August Burns Red

I'm not a big fan of metalcore - the genre holds a lot of bands worthy of neglect, often lacking originality and performing songs steeped in the same mould. Thankfully August Burns Red isn't one of those bands. 2009's "Constellations" contained some great songs by a very youthful band - and live they display a performance triggering the massive audience at Lund's Mejeriet into a collective frenzy. As a reviewer it's always fun to get blown away by a band that you beforehand knew little about. Sadly I wished I knew more of the band's songs - I only recognize Marianas Grave - because this band I definitely worth checking out, if nothing else to experience a band very much dedicated to pummelling the proverbial shit out of any audience. True to the form, August Burns Red has some very heavy breakdowns that keep a large portion of the crowd banging heads throughout the band's gig. Impressive.

7 chalices of 10

Setlist:

Backburner
White Washed
Marianas Trench
Meddler
Thirty and Seven
Composure

Job For A Cowboy

While the majority of the bands this evening are keeping to the heavier side, rather than focussing on blastbeats in 225 bpm, Job For A Cowboy delivers a menacing gig - the power that this band displays on stage is just awesome. A few beats into the first song, drummer Jon Rice makes one of his cymbalstands top over. Treating his very well-triggered double-bass drum kit like an enemy, he pelts his snaredrum like a machinegun at full-automatic. Needless to say, I once again stand stupefied by a band that is about nothing more than aggression channelled through songs. The big difference between the other bands and Job For A Cowboy is that there simply isn't any letup musically in JFAC's performance - a fact that makes for nice counterpoint to the rest of the bands that all have bigger emphasis on heaviness than speed. This is not to say that the other bands lack the aggression necessary in metal.

6 chalices of 10

Setlist: (might be slightly incorrect)

Unfurling A Darkened Gospel
Constitutional Masturbation
Knee Deep
Ruination
Entombment Of A Machine
Embedded

Lamb Of God

The first time I saw Lamb of God was at the Unholy Alliance Tour with amongst others In Flames and Slayer. The gig was situated in an awful sounding mother of a hangar at Malmömässan, a fact not helping the band from Virginia, and I left feeling a bit disappointed by the band's performance. Needless to say Lamb Of God's gig at Mejeriet is light-years from the gig in Malmö 2007. The sound, perfect the entire evening by the way, so important to music such as Lamb Of God's is top-notch. Ruling his drums, Chris Adler is the focal point of the band, as far as I'm concerned and he proves this fact from the opening song, "The Passing". Seeing this band dominating the capacity crowd with a confidence that can move mountains is, for the larger part of the concert, pure joy. Hailed as the band to step in to fill the huge gap that Pantera left behind, Lamb Of God get closer to this impossible task this evening than I have seen before. At times the moshpit is a roaring mess of people, and the security has to work hard to ensure that no-one gets hurt.

The tightness of Lamb of God as a band is awesome - I don't know if this has something to do with the fact that guitarist William and drummer Chris are brothers - but the rest of the guys, bassist John Cambell, guitarist Mark Morton and Randy Blythe on vocals - are this night performing at a level that leaves me standing truly impressed. The catalogue the band has created over the years makes choosing songs a bit a of luxury - of course we get "Laid To Rest", "Redneck" and "Now You've Got Something To Die For" - but the rest of the setlist is just than more than up to par. The concert has one major fault - midways guitarists Adler and Morton choose to have a long, beautiful mind you, but too mellow solo, and the band has to play a few songs after this to work up the adrenaline in the room up to the same level as before. Other than this Lamb Of God played a very good show that left the audience utterly exhausted.

7,5 chalices of 10

Setlist:

The Passing
In Your Words
Set To Fail
Walk With Me In Hell
Now You've Got Something To Die For
Ruin
Hourglass
Dead Seeds
Blacken The Cursed Sun
Grace
Broken Hands
Laid To Rest
Contractor
Vigil
Redneck
Black Label