I've been going to a lot more shows lately, and it looks like it won't be letting up any time soon with 5 more between now and November 17th which I will either definitely or probably go to. The surge is due to a combination of finally knowing about most (all?) of the relevant venues in the area, and finally getting a decent pair of earplugs...
Paradise Lost
I've heard about Paradise Lost for years now. They were one of the bands to start infusing melody with death metal in the early 90's and, following the typical format, shifted outside the genre just a couple years later. As such, I put them in a category with such fantastic bands as Katatonia, Amorphis, Tiamat and Dark Tranquillity and I have always been optimistic about both their early death metal classic Gothic and their later material.
The band doesn't play anything remotely death metal anymore so I can't say whether Gothic would appeal to me - but after seeing them live I'm not particularly inclined to explore the rest of their catalogue any further. I had expected this to be melodic in an expansive, layered sort of way - on the contrary it strikes me as borderline hard rock with rudimentary melodic guitar lines sprinkled in at predictable times, extremely simple, boring rhythms and a vocalist who apparently molds himself after James Hetfield. Probably one of the worst styles of metal vocals in my book.
Devin Townsend Project
I have one Strapping Young Lad album (SYL) and have heard snippets of Devin Townsend's other work here and there, but for the most part I'm not familiar and I thought I had sort of grown away from SYL. Devin Townsend is well known for his zany/silly shtick, and it started during the changeover as the soundcheck was accompanied by a extended video of Ziltoid doing things like singing songs about mangos and dancing around. If you're not familiar with Ziltoid, he's the main character of Townsend's concept album - a alien who demands Earth's ultimate cup of coffee and attacks when he finds it sub-par. I have pretty low tolerance for self-conscious humor in music, and the combination of this with other clips of interent memes primed me to perceive Devin Townsend's set as a series of quasi-progressive metal tunes without much ambition other than to mindlessly entertain. The band's proficiency was lightyears beyond the well-meaning trod of Paradise Lost, but it seemed more or less like textbook modern metal riffs coated with a thick layer of unremarkable keyboard noodling.
Later in the weekend I listened to some of DTP's stuff online, and that's when I realized that my relationship with green foam earplugs has probably ruined more concert experiences than I will ever know. It actually sounded like really great, creative music. Driving home from Swans a couple days later, I nearly headbanged myself unconscious to SYL. I actually fucking love that album - who knew that thinking Devin Townsend sucked live would get me back into Strapping Young Lad in a big way?
Katatonia
Katatonia was good, and it was nice to see them headline so they could play a bit longer than they did when I saw them last year with Opeth. But in retrospect all I can think about is how much better it would have sounded without my stupid earplugs. I could barely hear the guitars - just vocals, drums, and the bass which was distorted to the point of sounding vaguely like a fart. My only complaint with Katatonia is that they consistently pack their setlist with "hits" and ready-made crowd favorites like "My Twin" - probably my most hated Katatonia track - and "Leaders" and "Forsaken" - both decent songs, but it seems so obvious that these token tracks are thrown in to appease the crowd's primitive need to headbang to a couple staccato metal riffs. Give me "Rusted" or "Increase" for once. I often forget just how good most of The Great Cold Distance is due to my mixed emotions about a few of its tracks.
On the plus side, the band did choose some "deep cuts" from Viva Emptiness like "Walking By a Wire" and a couple others and this was definitely the highlight of the set for me. Despite LFDGD being contender for my favorite Katatonia album, "Teargas" was kind of a miss - "We Must Bury You" and "Chrome" were much better choices when I saw them last, with the former being surprisingly effective live, and the latter being one of my personal favorites from the band.
