BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition February 2018

LIVE
August Burns Red w/ Ocean Grove, Erra, Born of Osiris
Vogue Theatre
January 19, 2018
7PM at the Vogue on a Friday, with the line-up curled around the corner
of Granville and Smithe, the sky split open like a circle-pit. Drenched
hoodies and black umbrellas augmented the texture of a night that
started melodic and culminated in an onslaught of top-tier metalcore.
Aussie blokes, Ocean Grove, broke the stage in around 7:30 and won
over a small crowd with most still stuck in lines at merch-tables. Erra
materialized next in a haze of smokey blue and effortlessly drifted through
a set equal parts melody, equal-parts steel-splitting heaviness. Born of
Osiris followed with a 40-minute set that never slowed, never found a
comfortable spot and stayed there.
Yung Leang
Vogue Theatre
January 24, 2018
Photo by Zee Khan
Moments before August Burns Red arrived, the pit inhaled, became
the eye of the downpour at the doorstep, and with bodies already
traumatized we momentarily rehabilitated, then erupted in flame for an
hour-long interminable mosh-pit. ABR moved through an instrumentally
unmatched setlist with black-bearded, black-toqued, Jake Luhrs, at the
helm hitting each catapulting scream. Though predominantly Phantom
Anthem-inspired, the set seemed a heartfelt culmination of everything
the band has achieved in the last 15 years while, at the same time,
evidencing their storm has only just begun.
• Brendan Lee
Photo by Timothy Nguyen
There was something different about the redhaired
kid, bathed in white light, pouring out his
soul at the Vogue Theatre during Yung Lean’s latest
Vancouver appearance. In a genre saturated with a
thousand Lil’ “everything’s” obsessed with money,
drugs, and champagne on airplanes, Stockholm
Sweden’s Yung Lean stood out with a set of songs
that grew all over you, felt constantly propelled
by the positivity in his body language and an
electronic ambience that filled every inch of the
place.
Lean’s music falls under strange subgenres like
‘Cloudrap’ and ‘Sad Rap,’ and the ambiguity of his
style feels spot on. Although, at times, Lean’s beats
had the floor more trap-trampoline than concrete,
the set had an overall mellowness at its center, the
type of music you lean way back, close tired eyes
and bob heads to.
Again, as the final few songs blurred in and
out of each other, it was clear the crowd was
witnessing something different. That feeling may
have stemmed from the rebirth of a polluted genre
injected with life again. May have been indefinable.
Whatever that something might have been, if you
were there that night, whatever the reason, you
wouldn’t dare look away.
• Brendan Lee
Photo by Aishath Boskma
Meshuggah
The Commodore Ballroom
January 23, 2018
It’s been nearly six years since Meshuggah last played Vancouver. And judging
by the huge amount of fans wandering around outside of the Commodore
before the show, it was long overdue. Being their first date of a short run (the
“Not Much of a Tour 2018” up and down the west coast), the band was in full
force as they launched off their set with the dissonant “Clockworks,” drummer
Tomas Haake’s hectic polyrhythms kicking off the set like a starting gun. A
notable absence was that of guitarist Fredrik Thordendal who is currently
on hiatus, replaced during this tour by Scar Symmetry’s Per Nillson. Despite
generally coming from different stylistic background, Nillson is an incredibly
skilled guitarist in his own right.
Meshuggah powered through their set, keeping the energy high with “Born
in Dissonance,” another track from their most recent album, The Violent Sleep
of Reason. Jens Kidman’s vocals reached new heights on “Do Not Look Down,”
while lighting tech Edvard Hansson showed off why he’s considered the band’s
sixth member with his manually triggered light show. The band segued into
the slowly-melting riffs of “Straws Pulled at Random,” followed by fan-favorite
“Bleed” - the song that introduced a lot of younger fans to Meshuggah and socalled
math metal.
The lights went out, but Meshuggah came back quickly to finish off with
the high-octane “Demiurge,” rounding off the setlist. It’s a complete brainscrambling
experience seeing a band like Meshuggah live, but that just so
happens to be the perfect equation for the ultimate math metal experience.
• Ana Krunic
February 2018 33