Frost and Fire IV

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A 4:25 p.m. timeslot seemed awfully early in the day for a legendary band like VICIOUS RUMORS, but so be it. The band is in the midst of a fullscale US tour, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Digital Dictator by playing the album in its entirety. Geoff Thorpe, Larry Howe, and the boys were revved up and ready to rock, notwithstanding the hellishly early hour. What followed was a very impressive display of prime US power metal. It’s difficult to keep track of who’s who in Vicious Rumors sometimes because of all t h e l i n e u p c h a n g e s , b u t t h e personnel that Thorpe and Howe have assembled for this tour are all top-notch. They now possess a tremendous singer, who had the range and the power to do justice to Carl Albert’s vocal lines, as well as stage presence for miles. And a lead guitarist who could keep up with Thorpe in the shredding department, but also knew how to work a stage. Same for the bass player. The results were nothing short of lethal. And goodness knows, it’s impossible to find fault with such timeless classics as “Minute to Kill” or “Lady Took a Chance” or “Condemned.” The entire Digital Dictator album sounded incredible today, and I also really enjoyed the bits of stagecraft Photo: Michael Podrybau where the band would come together at the front of the stage for choreographed moves (I’ve always been a sucker for that sort of thing, ever since I saw Accept for the first time as a precocious lad back in 1986). I was rocking out so hard during Vicious Rumors’ set that I somehow hit my head on the rail (haha, klutz I know), giving me a nice bruise on the side of the noggin that persists to this day. My only disappointment was that there was no time after completing the Digital Dictator portion of the set to play some of their other classics such as “Don’t Wait for Me,” which they’ve been doing at other shows on this tour. Nonetheless, Vicious Rumors upped the ante considerably, and set a standard of performance that the ensuing bands would have to work very hard to match, indeed. Setlist: Digital Dictator, Minute to Kill, Town’s on Fire, Lady took a Chance, Worlds and Machines, The Crest, R.L.H., Condemned, Out of the Shadows.
Anyone who knows me knows that ATTACKER is one of my favorite bands. There are so many reasons. I mean, Battle at Helm’s Deep and The Second Coming reeled me in as a teenager. I was always enthralled by the band’s muscular, aggressive take on traditional metal, with the thrashy rhythms, the screechy vocals, the pulverizing intensity, and the Jersey attitude, yet all combined with catchy melodies and killer songwriting. The icing on the cake is that the Attacker guys are some of my favorite people as well. So I am always overjoyed to see the New Jersey quintet play live, especially when (as here) I’d suffered a drought exceeding a year since the last time I saw them. As always, Attacker turned in a brilliant performance today. On a number of shows this year, Attacker have been playing The Second Coming in its entirety in honor of that record’s 30th anniversary; however, they weren’t doing so today, although drummer Michael Sabatini hastened to point and “Slayer’s Blade” (flawless) all the way up to more recent tracks like “Skinwalker” and my all-time favorite, “Glen of the Ghost,” which Lucas dedicated to Mark Shelton in a very classy move. That song gives me goosebumps every single time, and today was no different. Armed with a generous 60-minute set, Attacker nonetheless came sprinting out of the gate and never slowed down, miraculously maintaining the energy and intensity for the entire performance (although Sabatini told me later that it was so hot up there that he thought he was going to pass out near the end). Mikey Benetatos is a truly awe-inspiring guitar player and a world-class performer as well, really the visual focal point of Attacker ’s live configuration. Guitarist Jon Hasselbrink and bassist Brian Smith are also a lot of fun to watch, and definitely hold up their end of the deal in terms of musicianship and stagecraft. Then there’s Bobby “Leather Lungs” Lucas, whose stellar pipes put all of these songs over the top with grit and thunder and power and rage. Yeah, Attacker’s one of my favorite bands. And today they played one of my absolute favorite Frost and Fire sets. I’m in awe, and extremely thankful. Setlist: Lords of Thunder, The Hammer, World Destroyer, Slayer’s Blade, Zero Hour, This is Power, The Madness, Skinwalker, The End, Octagon, Emanon, The Hermit, Captives of Babylon, Glen of the Ghost. out to me that they were playing 6 Second Coming songs today, and he k n e w I h a d s e e n t h e m p l a y “Revelations of Evil” before so really I w a s o n l y m i s s i n g o u t o n “Desecration.” The man’s got a point. Besides, it was worth foregoing a couple of The Second Coming tracks to get a full, balanced 14-song setlist that embraced the entire Attacker discography, from Battle at Helm’s Deep all the way to the current, awesome Armor of the Gods EP. The set was absolutely littered with killer cuts, from “This is Power” and “The End” (love the vocal tradeoffs between Bobby Lucas and Mike Benetatos on that one) to early stuff like “The Hermit”
Page 1 and 2: MAGAZINE FROST and FIRE IV REVIEW B
Page 3 and 4: (my solution was to stick with the
Page 5 and 6: pleased with their reception. I und
Page 7 and 8: Friday, October 5, 2018 Even though
Page 9 and 10: Lee Payne is a true gentleman and a
Page 11 and 12: From here, the agenda evolved into
Page 13: Saturday, October 6, 2018 After may
Page 17 and 18: Somewhere around this time, I spott
Page 19 and 20: The set-up at Sans Souci was the sa
Page 21: POSTSCRIPT: October 7, 2018 Okay, s

Frost and Fire IV

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?