METAL RATTLES THE HEAD

A month ago I had learned that Baroness was coming to town for a show with Decapitated and Meshuggah.  I had seen Baroness at the Coachella music festival in CA a couple years ago and really enjoyed their performance, hoping they would make it to Denver one of these days.  So when tickets went on sale I got one for sole purpose of seeing them this Friday night at the Ogden Theater, the other two bands being a bonus prize.

First up was Decapitated, "a death metal band that formed in Krosno, Poland in 1996. The group comprises guitarist, founder and composer Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski and Austrian drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner. Decapitated have gained recognition as one of the genre's most widely respected bands and one of the finest exponents of technical death metal. The band earned an international fan base in the underground music community, and became an innovating act in the modern death metal genre."

The ear plugs came in real handy during this show!  The audience was pumped up by the end of their 30 minute set. 

Download mp3 show here:
https://www.rapidshare.com/#!download|570|1727311178|D_-_Denver_11-05-12.rar|78026

Download the flac show here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|983p7|516160555|D%20-%20Denver%2011-05-12%20flac.rar|242171|0|0

This is what I had been waiting for!  Baroness, "a metal band that plays an eclectic brand of sludge, embracing the ferocity and sharp technique of new-millennium metal but with melodic accents and intelligent guitar work that suggests the influence of sludge and post-metal bands."  They hail from Savannah, Georgia.  "They combine elements of sludge metal, progressive metal and punk."

A very different sound from both Decapitated and Meshuggah.  Blowing my mind with its punishing riffs and blistering leads.  Loved it!

Download the show here, mp3:
https://www.rapidshare.com/#!download|156|421809347|B_-_Denver_May_11__2012.rar|109883

Download the show here, flac: Available on trade.

The audience lost all self control when Meshuggah took the stage.   The mosh pit behind me opened up with thrashing bodies, followed the audience surging to the front, crushing us onto the rail of the barricade.  Hands groped in an effort to grab onto something solid to avoid being crushed or swept away. 

Wikipedia says:

Meshuggah is a Swedish extreme metal band from Umeå, formed in 1987. Meshuggah's line-up has primarily consisted of founding members vocalist Jens Kidman and lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake, who joined in 1990, and rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, who joined in 1992. The band has gone through a number of bassists, with the position currently being held by Dick Lövgren since 2004.

Meshuggah first attracted international attention with the 1995 release Destroy Erase Improve for its fusion of fast-tempo death metal, thrash metal and progressive metal with jazz fusion elements. Since its 2002 album Nothing, Meshuggah has used downtuned eight-string guitars. Meshuggah has become known for their innovative musical style, complex, polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. They were labeled as one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press. Meshuggah has found little mainstream success as yet, but is a significant act in extreme underground music.

The review for the May 9th show at the Showbox Market in Seattle said:
When Meshuggah finally took the stage, people were good and ready to get nuts. The pit turned into a swirling circle of brutality, and strobes lit up the crowd. The specifics are a little hazy because I was rocking extremely hard, but I'm pretty sure this is what happened: Fredrik Thordendal played a thirty-string guitar with an implanted raven claw. Dick Lövgren played a custom bass made from brontosaurus femur with a mallet. Drummer Thomas Haake's back was plugged into a wall outlet with a two-pronged plug in the size of a small space craft which powered the dual mainframe processors controlling the independent movements of his upper and lower body, and Jens Kidman screamed lyrics in six different languages at the same time. Márten Hagström rounded out the lineup by shooting lightning bolts at people from the Tesla coil affixed to the bridge of his guitar. Several dozen fans were treated for electrical burns in the Green Room bar with brännvin rinses. At least that's what I saw. It was awesome as shit.

Read it all here:
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2012/05/if_you_only_see_one_metal_show.php

By the end of the show my chest and the area under the upper part of my arms were sore from the mosh pit crowd pushing me against the rail of the barricade, my anchor in this moving, thrashing mass of people.

Download the show here, mp3:
https://www.rapidshare.com/#!download|962|2347215876|M_-_Denver_11-05-12.rar|234706

Download the show here, flac:
https://rapidshare.com/files/3084400814/Ogden Denver May 11_ 2012 flac.rar