Sounds Of The Underground Too Much And Too Little At The Same Time

Kool Haus

Toronto, ON

on Jul 18 2007

Andre Mihsin (CHARTattack)

07/20/2007 1:30pm

The first Sounds Of The Underground tour featured one of the strongest metal festival lineups ever, with Lamb Of God, Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, Clutch, High On Fire and others all sharing the stage. Last year didn't offer nearly as large or as strong a lineup, but that was OK because you still got to see Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth and In Flames and the day itself was mercifully shorter. This year the tour returned to the Kool Haus with 13 bands, the calibre of which was once again diminished.

First of all, I'd like to give props to those who organized the scaled-down Kool Haus show and learned from last year's clusterfuck. Read the review from last year's tour to see what I'm talking about. Anyway, on with the show.

Blackened-death metal quartet Goatwhore were the first to play the eight-hour-plus event. Organizers of the show were certainly aware that this band were one of the more highly anticipated on the tour, so the decision to put them first certainly paid off as it got suckers like myself into the show early.

At the time, it was totally worth it. Armed with killer spiked wristbands, Goatwhore ripped through a 20-minute set that primarily showcased tunes from their latest record, A Haunting Curse, including album opener "Wear These Scars Of Testimony" and first single "Alchemy Of The Black Sun Cult." I relished in the glorious display of metal as much as I could, fully aware that this was the best band on the bill.

After Goatwhore left the stage, Sounds Of The Underground was briefly interrupted by a showcase of bands that would fit more comfortably under the banner of Battle Of The Shitty Band Names. This Is Hell, Devil Wears Prada and The Number Twelve Looks Like You all featured a bunch of teenagers playing boring, trendy metal. Goatwhore are coming back for a headlining gig in October, so all of a sudden coming early didn't seem worth standing through this shit.

Massachusetts deathcore act The Acacia Strain were up next and I was pumped. Not because I'm a fan of the band, but because it was a relief to see a singer with a receding hairline and a beer belly as opposed to the school bus full of children seen earlier. Unfortunately, while the guys in the band were adults, their music was on par with the kids'. Vocalist Vincent Bennett actually asked for a thumbs-up from the entire crowd on two occasions. Not a middle finger. Not devil horns. A fucking thumbs-up.

Thank Odin that Sweden's Viking-inspired death metal band Amon Amarth were next. Singer Johan Hegg, with his long beard and hair, menacing grin and overall grand presence, really looks like a Viking. "Are you ready for some metal?" he roared.

You bet your horned helmet and bearskin cloak we were, and the Norse gods certainly delivered. They played "Valhall Awaits Me," "Runes To My Memory" and the spectacular "Asator" from 2006 gem With Oden On Our Side. Amon Amarth were a close second to Goatwhore.

It may seem like it, but I don't entirely despise all metalcore bands. It's just that there are so many bad ones that I can't even stomach the ones I like sometimes. Darkest Hour are one of those bands that I might have gotten into, but I had absorbed about all the screamo vocals and flailing limbs I could for one day. I will say that Darkest Hour were a lot better than bands of their ilk who were on earlier in the day.

Job For A Cowboy are the only death metal band on the bill this year. They're not deathcore or any "core" for that matter, just straight-up, no-frills American death metal. Although JFAC's major label debut, Genesis, is certainly no breakthrough release, it's a relief to see a young band not giving in to any trends and keeping it technical and brutal. For a group of young lads, it was a strong set.

I couldn't believe the next performance. Necro is a rapper who uses heavy metal guitars and drums in his beats and has contributions on his records from members of Sepultura, Obituary, Voivod, Slipknot and others. I knew he had a strong cult following, but I never thought his shtick would fly at an actual heavy metal concert. I was right, sort of. Despite not one, but two annoying wigger hype men and ridiculous songs such as "Bury You With Satan," Necro's faithful following managed to drown out the boos coming from the back of the venue. Only after Necro left the stage did the booing really explode. When I was in my teens, this type of garbage wouldn't have been tolerated at a metal show. Come on Toronto, have you no standards anymore?

I've seen Cleveland, Ohio's Chimaira twice and they've never left much of an impression. But this time the band were tighter and had lots of energy, which was aided by one of the most perfectly synchronized light shows I've seen in a while. They opened with "Nothing Remains" from their surprisingly good 2005 self-titled release and followed it with songs from this year's even stronger Resurrection. Chimaira were the pleasant surprise of the day.

In previous years on the tour, Gwar provided some humorous halftime relief in between all the angry metal bands. But with Gwar headlining, it would've been nice to see Every Time I Die a little earlier on in the day to fill that spot with their quirky songs and outrageous stage presence. Frontman and part-time stand-up comic Keith Buckley was as animated as always and guitarist Andy Williams looked very Jack Black-ish, wearing a denim vest that revealed his less than chiselled physique. They even took a page out of Pantera's book and brought out a fan to chug a beer while playing what's known to fans as the "shit riff." ETID also kicked out the jams on the southern rock-infused favourite, "The New Black," along with a couple of new tracks from their upcoming release, The Big Dirty.

Although I thought Threads Of Life, the latest release by Shadows Fall, was a decent effort, seeing the band live for the first time really didn't do much for me — especially compared to their contemporaries in Chimaira. In their defence, the sound quality wasn't great all day, and that especially hindered the clean vocals featured on much of Shadows Fall's new material. The band did, however, manage to initiate a wall-to-wall circle pit, the biggest I've ever seen at the Kool Haus, which was quite a sight.

The Scumdogs Of The Universe, Gwar, ended the long day of metal with their always entertaining, blood-spewing set. This year, the victims of the band's sword-wielding included the frontman for the Ozzfest-endorsed Finnish pop-rock band Lordi. Also included was Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman responsible for the recent Virginia Tech massacre. Unfortunately the lights were so blinding that you couldn't see the set they spent so much effort designing, and the characters in the band were often reduced to silhouettes. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of the show considering the Gwar live experience is mainly a visual one. While some of the theatrical characters change, the idea of the show hasn't for years. After seeing them for the fourth time, the novelty has kind of worn off.

I'm sure reading this review was almost as exhausting as being there, so the point I'd like to convey to the Sounds Of The Underground organizers is clear and simple — more quality, less quantity.