Review: Amorphis/Beyond the Embrace/Into Eternity/Single Bullet Theory/All Hope Lost, March 24. 2005

March 24, 2005
Amorphis
Beyond the Embrace
Into Eternity
Single Bullet Theory
All Hope Lost
Jaxx, Springfield VA

I don't know if it was due to the full moon or the fact that it was Maundy Thursday, but something was up last night (I guess mercury really is in retrograde...)

I dedicate this review to the Kyrgyz people: Fight on, my ass-natural Central Asian brothers and sisters! Go gather some "HERBS" (seriously, I love Kyrgyzstan - wonderful people, beautiful country, bad English translators)

All Hope Lost: locals? They look like a bunch of frat boys but sound like a death metal band. I certainly wouldn't have guessed their singer could sound like that. Huh.

Single Bullet Theory - um, sound check? Check, check, heeeyyy. Well, they didn't do one and definitely could have used it. Terrible feedback during the whole set, drums and bass not mixed in, etc. I think they were trying to use regular mics for the drums because all the drum mics were already set up for Amporhis. Stupid Jaxx (the fact that the one sound guy looks like a neck-tattooed Wonder-ding doesn't fill me with confidence - and if you get the Wonderling reference I have know you for a long, long time and we have consumed snachos). I didn't enjoy the singer's voice during the 'sung' parts of the songs and the fact that he looked like an 'Unskinny Bop'-era Bret Michaels was kind of distracting (and not in a good way). It's also hard to look metal when your long blond locks have wound themselves around the microphone.
3/5

Into Eternity is the fourth Candian band I've seen this month and I think I've finally overcome my anti-Canadian-music sentiment. I was introduced to this band from a package I got from a friend last week. I think the best thing about them is that they don't take themselves too seriously and even though the feedback/sound mix problems were so bad that they actually had to stop in the middle of one song, they put on a great set. Their singer has an interesting voice that I'm not sure if I like yet. What I do like is him wailing 'Ar-ma-ged-don' and the little rhyming couplets in some of the songs. Their lead guitarist is technically excellent and has an interesting guitar with the tuners on the bottom side of the neck (he also cradles the guitar against his stomach like a Mariachi dude). I would love to see them again under more fortunate technical circumstances.
4/5

Beyond the Embrace is a Mass. based metal band and there sure are a lot of them (6 total). I'd never heard (of) them before but I was pretty impressed. They didn't play anything that really stood out to me (nothing about pirates) but it was good.
3.5/5

Fortunately this Amorphis metal is nothing like any other amorphous metal I've read so much about. Plus we already know Martin Prince loves Finland (it was his model UN country), so I figured this would be good. Also interesting is the fact that there were Central Americans and Russians and American suburbanites there to watch a dredlocked dude from Finland - such is the metal melting pot (or should I say 'smelting pot'...yuk, yuk, yuk...I am such a nerd). I'm not really familiar with their music at all (I could only identify two songs in their super-long 90 minute set) but they really did put on a great show. The drummer looks totally serene and if you couldn't hear him you might think he was some kind of jazz drummer. I think the bassist was just really really stoned though. Luckily Amorphis didn't suffer from any technical issues, like the rest of the bands, so they sounded great throughout (of course they have a magical guitar tech too...mmmm...Finnish guitar tech). Oh, what was I saying...Amorphis = great. Pick one up today!
4.72/5

Random observations, song dedications, and shout-outs:
-chain wallets?
-it's a good thing Iron Maiden has so many shirt designs or it could get embarrassing, like wearing the same dress as someone else to the prom
-shout-out to those dudes from Portsmouth (even though one of them was wearing a Ron Jeremy shirt, which A) shouldn't be a t-shirt and 2) on a dude!? (that is all kinds of wrong)
-shout-out to the very cool Mr. A with a studded DIY hoodie which has inspired my design for the forthcoming 3IoB hoodie
-I still can't get the lime to sink in the Corona bottle without soaking myself in beer (sad)
-I dedicate any and all Amporphis songs to anyone who will leave me some comments
-metal merch is really expensive ($30 for a shirt? damn.)