Review by Michael De Los Muertos
Photos and Commentary by Ice Maiden
I should start out by saying that this review almost didn't happen.
This was the first significant metal show in Portland in several months,
and yet Ice Maiden and I arrived totally unprepared. We'd had our
requisite pre-show drink at the Rose & Raindrop and everything
seemed like it was back in the old days (when we actually HAD metal
shows in Portland), but we hadn't yet gotten a photo pass or passes to
the show…we actually had to (GASP!) buy our own tickets! Fortunately
it all fell into place. A quick trip backstage at the Roseland before
the show secured Ice Maiden a photo pass straight up, and we were in
business. When you haven't been to a metal show in a long time you get
out of practice, but it was nice to be back among our people
(metalheads) once again.
DIABOLIC
opened this show at the Roseland Theater, playing to a fairly sparse
audience since not very many people had arrived yet. This was a good
solid band and their death metal was fairly technical and well-played.
That being said, I can't confess that Diabolic really did that much for
me. There was not a tremendous amount of energy coming from the band,
and, while fitting the bill nicely for a solid death metal opener, there
wasn't anything particularly memorable about their set. Overall I was
fairly neutral about them.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I actually really liked Diabolic.
I don't know if it is because I've reached a state of being overly
parched for metal after our recent show-less drought, but I thought
these guys were a definite notch above your average death metal band.
They started with "Infernalism" off of "Subterraneal
Magnitude", then played a set mostly from their most recent album
"Vengeance Ascending." They definitely got the heads banging!)
KRISIUN,
however, was excellent. Taking the stage as the second opener, these
gore-obsessed Brazilians churned out a frothy tide of blistering death
metal which worked over the crowd with catchy guitar work and a lot of
energy. With many bands, particularly death metal outfits, the energy
the band brings to their performance is often more important than the
music itself. Krisiun knew how to play this room. In the middle and
particularly toward the end of their set it was obvious the crowd had
been won over, and so had I. I confess to not owning any Krisiun albums,
but seeming as I'm sliding into a more death metal mood these days
(GASP!), I may be motivated to check them out.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Most of the crowd seemed there to
see either Krisiun or Dimmu. It was noteworthy as I met and chatted with
various metalheads in the crowd that most liked either one band or the
other-usually not both. Although the guys from Krisiun had some of the
best hair I've seen in awhile, and were playing with incredible energy,
I can't say they did that much for me. Still, I have to admit that their
drummer was on FIRE! As he played you could see the incredible exertion
in his face. He played at the speed of lighting, and I really thought
one of his solos was a show highlight.)
I
was quite pumped to see CRYPTOPSY. They were at Wacken 2001, and I've
always been a bit curious about them. As the group of us Wacken-ites
were on our way somewhere (the Metal Market, possibly) at the time
Cryptopsy began their set at Wacken, I didn't have much of a chance to
pay close attention to their set but I do remember hearing them in the
background and not being terrifically impressed. Thus, I was eager to
see them in a club setting and give this well-respected death band the
attention they deserve. When I did I found my initial off-the-cuff
reaction at Wacken was pretty much the correct one. Their show really
wasn't memorable at all. Oh, they had the requisite churning riffs,
pretty good vocals and a competent performance, but, like Diabolic
earlier, they didn't really grab me. I know there are legions of
Cryptopsy fans out there and I'll probably enrage quite a few of them by
giving them the brush-off here, but I don't see as Cryptopsy added much
of anything to this bill. A disappointment!
(Ice
Maiden's Commentary: I WANTED to like these Canucks-the bass player
for Cryptopsy is the one who arranged my photo pass on a moment's
notice, so I felt really indebted to them for being so cool.
Nevertheless, I have to maintain my integrity and confess that their set
was a bit of a yawn for me. The crowd seemed generally psyched, however,
and the mosh pit was at its climax during Cryptopsy's set. One
interesting thing was that they started many songs with a little
symphonic sample before laying into more traditional (but dry in my
opinion) death metal. The samples were too quick and unexpected for me
to place, but one seemed very familiar-the Lord of the Rings or Conan
the Barbarian soundtrack??? I'm not sure.)
Since
I'm getting old and this was my first metal show in several months --
meaning I'm out of practice -- I was getting a bit drowsy by the time
the main attraction finally came on. Nonetheless, DIMMU BORGIR's
powerful, theatrical entrance was as exciting a moment as any
long-awaited metal headliner coming on stage. I like Dimmu, but this is
not traditional, cold-as-ice Norwegian black metal circa 1992. I do not
agree that they're trying to be like Cradle of Filth, but you can't deny
that when Shagrath is prancing around out there vainly with his leather
skirt, he's definitely playing on the image of the band in a way very
different than how black metallers generally did it 10 years ago. But,
of course, this is Dimmu Borgir, so you expect a good show! The material
played was heavily representative of their most recent album, Puritanical
Euphoric Misanthropia, but a good sprinkling of older stuff
studded the set list as well. I think the really old guard fans of Dimmu
would probably fault them for playing the old stuff and the new stuff
exactly the same way -- which they did. As a result many of the songs
sounded quite similar.
(Ice
Maiden's Commentary: This was my fourth attempt to catch Dimmu, and
I honestly couldn't believe it that I actually made it this time! I'm a
huge Dimmu fan-I don't care that they use keyboards and aren't
"real" black metal. Enthroned
Darkness Triumphant is a friggin' classic, and their latest is
not far behind. The set list was a fairly even mix of those two albums,
with a few songs off of Spiritual
Black Dimensions thrown in. I was interested in how they would
play the symphonic intro to "Fear and Wonder." The keyboard
player did an incredible job-the intro was virtually identical to the
album, only slightly more raw. My only real complaint about their set
was the sound quality-the vocals were too low. Still, I was very happy!)
In any event, Dimmu never tried to overwhelm the audience with either
"image" or ego, and that's to their credit. Shagrath and the
others could very easily slip into kitschy nonsense (as Cradle of Filth
have been known to do), but, despite the prancing, posturing and
"grand opera" sensibility they brought to the stage, Dimmu
didn't overdo it. 
(Ice
Maiden's Commentary: Well, maybe with the possible exception of bald
Galder on guitar-he was taking his "scary face" a little too
seriously-see picture as proof). It was still about the music here.
I never felt bludgeoned over the head by the non-musical parts of the
band's presentation, so in a subtle but very important way the music
spoke for itself. I was particularly vindicated by the encore, which
everyone knew would be "Mourning Palace," and it was. There
were flashing lights and heavy keyboards and smoke, of course, but at
the root of it was a great black metal song, well played and expertly
presented. Thus Dimmu gave the crowd what they wanted, and did it well.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: One comment on theatrics-they
clearly didn't need any props. At one point Silenoz, on lead guitar,
spontaneously started spouting blood from his nose. How metal is that???
I thought maybe he had impaled himself on one of the many four-inch
spikes on his arm band…)
In
general I was impressed by the audience at this show. I expected legions
of gothy false metal teenagers in black makeup and TBPPs (Tight Black
Plastic Pants, for those of you who haven't been reading our reviews for
the past two years). Thankfully there were very few. In addition, I only
saw one Slipknot T-shirt. A fair number of old school metalheads turned
out, including just about everybody who's anybody in the Portland metal
scene. The mosh pit action was surprisingly reasonable, and nobody
seemed to get out of hand. A well-behaved crowd who's there for the
music is about the best you can ask for at a show like this. Yes,
Roseland Theater still has its drawbacks -- four bucks for a Heineken
being one of them! -- but it's still a place to see metal, and hopefully
will remain so for the future.
A good show, good friends, and a badly-needed fix of live metal --
just what Portland needed.
