Metal Meltdown III
Asbury Park Convention Center - NJ, USA
Friday April 6th, Saturday April 7th 2001
Review By Rick
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DAY 2 - SATURDAY APRIL 7, 2001 |
Day
2 started off with breakfast. Metal Mistress finally showed up and myself,
Imaginessa, Metal Mistress and EvilG went out to have a bite to eat. I’m
sure everyone knows that cheeseburgers are the best breakfast food and
pepsi! Anyway, after a short meal at Fred’s (or Satan's) Diner we
headed back to the Convention Center. By this time it was after lunch so
we just walked around taking in some of the bands from each stage. I have
to say that there really wasn’t nothing that appealed to me. Lots of
growling generic death metal bands that, like Friday’s groups, sounded
too much alike for my tastes. One band which did catch my attention was
NECROCIDE. These guys played a great set of thrash despite playing to a
very small but attentive audience. I had hoped to catch the set of a local
New York band called EVOLUTION but walked into the room just as they were
finishing. I however did get to meet the guys and they were great. Since
nothing else was catching our attention, we headed back to the hotel to
get ready for the great lineup that was arranged for later on Saturday
night.
The Snakenet Metal Radio Stage was where all the action was going to be
tonight so we all headed there early to make sure that we got good seats.
We did get damned good ones too, front row just to the right. Perfect
spot!! The first band to play when we got in there was TEMPERED STEEL.
With a name like that I was hoping for at least a good classic metal band
and I was not disappointed. These guys were great. Look for more from this
up and coming Utah outfit.
IT WON’T DIE
What can I say about the next act? If you want to see some good old
fashioned blood spitting and cadaver bashing look no further than the
mighty IMPALER. Not content to just come out in their jeans and t-shirts
and play their tunes the band put on a great theatrical show. The set
opened with two , for lack of a better term, zombie doctors carrying out a
corpse in a sheet. They unroll it and try to bring the cadaver to life.
After beating the pulp out of this guy he comes to life and starts belting
out the tunes. I am very unfamiliar with Impaler so I am not exactly sure
what songs they played. It didn’t really matter though cause the music
was great and the show was awesome. Towards the end of the set the singer
grabs a head impaled on a long spike and proceeds to rip its throat apart
and drink its blood. As you can see I got a great shot of this whole act!.
To finish off the show the zombie doctors try to kill their blood soaked
leader. Unfortunately for one of them he turns the tables and rips out one
of their livers and proceeds to stomp all over the stage chewing off
pieces and spitting them into the audience! Awesome!! The crowd loved
these guys and I must say they were totally METAL!!!!
Another band with some potential in their name was GUARDIANS OF THE
FLAME. Another powermetal name if there ever was one. My heart dropped
when I saw the singer come out holding what appeared to be a sheet with
the lyrics. Seems the real vocalist was not there and this guy was just
filling in. He did an admirable job for not being familiar with the songs.
At the end of the set the guitar player announced that he and the bass
player had been original founding members of Virgin Steel which leads me
to believe that on guitar was none other than Jack Starr. I have to admit,
he did some awesome leads and did his best to keep it all together. I
would really like to see them when they have their full unit together.
After GOTF was RED RIGHT HAND. These guys were kinda bland hardcorish
metal with a big bald lead singer. This guy looked like he could beat the
crap out of the New York Giants defensive line and still not spill his
beer.
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DRAGONS OF THE NORTH
Viking Metal invaded Asbury Park next in the form of EINHERJER. As if
the blood that was left over from the IMPALER set wasn’t enough,
EINHERJER come out covered before the show even starts. Before I journeyed
to The States I checked out some EINHERJER vowing that I would catch their
set at Meltdown. Lead singer Ragnar Vikse tried his best to get the crowd
into the show. He didn’t have much trouble as it seemed that they were
more popular than I had imagined. They put on a great show and played it
up to the crowd through the whole set. The highlight for me was
"Dragons of the North". A song that I couldn’t get out of my
head for weeks before I set off for New Jersey. They were one of the
highlights of the weekend.
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NUCLEAR FIRE
PRIMAL
FEAR! One of my favourite bands at the moment and the band that I came all
the way to see. In anticipation of the best performance of Metal
Meltdown I saved the bones in my neck for an all out headbanging,
neck wrecking, vertebrae crushing experience. This was the first ever
North American show for PRIMAL FEAR and I couldn’t wait to see history
in the making. The band came onto the stage and launched into "Angel
in Black". Ralf stalked all over the stage like an animal and Mat was
a mad man as he went from one side of the stage to the other. These guys
really know how to put on a great performance. Ralf had great presence
often leaning over the stage towards the crowd encouraging them to join in
each song. Because they were only scheduled for 50 minutes there was very
little talking in between songs as they tried to fit in as many songs as
possible. Since I didn’t write these down as I was too caught up in the
awesome show, the ones that I remember are "Angel in Black" ,
"Chainbreaker" , "Silver and Gold" , "Nuclear
Fire" , "Eye of an Eagle" and "Final Embrace".
Before I knew it the show was over. Fortunately, PRIMAL FEAR came back for
an encore. And it was the grand daddy of all encores. "You’ve Got
Another Thing Coming" by Judas Priest. The crowd went absolutely
wild. An awesome way to end their inaugural North American
appearance.
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VIOLENCE AND FORCE
I pity the band that had to follow that awesome show. Well, somebody
had to do it and that somebody was Canadian band Exciter. I was lucky
enough to meet them earlier in the night which only fuelled my need to
hear "Violence and Force". I would be happy to hear this one
song. Unfortunately there was a mass exodus after the PRIMAL FEAR set. It
was their loss. Exciter put on a very energetic set. Again I didn’t
write down what songs they played but I was happy as the played the best
of all their tracks "Violence and Force". What a night so far
and there was so much more to come.
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ON AND ON
As you can probably tell by now, The Snakenet Stage turned out to be
our home for most of the show as it happened to have most of the best
bands. After Exciter left the stage the crowd was treated to the high
energy set from NWOBHM legends RAVEN. I am not much of a RAVEN fan so all
I wanted to hear was "On and On" from the "Stay Hard"
album. Of course they played it for the set closer and the place went mad.
Me included. That has been one of my favourite songs for a long time and
hearing it played live as The Gallagher Brothers went nuts all over the
stage just blew my mind!!!
THE SMALL HOURS
Damn. There are still 6 bands left to play tonight and I haven’t
moved in hours!! HOLOCAUST comes on next and even though they are NWOBHM I
am so tired from sitting/standing/headbanging in one spot that I have to
take a walk. No one of any interest is playing at the center stage so I
head over to the next stage. I am surprised to see the all girl band MIMIC
playing. I had hoped to catch their set and they are just finishing up
when I got there. Too bad!! What I did see was pretty cool and I did get
to meet Tina the vocalist and Carla the guitar player. Very cool. When I
did get back to HOLOCAUST they had just started "The Small
Hours". Of course everyone knows this as the song that Metallica
covered on their "Garage Days Re-Revisited EP". Perfect timing!!
Again I got to see the only song I wanted or knew.
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FORGED IN FIRE
Now that the schedule has been thrown out the window and all the bands
are way behind time, its ANVIL’s turn to please the metal masses. Lips
has got to be one of the funniest guys in metal. He struts around the
stage making funny faces every few minutes. What a great showman. The band
was great too. I was thoroughly enjoying them until the band was informed
that the set had been cut down to 25 minutes from 40. Lips just had time
to squeeze in my 2 favourite songs "Forged in Fire" and
"Metal on Metal". For some reason the house lights were never
dimmed during Anvil’s performance. I don’t know if it was the bands
idea or someone in the crew fucked up. Anyway, at the end Lips said
something to this effect "To the people who came to see ANVIL....
Thanks!!!. To those who didn’t Fuck You!! And also a big Fuck You to the
monitor guy who just said Fuck You to me!" I would have to agree with
him. They were awesome and to have their set cut short was a total rip
off. They were easily one of the better bands of the weekend.
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NO PLACE FOR DISGRACE
This is turning into a really long night and there are still so many
bands to see. (and this damn review is getting way too long.) Another of
my must sees of the night was FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. I have to hand it to
Eric AK, he still has a killer voice. The standout song was
"Hammerhead". I don’t know what was with the purple shorts but
please get rid of them. PLEASE!!!!!!!
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GRIM LUXURIA
It was at this point that I was left alone as EvilG retreated to the
hotel and I was left to sit through THE UNHOLY. I can describe these guys
in one word.. NEXT.... Anvil had to cut their set short for this garbage?
With that out of the way up came heavy doomers WARHORSE. They put on an ok
show but it was getting late and the band I really wanted to see was
CATHEDRAL. After some technical glitches and a lot of screwing around
CATHEDRAL hit the stage. Lee was upset from the get go because their set
had to be cut short. I will say it again! Why come all the way to New
Jersey to play for 20 minutes. The band made the most of it and ripped
through some of their best tunes including "Ride",
"Midnight Mountain" and "Hopkins Witchfinder General"
at the end of which Lee hung himself symbolically with his microphone
cord. This was supposed to be the last song but they were allowed to play
one more which turned into "Utopian Blaster". Before the song was
even over Lee slammed his mic down and stomped off the stage. Great set. I
ran into him and Leo in the hotel the next day and they were real nice
down to earth guys! Well that was the end of the show. ELECTRIC WIZARD
didn’t even get to play and we were all sent home. Two days of metal and
it was hard to believe that it was over. I trudged back to the hotel and
retired to my room, too tired to even seek out a party. Oh, and one more
thing. To whomever pulled the fire alarm in the hotel at 6 am. Read the
quote from Lips above. Metal Rules!!
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