Metal Meltdown III
Asbury Park Convention Center - NJ, USA
Friday April 6th, Saturday April 7th 2001
Review by Rick
As
we drove down the streets of Asbury Park on our way to our hotel all I
could think of was "This place looked like a warzone". There
were abandoned buildings everywhere that reminded me more of war torn
Yugoslavia than the good ole U.S. of A. I was pleasantly surprised when we
got to our hotel as it was rather classy looking!! The Convention Center
was right across the street from the hotel so I was even more impressed
with our accommodations. After checking in, myself, EvilG and Imginessa
took a stroll over to the Convention Center to survey ground zero for
Meltdown. We received our passes and went inside to check out what was
going on. The convention center consisted of 3 stages, The Relapse Records
stage, The Digimetal stage and The Snakenet Metal Radio stage. They were
all in separate rooms so that was a great relief as many people had warned
me about the infamous curtain incidents of years past. I would have to say
that the set up was pretty good. We wandered around for awhile checking
out the bands playing on the 3 stages. Unfortunately none of them
interested me to any degree. Most were basically hardcore/deathmetal bands
who all sounded the same. If I closed my eyes and walked from stage to
stage I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. I also noticed
that the "uniform" was well represented. What is the
uniform you might ask? Black , black and more black!! Seems everyone was
wearing as much black as was possible! Very COOL! After a round at
the vendor tables we headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat and to get
charged up for the nights festivities.
|
DAY 1 - FRIDAY APRIL 6, 2001 |
This
is where the fun begins. Again myself, EvilG and Imginessa made our way
back to the convention center where after checking the other stages we
made our way to the Relapse stage where TAPPING THE VEIN were playing.
They have just been signed to Nuclear Blast Records and play a style
somewhat similar to The Gathering’s recent stuff. The have a female
vocalist, and from the few songs I saw, put on a great show. We didn’t
get to see a whole lot of them because we were nabbed by Snake (from
Snakenet Metal Radio) to attend the press conference which we had totally
forgotten about. Some of the best bands of the show were involved in this
event including VINTERSORG, Esa from AMORPHIS, Peter Tatgren from PAIN,
Peter Lindgren of OPETH, members of Diecast and Ralf Scheepers of PRIMAL
FEAR. The questions asked were of the usual variety but never delved into
anything really deep. It was more of a photo op and a chance to hear the
bands talk a bit about their music. Myself , EvilG and Imaginessa had the
opportunity to meet Mikael of Opeth after the conference was over. He was
a really softspoken guy who didn’t fit the heavy metal image at all
which was kinda cool.
We have a lot of pictures from the press conference. I
picked out the best ones and put them all on the one page here.
When we left the press conference we headed straight for the Snakenet
Metal Radio Stage as all the bands we wanted to see that night were
appearing there. This stage had all the best bands from the weekend. Kudos
to Snake!!! First one we saw was Vesperian Sorrow. They were a death metal
band out of Texas. I had never heard of them before so I can’t say what
songs they played but I liked them.
RAINBOW DEMON
Up next was one of the bands that I couldn’t wait to see, VINTERSORG.
When I had found out I was going to meltdown I started checking out some
of the bands and Vintersorg immediately caught my attention. Now that I
was here they did not disappoint in the least. The band was tight and put
on a great show. There were a couple of songs that I was hoping they would
play and of course they did! The title track from his/their latest CD
"Cosmic Genesis" was awesome as was the cover of Uriah Heep’s
"Rainbow Demon". It was also great to see the crowd so into a
band that is not yet a household name in metal.
Click for full screen
Click for full screen
SUICIDE MACHINE
The next band on the bill was PAIN. Another project of the
inexhaustible Peter Tatgren. Peter is not only a member of PAIN, he also
has his main band HYPOCRISY and owns Abyss Studios where he has produced
some great bands including Dimmu Borgir and Borknager. I must profess to
not knowing much about PAIN before the show but I have become a convert.
They totally blew the place apart! Peter was a whirling dervish. Decked
out in leather from head to toe he flew all over the stage, banging his
head at every turn and putting on one of the best shows of the weekend.
The rest of the band kept up with him as the whole crew were very
entertaining. I have to point out that PAIN does not have a bass player.
Keyboards play a large part in their music so I didn’t even miss him on
stage. PAIN were my second favourite set of Meltdown!
Click for full screen
Click for full screen
DEMON OF THE FALL
Here we go. One of the bands I could not wait to see. OPETH. Since
meeting Peter Lindgren earlier in the night I had been even more excited
to check out the band. Again I am very new to OPETH. They are one of those
bands that I just never got around to getting into till lately and judging
by the response of the crowd this was going to be a great set. I can’t
tell you what songs they played because they all began to sound alike to
me. Maybe it was the energetic set that PAIN had just preformed but I
found myself getting very relaxed during OPETH’s set. The music itself
was great but compared to PAIN their stage presence was very laid back. I
think I will chalk this one up to their position in the playlist and me
being exhausted after banging my head to the whole PAIN set.
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DIVINITY
Now we hit the last band of the night and another of the bands that I
had set out to see. Of course everything was running late so AMORPHIS only
had time for a very short set. Since the set was very short I don’t know
if it is a good indication of the band live but I must say they were
pretty lifeless. The vocalist, Pasi, stood at the front of the stage for
most of the show striking various poses and just doing his thing while
everyone else just sort of did their thing. The highlight of the set for
me was "Divinity". I was hoping for" Black Winter Day"
or "Against Widows" but I guess they were short on time. Oh well
again the music was great. I just wish the set wasn’t cut short. How can
any band come all this way and play for only 20 minutes?
Well this was the end of a long day for me, Imaginessa and the Evil
One. We retired to the hotel to recharge our batteries for the long day of
METAL that was ahead!
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