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Arsis, Exmortus - Moon Room, Denver, USA - 23 Sep 2014


Event: Arsis: A Decade Of Guilt 2014 North American Tour
Written by: D.T. Metal
Published: 27.09.2014

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Arsis, Exmortus - Moon Room, Denver, USA - 23 Sep 2014 by D.T. Metal (30)


I haven't been to a show in what felt like forever, and going to the much smaller Moon Room (which is just the bar area of the Summit Music Hall) seemed a nice way to ease myself back into the swing of things. Ease ? yah right. My ass got kicked that night; my 'musical ass' that is.

For one reason or another, I missed Exmortus each and every time they had played in town and therefore I was rather excited to finally see them. And it almost didn't happen again since they were extremely late arriving at the venue. How late? Let me tell you: the touring bill consisted of (from top to bottom) Arsis, Allegaeon, Exmortus and two local bands which were added to the gig in Denver. Doors at 7pm, show at 7:45pm and I was late to begin with.

On my way to Denver I actually passed Arsis's van (they were stuck in the slow lane on I-25) but by the time I found parking and talked with a random metal head in the parking lot, Jim and the boys were loading in. Hugs, kisses, long time no see, how was the drive, where are the Exmortus guys? Nowhere to be found. Coming from Mesa, Arizona there are several ways to drive to Colorado; they took the scenic route, which of course also meant the much longer route. No big deal since there were two bands ahead of them.


I kid you not, the second local opener was on their last song when Exmortus finally showed up. Calling this too close for comfort is an understatement. After a mad dash to get all of the gear onto the stage, I was wondering if their performance would suffer from all that last minute huffing and puffing. Well - it did not and I finally got to see what some of my friends were raving about; Exmortus in all their glory.

With only 30 some minutes to play I get that Exmortus still wants to promote their latest album. And while Slave To The Sword is their best effort yet, they could have included some older songs in their set list as well and not just play the newer stuff. Despite that, their performance was awesome and I am glad I (or better yet they) didn't miss it once again.

Technical, death, melodic or what-not-ever thrash sub-genre they are labeled under, Exmortus has way too much harmony in their riffs and melody in their songs and while the power metal tag doesn't fit completely neither one thing is for sure: Herman Li watch out, there is a new sheriff in town. Seriously, when they played the instrumental piece "Moonlight Sonata (Act 3)" I was more than impressed.

I believe Exmortus found their calling, or better yet, found their sound with their last album. Yes, there is a lot of guitar 'wankering' going on, but it works, it sounds great live and it fits the overall message the band wants to convey: let's come out and party - metal is fun; or in their case - "Metal Is King". Awesome stage presence, awesome sound and I will make sure I won't miss them again when they come through town.

Setlist: Immortality Made Flesh, Foe Hammer, Moonlight Sonata (Act 3), Slave To The Sword, Metal Is King.







Up next was Colorado's own Allegaeon. Those dudes have been busy over the last couple months with releasing their third full length album (Elements Of The Infinite) back in June, finishing a tour supporting Chimaira in August and were ready the very next day to shred it up with the mighty Arsis.

Playing in front of a, more or less, home town crowd, Allegaeon didn't just bring their A-Game - they brought their A+ game. Technical as hell and it was fun watching all the guys interact with their fans. Fist bumping during the songs and having the guitars right up the fans' faces were just some of the trademarks displayed that evening.

Although Allegaeon played songs from all their albums, I believe they got the best crowd response while performing earlier material. Maybe the fans were more familiar with those songs or it just happened that way. Regardless, the energy was high during their entire set but since I was not feeling brave enough to venture upfront, there are no pictures. I'm old, get over it, I will wait until they play somewhere with a photo-pit.


Then, a little before 11pm, Arsis took the stage. Quick rant before I continue: folks, I get that you want to support your friends and hang out with them. But leaving before the headliner is just disrespectful in my opinion. If the bands were musically very different, I maybe would give you a pass on this, but come on. *shakes head* Anyway, it was not like the room cleared out, but I still noticed a much lesser crowd.

So - Arsis. Wow. I have seen them with all kinds of line-ups, even without main shredder and vocalist Jim Malone, and was so looking forward to their set. The 10th Anniversary of their debut album A Celebration Of Guilt and Arsis performing it in its entirety. Hellz Yeah!

While, as stated earlier, Allegaeon brought their A+ game, nothing could have prepared those in attendance to what Arsis brought to the table; A++ or even A+++. Shit, this really was one of their best performances I have seen; so much energy, so much fun, so much skill on that little stage. Jim was on fire to say the least and it showed that he had as much fun playing those old songs, as we had listening to them. If you have never seen Arsis live and are a technical guitar buff, do yourself a favor and attend one of their shows. Seriously, just do it.

Not enough can be said about Jim's shredding. I guess attending Berklee's in Boston, one of the most esteemed music colleges in the world, does come in handy when forming a band, but even today, after all those years, he still is a beast on his axe. With that being said, second guitarist Brandon Ellis, who joined the ranks a couple years ago, not only shines in Arsis but he was also shredding it up with Finntroll on their last North America tour and I just saw him playing with Cannabis Corpse as well. He sure is giving ol' Jim the run for his money. This kid is going places; mark my words!

While the songs played are 10 years old, they are still relevant and much appreciated by the fans. Face melting death metal while still being catchy as hell. I know, sounds weird, but that is exactly what Arsis is all about. Some songs of A Celebration Of Guilt were never played live before and Jim did a good job of explaining some of the details behind them. He was really very engaging that night, more so than I have seen before.

The mosh pit was going steady and during one song the ever so entertaining bassist Noah jumped right in the middle, fell on his ass but was lifted up right away by the fellow moshers - priceless. Another priceless moment was during the encore. After Arsis was done with the main part of the show, they did play 4 additional songs; one being a cover. As Jim explained: "We thought what song to cover and this one fits us; hope you like it" and commenced to play W.A.S.P.'s "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)", Arsis style. Awesome!







The night came to an end, way too quick I might add, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was going to Crowbar the next day, I would have stayed longer to hang out. Until next time dudes - and how about a new album?

Setlist: A Celebration Of Guilt in its entirety, Handbook For The Recently Deceased, We Are The Nightmare, Animal (Fuck Like A Beast), A Diamond For Disease.






Written on 27.09.2014 by Former boss lady. Now just a professional concertgoer... dangerously armed with a camera!


Comments

Comments: 8   Visited by: 26 users
27.09.2014 - 21:59
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Quote:
On my way to Denver I actually passed Arsis's van


I thought you're living in a Denver?
----
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27.09.2014 - 22:34
D.T. Metal

Written by Bad English on 27.09.2014 at 21:59

Quote:
On my way to Denver I actually passed Arsis's van


I thought you're living in a Denver?

nope *points to profile*
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28.09.2014 - 21:45
Machiavelli
Account deleted
I saw this tour and my Exmortus cherry was popped as well... instant huge fan... I thought Allegaeon's main strength is their dorky looking guitarist, that guy can rip... not so sure about the vox... I have a friend that is also a huge Arsis fan... I'm not so much into them and I disagree that their music is catchy... I find it a bit disjoint at times and don't like the vox as well, one of those high art bands that just doesnt sync with what I like musically.
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02.10.2014 - 03:43
-Morbid-

Saw this tour at a small club in Portland... Bumped into "Conan" from Exmortus and chatted for a while, very nice guy. It was my second time seeing them and they were a pleasure the first time too, and a very friendly group of guys. At our stop, David put down his guitar and took over vocal duties and they brought out the bassist from Arsis and announced they were going to play Malmsteen's Rising Force, at which point the drummer (who had looked confused a bit during the shuffling around the stage) asked "can we even fucking play that song?" and they amended their announcement that they were going to try to play it. The band looked like they were having fun and it was pretty enjoyable and the crowd seemed to love it.

It was a mixed show for me though. Every band played very well, but someone at the sound board really needed to be fired or replaced or something. For 3 bands that are well known for having excellent technical guitar work and lots of solos, the guitars were too low, while the drums were too high, WAY too high at some points even that they just overpowered everything. As a lover of guitar solos, it was pretty gutting to be able to see... well any guitarist from these three bands as they are all great shredding away and only be able to hear "TOMTOMTOTOMTOMTOMTOTOM" with an occasional guitar squeal in between. It got a little better about halfway through Allegaeon's set as someone turned the drums down a bit, but it was the worst it had been all night for Arsis.

It was my first time hearing Allegaeon aside from a music video or two and I was pretty impressed with them. Would have definitely liked to have seen them at a different venue/with a different sound guy where I could hear the guitar work better.

I agree that Arsis is pretty catchy at times, they have little melodies all over that stick in your head and some surprisingly catchy chorus sections (musically and lyrically). Sadly most of them were lost at my show though. I felt as though they played ACoG very well though, with a bit more enthusiasm and aggression than I ever managed to feel from the album.
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02.10.2014 - 21:27
D.T. Metal

Written by -Morbid- on 02.10.2014 at 03:43

post

yes, might have been better at the Hawthorne I imagine. Somehow I see a lot of tours playing at small clubs and shake my head in disbelief. Exmortus surprised the living crap out of me and I will def make sure I won't miss them next time around.
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03.10.2014 - 14:26
-Morbid-

Written by D.T. Metal on 02.10.2014 at 21:27

yes, might have been better at the Hawthorne I imagine. Somehow I see a lot of tours playing at small clubs and shake my head in disbelief. Exmortus surprised the living crap out of me and I will def make sure I won't miss them next time around.

Yeah, the Hawthorne guys usually did a much better job with the sound. I haven't been up to Portland much in the last few years, but a while back there was a big thing about the Hawthorne changing its policies for live bands playing and how they charge bands to play and demand cuts from merch or something different than they used to do that caused a lot of bands to look elsewhere (lots of them going to the Tonic Lounge), and apparently made a lot of concert-goers quite angry at them. On top of that, I guess it's been remodeled since I was there last into a more "country bar" style with a low stage and the sound is supposed to be worse than it was before... I dunno, I'm tempted to go to the Kreator show there and check it out since I haven't been in a long time.

"Conan" from Exmortus said he really liked the small clubs, and used the word "intimate" to describe them... I'm sure there are some other musicians that share the sentiment but I'm not sure how often that has any effect on the decisions. The first time I saw Exmortus was also in a very small club at a free show with maybe 40 people at most, and both them and the guys in Hatchet I talked to all said that they had a lot of fun at the small venues.

I think the problem with the sound in some of the small clubs is just that they try to turn it up too loud and the often cheaper sound systems can't handle it. I sorta hate that it's "not metal" to ask them to turn it down so you can actually make out the guitar solos (or whatever is being drowned out). One of the worst I've seen it was for Fallujah when they played as an opener up here with another Californian band they traveled with. I liked their EP and had listened to it several times, but I didn't even recognize my favorite track from it until it was like halfway through when they came to a calm point because it was just so fucking loud I couldn't make any of it out. Then the next (more experienced) bands didn't have it turned up so loud and the sound quality wasn't a problem for them.
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03.10.2014 - 20:01
D.T. Metal

Written by -Morbid- on 03.10.2014 at 14:26

On top of that, I guess it's been remodeled since I was there last into a more "country bar" style with a low stage and the sound is supposed to be worse than it was before... I dunno, I'm tempted to go to the Kreator show there and check it out since I haven't been in a long time.

They whaaaat? Oh wow. I hate the Hawthorne. It's stupid how they have it set up with the sound-board in the middle to separate under/over 21. The only good thing about this place is that you can take your drink outside on the patio when you have a cigarette; that's about it. And Kreator/Arch Enemy in that place is ridiculous. This should be at the Roseland!

Quote:
"Conan" from Exmortus said he really liked the small clubs, and used the word "intimate" to describe them... I'm sure there are some other musicians that share the sentiment but I'm not sure how often that has any effect on the decisions. The first time I saw Exmortus was also in a very small club at a free show with maybe 40 people at most, and both them and the guys in Hatchet I talked to all said that they had a lot of fun at the small venues.

True, some bands like the more intimate experience but it all depends on how "big" a band is. And no, their desire to play in small venues has nothing to do with where a show gets booked. It's all about the 'numbers' and which local promoter bites first.
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04.10.2014 - 02:00
-Morbid-

Written by D.T. Metal on 03.10.2014 at 20:01

They whaaaat? Oh wow. I hate the Hawthorne. It's stupid how they have it set up with the sound-board in the middle to separate under/over 21. The only good thing about this place is that you can take your drink outside on the patio when you have a cigarette; that's about it. And Kreator/Arch Enemy in that place is ridiculous. This should be at the Roseland!

The last time I was at the Hawthorne the 21+ section was still at the back of the room, and there was no access to a patio unless you were in the separate bar. According to one of the things I read about the remodel, the floor is now split down the middle from front to back, so that 21+ area can now go up to the front of the stage as well instead of being stuck in the back. I would imagine that screws up any mosh pits pretty hard (not that that upsets me any really).

Roseland is a much better venue but I have seen a lot of good shows at the Hawthorne so I have fond memories of it at least.
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