In Flames, Devil Driver, Trivium, and Zao Another Swedish Grunt
metal band, I figured oh boy. On the other hand Opeth blew me away when
they came through so I keep an open mind. In Flames didn't convert me
like Opeth did but they sure as hell didn't suck. What is it about Sweden
that can produce some of the best hard musicians in the world? I've
never seen an american band come close to matching the talent of Swedish
metal bands. (speaking in the hard, death, grunt metal genre here).
It's not my preferred style of music but I have to give em credit where
the credit is due. Anders isn't screaming and grunting out vocals because
he can't sing, he's doing it because... well hell I'm not gonna pretend
to know why they do it..but I'll say it's not due to lack of options.
I have to also thank the security guys who watch my back while I'm in the photo pit. It was raining bodies for all 4 bands that played this night. From the first note practically there were surfers coming over the rail. And the only reason I didn't get swamped is the 5 Star guys. What a thankless job but I'm glad they are there and willing to throw themselves between flying idiots and my expensive camera equipment.. oh and me. Photographically speaking
this was a very off night. The lighting was for shit, very red or nuclear
powered strobes going off. which either gave me pitch black pictures
or completely blown out overexposed.. all in fraction of a second increments.
When you combine low and/or red lights and high energy hair flying performances
the results are generally shit on what I get photographwise. Or I could
have just had an off night. Or both. |
