Rotting Christ

A great gig from start to finish. I was pleasantly surprized to see 4 bands perform for over 4hrs for $21 a ticket. As expected Rotting Christ rocked the house.

I've come to see Melechesh and Rotting Christ live, missing the other bands mostly (but still hearing some nice stuff just as I entered the Jaxx). Melechesh: Well, they say it's their first time in the states, a fact that has astonished me given how long they exist already. Sadly at the beginning of their set, they were mixed crappily, so the first three songs were not really enjoyable. After a while that improved though, and you could see that they finally were happy with the output of their monitors, too. That's where they started going off really - I was surprised to learn that Ashmedi really has a nice voice with all the range from dark bass to bright tenor along with the typical grunts and screams. They played a couple of my favorites, especially enjoyable was double helix scepter. With the crappy mixing at the beginning though - a 3/5 from me for them. A pity, too, that only so few people came to see them. Rotting Christ: I'm a fan of them for a bit over 16 years now, and that's where they began too. Although they recently put out their new CD, Aealo, they provided a set covering most of their history, from Thy Mighty Contract over each and every one of their albums up to the current one. And boy, they've even improved in their live performances since I've last seen them on the with full force in 2008. Excellent drumming, near studio quality string execution and Sakis' voice is just beautiful (in the ears of black metal fans at least!). Luckily they took their time to enjoy themselves on the stage! a definited 5/5 from me. In sum that gives the above 4/5.

I came to this event to watch Rotting Christ play, caring little for the other bands (although I wanted to see Hate, but they must have played first because we got to the event a little late and never got to see them play). The band was extremely energetic, had great sound quality, and played for a good amount of time. I'd come back just to see Rotting Christ. We got to the Jaxx in the middle of Lecherous Nocturne's set, and they exceeded my expectations. After listening to some of their songs on Youtube, I didn't think I'd enjoy them, but they were actually pretty good. The frontman was hilarious in between songs as well. Abigail Williams wasn't too bad, but I felt like their songs went on for awhile and I got a little bored. They weren't bad, I just wasn't impressed. My friend went for Melechesh and was completely satisfied. I never got into them, and thought they were merely mediocre. The leads and solos were difficult to pick out, a lot of the songs sounded repetitive (two songs in a row had what sounded like the exact same riff, and one song was off their new album and the next off an older album), and the second vocalist's mic was REALLY loud. Every time the second vocalist got up to scream I had to cover my ears because the volume was so ridiculous (I also felt like he didn't offer anything new because he sounded just like the main vocalist, only 1000x louder). All in all the event was great, and Rotting Christ was clearly the best performer. The band members all meshed well with each other and played some great songs, and had the best sound quality of the entire event.

I went to this show not being very familiar with the all the bands' albums. Unfortunately, due to a long commute to the venue, was not able to make it to see Hate which I was looking forward to. Lecherous Nocturne put on a good show, they were a decent band. Abigail Williams were up after them, I had heard of them before, but never really listened to their music. After hearing them last night, I am definitely a new fan of theirs. Melechesh put on a good show as well. Rotting Christ was great, and I really enjoyed seeing them live (though it was funny that they ended every song by screaming YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!). Recommend this show if you like to see some good black and death metal.