Last week I finally got to see Skeletonwitch and it was brutal! It was one of the best performances I’ve seen in Seattle so far, and it showed me the side of the city I’d been searching for: the true metal scene. Unfortunately I was so busy in the pit, I didn’t take any notes, and barely a few pictures. It was intense to say the least, and I’m hoping for even more intensity at Unearth on Saturday. To make up for my missing Skeletonwitch report, here’s part of a letter I wrote to the editor of The Stranger magazine about a show way back in July. While the pit wasn’t nearly as full of bodies and brutality, the music was awesome, and deserved more recognition than the Stranger’s writer Joseph Schafer gave it. Here’s what I had to say about Exmortus and Holy Grail:
“If you expected trance-like progressive metal or poppy punkrock at the Highline last Saturday, you went to the wrong show. Hosting the “Fellowship of the Strings” tour with Holy Grail, Spellcaster, and Exmortus promised an evening of true heavy metal. Sadly, due to public transportation, I missed out on Spellcaster, but managed to catch their Prosthetic Record tour-mates Exmortus and Holy Grail.
Exmortus fanned the flames of a warm summer crowd, burning away the Seattle’s sleepy haze. Fans of Amon Amarth, and other melodic death metal bands will immediately fall under the spell of Conan’s demonic vocals and Moreno’s thundering drums. With new songs like “Death to Tyrants” and old ones like “War Gods”, they filled our ears with molten metal. Heavy metal has an inspirational physical energy, a bond between band and audience, that other genres lack. For every drop of sweat, every physically and technically demanding piece they play, the audience must repay the band. We must give back the energy they give us. So in exchange for Exmortus’ incredible performance, we banged our heads, pumped our fists, and shouted with all our might. Besides demanding greater speed, skill, and endurance, heavy metal requires a strong sense of classical composition, as demonstrated by Exmortus’ cover of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. Entwining arms, Conan and Rivera took a page from Stevie Ray Vaghn and his brother Jimmie for a reach-around duo guitar solo, shredding behind their backs. Let’s see an indie or pop rocker do that! They even improvised a song to our call for an encore!
Conan and Rivera’s Shredding Pretzel
The horns and hair really came out for Holy Grail. In the classic heavy metal style of DIO and Iron Maiden, Luna’s high flying vocals had the Highline chanting “No More Heroes!” Hoping to inspire some action, they called out to any viking warriors in the crowd to show their mettle, which I gladly answered. A brief break for the singer Luna and drummer Meahl let guitarists Eli Santana and Alex Lee entertain us with a dual featuring Nintendo themes from Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda. A sweet and sad ballad seduced the couples pressed together at the front of the stage, and an unrelenting chant from the small crowd of late-nighters brought on two more songs and finally opened up the pit for some necessary roughness. Personally I had been pushing and shoving for that all night long, and was grateful when a handful showed me Seattle does have some iron in their veins.
So if you’re having trouble finding the appeal of live music that redefines audience participation, or the talent of musicians that combine speed, skill, and endurance, with working knowledge of musical theory, then maybe you should stick to indie, hiphop, and R&B. Metal is a force that demands so much from the musicians, inspires so much in the crowd, and fuses both together in the heat between stage and pit. Prosthetic Records’ “Fellowship of the Strings” tour continues across the country through July and early August, and Highline’s got another heavy show this Friday (featuring Undergang, Spectral Voice, and more), so don’t hold back! I’ll see you in the pit!”
thefletchzone 