GODLESS IV TOUR

Sometimes the Devil smiles upon his children and delivers an unlooked for gift. That’s what happened to The Good Doctor when he got an envelope from Milwaukee’s infamous venue, The Rave. Within that envelope was a multitude of “comp” tickets delivered to long time patrons of the venue. Some were for HELLOWEEN playing on April 21, some were for the diabolical “Godless IV” four featuring four of the most sulphuric and irreligious bands on the planet. Hmmm, which to see, which to see?

You know which I picked already. Why not get baptized in black blood instead of eating pumpkin pie? Sorry, HELLOWEEN, I will catch you guys later, God willing…OOPS!

I’m lucky I left my lair when I did. Hwy. 43 heading into Milwaukee had tons of backups and a lot of one lane driving that slowed to a crawl. The week before, the area had been inundated by a flood of Biblical proportions…was it God trying to keep us from blasphemous metal mayhem? I couldn’t be sure. I made it to the Rave a lot later than I would have liked. First obstacle was the ridiculous venue parking lot, now charging $40.00 for the privilege. Not if I was scorched by the very fires of Hell would I pay such a ridiculous sum. So I passed it by and prepared to park in the depths of the hood…

I spotted a small church nearby where a sign out front said “Parking $15.00”. That was more like it. I pulled easily in and gladly forked over the cash to a pleasant lot attendant. “The money goes to help our church,” he explained. “Jesus thanks you!”. If only he knew!

Made my way inside and discovered that the show was being held at the “medium” stage on the ground floor. Are they trying to get people killed?! This show should have been in the big Eagles Ballroom upstairs. Instead, a vast multitude of metal fans were crammed into this smaller space. That made it almost impossible for me to take decent pictures…I apologize for those. I found out that the upstairs was being reserved for some Mexican band called “El Flaco”. That explains all the  cholos in black cowboy hats and checked shirts heading up the stairs. Not only that, but the basement stage was open for a performance by BUCKETHEAD the same night. They sure like to pack ‘em in at The Rave!

The mighty IMMOLATION drew the opening slot on this tour. In terms of sheer talent and originality, they should be the headliners. They’ve been playing the darkest of death metal for almost 40 years and have been getting better with every single release, the latest of which is “Descent”. They aren’t flashy or theatrical, they are just extremely good at what they do.

I made it into the already stuffed Rave Stage in the middle of IMMOLATION’s first track,  “These Vengeful Winds”. The opening slot forced them into a set of a mere eight songs, which is a shame for a band with such an amazing back catalogue. Well, they sure made the most of it. The crowd was already hungry for some classic death metal and they got it! I just love the way Bob Vigna plays live…he has such a theatrical way of doing it, but not at the expense of the music. Ross Dolan…this guy is one of the best death metal vocalists today and has been since the late 80’s. Just a hair-raising growl and yet so articulate…all while playing picture perfect bass.Alex Bouks, who has been with the band quite a while now, has always been a pretty laid back presence on rhythm guitar. That didn’t change, but I did detect a slight increase in intensity, which is good, because the last time I saw the band, he was almost falling asleep on stage. And as always, Steve Shalaty delivers brutal but precise drumming to drive everything forward.

Five of the 8 songs came from the new album “Descent”, so they are really pushing it hard. It’s a great album, so why not? Showing they don’t forget their roots, they went all the way back to the very first song they ever recorded, “Immolation”, which showed that even back then, they could still bring it. I wish these guys could reach the same heights that BEHEMOTH did, because they totally deserve a long headlining set that really digs into their back catalogue.

ROTTING CHRIST from Greece is a legendary band in their own right and for sure, the most “different” of all the acts playing tonight. I confess I’ve never been a huge fan of their recorded work, although I appreciate it, but I first saw them live at Milwaukee Metalfest not long ago and was quite hypnotized by that performance. This is not a band motivated by speed in the least…they play very deliberately paced epics with a very dark, almost ecclesiastical sound rooted in their homeland. I wondered what their reception would be, but the crowd was into them from the very start.

They certainly can’t be mistaken for anyone else. Most of their tracks sound like they could have come from a monastery inhabited by metalhead monks, complete with lots of chanting mostly in Latin and ancient Greek. Like IMMOLATION, they got saddled with an 8 song set, but because their songs tended to be longer anyway, they were on stage a bit longer. Backing tracks provided keyboard atmospheres and chants to enhance the songs. The Tolis brothers, Sakis and Themis, are still the bedrock of ROTTING CHRIST, but the band is a complete unit on stage.

The songs “Like Father, Like Son” and “Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy” to me seemed to be the most majestic, with hypnotically huge rhythms and flow. But I will say that by the time the last track “Grandis Spiritus Diavolos” rolled in, the music was all starting to blur together. One cool exception was a fast and furious cover of THOU ART LORD’s “Societas Satanas”. A faster song would serve ROTTING CHRIST well now and then. But the crowd was really into them and very appreciative all the way through.

Can we have a more anti-Christian band than ROTTING CHRIST? Not an easy thing to find, admittedly, but DEICIDE says “hold my beer”. The veteran Satanic death metallers have proven impossible to kill, despite lead singer Glen Benton saying he would die at age 33 “just like Jesus”. Glen has to be pushing 60 these days, so no early grave for him. I’m quite surprised they accepted an opening role for anybody but SLAYER,But here they are in Milwaukee nailing the Carpenter to the cross and preparing the way for BEHEMOTH.

You know just what you’re going to get with these guys. Where IMMOLATION have an almost progressive sound to their death metal and ROTTING CHRIST rely on Mediterranean atmosphere, DEICIDE just hit the stage in street clothes and blow the speedometer into fuckin’ orbit. They took the SLAYER approach and doubled it. I do admit I miss the days when the band was more theatrical and Glen wore an outfit festooned with giant spikes that fans would throw raw meat at. Oh, the innocence of youth…

The DEICIDE set was slightly longer than what had played before and they packed it full of the band’s greatest hits. “Sacrificial Suicide”, “Dead By Dawn”, “Scars of the Crucifix”...they were all there in their cyclonic glory. I thought Benton’s stage presence was rather laid back and lackadaisical at times…surely it couldn’t hurt to have some over the top antics…but the guy can still play like a blast furnace. His grumbly vocals were the cartoony growl that this kind of death practically demands. I’m not !00% sure who is in the band these days…Jack Owen is apparently gone…but Steve Asheim is still manning the kit and sounding like a machine gun. These dudes all hit their marks and the set was as tight as it gets. A highlight for me was “Once Upon The Cross”, which is one of the most advanced DEICIDE songs with some beautiful lead work. After a Satanic whirlwind of a set, the band concluded with “Homage For Satan” and quickly took their leave.

I must confess, I have not been a big BEHEMOTH fan the last 15 years or so. They just kinda rolled off of me like water off a duck’s back. I almost considered taking my leave after DEICIDE but the night was young, I was in on a comp ticket and what the hell? Once again, it was kind of a joke that these guys were playing the Rave Stage instead of the ballroom. People were crammed into the venue to an uncomfortable degree. I had to settle for being on the far right of the stage, near the entrance to the room. My days of elbowing through crowds are pretty much done.

I may not have been a BEHEMOTH fan walking into the Rave, but I sure left as one. This was one of the most entertaining black metal performances I have ever seen. It was visually perfect, with a tremendous light show and Nergal and his pals looking perfect as face painted ghouls from the netherworld. They 100% looked the part and their stage movements were flawless. They were theatrical without being overbearing and not only that, but musically, they were on fire.

They blasted right into “The Shadow Elite”, which was a killer opener. I admit I’m not super familiar with BEHEMOTH’s music, which was an advantage in a lot of ways. I came into the show as a BEHEMOTH virgin, so much of this was fresh. Freshness sure doesn’t hurt at a live show. How to describe the band’s style? Amazingly enough, they came across to me as a great combination of all the previous bands that played. There was a dark and elegant death metal edge ala IMMOLATION, some great atmosphere and melody as in ROTTING CHRIST and, when necessary, just blazing speed and evil ala DEICIDE. Somehow they had all of these aspects.

They got a total of 14 songs including an encore of “O Father, O Satan, O Sun”. The arrangement of the tunes was excellent, ranging from the war-like march of “Conquer All” to the slow dark melody of “Bartzabel” to the blazing “Ov Fire And the Void”. The best part of the night for me was when they laid into a cover of BATHORY’s “The Return of Darkness And Evil”, showing that they still remember where this all began. Nergal was the perfect host to initiate us into this dark occult world…a great frontman!

So there was joy in blasphemy this night in Milwaukee. Isn’t that the way it always is? I found out I slept on BEHEMOTH, but now I’m awake. This was a pleasant surprise all the way around.