Reverbnation
Opening this night of extreme metal was local death metallers Reverend Kill...Not a whole lot to say, really. Yes, these guys are pretty solid, but after seeing them 3 days before, there wasn't a whole lot of surprises in the bag. Just solid death metal.
Weapon
Now here's a band surviving solely on word-of-mouth alone...And not a whole lot more. Not to say this band is bad, but their music is about as creative as their band name. Coming across as almost a poor mans Deströyer 666, it's essentially a lot of decent riffs flung together haphazardly. Typical opening act material, right here.
Withered
Was this band good or bad? Honestly, I could not for life of me tell you anything about how this band sounded. What makes this even more odd was the fact that I was present (and sober) throughout the entire set. "Wall of noise" would be just about the only way to describe what I heard here. Not the bands fault, mind you. You could have replaced anything coming through the speakers with the sound of the inside of a jet engine and there really wouldn't have been much of a difference. The sound guy seemed to just have cranked everything as high as it could go, then walked away, making the music being played in this set totally indecipherable.
1349
Just flat-out awesome. Reminiscent of a live Watain set (minus the dead animals), this is a band with stage presence. Unlike Watain, these guys projected the same atmosphere of menacing ferocity with absolutely no stage set up...Hell, there's barely even a stage at The Distillery! Combine that stage presence with material that seemed to pick up a whole other dimension to it in the live setting and what you've got is a band that really gave the headliner a run for their money. Even their most typical, bland tracks seemed like black metal super-hits here.
Marduk
Remember when I said 1349 almost stole the show? Well, that's because the only thing that gave Marduk the edge was the crowd size/density, otherwise, it was neck-and-neck. Atmosphere goes a long way, having that extra couple dozen people crammed into the club can make the difference between seeing a great concert and having a real explosive party. Aside from a slightly warmer crowd reception, Marduk's set seemed to pick up seamlessly where 1349's left off. Stripped-down set with great menacing stage presence? Check. Material sounding better live? Check.
...And yes, they totally played your favourite song, and you missed it.
*Photos courtesy of Lemski
