Nonpoint / Candiria / Dry Kill Logic / Left 4 Dead
Elixur Night Club
Rockford, IL 12/10/04
by Dr. Abner Mality
There was going to be a kind of chill over this event before it ever started. Just two days prior (if that), the brutal hand of random violence reached out to rob the metal world of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, shot down while performing in Ohio. The senseless loss of such a giant in such a manner was on the minds of everybody at the Elixur Club this night.
As the cliche goes, though, the show must go on and I think there is no better way to celebrate the life of a heavy metal messiah than jamming and headbanging in tribute to the fallen. A massive crowd turned out to do just that and the result was one of the better shows to play in Rockford this year.
Left 4 Dead was the lucky local band picked to kick the festivities off. This was the first time I've seen the group since its massive restructuring. Basically, the only guy left in the band from the previous time I had seen them was manic frontman "Bud". Now joined by two new guitarists, a sampler/DJ and a new rhythm section, the band proved they deserved their slot with a really energetic show that warmed the crowd up in a hurry. I'm not totally familiar with their new material yet so no song titles will be forthcoming from me. It's an aggressive mixture of nu-metal and metalcore, two trendy subgenres, but delivered with extreme force and competence. Bud is a killer frontman well able to instigate some mayhem. The guitarists were smacking into each other like they were in the pit themselves and reminded me a lot of the dudes in Chapter Seven. Now I can't say that L4D's music is greatly original or even the kind of stuff I usually listen to, but this is a band that plays with a lot of passion and they could very well be in line for some label interest very soon.
Four years ago, I saw a band called Hinge A.D. open for Fear Factory at LT's. and just about steal the show from the cyber-thrashers. In the ensuing period, Hinge A.D. has transformed itself into Dry Kill Logic and carved out an interesting niche for itself in the metal world. They're the type of band that can open for the likes of Nonpoint one night, Six Feet Under the next and then perhaps Hatebreed the night after that. This is the kind of band I'd like to see Left 4 Dead morph into. As for tonight, DKL, under the fierce gaze of their frontman Cliff Rigano, hit the stage with brutality and soon had most of the venue under their sway. Rigano has shown a bit more vocal range on the newest Dry Kill CD "The Dead and Dreaming" but he is at his best when bellowing out some harsh growls and shouts. His more melodic, "sensitive" side is not bad, but I'm convinced most Dry Kill fans favor the heavy stuff. The rapping style from the band's first record "The Darker Side of Nonsense" is rapidly becoming obsolete as well.
Cliff offered an expected tribute to the late Dimebag, which got a rousing response. The funny thing was, the following bands Candiria and Nonpoint never mentioned Dime at all, when I expected the whole night would be full of praise for the Pantera genius.
Dry Kill finished off their relatively brief set with two of their most vicious songs, "Lost" and "Asphalt". They set the bar pretty high tonight and laid down just what most fans were there to see.
Candiria was next and this is a band unlike any that has ever played here. Definitely resisting any easy pigeon-holing, they were definitely not the standard nu-metal or metalcore stuff that most Rockford metal fans have been conditioned to see. They delivered a set that garnered a pretty good response (they definitely had a hard core of fans up front who knew all about them) but which had quite a few scratching their head s with confusion. For those not in the know, the band plays an extremely off-kilter brand of math-metal full of strangely-timed chugga-chugga riffs, jazz-influenced drumming and wildly fluctuating vocals. If you injected Meshuggah with bursts of rap and jazzy melody, you'd be fairly close to the Candiria sound.
Candiria's hyperactive African-American frontman Carly Coma is the focus of their live set. Whirling around like a washing machine agitator and constantly jumping up and down kangaroo-fashion, he's a sight for sure. Most of his vocals were of the harsh screeching variety, but he zipped in some really rapid-fire rhyming and more melodic singing as well. The band's other attention getter is their frankly amazing drummer, Ken Schalk, who beat his kit with such a loose-limbed, fluid frenzy that he stole almost all of the spotlight from the guitarists. You can tell this guy comes from a different musical background, as his drumming wasn't standard in any way, shape or form.
Just for sheer novelty value alone, Candiria delivered an interesting set, but they quite honestly lost me by the end. There's only so much whacked out math-metal picking without a solo in sight that I can stand and when they went into a much more commercial sounding tune and Carly started rapping, I have to admit I tuned out. A very adventurous group, a Thrash-head favorite for sure, but I'm just not a huge fan of their style.
That leaves Nonpoint. Let's establish one thing immediately: Nonpoint is a nu-metal band. Nu-metal is in a rapid tailspin these days and usually with good reason, but one of the unfortunate things that happens whenever a genre collapses is that good bands get tossed out with the bad. I sincerely hope this fate does not befall Nonpoint. In fact, I have respect for them because they are clearly playing what they want to and not altering their sound to desperately cling to a couple more years of life. They don't need to change their sound radically because it works quite well. Especially in the live setting, which we saw clearly tonight.
This is a VERY entertaining live band, where all four members contribute to the total package. Of course charismatic frontman Elias Soriano takes most of the stage. He has such a smooth, melodic voice that he could easily be in many other kinds of music but he has chosen hard-edged metal as his home. Smooth as that voice is, he can inject some anger into it. Thankfully he avoids the oh-so-typical soft sensitive vocal that jumps into a deep growl trap. Whipping his long dreads around with intensity, he held the audience's attention very well, with the exception of a couple of awkward long pauses.
Guitarist Andrew Goldman and bassist KB seem to be equal partners in stagecraft, which is pretty unusual. You don't often see the bassist taking command of the crowd as much as KB does. I have to take a minute to mention hulking drummer Rob Rivera. This dude reminded me of some of the football players I went to high school with. He's just as big and he gets himself so pumped up that he actually leaves his stool to stalk around the stage. In a very unique and rather cool twist, Rivera's drumkit faces the left side of the stage instead of straight ahead. That not only allows him to get up and rumble along the stage in between songs, but gives the crowd a close up view at how he plies his craft.
The set was a fiery one, with the band feeding off the crowd's enthusiastic response. The fans readily sang along with tunes like "The Truth", "What A Day" and the remake of Genesis' "In the Air Tonight", which is enjoying a lot of airplay. I hate that original more than just about any other song I've ever heard and while it will never be a favorite for me in any format, at least Nonpoint rendered it listenable with strong guitar and powerful tribal drumming. I have to say again, I am not a nu-metal fan at all and Nonpoint's music is not the sort of stuff I should be enjoying, but I have to suck it up and admit the band is a very likeable one...friendly, rowdy, mischievous. They nailed all those qualities home with a sizzling double encore of "The Same" and "Rabia", the two best songs from new CD "Recoil". The first is just so heavy and catchy while the second melds Spanish lyrics perfectly with some real angry music.
I'll always be a die-hard thrasher and metal traditionalist, but dammit, I bow to quality when I see it. Nonpoint has got quality in spades and when combined with such a strong opening bill, you're gonna have nothing but fun with them if you are man enough to admit it...