After I have attended the unholy VITAL REMAINS concert and Joe Satriani's guitar clinic I close this three days Metal festivities with DEVILDRIVER. This band is the brainchild of Dez Fafara who known from his days with COAL CHAMBER. I had to make the final arrangements about the DEVILDRIVER interview (you will read it in the following days) so I lost most of STRAIGHT LINE STITCH's performance. This band is female fronted and follows the Hardcore path with some melodic breaks. The very good sound and the band's relentless on-stage presence justifies the audience's enthusiastic reaction. Alexis Brown did a hell of a job as a frontwoman and actually managed to establish a very good connection to the US metalheads. So, two thumbs up for them and a sorry from me since I missed most of their setlist.

While, the stage was preparing for IN VITRO my phone rung and this meant that Jeff Kendrick DEVILDRIVER's guitarist was ready to do the interview. So, with the kind help of the band's manager I made my way to the backstage.

IN VITRO were still on stage when I got back in the venue so I can write my opinion about them. The band from Los Angeles, California comes from the Hardcore meets Nu Metal scene (what a surprise) with some pretty heavy breaks and some prime SYSTEM OF A DOWN influences. As you can probably guess there was a lot of screaming, of jumping up and down and all this things that a core band does on-stage. This music is enjoyable for a concert but not for more than three songs since I find this genre kind of predictable and I you don't mind my saying boring. At least the rest of the audience (that comprised young ages in average) seemed that had a good time with them and that's fine with me. Unfortunately, my hope for some Metal that night went down the drain since the next band, 36 CRAZY FISTS, were also hailing from this trendy sound; so, more jumping up and down, more screaming and a lot of sweating. This particular sound is really popular in the States and this was proven by the fact that most of the fans in the front lines were actually singing most of the lyrics.

The end of 36 CRAZY FISTS's setlist found myself thinking it's time to clean my head and ears with REAL music. Yes, this would be my first time to see the British Veteran Gridcore band on stage. So, after half an hour Barney was in front of me looking extremely British and kind of crazy. Sink Fast Let Go, Unchallenged Hate came first until Barney introduced the band by simply saying as you probably know we are NAPALM DEATH and then Suffer The Children blew us away! I tell you this band after 20 years is still the best in the Grindcore scene. Mitch Harris was really solid with his fast shreds and backing screams while Danny Herrera managed to stay alive behind his drum kit blasting his arse off! Of course, Nazi Punks Fuck Off was the best way to say goodnight; yeah, I tell this is Metal! Just take a look at their setlist that was performed with limited pauses during which Barney share some words of wisdom with his phlegmatic British and honest attitude. I felt really good and satisfied with their performance that lifted all the core clouds that misted my thoughts.

Setlist:

01. Sink Fast, Let Go
02. Unchallenged Hate
03. Suffer The Children
04. Silence Is Deadening
05. Fatalist
06. Continuing War On
07. Stupidity
08. Breed To Breathe
09. The Code Is Red? Long Live The Code
10. When All Is Said And Done
11. Greed Killing
12. Scum
13. Life
14. The Kill
15. Deceiver
16. You Suffer
17. Nazi Punks Fuck Off

While waiting for DEVILDRIVER I realized that the majority of the audience was there for this band. Their last album is really very good and has more depth than it seems from the first spins. After a small intro with an impressive light show DEVILDRIVER entered with the heavy and fast Not All Who Wander Are Lost spreading waves of enthusiasm all around.

Dez Fafara is a a charismatic frontman and that was proved by his very first minutes on stage; he immediately connected to the fans who responded with a large mosh pit that dominated the center area of the arena. Their response made Dez to stage dive and sing upon the fans hands. The band gave an excellent performance while moving all around the stage. The problems with the bass guitar made them stop playing for some minutes but this did not annoy the delirious fans who enjoyed Dez's presence and his small talk. I really enjoyed and banged my head during Burning Sermon, Head On The Heartache or Sin And Sacrifice. Despite the high volume, the sound was crystal clean and you could enjoy the twin guitars and the catchy shredding riffs. So, after one encore with Meet The Wretched and End Of The Line DEVILDRIVER left everyone satisfied and soaked in sweat. I think with these live performances and albums like the last one, DEVILDRIVER will make all their way up to the top. Here's their setlist:

01. Not All Who Wander Are Lost
02. I Dreamed I Died
03. Clouds Over California
04. Horn Of Betrayal
05. Grinfucked
06. Nothing's Wrong
07. Fighting Words
08. Burning Sermon
09. Sin And Sacrifice
10. I Could Care Less
11. Guilty As Sin
12. Hangman's Noose
13. Head On A Heartache
14. Meet The Wretched
15. End Of The Line

(photos by me)

STRAIGHT LINE STITCH

IN VITRO

36 CRAZY FISTS

NAPALM DEATH

DEVILDRIVER