*Photography: Sharon ShapiraAs September was about to end with the Jewish holidays, the perfect treat for me was to attend to a good gig. The 29th was the best timing, although the Levontin 7 wasn't the best place.
The first band to go on the stage was EDELLOM; it is not my first time to see this band, and not my first time to review their performance, and I have to say, every show is an evidence of evolution; they're just getting better and better with every show. This simple, not too complex of a stage show, is dark, atmospheric, rising goosebumps by its cold nature of Gothic Doom Metal. The combination between the beauty and the beast is perfect, the deep and scary growls by David Nardya, this fellow knows what he's doing. On the other side of the stage was Maria Raven standing with bass guitar and singing with a gentle, clean voice, filling the air with darkness. Come the second song, EDELLOM surprised us with an unusual guest, Yuval Gur on electric violin, his beautiful performance contributed to the total cold and dark atmosphere.
All might have sounded perfect, but it was far beyond perfection, as some of the inconsistencies weren't caused by the band, but the general sound and construction of the club had made the whole situation confusing and unpleasant, when it came to acoustics. From time to time the band experienced low and unbalanced sound to the point I thought that some of the instruments are disconnected. Although the band had their own kinks to figure out, such as playing out of rhythm and out of tune which can't be blamed in such conditions. Not surprising, but still an irritating fact that in most shows like this, the opening band is just a punching bag and a lab rat for all the things that can go wrong.
PHANTOM PAIN was the second to step on the stage, with it's only original band member since their formation, Dor Midlash, and this man knows what he's doing. The heavy but also jumpy modern Death Metal mixed with a few Metalcore riffs, had woken me up from a deep sleep that EDELLOM placed upon us with their Doom Metal gloomy music. Suddenly, the urge for head bang grew and the crowd engaged with a cruel moshpit. Although, I'm not a big fan of bands having a lead singer as also a guitar player, as it can somehow detract from the performance, while the lead singer should lead and drive the audience's energy he concentrates on playing the guitar and singing. But it doesn't bother Dor much, the heavy and complex music does its job perfectly, the crowd is too busy to enjoy the show and not to pay attention on what's going on the stage.
Besides PHANTOM PAIN's heavy attitude, the interesting part comes from the both sides of the stage, the lead guitar Gal Israel had blown my mind with his solos, I couldn't spot any mistakes; his performance was accurate, impressive and fun. In the other corner of the stage, Shai Mishali on bass guitar gives an impressive show, with his enormous look; yes, he's a big guy! And he didn't stop moving for a second, always jumping and getting crazy with his bass like he's about to destroy the place. As with the previous band, EDELLOM, PHANTOM PAIN also experienced some sound difficulties, some of them were quickly solved, and some of them just make the band sound unbalanced at times. It wasn't that noticeable since it looks like the crowd had an awesome time.
Till the last band, SHREDHEAD, those guys are definitely the pros to see, smell and hear it from the first step Aharon Ragoza made on stage. A few adjustments and instructions to the sound technician and most-if-not-all of the sound problems the other two bands before had, were gone. All was balanced and good to go, the show started crazy and energetic and blew everyone's mind. The first impression was incredible, and this band could well be like a modern version of PANTERA.
Although, at the middle of the set list, between the 3-4 songs, it seems like Aharon got tired and lost his charismatic charm, and it seems like the unbalanced sound came back again, perhaps due to the clubs equipment problems. I don't know how SHREDHEAD perform on the international scale, as I had never seen going them overseas, but if they're giving a much better show than this, I would be very disappointed.
This show began like a professional marathon marathon, starting with speed and fervor and getting tired before the finish line, and it doesn't end up coming across as a convincing performance. To be perfectly frank, the end of the show was verging on boring. My conclusion from this show is that the local metal scene has a lot of work to do and to grow up much more. Even though, some of the best bands we have had performed on this stage that night, it seems like they could give much more, though some of that can be attributed to the club selection (not that we have many to choose from, unfortunately) and ending with the performance itself.
As in this case, I have to say that I can't stand Levontin 7; maybe it's not suitable for metal shows, maybe it's just a watering hole. It looks like a local bomb shelter/basement with a column stuck too close to the stage and I'm not even talking about the basic equipment they have. The second reason is the low standards we give ourselves and the audience all together; Metal as an underground genre is fun and "true" while performing in these conditions; at least we headbanged and got crazy, right?
There comes a time in a band's career where they must traverse the line between sticking with 30 people attending to your show and perform in shitholes, or bring your all and find venues more worthy of your obvious ability and potential.
