Melechesh, Rotting Christ @ Key Club
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When metal bands graduate from vans to buses, their shows get safer. These occur in mid-size clubs with good sound and professional bouncers. A crew humps their gear. A tour manager ensures that the operation runs smoothly. These are all good things, and attaining them hardly indicates “success” or financial security.
But removing the edge from shows can work too well. I go to many shows on LA’s Sunset Strip, which is lined with these kinds of clubs. Usually the bands are professional, and usually I leave feeling that I had a good time. But rarely do I leave with the feeling of blood, sweat, and exhilaration that the best underground shows have. On paper, The BLVD in LA is a bad venue: no PA, no backstage, bad lighting, bad sound. But it’s hosted some of my favorite live shows ever: Valdur, Landmine Marathon, Lighting Swords of Death, Hirax. Lower depths can yield greater heights.
So Melechesh and Rotting Christ had their work cut out for them at Key Club, the most sterile of the Sunset Strip clubs. The space bristles with modern, sharp angles. The lighting is loud and active. These things might work for a fashion show. But if you’re a metal band trying to conjure spirits of any kind, you’ll have to work extra hard here.
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A typical Melechesh beat
[audio: MELECHESH_TYPICALBEAT.mp3]
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Expectations were high for Melechesh on their first North American tour. The crowd enjoyed the set, but it slightly disappointed me. This wasn’t for lack of effort. Vocalist/guitarist Ashmedi has the charisma of ten men. His fellow axemen worked hard. But a metal band is only as strong as its drummer, and this one was weak. Melechesh’s sound depends heavily on snare drum. The “Melechesh beat” is the same as the reggaeton one. Whenever it kicked in, the crowd visibly perked up. However, this drummer’s snare sounded light and flat. Combined with the strummy nature of Melechesh’s recent material, it yielded a frictionless sound. At times the elements fused as they should – Middle Eastern scales, metal riffs, dark energy. But most of the time I just lamented the weakness of the drums.
Rotting Christ, on the other hand, looked and sounded like a fighting unit. Frontman Sakis Tolis entered the stage seemingly having exited a war; his hair was stringy, and even his clothes looked tired. But he held his head high. Emphatically looking left and right, he delivered lyrics like orders. Sometimes he marched in place along to his own martial accompaniment. It was warrior music without the usual trappings (costumes, bombast). Few, if any, American bands have this kind of presence. My favorite metal makes me feel strong but not violent. This was my favorite metal.
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