02.06.2004
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION TOUR
MACHINE HEAD - GOD FORBID - 36 CRAZY FISTS
Tuesday  May 11th 2004 The Quest in Minneapolis MN
 

 

report by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild  

all fotos ©  by Matthew Haumschild

The public use of these fotos is strictly prohibited without written permission.


INTRO
36 CRAZY FISTS
GOD FORBID
MACHINE HEAD
INTRO
I was a bit disappointed that Arch Enemy could not make this tour. It would have made for an interesting show. Considering how Machine Head did on the nights show, I guess I can’t blame AE for not coming rather or not Angela Gossow had a throat infection or not. Although, if they had shown up there would have been more in attendance. No matter, this is still a solid show regardless.
36 CRAZY FISTS
Just the name baffles me. From Alaska, you don’t see very many acts except Jewel come out of Alaska, a metal act to boot! If I were to describe their sound, I would classify them as Modern Rock meets Hardcore. I say this, mainly for the singing style. The singer would go into vocal patterns reminiscent of System of a Down then sound like the singer from Earth Crisis. In the begging of a few of their songs, they did have nice guitar intro’s with some cool effects. Frankly, I wish more guitar players did that and not so much just some feedback effect. To be honest, this band wasn’t good enough to write home about let alone write a review of them. The music wasn’t that original, they had a few good riffs here and there but that’s it. Nothing that really grabbed my attention. Some of the fans liked them, but I have seen better local bands.



GOD FORBID
I still remember the first time I saw these guys, it was in 2000 when they opened up from Opeth and Nevermore in Arizona. They even played before Angel Dust! Even then, I knew these guys were going somewhere. Look at them now, co-headlining with Machine Head, playing on the jägermeister tour, playing a few Ozzfest dates, new record that is doing well with a video that’s on MTV from time to time as well as Much Music’s Uranium. I just knew it. God Forbid came on stage and just with the first song, put 36 Crazy Fists to shame. It wasn’t even funny, they came on with some new material and the floor was just going at it. God Forbid has, in my opinion, one of the best drummers touring. In fact, I’ll go as far as one of the greatest drummers of all time. The drummer was like a prying mantis! He played so fast, so many different beats, shit, that I  haven't seen anyone do with a snare drum! 

During sound check, I noticed that he had a different sound per kick drum. What that means is that one kick drum would have just the bass sound the other kick drum would have a click to it. My God, he would play one rhythm with one kick and play something totally different on the other. I have no other words to speak about this. He’s a God of drumming up there with Igor Cavalera of Sepultura and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater. The rest of the band was great too. they had a pit going on and off. I also noticed, for you guitar players, that the guitar cabinet they were using were flat and not angled. This is also highly unusual for a metal band. They were also using a guitar cabinet I had never heard of, but they were using Peavey 5150 heads which makes all the difference anyway. God Forbid, over all was awesome. They played a nice mixture of old stuff but they mainly played new stuff of which I am not familiar with. Go see them , they are well worth it.

MACHINE HEAD        

The band I came to see. This is another band of which I hadn’t seen since I lived in Arizona. I saw these guys when they toured there “Burning Red” album. I also saw these guys @ Ozzfest 97’ (the greatest show ever) and with Pantera and Coal Chamber in 98’. The band opened up with “Imperium” from there latest release. Including myself, the whole place erupted at the intro of the song. Then after Robb Flynn yells “Hear me now!” The entire place, including the balcony, went nuts!  I would say a good majority of the crowd  knew the words. The crowd below me went into a large frenzy. There weren't a lot of people at this show, which was disappointing, but the ones who did show, where the hardcore fanatics like myself and everyone got into everything they did. With just that opening song, in my eyes, put themselves back in the upper echelon of metal royalty. 

After that they played “Take my Scars” and of course, this is a Machine Head classic and for sure now, everyone was singing along. Another interesting part of the show was when  they played “Burning Red” because it’s such a long and slow song. they pulled it off well though same with Descend the Shade of Night. Even though they played them well, I thought it dragged a little bit. Before I tell you what happened during “Blood For Blood”, I have to mention to you this: Minneapolis specifically is known for large and very violent “circle pits”. Whenever Biohazard comes through town, they want to see it. And a few other bands in the past have wanted to see just this like Sepultura, Fear Factory and Slayer have also commented about the “Minneapolis Circle Pit”. Machine Head now wanted to see it, so during the middle of “ Blood For Blood” Robb (singer) demanded to see it, and that’s what he got! There bust have been 300 people in this circle pit jamming along to this song. You would have had to have been there to see it words can not describe this. 

Robb Flynn had mentioned that the next night they had off so they were going to get all fucked up, so one of the guitar roadies made a mix drink with I guess a ton of alcohol and gave it to Robb, he drank some of it, and
Robb was like “God damn!” and some nut in the front row started to chant “Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug,”and to my surprise, the whole place started to chant  this and of course Robb drank the whole thing. Then...he pointed at the person who started it and got him on stage and made him do the same! It was great. After “Descend” Robb had mentioned that since they had the day off tomorrow, that we were all in for a treat because they all wanted to have a good time, they asked the crowd to pick out a cover song. He would name the band and the album and we would scream. 1. Black Sabbath “Paranoid”, 2. Iron Maiden “Number Of The Beast”, or 3. Metallica “Ride The Lighting”. The crowd opted for Metallica, then Machine Head went into “CREEPING DEATH”! It was down tuned by at least two steps, that song didn’t exactly sound right, the noted were just too low. He sounded great singing it , the drums were on, and Phil Demmil performed the solo to spec. Awesome show.

setlist

1. Imperium
2. Take my Scars
3. Blood, Sweat, Tears
4. None But My Own
5. Left Unfinished
6. Ten Ton Hammer
7. Trephination
8. Burning Red
9. In The Presence Of My Enemies
10. Blood For Blood
11. Descend The Shades Of night
12. Creeping Death
13. Davidian
14. Block


Overall, 36 Crazy Fists I could have done with out. God Forbid was great. Machine Head demonstrated that they are the most underrated acts out on the planet today. They are the best band in America, they proved it to me that night, they proved it to me with their last album and they keep proving it every effort they put out. I would put this band up again any band in Europe any day of the week. Last month, there was a tour out there called “The Ultimate Battle” like a battle of the bands with In Flames and Killswitch Engage. It should have been Inflames Vs. Machine Head. If that were to happen the world would explode.
I can’t say anymore, words cannot describe how well Machine Head played that night, the words above is just scratching the surface.

36 Crazy Fists 5/10
God Forbid 8/10
Machine Head 10/10


Matthew  Haumschild 

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