Prog Metal !!!!! Stadio Olimpico Roma 20 June
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Forum Name: Live Performance Reviews
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39231
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Topic: Prog Metal !!!!! Stadio Olimpico Roma 20 June
Posted By: micky
Subject: Prog Metal !!!!! Stadio Olimpico Roma 20 June
Date Posted: June 21 2007 at 04:23
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What a night for my first foray into the world of live prog metal. Mastadon and Iron Maiden sandwiching a extreme of non prog..acts, Machine Head and... ahhh... Motorhead. Mastadon opened things up, interesting if not exactly what I enjoy listening to usually. My usual complaints hold up.... non-existant bass and vocals that sounded great if you liked listening to growling.. not so good if you wanted to understand just what the hell they were singing. The music... very very good on the prog scale... always shifting with highly capable instrumentalists especially the drummer. I understand there was some bickering about their addition here. Bah.. they belong here. Not my thing but definitely prog-metal.. as I think many see it (more on that later). The crowd was really into them judging by the smoke wafting from the front of the stage (being old elitist farts we sat under the cover of the of the stadium roof with the families and the rest of the ...hahah.. respectable people). Liked them enough that we are heading out shortly on another album buying spree and will look for something by them to add to our collection. Next up Machine Head.... the less said the better.... terrible. Simply terrible... best clue..... the noticeable lack of fists waving in front of the stage and the increase of smoke wafting up from the front hahahha. Lots of growling.. and little melody. Was painful on the ears.... Next up ...the legends themselves... Motorhead. By then it had got dark enough for the video screens to be used. Lemmy still has it... voice, chops ( well... he can still wield that monster Rickenbacker). An hour plus of ear-splitting kick ass speed metal. Lots of solos... tons of riffs... vocals that sounded like Pavarotti in comparison to the previous acts and melody.. again... that sounded like Bach in comparison to others. Finally... the mighty Iron Maiden. I'm no expect on Maiden.... I still have not listened to a complete album by them since high school but it baffles me as to what people have against them. If having audible and distinctive bass that does more than double guitar riffs and reinforces the bass drums... intelligent... INTELLIGBLE lyrics... technical and virtuostic solos... high structured and varied compositions means it isn't prog-metal... just really what the hell IS prog-metal. Of the prog... I think that is spoken for... as far as the metal...some modern metal heads might be put off by the embarrising reminders of the glory days of metal... the hyper-posing of the guitarists.. the funny as hell stage props... having the guitarist use Eddies machine gun to play was simply priceless hahhaha. It may or not be prog metal.. but it's metal to me... and as a elitist prog head... it was prog enough for me. The show was a nice mix of the old and the new. The crowd went wild and had even the normally reserved me shaking it with pumping fists and singing along. Great show and looking forward to seeing them again when they come back to Italia next year. next up... Symphony X and ..ahhahha... Dream Theater when they come here this fall. Now that should be fun. |
Replies:
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: June 21 2007 at 04:39
heavy, man, nice to see you back |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 21 2007 at 10:03
 very heavy indeed... was a hell of a lot of fun though... |
Atavachron wrote:Posted By: paolo.beenees
Date Posted: June 21 2007 at 10:14
Mensch! My nephew was there too! On the contrary I had to look after 27 sweating students in front of their first written composition for the high school final exams...  ------------- 
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 21 2007 at 10:55
hahahhah.... that sucks... |
Posted By: magnus
Date Posted: June 23 2007 at 10:46
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Sounds like a fun experience! it's impressing seeing people being so open-minded about genres that are quite far from what they usually listen to! And if you're going to buy an album by Mastodon, I would recommend Blood Mountain, as I think the earlier albums are a bit harsher and harder! ------------- The scattered jigsaw of my redemption laid out before my eyes Each piece as amorphous as the other - Each piece in its lack of shape a lie 
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Posted By: Drew
Date Posted: June 23 2007 at 10:51
Haha- agree with you on Machine Head- they are horrible, and even more horrible live. I do remember their singer saying some very funny/intellegent things on stage in between songs, if that counts for anything
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 23 2007 at 16:23
thanks... it was actually. We went a lookin' for that album today.. didn't see it. I will still keep my eyes open... might have better luck back in the states. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 23 2007 at 16:30
hahhaha... oh hell yeah they were... open-minded or not... they SUCKED.... the only time Raff and I got knocked out of our collective stupors during their set was some funny as hell ramblings between songs... wouldn't exactly call it intelligent... but definitely funny the usual juvinile getting get drunk, stoned, and laid machoismo bullsh*t... the Italians kids weren't buying it... from what Raff and I saw... they WERE already drunk ( must have walked over 50 beer bottles trying to find our seats before the show, they were definitely stoned, you could see it.. and smell it... and judging by some of what we saw.. they were getting it on in dark corners and out of the way areas. Oh to be young again....  |
Posted By: TheProgtologist
Date Posted: June 23 2007 at 16:41
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Very surprised and pleased about your opinion of Mastodon,Micky.
I highly recommend their albums Leviathan and Blood Mountain,if you are looking to buy something from them. -------------  |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 08:48
we are looking for one... the one we've heard about is Blood Mountain. We did our homework, with samples and the such (to be honest.. to see if we needed to show up late just for the final two acts hahaha .. and we liked what we heard.. so we weren't surprised we liked them). I haven't had any luck here in Rome finding one .... so we may have to wait till we come to the states in July. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 09:11
| actually Jody.. the interesting thing... was viewing that show through the prism of PA's. I can see why some people have such a bee up their ass about Maiden... yet as a pragmatist .... I don't understand it. I think I understand why Maiden was rejected... it simply doesn't fit the vision of prog-metal if groups like Mastadon are symbolic of it. Yet for the prog fan who has a passing interest in it.. yet a complete passion for prog. I meerly see them as two halves of the same. The complexity is there...the emphasis on both composition and virtuosity is there...ie. the prog is there. The metal is there... maybe being older I can relate to the 'metal' of Maiden better since that is the 'goofy' style of metal I use to listen to (alluded to in my first post). Is simply a matter of not being.... cool ...enough? For some reason I do have some innate curiousity about PM that are obscured by the smartass comments and jokes. |
Posted By: Mandrakeroot
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 14:33
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Motorhead... One of my favourite metal Band!!! You are a pinched man!!! ------------- 
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 15:32
and you are a slapped one not on the first date Mandy.. cute as you are you big lug.... on the second date though... it was awesome Mandy... loved every second of it.. |
Posted By: Mandrakeroot
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 16:00
 is a magical album!!!-------------
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Posted By: paolo.beenees
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 16:04
I still prefer this one:
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Posted By: Mandrakeroot
Date Posted: June 24 2007 at 18:02
Uhm... But also  ,  and  are masterpieces!!!
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Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: June 27 2007 at 14:28
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Wow micky, expanding horizons eh?
Glad to see you had a good time  ------------- Follow me on twitter @memowakeman |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 27 2007 at 14:36
man can't live on RPI alone hahhahah we had a fabulous time and we did enjoy.... most of it hhaha |
Posted By: bhikkhu
Date Posted: June 27 2007 at 14:41
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If you are interested in more "good" prog-metal, you should check out Indukti. Their album S.U.S.A.R. is fantastic. They also did not disappoint at NEARfest. Trust me on this. You know how I feel about most metal. ------------- a.k.a. H.T. http://riekels.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow - http://riekels.wordpress.com |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 27 2007 at 14:44
hahahha.. the same as me I do believe. I read your review of Nearfest HT ..... sounded like a BLAST! If I didn't have...ahh.. other pressing priorities hahhah.. I would have loved to have been there and met you and seen all those great groups. Next year... the three of us definitely will go. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: June 28 2007 at 01:15
Raff told me last night that she has it....I'll take a listen to it tonight. |