In the past year, the staff of Freakshow have organized lots of local Metal concerts, where they gave some Lebanese Metal bands an opportunity to appear on stage and share some music with the local Metal scene, but in my opinion this has been both positive and negative.
Starting with the positive side, it’s cool that local metalheads meet up every week or two, drink some beers and hear live Metal music, and it’s also good for the bands to test their skills live, play in front of an audience and have fun.
However, when I asked some old friends/metalheads if they were going to this particular concert, their answer was: ’nah I had enough from hearing the same band performing the same music.’
So it’s definitely a double-edged sword which event organizers and bands have to deal with it to keep the scene alive and entertained.
As Lebmetal.com, we try to help Metal event organizers and bands as much as we can by covering events and supporting the Metal scene. That being said, I want to encourage any metalhead with good musical background and/or good photography skills who love to make some different in the Lebanese Metal scene to join our team and help us spread the word (check this article).
Now for my review, well the LebMetal staff reviewed most of these bands’s live performances more than 5 times, and there isn’t much to say about them since that aren’t getting worse at what they do, but they unfortunately aren’t getting better either.
Starting first with the general event problems, we arrived at 8:30 pm while the fist band started at 10:15 (it should have started at 9:00), the second band went on at 10:50, 3rd band at 11:40 and at 1 AM, there were 2 bands waiting their turn to perform. It’s safe to say that by then, the majority of the crowd have already left the show after more than 4 hours. Freakshow informed me that thay had some technical problems with the PC which delayed the event…
Moreover, lots of metalheads were complaining about the entrance fees which reached 20 000LL (keep in mind that the Summer Fusion feeds peaked at 25000L.L and that was an outdoor event with better sound, bands and even access to a pool). The attendance for this event was therefore less than previous Freakshow events…
First band on stage was ‘Bassic Trouble’, an LYC band which lots of people were impressed by their performance and skills. This is their 3rd or 4th time on stage and the band played songs for bands like Avenged Sevenfold and Alter Bridge, which they performed really well with nice harmony and coordination between the guitarists, some good vocals (which still need some work, especially with high pitches), and an interesting / well varied drums solo. They also played 2 originals out of their 5-song setlist. This is a big step for the band, and I hope they keep up the good work and go live soon with a new playlist.
Second band on stage was Primal, this is probably the 10th time I hear this band live and I do enjoy hearing them, they deliver a good performance every time they hit the stage, as they electrify the crowds with known Pantera hits. Although many attendees like to hear them playing covers, others wish they would start composing originals and stop playing the same setlist at their shows.
3rd band was Kult, a Death Metal band with I personally saw more than 10 times live, the band had a good performance and played neatly, but it’s too bad that after several years of performing live, they haven’t strayed from playing covers at all, they should be working more on releasing a much-needed debut, and they have to work on their composition, their songs sound like a bunch of riffs put together in a song with different beats. They need to focus more on writing songs with more solid structure.
4th band on stage was After Dark, this is a new band which played covers for Metallica and Iron Maiden alongwith 2 original tracks. I don’t want to be mean but the band have to work alot on their performance. Before going live, they should hear what they’re playing more, know the problems and fix them. One of their problems is their own instruments, it’s not the sound engineer’s job to get the right sound of your guitars, it’s your job to fix the right sound of your pedal, and the sound engineer simply transfers your settings to the audience. The guitarist has to work on his solos, anyone can shred a scale but the target is to transfer your feelings in your playing, by adding the right vibrato and harmonies to your solos, and the vocalist should work more on his vocals.
5th band on stage was Level 7, it’s been a while since I last heard the band playing live, it feels good to hear them again, the band shown good musicianship/performance, but it’s time to focus more on continuing what they started with their originals.
6th band on stage was the surprise appearance of ‘Before we Drop Dead’, and according to attendees who stuck around after 2 AM, the band had fun on stage, danced around to their fun covers and entertaining attitudes, although the sound was rather bad by then. Hopefully next time these events might end before midnight rather than after it!
