The Taste of Chaos tour rolled into town last Tuesday night, bringing St. Paul some of the best metal acts around. Unfortunately, getting into the Roy Wilkins was damn near impossible because of the Wild game occurring at the same time.
I finally found parking and made my way inside to catch the last part of Bullet For My Valentine’s set. From what I heard these guys are going places. One guy I talked to said that BFMV changed his life that night! Combining early 90’s thrash with more modern sensibilities, this UK-based band showcases their extreme musicianship in just about every song.
Next up were Arizona-based screamo heros Blessthefall, squeezed onto a tiny fraction of the main stage. They made up for it with an explosive performance that mixed tribal elements and echoey U2-esque guitar breakdowns with heaping helpings of tortured emo. Normally screamo is about as appealing to me as a needle in the eardrum, but these guys put on a good show in their limited set time.
Things started to get wild when Atreyu took the stage. Clearly a lot of people had turned out to see them and the band wasted little time in getting the crowd fired up. Singer Alex Varkatzas whipped the crowd into a frenzied roar and demanded a circle pit. The crowd eagerly complied.
The most surprising thing about Atreyu for this newbie is the singing chops of drummer Brandon Saller, who is basically co-lead vocalist with Varkatzas. Saller takes leads on most of the choruses, including their awesome new single, “Becoming the Bullâ€. Varkatzas is no slouch himself, moving quickly between clean singing and guttural screaming.
Atreyu has such flexibility and melodic sensibilities it’s a shame to see them lock themselves into an aggressive sound when they could clearly explore more commercial territory. They seemed afraid to let the energy level sag for even a moment.
Headliners Avenged Sevenfold had no such qualms. Confident as they are in their ability to bring G’n’R-flavored thrash to bear at a moment’s notice, A7X dipped into their City of Evil ballad “Seize the Day†with no apologies. The crowd in the pit welcomed the respite, but quickly resumed moshing. A punishing stream of crowd surfers swam continually overhead.
Guitarists Zachy Vengeance and Synyster Gates brought solid performances and made their complicated solos look easy. Frontman M. Shadows lived up to his name by staying mysterious even when he took off his ubiquitous sunglasses. Thankfully the band does not take itself too seriously despite the multitude of skulls on stage and their biblically-inspired name. They were only concerned about rock and making a brief tribute to our soldiers overseas.
The highlight of the night for me was Avenged’s new single, “Almost Easy†which delivers the kind of honesty not often found in rock these days. A7X brought the night to a close with their murder ballad “A Little Piece of Heaven.â€
The song, and the animated video that accompanied the performance, is hilarious and gruesome and even strangely touching. That seems to sum up this band better than one might expect. –Tim O’Regan
