Dillinger Escape Plan

support Ephel Duath + Poison The Well
author PP date 09/12/04 venue Forum, London, UK

This was probably the heaviest gig I've ever been to. Three screaming/growling-only metal bands for a total of 3 hours. I'm glad I survived from all the circle pits formed around the standing room.

Ephel Duath

The show as kicked off by Ephel Duath. Their sound was weird as f*ck. They have metal-like guitars and screaming combined Spel Drathwith jazz. They actually have a trombino as a big part of all songs by them. Imagine Converge/Hatebreed style riffs and screaming. Done? Okay now imagine a jazz/lounge session in the middle of one of those songs. That's how Ephel Duath sound like. Strange? Indeed.


Poison The Well

Next on line we had Poison The Well. They were known by nearly everyone on the crowd, so the half-empty Forum (1,500-2000 people present) was singing (well, screaming really) along to their songs. They played a great live show. The best part was when their vocalist jumped on the crowd to do some crowd surfing while screaming to his mic. I'd like to see Chester (from Linkin Park) do that after him hahah! Anyway, Poison The Well lit up the crowd, and everyone was moshing already during their second song. In fact, this could've just as well been a co-headline show because Poison The Well played at least 45 minutes on stage.


Dillinger Escape Plan

Now to the actual headlining act, namely Dillinger Escape Plan. Here's a one word description of their music: Chaos. And their stage show: Chaos. And a two word description for the crowd-area: Circle Pit. I'm not exaggerating a single bit. That was probably the biggest circle pit I have ever seen during a gig. It's diametre must have been at least 15 metres if not more, and it covered more than half of the stalls-area! To add some intensity into this - they aren't just your ordinary circle pits from gigs like Papa Roach, they are hardcore boxing areas. I mean it. People were twisting around with their fists ready and beating each other up in the circle. Whenever someone joined in the circle he went through it looking like a wannabe karate/kung-fu professional, trying to cause as much damage as possible. Personally I've never enjoyed that but I guess people have better things to do than to listen to the actual gig!

Their stage show was chaotic. Their vocalist wasn't just jumping or walking around, he was nearly flying across the stage from one end to another, similar to the pinballs in arcade caves. He jumped on speakers, climbed on the sets, ran across right in front of the stalls and most importantly, screamed senselessly throughout the whole gig. But it wasn't just their vocalist that was crazy. The guitarist did something I didn't believe I'd ever see - jumped into the crowd with his knees to play a guitar solo while being thrown around in the air by the crowd. It was incredible. I'd give them a 10'er if I just judged them on their stage show. But unfortunately that's not the only factor that counts in. You see, I don't think I understood a word of what the vocalist sang in a single song. That's okay though, you can do that in a nice way. But their sound is just too chaotic to be experienced live for me. At the very rare times the vocalist actually used his voice cleanly, it sounded pretty good. It's a shame he doesn't use his voice more often as he clearly has a great voice for cleaner singing, too. It would sound better, in my opinion, over the mathematic riffs and the chords that grind into your brain.

They finished the show without an encore. In the end the vocalist took out a torch, put some alcohol into his mouth and blew into the torch to give Rammstein-like pyro effects. They finished off the gig in a wannabe Kurt Cobain style by bashing and breaking all of their instruments into pieces (poor guitars).

All in all, an average gig (way above Hoobastank for example) which was near a grade 8 just due to it's stage show but I think that'd be over crediting them. Don't get me wrong here, they don't sound bad. They just sound a lot better on the album than live.


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