NYS Music 20​13

Tag: irving plaza

  • Wintersun/FleshgodApocalypse/Starkill live @ Irving Plaza 8/8/13

     

     

    Starkill 

    The young metalheads from Illinois, Starkill, brought their new material, Fires of Death, to the city once again. This was their second tour this year after having toured with veteran heavy metalers, Hypocrisy, earlier in the year. These guys were no newbies and after having toured successfully, it came to no surprise they will be on the road again. With the main elements of their music; melodic guitars, insane guitar solos, and powerful heavy metal drumming, they definitely brought something worth checking out; fresh, vibrant, nothing cliché. Hopefully young and talented bands like this gain more recognition, but for now Starkill has surely earned more fans and recognition after this tour.

    Instragram: @Starkillofficial

    Youtube/”Infernal Rebirth” official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eam8Um6_WYI

    Fleshgod Apocalypse  

    Highly awaited were the Italian beasts known as Fleshgod Apocalypse. After having extensively toured Europe, and only days away from releasing their new album, Labyrinth, they embarked on this tour. The ear bursting drums and unreal symphonic death metal atmosphere only added to the hype brought by this band. They were certainly a forced to be reckoned with as their fans moshed furiously to their music. On this tour they brought along the soprano singer VERONICA BORDACCHINI, who collaborated in Labyrinth. Her powerful operatic vocals only added to the eeriness of the music, which made for a perfect amalgam of symphonic death metal. They were definitely in no way overhyped, it was death metal at it’s finest, which let’s us know that their future material is definetly something to look out for. Labyrinth has been released via Nuclear Blast records August 16th.

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fleshgodapocalypse

    Youtube: “Elegy” single (Taken from “Labyrinth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKzmT-VhrnA

    “The Violation” (official video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKzmT-VhrnA

    Wintersun: 

    After a successful co-headlining tour with Eluvietie last year, it came to no surprise Wintersun would be back once more. This time the Finnish heavy metalers would headline across the states. They had fans dying as they yearned their return and their demands were definitely made known to the promoters who made this tour happen. After the success of the long due Time I album, it was no surprise that they once more sold out a New York city venue, this time around Irving Plaza, and last year it was the Gramercy Theater. Wintersun brought along a treat this time around for their devout fans, not only would they play the Time I album in it’s entirety, but also their debut Wintersun album, and a new song from the Time II album, “The Way of the Fire” (expected to be released sometime early next year). Fans chanted along to every song, as they knew the words by heart, and head banged, and moshed to every master piece made by the Wintersun front man Jari Maenpaa.

    Website: http://www.wintersun.fi/

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wintersun

    Youtube: “Time” lyric video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alo7A0NLmxU&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL7flOKtf44Q5VHXGV0XITQOPR9lpS79qR

    “Beyond the Dark Sun” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbsFNSxToPE

  • Death to All/Celebrating the Life and Music of Chuck Schuldiner at Irving Plaza 4/24/13

    The 7th date of the second run of the Death to All tour left it’s mark on the NYC metal scene. The tour has proven successful despite the bumps and bruises to the inaugural run, yet the spirit of the great Chuck Schuldiner and its devout followers has kept it going. Now there it was again, a packed show at Irving Plaza with die hard Death fans eagerly waiting since early in the afternoon, to pay tribute to what most would agree is the Godfather of Death metal; and the man who single handily reinvented a whole genre.

    The Human-era lineup was in charge of reliving the beauty of performing Death songs live. This time around with Max Phelps (Cynic) on vocals, who in the eyes of many was more than a perfect suitor to honor Chuck’s vocals on stage.

     ( Me, as a photographer at the show , I cannot yet find the words to describe the emotion of the crowd. One thing is for sure, the show was filled with die hard fans, nothing less. The crowd surfers began raining on us, the second Death came on stage.  During our first three songs, in which we are allowed to shoot up close, we had to  be removed from the photo pit as the as the security guards were having a hard time keeping up with so many people at once.)

    All one can see was the great mass of head banging fans, and never ending moshpits as some of the best Death songs were being performed. The set list was concrete and nothing short of amazing, that included songs from “Flattening of Emotions” to “Pull the Plug”, and “Lack of Comprehension.” At one moment before the nigh concluded  there was very touching, and emotional moment for all the venue that night. As footage and photos of Chuck Shuldiner were being played everyone grew quiet and some teared up. We all understood had all been united that night to honor that man on screen, and the legacy that he had left behind. That night we had all been part of honoring his memory and the charity dedicated to him which is Sweet Relief. One can only hope there will be more chances for the Death fans to gather and honor a hero, and help a honest cause which in it of itself is what Chuck would had wanted us to do.