ONE WHO POINTS TO DEATH
Canadian Tour 2004
CLB Armory
St. John's, NL Canada
July 15th, 2004
Review & Pictures - EvilG
When
I saw the tour listings on
InfernalMajesty.ca I
didn’t believe it. There were two dates listed for St. John’s,
NL, Canada. These Canadian thrash metal legends had never played
out here before and I thought for sure it was a typo and was
meant to read “St. John, NB”. So I e-mailed the band and got a
reply from their guitarist, Kenny Hallman, saying it was indeed
true!!!
Infernal Majesty's 2 shows in St. John’s ended up being a
part of a festival put together by Jesse Walker. The festival
was called the “709 Metal Fest”. The first night of the
festival was all ages at the CLB, while the second show was a
bar show at CBTGS. Even though I had planned to go to both
shows, due to a family emergency, I ended up only being able to
attend the all ages CLB appearance so that is the show I’ll be
reviewing. Fellow MR scribe, Rick, was able to attend the second
night and his comments will follow my review and pictures.
Kenny Hallman, Infernal Majesty
I arrived at the venue, the CLB, in time to catch most of
Cyprian’s set. The band is new and is local to the St.
John’s area. They played some originals and covers. The stand
out was their cover of “Speed of Light” by Stratovarius. I’ve
yet to hear any bands here cover something like that since most
have been from the death and core spectrum. Hopefully we’ll hear
more from this young band soon.
After Cyprian’s set, another local St. John’s metal band
called Commoname took to the stage. They started out in
fine form playing a crushing cover of “1776” by Iced Earth.
Sadly, it was downhill from there as they started to interject
too much Green Day happy punk into what could otherwise was a
good metal band. I don’t want to diss them, so I'll just say
that they were not really my thing. They do play well, but
anything punk is not my thing.
After Commoname, Entropy took to the stage. There have
been at least 2-3 other band’s with the name Entropy in the
global metal scene, but these guys hail from Corner Brook on the
west coast of the island of NL. The poster for the festival had
them listed as “technical brutal death metal”. They definitely
got one word right in the description – BRUTAL! They were
unfortunately not a technical death metal like Death or Theory
in Practice but were moreso grindcore. Lacking in coherent song
structure, hooks, or melody, I bowed out 3 songs in and went
next door to Tim Horton’s for a break. Good thing I did because
as luck would have it, Steve Terror, guitarist for Infernal
Majesty, was there by himself so we got to hang out and chat
about all things metal for about a ½ hour. Too bad I hadn’t
planned things better and taken a recorder to do an interview.
How Canadian and metal is that...talking to a cult thrash metal
icon at a fucking Canadian coffee shop…anyway, back to the
music.
After returning to the venue, it was time to see just what
the band Dead Jesus were all about. The band is from
Edmonton Alberta, Canada, and this was also their first time
playing in NL. They have Infernal Majesty to thank for bringing
them out on the road across Canada. Before I go further, I have
to tell you what
CLB
stands for: Church Lads Brigade. Imagine that, “DEAD JESUS
Live at the CHURCH LADS BRIGADE”. Fucked up or what? I bet
those who run the CLB didn’t realize the craziness they had
invited into their hallowed armory! To be honest, I didn’t have
high hopes for Dead Jesus because of the band’s name. I am not a
religious person, but I’m also not impressed by juvenile
anti-god drivel (I prefer my anti-god drivel to be more
sophisticated these days...ha!) like I might have been when
I was 15. The band name alone begs for attention...thing is, the
most attention I think they’ll get is from “evil” young teens
and from bible thumpers looking for a target in the metal world.
However, when they played I was into it. The rhythm guitars,
bass, and drumming were top notch. The vocals were also not too
bad although the backing vocalist sounded a bit like a crow…ha!
I wasn’t familiar with the band’s music, so I don’t know what
songs they played. The music was a mixture of death metal and
black metal without relying on too much blasting but more on
well chosen riffs and varied tempos. The riffing was melodic,
chunky, and well executed. The only downside, on strictly the
music side of things, was the absence of lead guitar. There were
some slight "lead" melody lines, but nothing resembling a guitar
solo. That was a real bummer for me! Overall, Dead Jesus were an
entertaining band to see live.
I guess I should mention the stage act of the lead singer of
Dead Jesus. Some people would probably be offended by it; some
might think it was “sick” and love it…and me? Well I was amused
by it, but as mentioned earlier this whole anti-Jesus stuff has
been done 666 million times and is not shocking to me. The
grossest thing he did was make cuts on his forehead and forearm
and smear blood all over his face. The other “shocking” thing he
did was rip up a bible. The good part though was when he lit it
on fire and ate some burning pages…now that’s a little sicker!
Dead Jesus, being the nice guys they are, actually let the
local metal band Fireign open for headliners Infernal
Majesty this night! There was a good reason - it was Fireign’s
last show ever. A mostly drunken Fireign took to the stage and
proceeded to play one of the best performances of their short
metal career. Asses were kicked, and a violent pit took shape
along with plenty of crowd surfing and stage diving. Lead
vocalist/bassist, Harry, had his unique brand of humorous
drunken stage banter on display with comments like “looks like
there are a lot of little sluts here tonight”, and “Are you
going to quit fingering your pussy Trev, or play a fucking
song?” and my favorite was when someone had lost there glasses
and he said “Thow them up here so I can trample them with my
mammoth hooves”. Ha! The band totally had the energy flowing and
their fans were in the palm of their hand. They played all
originals and ended the show with their “hit” song “Killer in
the Night”. The fans really went wild on the last one showing
the band what they’ve meant to them and to the local metal scene
of St. John’s over the past couple years…they will be missed!!
In hindsight, I think it was a mistake to place Fireign in
the slot before Infernal Majesty. Fireign should of went on last
for one main reason…1/2 of the place was there to see Fireign
and Fireign only. The other bands on the bill were just filler
for some who probably were not even born when Infernal Majesty
unleashed the glorious NONE SHALL DEFY album in 1987. Why many
of these kids left after Fireign is a mystery. Perhaps they
don’t like metal? Perhaps it was past their deadtime? Perhaps
they don’t like to hear new bands….whatever the excuse is, is
inexcusable. Of the 400 or so bodies who went to the show, I
would estimate that easily ½ of them left after Fireign and did
not come back to witness what was a brilliant performance by
Infernal Majesty.
Infernal Majesty took to the stage in full classic thrash
gear. Lots of leather, spikes, evil arm bands, etc. After
meeting the band off stage it was remarkable to see the shift in
their demeanor when they took to the stage. It was immediately
clear that they were deadly serious, professional, and were
about to unleash hell. The first song they played is arguably
their best, or at least most recognized, song thanks to its
somewhat frequent appearance on the power hour back in the day.
Of course this song is the title track from the band’s debut
album, “None Shall Defy”!!! They played the song like it was
1987 all over again.
Lead
vocalist Chris Bailey despite having cut off all his hair still
has his voice. The other 2 original members, guitarist’s Kenny
Hallman and Steve Terror also still have it and are all in great
shape. Both guitarists were playing Jackson Randy Rhoads style
slying V’s which
alone look very fucking metal. Their guitar sound was awesome! I
spent the first part of the gig on Kenny’s side of the stage and
then moved over to Steve’s. Being right up front, only 10 metres
from their Marshall stacks, meant I was hearing mostly
guitars…which was fine but the vocals were low in the mix right
up front. The main speakers were above and slightly behind so I
moved back to the middle and just behind the pit for the
remainder of the gig where the sound was better…but could have
been louder!!
I
didn’t bring a notepad to write down every song they played, and
the band didn’t have set lists taped down anywhere for me to
take after the gig so I can’t remember every song that was
played. From the NONE SHALL DEFY album I know for a fact they
played “Overlorde” because it was introduced with the words (and
I’m paraphrasing here) “this song is dedicated to our
forefathers who fought and who lost their lives on the beaches
of Normandy…this is Overlorde”. Great song, and even greater to
hear it live! If memory serves, they also tore through “R.I.P.”,
“Night of the Living Dead”, “S.O.S.” and “Skeletons in the
Closet” from their debut.
To be honest the rest of a blur…the only other one I’m 100%
sure of is that they played “One Who Points to Death”, the title
track from their killer new album. They played other new songs
as well and I was pleased that when played live the old and new
sound much closer together than they do when listening to the
studio albums.
Thanks to: Jesse Walker (709 Festival organizer), and
to Infernal Majesty for playing some awesome classic thrash
metal for the fans in St. John’s!
Day 2 - Infernal Majesty
CBTG'S, July 16th 2004
Review by Rick
Live Pictures by Vicki King
Writing concert reviews is not something that I get to do
often as very few (as in no) shows ever come anywhere near our
little out of the way city. So when I heard that Canadian Thrash
Legends Infernal Majesty were coming to St. John’s I almost did
a back flip and a half. The band were to headline both nights of
the 709 Metalfest with Alberta band Dead Jesus plus a number of
local bands in support. Thursday Night was to be an all ages
show at a fairly large venue while Friday was supposed to be a
club show. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the all ages show on
Thursday Night so it was off to local club CBTG’s for the Friday
bar show.
Now to preface the evening I have to first say that CBTG’s is
one of the smallest clubs that I have ever had the pleasure of
entering. But no one really seemed to mind. The venue was small
and the heat was almost unbearable and the first band up when we
entered was local death metal unit Corporal Punishment.
This was my first chance to see them and they put on a great
show. They played a variety of originals and closed their set
with a cover of “Heartwork” by Carcass.
Up next was another local band by the name of Miscreation.
They played a couple of originals but unfortunately I didn’t
catch their names. By this time the heat in the club had become
unbearable so we retreated to the deck where the guys from
Infernal Majesty and Dead Jesus were hanging out with the local
metalheads.
After Miscreation came off the stage there was a small break
as Dead Jesus set up their gear. Now I had heard that the
band had an interesting stage show so we headed back inside the
club to get a good spot. That didn’t last long. As soon as the
band ripped into their opening track the place filled up and we
were soon in a sea of banging heads and moshing bodies. Being so
far back in the crowd I didn’t see lead singer Calvin Fehr slit
his forhead till the blood flowed. Just before the second set of
“hymns” Fehr then produced a Bible and as the songs progressed
he tore it to pieces, set it on fire and ate its smoking and
blood-covered pages! By the end of the show he was sporting an
automatic pistol in his blood-covered hands. The music was great
and Dead Jesus definitely delivered on the stage show.
Dead Jesus vocalist
After
the Dead Jesus gear was cleared away Infernal Majesty
were set to take the stage. I made sure that I would get a good
spot this time and went right up in front by the bar to make
sure I could see. In minutes Infernal Majesty took the stage
decked out in full spikes and leather gear. The chords of “None
Shall Defy” kicked off the mayhem as heads banged to Infernal
Majesty’s classic thrash sound. Infernal Majesty went on to play
both old and new material including songs from their new album
ONE WHO POINTS TO DEATH and some classics such as “Overlord”,
“Night of the Living Dead” and a favourite of mine, “Skeletons
in the Closet”. The show was energetic and even though the crowd
began to thin late in the set because of the late hour, Infernal
Majesty didn’t let their fans down. They put on one of the best
sets of metal that St. John’s has ever seen and left us
screaming for more. Hopefully they are true to their word and
come back in the winter. All bow before Infernal Majesty…
Visit Infernal Majesty's
website
www.InfernalMajesty.ca
