Roseland Ballroom NYC
review & photos by Stefan Raduta
LINKS:
Promoting their newest offering Resurrection, Chimaira ripped
through their entire set, as usual. I’ve never seen them playing
such a big venue until now, and I must say, I am a fan of smaller venues
where you can actually see the musicians on stage and feel the music.
Never mind though, what’s really important is that this band is
growing bigger day by day. They’re young, talented as hell, and
they’re driven. Good for them. Saw some serious moshing as expected,
nothing out of the ordinary though. I’ve even checked out their
new album. Not bad at all. You can definitely notice how they keep getting
better and better. On some songs the crowd even sang with them, which
would later throw me into confusion, since by the time the show ended
I still didn’t really get which band people really came to see.
The Cleveland crew pulled their weight though, and delivered what was
expected of them: heavy riffs and an ugly attitude. Good job.
Dragonforce really took me by surprise. I still can’t understand how a band that sounds like Hammerfall in a blender would tour with Chimaira or Killswitch. I was watching their show and really couldn’t understand what was going on. And what I really didn’t understand was the public’s reaction, who were crazy about these guys, the same people that were moshing earlier for Chimaira. Am I missing something here?
Coming back to the music, Dragonforce is a band that you either hate or love. They will either bore you to death and actually drive you to the point of suicide (a couple of my friends actually went home), or if you’re into this kind of stuff, will make you feel like heaven. I’ll be honest. I am not into this type of stuff. The only heavy metal band I ever loved was Running Wild. Man, I used to love those guys!
Anyway, needless to say, I really didn’t enjoy the first part of their show, but this would only be temporary, because it suddenly hit me how good they were. Yes, I hated the style, but piece by piece, these guys really got my attention, because they are phenomenal musicians, period. A solid and entertaining stage presence, crystal clear sound, killer guitar solos mixed with insane keyboards, a phenomenal lead singer that did just about everything but jump in the crowd, and the whole harmony between each of them, was just unbelievable. I was stunned just watching over 1000 people (and mind you, these are mostly kids in their 20’s) knowing their lyrics by heart, and singing in a chorus all those epic songs. Now, do I love Dragonforce? No. I’m a Mayhem and Primordial fan, something like this will never happen. But: they definitely earned my respect and admiration, I think they have everything it takes to become the next big thing in heavy metal. Congratulations!
Killswitch Engage ended the night. I think it would be safe to say they headlined, although as stated earlier, all these 3 bands were a hit. I’ve seen them a few times before. They always used to tour with Shadows Fall. Now I’ve never gotten into them either, and at times I even thought they were annoying, but this night they really kicked some ass. While I’m still not a fan of their medley of Gothenburg style with EMO/guttural vocals, (which is probably the biggest turn off for me) I must say that they are much more fluid on stage today. The crowd did seem to favor them slightly more, maybe because their set was longer as well. All the kids went crazy, pits everywhere, people singing with them (the same ones!!), crowd surfing like there was no tomorrow (10 at a time or more). All were a part of a stellar performance. I really wish I could live it at the same intensity as the rest, but I can’t change who I am. I’ll live mine when Emperor and Immortal will come this summer, no worries. All in all, congratulations to all bands, this was a really great night for those into them. My biggest satisfaction was seeing a sold out Roseland, filled with college kids. The future looks bright, doesn’t it?