Jealous Haters Since 1998!
Home | News | Reviews | Day In Rock | Photos | RockNewsWire | Singled Out | Tour Dates/Tix | Feeds

Rock Blogs from antiMUSIC's staff.

Halloween Hobo Style
By the Hobo

Welcomg to Blog n' Roll a place where antiMUSIC's staff brings the blog craze together with their rock n' roll adventures. Have a rock n roll story of your own? We're always on the look out for Fan Blogs too, click here to submit your story...  Now here is the featured Blog... Enjoy! 
 

All Hail The New Flesh

Contained within is an account of my night with Strapping Young Lad, Day Send and Tourettes in Sydney’s Metro on the 31st of October, 2003. Indeed, a glorious day in metal.

We arrived at the Metro on George Street some sixty minutes early. Most of the time leading up to actually entering the concert was spent in fear – why? Simply because Strapping Young Lad was an over eighteens gig – with me being but seventeen years of age. So when the infinitely intimidating bouncer looked at my ID, he took for granted that I was simply over eighteen. I mean, hell, I look twenty-three, but being booted out and having to scalp my tickets wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to spend the night.
 
So my mate ‘Corpse’ and I got into the foyer and had a few beers. The crowd looked somewhat bigger, and rougher than I think I’d ever experienced – which was probably a good thing. Even some four hours before Strapping were set to hit the stage, I knew it was going to be one f*cking massive night.

Having never been to the Metro before, I was pleasantly surprised. The venue itself is rather small, the crowd nearing around 2,000 people. It conveniently had a bar at the back, as well as several rows of railing to pass out against. So then the first band came on, Tourettes. I’d never heard them before, but I’d heard the buzz about their recent LP launch around the inner city. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of them, the singer looked like a feminine guy, but obviously was a chick. The guitarist was fairly average, and played with Hetfield’s new downtuned Grynch guitar – possibly why they blew so much. Corpse and I decided to pass the time as anyone would in such a situation; by drinking more beer.

After abusing the bar-staff over not selling Victoria Bitter, we chilled out until the next band came on. The lights dimmed, and the curtains opened. The band was all clad in black, with two guitarists, one damn fine little blonde bassist, a rat-westie drummer with an awesome Sonar kit, and a gigantic vocalist towering over the rest of the band at seven-to-eight-foot.

To be honest, the band completely blew me away. The vocalist was powerful, confident, and – like us - having one hell of a time. He sung like a traditional hardcore metal vocalist, but the rest of the band swayed between hardcore, to industrial, to thrash. The lead guitarist was incredible, pulling untraditional Meshuggah-like solos every so often. The songs were complex and powerful, often with multiple peaks, progressions and time changes.
Some of the riff’s the two guitarists thrashed out amazed me. Such complicated multi-layering, ridiculous dual harmonies and powerful bursts of speed. The band were Sydney locals, and called themselves Day Send. I was wondering why I hadn’t heard of them before – possibly because they were previously known as Psi-Kore until their old (s***ty) vocalist left them. I look forward to hearing from them again.

After downing more beer, Corpse and I headed down to the pit. For some particular reason, it seemed like everyone was eyeing me off. I could hear mutters of ‘I know who I’m targeting tonight’ and so forth, but I just ignored it. I cannot describe the buildup of energy, and the sheer anxiety I experienced waiting for the boys to take the stage. After around half an hour of waiting the curtains opened.

The stage was empty. A strange high-pitched song began to blurt out of the speakers. Suddenly I recognized it – South Park’s Blame Canada. How fitting! One could always depend of Devy’s warped sense of humour. A few minutes later, Devinesque screams began to come from off stage as the band took their positions, the huge Gene Hoglan, waddling to his rather-large kit. Devy stood directly in center stage, with a single light beaming up on him. ‘SYDNEY. DID YOU MISS US? CAUSE WE SURE AS f*** MISSED YOU.’ 
 
There was no question of Devy’s dubious mental health. A great cheer went up from the crowd, Devy screamed, and started beating out the opening riff of Consequence. The night was marked out by several things; the sheer dynamic and charismatic energy Devy emitted, the aggressive response of the crowd, the tiny venue in which we all moshed and Gene Hoglan’s mind-boggling drumming.

As Gene pounded through each song, he never seemed too phased – always finding time to flip up his sticks and gee up the crowd. After Relentless Devy stopped to say a few words; ‘You know… I’ve worked out that all I can really do nowdays is scream
AHHHWEEEHEHEOOOHHHOOOOA’ – a grotesque scream which carried on into the start of Oh My f***ing God. But when it came to the end of the bridge, the band stopped. Devy looked around menacingly.

 A green glowstick flew on stage. Devy eyed it suspiciously; ‘LOOK! It’s a glowing wiener of death!’ He walked over and placed it down his pants. ‘I eat a lot of asparagus. If only I could pee neon plasma the wonder twins could be complete! WONDER TWINS! UNITE’ *the entire band mimicked his hand actions* ‘Form of; pissed off little bald Canadian! Now would you all care to join me in the final chorus of
this lovely ditty?’ 

The atmosphere that night was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was as it we were all mates, we were all comrades. Dev was just another one of us, a confident and angry young man with inane facial expressions. He opened the next song with the corny line of ; ‘This song sums up my high school biology class. Why? WHY? Because it was AFTERMATH! Oh yea… and buy a f***ing t-shirt.’

That night Devin shared his dream with us; ‘When I was working at AMW for four dollars seventeen cents Canadian an hour, I used to dream that I could scream the loudest in a room full of eleven thousand people.’ As the dreaded end of the night neared, Dev said to us all  ‘f*** this we’re doing one more song so I can sleep and do other rock star s*** like drugs and I gotta be on a plane tomorrow.’ He slammed out the metal epic Detox and bid us all goodnight, then left the stage.
 
But wait, didn’t Dev promise he’d do an encore at the start of the night? The chant rose up ‘STRAPP – ING, STRAPP – ING’ and continued to grow until the band came back onstage. Dev looked overwhelmed with the enthusiasm of the crowd ‘Okay, we’ll play two more songs for you guys. All rock bulls*** aside, we love coming to Australia, we love you guys. We’ve been to Australia in ten years more than some bands get to go ever, thanks for the support.’

The encore consisted of Dirt Pride and – one of my personal favorites – All Hail The New Flesh. And that did it. I was absolute f***ed. My neck was about to throw in the towel, I was covered in numerous cuts and bruises, and my much-loved M*E*T*A*L shirt was doused in blood and sweat. The ever-present and ever-growing death circle had taken its toll on my weary body. And Corpse – Corpse was exactly that. A Corpse. He was dazed, he was totally out of it. ‘f*** man… I think… I think I need a drink.’

We all left the city, completely satisfied, completely f***ed. Some random screamed at me ‘I BELIEVE IN GOD NOW MAN, I just saw him man… He’s Devy’ – Indeed, he was right. Without a doubt, Strapping Young Lad were the most energetic, violent, powerful and yet strangely friendly metal act I have ever seen. I can’t help but agree with what Gene Hoglan once said; ‘Speaking of SYL, I gotta tell you, we are the coolest band on the planet, and that is no s***. I don't care who you are, Slayer or whoever, your band sucks compared to us.’ Corpse couldn’t help but agree. He’d been to Slayer with Machine Head a few years back, and said SYL brought metal to a new level of intensity.

While I once saw Kerry King as the definitive metal god of the new millennium, I have to say, the metal god has a new name. And that name is Devin Townsend. 
 



Fan Speak 

Your Turn, What do you think?


They call you 
What do you think ?:

Fan Speak:

Posted by Checkthisout:
Comments made by the Hobo last year concerning Daysend: "To be honest, the band completely blew me away. The vocalist was powerful, confident, and – like us - having one hell of a time. He sung like a traditional hardcore metal vocalist, but the rest of the band swayed between hardcore, to industrial, to thrash. The lead guitarist was incredible, pulling untraditional Meshuggah-like solos every so often. The songs were complex and powerful, often with multiple peaks, progressions and time changes. Some of the riff’s the two guitarists thrashed out amazed me. Such complicated multi-layering, ridiculous dual harmonies and powerful bursts of speed. The band were Sydney locals, and called themselves Day Send." This is undeniable evidence that the hobo is a retard and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.


Posted by Hobo:
Haha, true that Ace.


Posted by Ace:
I saw SYL in Pensylvania last year. It was f*ckin ill. If Satan had a more kickass cousin, he would be Devin Townsend. Not to mention SYL pits put every Ozzfest pit to shame.


Posted by +40266327033:
kilolej te szar


Posted by W:
Devin Townsend is God. There really is nothing else to say.


Posted by MetalMan:
They are the bomb!!! No one rocks like SYL!! I've seen them twice and both time my brain turned to jello from the intensity!!!!


Posted by Hobo:
Yea man I missed out on one too. Angered me.


Posted by althepal:
Yeah I saw the boys in Perth. Was f*cking tops! All the tshirts were sold out though. God dam Adelaide people.


tell a friend about this page

 

.
News Reports
.
Day in Rock:
Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration- Rush Members To Make Special Appearance- Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection- more

Day in Pop

B-Sides: Taylor Swift Reveals Her Mother Has Cancer- Rich Homie Quan Surrenders To Police Over Alleged Nightclub Assault- Justin Bieber Duets With Ariana Grande- Mumford & Sons- more

 Subscribe To Day in Rock

.
 
Reviews
.

Ladies Only: Jennie Abrahamson- Rachel Garlin- Nneka- More

Album of the Week: Led Zeppelin's When The West Was Won

Karyn Crisis' Gospel Of The Witches - Salem's Wounds

The Blues: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers- Arlen Roth, Mike Henderson Band- Slam Allen

Trauma Interview

December in Red - The Way Out

Battleaxe - Power From the Universe Reissue

SOKO Interview

The Compulsions - Dirty Fun

Rock Reads: Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost

Death Penalty - Death Penalty

On The Record: The Wild Beyond

RockPile: Minutian- Odin's Court- THEO

Michael Ubaldini Interview

Root 66: Cameron Mitchell- Stacy Jones- Greg Shirley


. .
.
Today's Rock News
. Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration

Rush Members To Make Special Appearance

Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection

Def Leppard Announce Summer Tour Dates

Avenged Sevenfold's M Shadows Guests On John Dolmayan Album

Aerosmith To Rock Steven Tyler's Grammy Awards Viewing Party

Tedeschi Trucks Band Streaming New Song 'Hard Case'

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody Biopic Nominated For Seven BAFTA Awards

Behemoth Release Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica Video

Blues Music Awards Nominees Announced


Subscribe to Day in Rock Report by Email

.
.
Today's Pop News
.
.
.
Latest B-Sides News
.

More News
.
 
anti Worthy Links
.
AudioNationRadio.comThe Screen DoorA Journal of Musical ThingsLloyd Zeffler blogDemolish MagNightwatcher's House of RockCJ ChilversDeja VoodooThe 1st Fivethecopycat.bizHard Rock Memorabilia Day in Rock @twitter

.
  .
.

Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!
Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!

 

Tell a Friend about this page - Contact Us - Privacy - antiMusic Email - Why we are antiMusic

Copyright© 1998 - 2013 Iconoclast Entertainment Group All rights reserved. antiMusic works on a free link policy for reprinting of our original articles, click here for details. Please click here for legal restrictions and terms of use applicable to this site. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.