Laid To Rest

Whoever appeals to the law against his fellowman is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of  himself without that law, is both. For a wounded man shall say to his assailant, "If i live, I will kill you. If I die, you are forgiven". Such is the fucking rule of Honor.

God. Lamb of the fucking God is one band you do not want miss the live show of. They are five crazy fellas who can pay a prostitute 30 pounds for cleaning their van topless. They are five people who can break any fucking neck without even touching it. They are five fuckers who literally fuck the crowd with their performance. Thursday, 10th of June 2010 goes down as one of my most memorable nights as an audience to a music event. Lamb of God are the biggest thrash metal band on this planet.

It was at first a major surprise to find that a band as popular as Lamb of God is was touring India. And I was one of those unlucky ones who were going to miss it. But this thought was not uncomfortable. I knew I would be in Europe and that come June and I will get to see some of the biggest gigs. And after coming to Europe and bemoaning the fact that none of the sonisphere shows are going to be in The Netherlands, I was heartbroken. But there is always the Messiah, the Lamb of God. Only that this time it literally was. I came to know this when I was randomly going through the websites of the most popular music halls in Hengelo, the sexy Metropool. And they had a very casual mention of Lamb Of God. My goodness...i could not stop gazing at the screen for at least 5 minutes. With a capacity of hardly 850 metal heads, how does LOG fare? And was it actually true? I searched the web for anything connected to LOG and Hengelo and found nothing. Finally I decided to visit their webpage and much to my delight, they had the mention of Hengelo on their page. Fucking awesome. I was delighted. And I am still thrilled.

I saw the ticket price and it was 22 bucks. This was out of equations. Why were they touring so cheaply? More shocked than excited, I anyhow bought the tickets. Interestingly, I woke up half an hour early to buy the tickets, and reached the university 1 fucking hour late. No issues, though, and not a care. I felt like I was the richest man in the world. I have been listening to the online radio for almost 25 continuous days now and was totally bored with their playlist. This was going to be one heck of a night and I knew it. One thing that did not go well down with me was the reason why they were touring Hengelo, and in an indoor area, with 22 buck tickets? Perhaps a promotional tour for their new album.

We were at the place on time, and hardly had we entered, when we started hearing screams and blasting drums. I was going insane in that atmosphere. People, booze, smoke, piercings, leather, punks...odor, music and screams...but this was not LOG. Definitely not. They do not have this many number of breaks within their songs, neither is the drumming so dull. The vocals are not clean and the guitar riffs are damn heavy. And this was just at the entry. I rushed up to the Jupiler stage. It was Kudra Mata, the local band with some new stuff. They were cool...the bassist was very natural and the drums came very easily to the drummer. One very interesting thing was that they had a complex song structure with multiple meters within single songs. The drumming breaks were well done and the vocals were strong. The guitarist, I thought was not as proficient. There were no guitar solos, and the band’s sound rode heavily on the drums. The monotony of the songs was what perhaps ruined their moment. But still thumbs up to them for their headlining act. They had laid all the pins and someone had to set the ball rolling. And it was Lamb of God.

The concert began with their song "In your words"...and the ball was set rolling. Crazy riffs, fast tempos and very subtle and puritan drumming. "Set to Fail" similarly, was not the typical LOG song I thought, since the vocals were remarkably different. The drums were the same (cool, sharp and fast as usual), thanks to the great Chris Adler, and the groovy riffs made the air very thumping. They had half done their job. The only thing that was lest was their customary and legendary songs. "Walk with me in hell" is the classic song where they use Randy's powerful vocals and Morton's guitars to express the lyrics. "Something to die for" is one of my favorite songs, and they made sure they did not change anything about it. The thrashing of the drums and the intense growling and then the nice tempos make it a head banger's delight. "Hourglass" is a very difficult song to perform live, and Adler rightly admits so. But they are Lamb of God. The man on the wheel chair was the hero of the night with his undying love for metal and thrash. He had come to watch LOG perform when he could not move his hands or legs. And believe me, he rocks, and LOG made sure he enjoyed every bit of the show. He was on the stage with them. Cool. Somebody challenged Randy; it seemed from his tone and then came "Contractor", a real fast song. I was almost neckless by that time. They had given us the ultimate treat of metal. They had performed their classics with and their new stuff. It was time for some serious motherfucking shit. Followed next, "Laid to Rest", the rule of honor, "Omerta", the motherfucking invitation to the "Rednecks" and the one I had never heard before, "Vigil". The series was real loud and groovy. To round it up with a fucking circle pit, they did the real speed metal "Black Label". Pure thrash, pure speed and pure head bangers' ball. No other band can do such things with such ease, such feel and such effect as LOG.


The vocalist had grown his hair, the others seemed to be Dumbledores, the crowd was fucking dedicated with every person singing every word with the vocalist, banging their heads in frenzy and screaming, guzzling the unlimited booze flowing in that hall. The metal fucking heads, with all the leather, studs and piercings, the punks with their hair weirdly done, the tall sturdy guys doing the circle pit and the man on the wheel chair...Willie's plectrum and the playlist...awesome. I just missed out on the trademark flag that the band uses. Shit.