Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Riffs from hell, Choruses From Heaven....
It's been a long time since Earthtone 9 came to their hometown. Unlike the stellar and fascinating support in the shape of The Ocean on the last tour, Illuminatus are a different matter - for a start, they sound like a Dan Brown novel. The name does anyway. If you expect an intricate web of interconnected layers, then you'd be right. But just like a Dan Brown novel, this overcomplexity is deceptive, hiding a simplicity by being designed to impress rather than be any good. The guitarist - who wants to be in Nickelback - hides behind his beautiful long and very well kept hair, with a expensive guitar that says more about his bank balance than his talent, then teaches me a lesson.
The lesson is that you shouldn’t have conversations with your nearest and dearest midsong, mouthing words to each other in an
mostly empty room whilst playing the biggest gig of your career to a room full fo strangers . Aside from being alienating, its
unprofessional and sloppy - it makes it look like a lark in a back garden. It's an occupational hazard of playing to an audience seeming
comprised of their mothers and their girlfriends, I suppose.
Illuminatus play like they are headlining Wembley Arena. Which in the singers head, they probably are, eyes all
scrunched up and a goatee beard and a black Gibson SG. Again, walls of noise - imagine Bush with the layers of feedback that would
make Ride or the Jesus And Mary Chain envious over the top of it. The drummer? He's the best thing in this band. Seriously.
Its three anonymous sleepblokes at the front, and a very talented drummer holding everything together. Did I mention how pretty the
guitarist with the long hair was? No? It was difficult to tell because he spend most of the gig with his head down hiding behind a wall
of hair tho. But that’s another story.
The songs? Every song seems to be called "Song Without A Chorus", which is exactly what they don't have. Any Choruses. I
couldn't name one memorable thing about their entire set, except that the third song is called "I Don't Know Why". I don’t know
why either chaps, but when every song is the same tempo, the same formula, the same dynamic and with nothing to tell them apart
from the deathly silence inbetween them, it's difficult to care.
For Earthtone 9 its their first hometown show in 10 years, and their first since they reformed 18 months ago. Unlike a rammed
Birmingham gig in May, this is a more sparsely attended event ; the venue is the renowned Rescue rooms, which is reminds me of a
less atmospheric Islington Academy. Much less atmospheric. Black walls, the dimly lit bar at the back. Spartan architecture bordering
on the soul less, to be honest - I've seen shopping centres with more personality.
In their second tour in just over six months - and in not revisiting the same places as they did earlier in the year, it gives them (in
theory) a chance to bring their music to people who didn't have chance to see them last time, in a whistlestop short hop, 4 gig tour in
small towns like Kingston-Upon-Thames. In reality, anyone who saw their incendiary shows in May may end up
disappointed - tonight has a sense of repetition, with exactly the same songs in the same order. 12 songs in an hour and out. And that
means - to music geeks like me - the same setlist quibbles apply as once again, the "Omega" EP is not represented. Even though
this line up did not play on that EP - as in they had a different drummer - that’s not much justification for neglecting "Revelation" or
"Amnesia" ; never mind the sadly missed true epic of "Binary 101" - a song easily the equal of "Kashmir". Imagine watching Zep omit
that, and you too would get disappointed.
But OK, enough of my yakking, lets boogie. The 18inch high replica stone circle is optional, but the heavy riffs and beer soaked
setlists aren't.
From the opening oldie of "Off Kilter Enhancement" - a lurching, sluggish deep metal groove, via a set heavy on breakthrough album
"Arc'tan'gent" plus a couple of new songs, tonights set pales by comparison to the firing on all cylinders full tilt of a few months ago.
Perhaps it’s the freezing weather outside that’s affected the undeservedly spartan crowd - but in the venue that more like Islington
Academy than anywhere else, plus a less than known support - that’s certainly not helped bring anyone out of the house.And when
there's a band this good, that’s a pity.
"Star Damage For Beginners", is slick, precise, and heavy and fast. "Star Damage" is, lets face it - fast, melodic and
controlled. If anything, tonight pulls songs from old and new almost side by side, and whilst most of the earlier stuff is definitely
heavier, it definitely all fits together incredibly well. "Withered" is heavy as hell, and new song "Ghosts" (from the newly
recorded EP 'For Cause And Consequence' ) shows they've lost none of their edge. Still melodic, still heavy, still loud. It's a
taste that maybe difficult to acquire but incredibly rewarding.
A set drawn heavy from 2000's breakthrough 'arc'tan'gent' - an album comprised of occasionally played on the TV videos
and crushingly heavy yet melodic riffs - and tonight also sees those songs interspersed with a couple of new songs and lots of oldies, its over and out in about fifty odd
minutes. Not too long, but it does feel like being short changed when you've got three albums worth of material and then another 12 songs on top of that
(from the three EPs) to choose from. But what you do get is some stellar songs.
"Tat Twam Asi" is all tribal drumming and new metal riffs - It doesn't sound like anything else I've ever heard. Forget that ethno-metal that Max Calvalera does - this mixes it without the novelty tokenism. "Approx Purified" is short, sharp and intense. "PRD Chaos", on the other hand, is the highlight of the night - from crunchingly heavy riffs to soft melodic verses, leading to a buildup that has Riffs from Hell, Choruses from Heaven ; it shows a commands of dynamics that very few other bands of this genre have truly ever matched.
The almost-coulda-been-a-single-so-much-so-we-made-a-video-for-it-ten-years-later "Evil Crawling I" takes the gig to lift off again. In a dark, half empty room, thats a hell of an achievement. New song "Tide Of Ambition" is, without doubt, their best song they've ever done. Rare for a band to come back and to reach the same heights they once did, with zero drop off. From there, its The ultra-fast "Vitriolic HSF" (written down on the setlist as '*****ing fast') does exactly what it says on the tin. All that remains is for "I Nagural Eye" and we're out.
On a freezing night in Nottingham in a cold and soulless room, Earthtone 9 did their level best to show why they were once one of the bright rising new stars of metal. With any justice, they still would be. Too old to be cool, too old to care, Earthtone 9 deliver the goods against the odds. Why Can't all bands be this good?
Setlist:Intro/Off Kilter Enhancement/Star Damage/Withered/Ghosts/ Tat Twam Asi /Approx Purified/PRD Chaos/Evil Crawling I/Tide
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