“Doomsday Has Arrived…”

…or in this case, just a tour by the same name. Thanksgiving came a couple of days early for FourteenG this year in the form of one hell of a tour: The Doomsday Tour featuring Sweden's Arch Enemy with direct support from All That Remains, Denmark's MNEMIC, and Quebec's A Perfect Murder. According to number present (or lack there of in this case from the two shows we attended) the masses did not share our opinion. From what we understand there was an immediate collapse in the Midwest as far as attendance was concerned. A Perfect Murder’s guitarist, Carl Bouchard said that before the Doomsday Tour hit Chicago (Logan Square Auditorium) & Detroit (Harpo's) there “were normally about 500-700 [present] every night”. What in the hell happened here? Its Arch's very first headlining tour along with strong support acts, where are the good promoters when you need them? One would think this tour would have sold itself, that it would have been enough to have them lined around the corner begging for entry… It probably would have been a much different story in Chicago providing the band would have played the House of Blues or even the Metro for that matter or if it was not around a major holiday too, then again this show did have some major competition. Mudvayne and Sevendust played up the street at the Congress Theater. Bottom line, promotions were apparently non-existent on this leg of the tour. [Tripping over my soapbox] Since we are on the subject of doom and gloom, did you know that back in the day the word archenemy was a reference to Satan?

I digress…back to the situation at hand here, the review that is. We missed MNEMIC and A Perfect Murder on both days for multitude of reasons. On day one: since FourteenG does not frequent the Logan Square Auditorium, it was easy to get directions mixed up resulting in Erika Kristen and myself getting lost. On day two:  Mother Nature was our "nemesis" (no puns intended)! It took a little longer to get to Detroit than usual due to a snowstorm from fucking hell. The blizzard delayed more than just us from arriving at a decent time. A Perfect Murder did not make it to the venue until 9:45 PM (well after their scheduled slot). APM's delay caused a snowball effect considering they were hauling MNEMIC's gear. Placed in a difficult situation, ATR let MNEMIC use their gear. The same night ended rather brusquely, though I will get into that later.

After speaking to several members of the audience from both venues, it was a favorable review for all involved parties. Therefore, this two-day account only encompasses the goings on of Arch Enemy and All That Remains. How’s this for compensation? Click the corresponding links to access respective interviews with MNEMIC’s guitarist, Mircea Gabriel Eftemie and with Carl from A Perfect Murder. Here's APM's setlist from Chicago’s show via Dimebouch© himself: Possessed, Strength, Black Hate Machine, Body and Blood, Time Bomb. Our rather interesting two-day jaunt broke down like this:

Lineup: Phillip LaBonte – Vocals; Oli Herbert – Guitar; Mike Martin – Guitar; Jeanne Sagan – Bass; Shannon Lucas - Drums

Chicago: In addition to the painful rush hour city traffic, an additional 45 agonizing minutes were tacked on attempting to locate Logan Square Auditorium (the if-you-blink-you'll-miss-it venue)! By the time we made it up the two-flight stairwell, Massachusetts' All That Remains was on and well into their set, two songs left to be exact. We unfortunately had just missed their new song entitled "The Calling" which will be on the upcoming follow up (tentatively due out in mid 2006) to their 2004 release This Darkened Heart. Vocalist Phil Labonte addressed the miniscule crowd of 50 perhaps, "So what did you guys think of the video for Tattered?" Some members in the audience yelped in response. Labonte continued, "Well this song is Tattered on My Sleeve". Their fans went nuts.

Speaking of the "Tattered" the video, we caught up with Phil after the show and he had this to say about the style of the video and why it was so “in-your-face, rock star style”: "There's a couple of reasons we did that. #1. in this genre, ain’t NOBODY gonna touch that video! Nobody’s gonna do that. And I’m not saying that right, wrong, indifferent. Like it, don’t like it; no one’s gonna do that! Especially because we’re from Massachusetts we get lumped in with Unearth, Killswitch, Shad, and the newer stuff like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with those bands but everybody knows I am the biggest goddamn cheerleader for my friends in the fucking world but we gotta do something that separates us. We have to be able to go ahead and take some risks and say, ‘I kinda want to go ahead and do something different. I like the video; I think it came out great’. The one thing I said to the director was that I wanted it to look like a Nickelback video. I wanted it to look like a rock video! Everyone’s like, ‘Ouuwww, metal, metal…’ you know what, if a song doesn’t really sound like that, it doesn’t fit the lyrics, then make it what it is! ” Sidebar: The female in the video is his girlfriend; the model cast who was slated originally couldn’t do it for various reasons so Phil called his girlfriend up and was like, “Babe, you’ve got to do it! Looks like it’s going to be you”, kudos to her indeed!!

It was too bad we missed the majority of their set (amongst others for that matter) because they sounded amazing. You could hear every nuance from every instrument. These days, the unit seems a lot tighter even though the current bassist is just a temporary fill-in for the tour. Guitarist Oli Hebert and Mike Martin were on fire! The rhythm section was full of life and splendor as well. LaBonte was on point; his vocals were sharp, and his clean vocals were astounding, breath taking even. That boy can sing his ass off!! The music can go to fuel injected blast beats to soul soothing crooning in one failed swoop. ATR is truly a band unlike any other. This collective will be hitting the touring circuit soon, make sure to check 'em out.

Harpo's: After braving an almost Scandinavian-esque winter storm (how apropos), we were lucky enough this evening to be able to take in all of ATR's set. Despite low pre- sales (of less than 19 tickets sold) the turn out was pretty damn good, considering the storm and locale. If you've never been to Harpo's Theatre in Detroit before, you may want to spare yourself!! The venue is not positioned in the best of neighborhoods; needless to say it's not the kind of place you'd want to hang out afterwards. They have security guards that patrol the adjacent parking lots. To add to the sleaziness, an adult bookstore is directly across the street from the venue. Hysterically enough a member of this tour pointed this out to us. Despite the colorful surroundings of the venue, the theatre itself remains of historic value to the city. Enough of that let's get into what transpired indoors, shall we.

After being wanded down and going through a metal detector, I mean are we going to a concert or to visit someone in jail? Well enough of that…the crowd got into the band very early on. Everything tends to shrink on the 11+ foot stage for the exception of the sound; it was more colossal than the stage itself. Finally being able to hear the new song for ourselves, all I can say is that it sounds nothing like their previous works. It has a lot more clean vocals in it. This is what Mr. LaBonte had to say about the song, “most of it’s pretty fast, which is something that we like. It’s got some clean singing in it. We try to cover…I keep saying the same crap all of the time because we do try to cover a lot of stuff. When it comes to metal there are a lot of different genres and there’s a lot of different stuff we like. There’s a lot of different, other kinds of music that we listen to”. Perhaps the vast difference is attributed to the band’s wide range of musical influences as well as to what the band is generally listening to these days. LaBonte elaborates, “[we listen to] a lot of garbage pop! A lot of Brian McKnight, country…a lot of Garth Brooks. Tim McGraw is in heavy rotation. The new Every Time I Die and that’s not metal, that’s just sassy ass rock n’ roll! It’s hard and aggressive but it ain’t metal! It’s one of the best goddamn things ever”! We definitely concur with Phil! However, that’s not the end of the surprises as far as what the band’s into, “We like to different bunch of stuff you know! I’m a huge fan of stuff like Nickelback. For some reason, this garbage ass pop is nice to my ears and I like it. There’s [also] a lot of Ryan Cabrera, that’s another one”. Whoever would have thunk?

In our impromptu interview, Phil went on to say this about Every Time I Die (something we figured we had to share with our viewer ship. After talking about the tiger sound bite in the new ETID video/song “Kill The Music”): “Oh my God! It’s just so fucking cool! Every thing that fucking band does is fucking cool! There is no other band on the planet that’s just fucking seeping cool more than those guys”. Then of course guitarist Andy Williams’ infamous white pants was mentioned in the conversation as he seemingly has the corner on the fashion market, “Yeah, seriously! And then there’s the whole dancing thing he does… He punches the goddamn PA. I’m like, 'Andy! I wanna be like you!'” Labonte composes himself after laughing hysterically and concludes this segment, “It’s so fucking cool, seriously!”

Okay, getting back to the band, Phil elaborates on what the band hopes to draw from their influences: “I’d like to think that we do [draw from our influences]. Because there’s more to just metal! Metal’s a really open genre I guess. There’s so many different styles. You’ll go ahead and listen to All That Remains and then you’ll listen to Emperor…” as he digresses. “who’s playing two shows next year. Holy fuck and I’m probably gonna be on god damn tour! I wanna quit the band to see that show!! Emperor’s so goddamn good! Getting back on track, “With a band like Emperor, they are nothing like us, right, except for the fact that maybe sometimes we have blast [beats] and they do too. Every once in a while I do [mimics extreme black metal vocals], but other than that, we sound nothing alike but we are still metal. Killswitch Engage sounds even less like Emperor than we do and it’s still metal! You know what, we want to play music, we love metal, and obviously we wouldn’t be playing to 15-year old boys if we didn’t love metal that’s who comes out to metal shows. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t love it.”

At the end of their set, Phil thanked the “fucking” crowd for coming out to see them despite the inclement weather. 2006 looks to be more than promising for these lads, of course we'd all love to see Emperor perform too hopefully Phil will not part ways with the band on account of this! Yeah, we know it was a joke!! All kidding aside, we are definitely placing them on the list of bands to watch in the New Year!

Setlist for Chicago & Detroit: For Salvation; Focus Shall Not Fail; The Deepest Grey; And Death In My Arms; This Calling; Tattered On My Sleeve; This Darkened Heart.

Other Points of Interest

o         Click here for NEW interview with Phil

o    Here ATR on the Sounds of the Underground Tour

o         Here for more photos of the band

Lineup: Angela Gossow – Vocals; Michael Amott – Lead Guitar; Daniel Erlandsson – Drums; Fredrik Åkesson – Guitar; Sharlee D'Angelo – Bass

Chicago: As soon as the smoke cleared, from All That Remains' scorching set more people started to file in during the changeover. Mis-communiqué of an all but forgotten photo shoot resulted in Arch Enemy running back and forth from the stage to the upstairs area like headless chickens throughout one stretch of the oddly shaped layout Logan Square Auditorium, causing a delay in start time. Of course, this added to the build of anticipation. Minutes later the band gathered themselves now ready for battle. The fog began to roll in and the lights faded to black as the quintet filed onto the stage. The lights came up and wild applause and hysteria filled the room from a much more generous crowd than ATR’s. They kicked the night off with the spirited "Nemesis"; it really got the crowd going.

It is official, guitarist Christopher Amott is no longer a part of Arch. He departed shortly before the band set sail to the Americas for Ozzfest 2005. At that time, Kostas Karamitroudis or better known as Gus G., ex-Nightrage, Dream Evil, and Firewind, took over second axe duties. This go round on the guitarist touring circuit is Fredrik Åkesson; hopefully he will become a permanent fixture as he quite the skillful player and fits in rather well with the group. Now to delve a little further into their performance, it was tight! They seem to gel well with the new guitarist, much better than Gus G. In our humble opinion, tonight’s performance was the best we had seen of the band to date. You could tell they we very happy to be there in front of the Chicago audience! Daniel Erlandsson, drummer extraordinaire’s performance was ardent and fervent. He has truly come into his own as he commanded and captivated the attention of the audience from start to finish. Kudos to the front of house sound guy, amazing engineering work by the (Jamie & co). The vocals were distinct and pristine; the drums were clear and succinct as crystal not to mention the screaming solos of Amott and Åkesson on top of hearing and feeling the bass from one Sharlee D’Angelo. Speaking of the drums, this evening the band bid a fair adieu to their drum tech Damon Dougherty. Never fear even though the send off was somber, it was full of holiday cheer and libations. He will be missed sorely.

Speaking of commandants, commander-in-chief, Angela Gossow was quite the spitfire this evening. She thanked the crowd for coming out to see the band and on the third song, “Dead Eyes See No Future”, she commanded the now healthy crowd to get their “mother fucking hands in the air”. Without hesitation, her minion happily did as ordered. Prime directive of complete control was established. During the intro to “My Apocalypse” Gossow bellowed in her thick guttural German accent, “Let’s get this thing going! Bang your head, light your lighters, whatever…let’s get it going”, you had better believe her ever-faithful flock did as instructed; soon thereafter, a sizable mosh pit ensued. After the conclusion of the song, the band exited stage right to allow Erlandsson his fifteen minutes of fame during his fantastic drum solo. All mouths were left agape. After Mr. Erlandsson’s scorching solo the band rejoined him but not before giving him a well deserved round of applause first. The band ripped into “Taking Back My Soul”.

Angela’s continuous connect to the crowd was magnetic. She dedicated the next song “Diva Satanica” to “all the ladies in the audience”! Of course, dedications such as this further endeared Mrs. Gossow to us all; I think every woman in the house (including ourselves) screamed to the top of their lungs pledging their allegiance to their leader! After the last rousing song, the band exited stage right again. This time to make way for Michael Amott’s mind-altering guitar solo; the virtuoso shined like a diamond in the sky. The crowd was in awe. Deciding to bring the mood down a skosh, the band went into the instrumental “Hybrids of Steel” following Amott’s solo. Mr. D’Angelo was definitely a highlight on this song.

Without prompting, stragglers, strays, and wallflowers moved to the front of the house towards the house during the next number, “I Am Legend/Out For Blood”. Now how’s that for control? The band seemed to pick up even more steam (if that was a possibility) during the next song in which the Commander introed, “This is the first song off Black Earth, Bury Me An Angel”! The crowd erupted not only did a pit from hell arise but also every man as far as the eye could see sang along with Angela. The band then exited the stage to allow the newcomer his time to woo the crowd. All eyes were on Åkesson in which he handled it like water rolling off a duck’s back. In short, Fredrik owned; he is quite the talented with the axe!! To sustain the momentum, the band then performed “Ravenous” off Wages of Sin. The crowd was pumped its just too bad more people did not witness the band raze the Logan Square Auditorium like a mushroom cloud. After the conclusion of “Ravenous”, the band vacated the stage. The crowd endlessly chanted, “Arch Enemy, Arch Enemy…” Like a well-trained army, Arch Enemy converged and annihilated their target…oh wait, false alarm…there’s more to come!

– Intermission –

Unfortunately, a vast majority of the crowd thought that the first goodbye was the final curtain call. After the brief breather, the band returned to voracious applause (from those that remained). Gossow immediately addressed the fold, “Chicago give me the fucking devil’s horns or signs”, and all horns were up in the room. The band happily ripped into “Skeleton Dance”, their sixth and final song off Doomsday. Speaking of the setlist it was good to see the band headline; the band had time to treat us with a plethora of songs from the new album. It was a good mix between the new and the old. The next song got everybody in the place going as Gossow introduced the song, “We Will Rise Chicago”! There was not one still body in the audience. The band wrapped it up with “Fields of Desolation” another song off the Black Earth album. Angela capped the night off with, “Chicago thank you very much for your support”! All that remained this evening were decimated bodies in the pit; they wrecked the place with their set. The audience agreed with wild applause. Vi ses, Arch Enemy, oh wait, that’s tomorrow!!

Harpo’s: The turn out for Arch Enemy was magnanimous in comparison to the aforementioned low pre-sales. More people filed in during the changeover from All That Remains’ fiery set. General Gossow rallied her troops up from the very beginning of tonight’s soirée kicking things off, again, with the first single from the new album, Doomsday Machine, “Nemesis”. Angela paced the expanse of the immense stage commanding her crowd; her execution was overly impressive. The band definitely elevated their level of showmanship for the attentive Detroit audience particularly Sharlee D’Angelo. He was all smiles as he had every reason to be; his performance was overwhelming. Naturally, the behemoth of a stage made the 6’7” bassist appear even more massive than normal.

Due to sleep deprivation, my ADHD kicked in early on so I will offer the highlights: Fredrik’s solo was even better tonight; he looked comfortable and very confident. Michael and Daniel’s respective solos were equally as impressive rivaling their performances the night before. Angela was definitely on fire. She dedicated “Diva Satanica” to the lasses in the audience; however, Chicago seemed much more appreciative than the chicks at Harpo’s did. Perhaps another reason for my short and abrupt synopsis of tonight’s show would be without warning, the club decided to shut down early for the holiday during Arch’s set. The band received the news during “Ravenous” so of course the band was rushed, leaving them to scrap one of the encore songs “Skeleton Dance” and with time being an issue, they had no intermission. The band opted to play “Dead Bury Their Dead”, “We Will Rise”, and “Fields of Desolation”. Hearing the disgust in her voice Gossow delivered the bad news to the crowd as they hissed a while. The band then ripped into the last portion of their chosen setlist. Angela thanked the crowd for coming out in the blustery weather to see the band play. At the very end, Gossow knelt down to greet the fans. In the process, the overzealous fanatical enthusiasts damn near pulled her off the stage, see what happens when you try to be nice. Luckily, she was able to right herself before injury arose. Even though tonight’s show got off to a rocky start for most, it ended up with a bang. Perhaps when the band comes stateside again their schedule will allow them the fortitude of extensively covering the Americas without having to tear through the territory in a little under a month. Happy Thanksgiving to our American brethren!!

Setlist: Nemesis; Enemy Within; Dead Eyes See No Future; My Apocalypse; Daniel solo; Taking Back My Soul; Diva Satanica; Michael solo; Hybrids of Steel; I Am Legend /Out For Blood; Bury Me An Angel; Fredrik solo; Ravenous; *** Encore *** Skeleton Dance; Dead Bury Their Dead; We Will Rise; Fields of Desolation.

Other Points of Interest

o     Click here for new interview with Michael Amott

o   Here for photos of the band during the Jäger 2006 Tour

o    Here for two-part interview with Sharlee D’Angelo

o      Here for photos of the band during Ozzfest 2005

o   Here for more photos of the band during the Headbangers Ball Tour

The Doomsday Tour Dates U.S.A. & CANADA TOUR FALL 2005
Arch Enemy with support All That Remains, MNEMIC, and A Perfect Murder

Nov. 12 Tempe, AZ @ MARQUEE THEATRE
Nov. 13 Los Angeles, CA @ HOUSE OF BLUES
Nov. 14 San Francisco, CA @ SLIM'S
Nov. 16 Denver (Boulder), CO @ FOX THEATRE
Nov. 18 San Antonio, TX @ WHITE RABBIT
Nov. 19 Houston, TX @ ENGINE ROOM
Nov. 21 Lawrence, KS @ THE BOTTLENECK
Nov. 22 Chicago, IL @ LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM
Nov. 23 Detroit, MI @ HARPO'S
Nov. 25 Philadelphia, PA @ THEATER OF THE LIVING ARTS
Nov. 26 Worcester, MA @ PALLADIUM
Nov. 27 West Springfield, VA @ JAXX
Nov. 28 New York, NY @ IRVING PLAZA
Nov. 30 Québec City, QC @ IMPERIAL
Dec. 01 Toronto, ONT @ OPERA HOUSE

 

All photos Copyright © 2005. Pictures may not be used without the written consent/permission of FourteenG