Invaluable Darkness Tour Review

The Invaluable Darkness Tour
Review

Invaluable Darkness Tour: Dimmu Borgir Unearth DevilDriver Kataklysm

The Invaluable Darkness Tour 2007
Dimmu Borgir
Unearth
DevilDriver
Kataklysm
HOB
5/4/07
Reviewer: Karma E. Omowale
Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

“The Chicago House of Blues audience received a Sinister Awakening as the bands on the Invaluable Darkness Tour shared their sacrifice with them!”

Neither a value nor price could be placed on what we bared witness tonight. Grant it, the first time this tour was announced the original thought was more along the lines of “WTF” and “that it was a strange lineup” but the more we sat back and thought about it, it was perfect. Talk about a well-rounded sense of exposure for all bands involved since they all appeal to different markets…but it works! You have Norway’s Dimmu Borgir being one of Black Metal’s above ground success stories to Unearth (a rising star in America), DevilDriver (they speak for themselves), & Kataklysm. Speaking of the bands this bill, all gave the performance of their lives. The lights was equally as impressive as well as the sound, then again this is what makes seeing shows at the Chicago House of Blues worth the price of admission. As far as audience participation goes, all hell broke lose more times than not throughout the night in the fiery (mosh) pit. As a matter of fact, I cannot recall seeing it lifeless...another excellent sign!

The last time we saw Dimmu was Ozzfest 2004 and in truth a band like this, does not deserve such cruel and unusual treatment. First off, its daylight, number two it’s open air…as if one can capture their magnificence in such a ridiculous situation. We were STOKED to finally be able to see them in their full glory and this time with one of Norway’s most visceral drummers, Jan Axel Von Blomberg a.k.a. his well earned metal moniker, Hellhammer! Mind-blowing musicianship is the glue that binds this conglomerate together however; in a live setting, it is a bit questionable. This is said because either almost all of their songs were sped up or the clean vocals of Simen Hestnæs were an octave lower by studio standards. In short, it was weird and distracting, but the band still delivered one hell of a set!

We caught up with DevilDriver’s ace bassist, Jon Miller, shortly after their dynamic set. Of course, we had to find out some tidbits on the new album. And for the record, if the rest of the album sounds ANYTHING like the two preview songs, “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” and “Clouds Over California” the band played tonight, we are all in for a vicious ass kicking! It's easy to understand why Miller and the rest of the band spent so much time in the studio, rehearsing, etc. Miller had this to say, “The last seven months of my life have revolved around DevilDriver’s third record, The Last Kind Words, comes out July 31^st in the States and June 19^th in Europe and it is definitely DevilDriver’s best record to date!” Resolute about the band’s direction and future, Miller went on to talk about the tour itself and the impact it will have on the band, “It couldn’t be better! The tour has been a major success. This is a tour that is putting DevilDriver on deck for the massive door that’s going to open up for us next year internationally. We’re gonna get to places we’ve never been to before!” So now that we’re all pumped, “Chronicle the Damned” and get inside the “Material Flesh” (Sorry, I could not resist the temptation there!) with a recap of tonight’s events, shall we!

Kataklysm Lineup: Maurizio Iacono – vocals; Jean-François Dagenais – guitars; Stéphane Barbe – bass; Max Duhamel – drums

When we walked in, the band had just opened with “Like Angels Weeping” the first track off their 2006 release, In The Arms of Devastation. The meager crowd hurdled their horns towards the stage. Last time we saw these Maple Leaf warriors (otherwise known as Kataklysm) play was during last year’s Metal Crusaders Tour. In comparison to the first plague-ridden show we witnessed in 2004, tonight’s performance was light years ahead of that one. In the same breath, the band seems to have a lot more confidence, and it truly shows. Chicago will always serve as a sort of homecoming for the band as “Ambassador of Pain” and Chicago resident, vocalist Maurizio Iacono resides here with his wife and family. Needless to say, he was feeling tonight’s show, rightfully so since the family was in out in full support! The rest of the band was on fire as well guitarist J-F Dagenais and bassist Stéphane Barbe tore it up along with Max Duhamel on drums.

Did I say how good it is to see Duhamel back there banging away madly on the skins? To intro to “Let Them Burn” Iacono engaged the onlookers, “My friends the time has come; it will be your time to decide what happens. This next song is off our new album and it’s about traitors! What do you do to traitors?” Someone in the audience shouted, “Let them burn!” This pleased the stocky singer much, he quickly retorted, “That’s right Chicago, we Let Them Burn!” The place lit up! The floor started to move and headbang. Maurizio invited the crowd to “Fuck shit up” before the band performed my personal live favorite off “As I Slither” off their 2004 release Serenity in Fire. At least the crowd did oblige and a minor pit broke out, and for this song, how could they not? Now on to the last song of the set, “We’ve got one more for you. Thanks for coming early; I know you work!”, the crowd cheered madly. The frontman continued, “If you know Kataklysm, you know what comes next…the next carnage! This is “In Shadows and Dust”!” At the end of the set, a gracious singer thanked the crowd more by saying, “This is my home and thank you very much!” The crowd ate it up! It was a successful night for Kataklysm and for the crowd as they definitely got a proper warm up. Mercie!

Kataklysm Setlist: Like Angels Weeping (The Dark); When The Enemy Sleeps; Crippled And Broken; The Resurrected; Let Them Burn; As I Slither; In Shadows And Dust.

DevilDriver Lineup: Dez Fafara - vocals; Jon Miller - bass; Mike Spreitzer - guitars; Jeffery Kendrick - guitars; John Boecklin - drums

Now warmer than a 4-hour stint on a hot summer day in the beating sun, the crowd was good and ready for DevilDriver as the audience grew exponentially. The Californian boys were on cloud nine to be on stage performing for the Chicago crowd and honestly, the audience was just keyed up. They were definitely a sight for sore eyes, it seemed like it had been forever since their last gig we caught in Milwaukee last year during the band’s brief stint on Opeth’s 2006 Ghost Reveries Tour. The band came out taking no prisoners and vocalist Dez Fafara took command early on screaming at the crowd in a fatherly intonation, “Windy City, don’t let me down tonight! I wanna see you move!” Hell with an ultimatum like that how could you not do what you are told. There was not one still body on the floor. The set officially commenced as the band ripped into “End of the Line”. The packed floor full of array of horns for their beloved, DevilDriver. During the break of the song, Dez growled, “Show me your middle finger!” His subjects gladly complied! Deafening applause ensued at the conclusion of the song and the energy surged throughout the venue. When guitarists Mike Spreitzer and Jeff Kendrick began to play the intro to “I Could Care Less”, the place erupted! During of which a crowd surfer made it to Fafara. Before security could sang the kid, sweet victory was his for a brief moment in time as Dez caught the surfer before he hit the floor. Fafara then gave him a pound and a dap! Talk about some shit!! Haha I am sure that is a story that fan will tell a long time to come.

“How many mother fuckers here are familiar with DevilDriver?”, the crowd roared. Fafara continued, “Can we play some new shit? We have a new album coming out on Roadrunner Records on July 31^st called The Last Kind Words, this one is called “Not All that Wander Are Lost!” Just in case, you were wondering about crowd reaction, they lost it, baby! Suffice it to say, this song was so hot it fried our faces off! The arrangement was massive…again, if this is any indication to how the new album sounds…Good God Damn! Judging from the two (simultaneous) pits that broke out during the first chorus, the audience agreed with this assessment. Bassist Jon Miller stood tall rocking out and windmilling every nanosecond available. Drummer John Boecklin fucked some shit up along with twin guitar dynamos! Now as far as the vocals are concerned Dez sounds larger than life! God bless the HOB sound engineers as they very seldom fail us in the area of aural clarity! So clear, you could hear Fafara bellow the following: “Tied to the tree of woe, so woe to you. In front of the man with the dead eyes. With a choir of faith there's still hell to pay. Not enough hours in the day. Hell of patience to be paid. So who's left to wonder? In the wake of destruction, get made.” PREACH IT REVEREND FAFARA! With lyrics like this, this album should catapult the band to the level they should be, an international household name! The crowd never looked back!! Dez made a mosh call for a more widespread pit-daemic, “Fuck ‘em up! I wanna see bodies in the fucking air!” Soon thereafter, three surfers crossed the barriers. Dez happily commented, “Perfect!” Still not satisfied, Dez jumped on the riser and stood there whilst more bodies engulfed his frame. Now THAT’S love! He enjoyed every second of it!

Obviously, there was not enough carnage or crowd participation during the last song, during “Hold Back the Day”, the dominating frontman yelled, “I wanna hear you sing”…once Dez turned the mic loose, you better believe the faithful subjects sang damn near the entire chorus! Talk about an exulted leader! ;^p Fafara made another mosh call during “The Mountain”, “I wanna see some mother fucking action!” "When Summoned", what else can you do but submit? A violent pit soon erupted. Once the song ended, the Reverend delivered another rousing speech on 'not allowing the world to fuck you over', etc. He then went on to intro the second new song of the night, “Clouds Over California” The worked-up congregation in the pit (how apropos)/entire floor moved. It was an awesome sight! Stirred by the love, Dez then says, “It’s great to be home! That’s the first time I’ve said that!” He then went into a hysterical monologue, where he was going with it, we still have no idea. “This is my rifle…this is your pussy….” WHAT? :^o then preceded to go off on the House of Blues itself, “Stop having us pay for your over priced beer!” He then demanded, “Turn on the house lights and let’s see some shit!” Dez looks out into the crowd then says, “All you mother fuckers who have DD tattoos…” He then stops his imbibed “tirade of truth” while spotting a rather large man in the front of the stanchions; “You’re a big mother fucker so I’m not going to say anything to you!” The crowd lost it!! Finally, he snapped from stand up comedian back to normal role of dominating frontman to finish the set, “Open it up…don’t make me raise my voice!” Like he hadn’t done that already? Yellin’ like he’s somebody’s parental unit all night, guilt trips included…but I tell you what, it was the sweetest chastisement! “We’d love to thank Dimmu and Kataklysm!” (No mention of Unearth? Oh-oh) Once the last song commenced, Dez motioned for another pit, the hurricane of bodies grew bigger and faster. The monsoon picked up momentum until the entire floor was engulfed, including himself as Dez decided to get in on the action. In closing Dez left the stage with, “I love you mother fuckers!” We love you too! Their setlist was an equal mix of new and older songs; as Dez said, “Perfect!” They say absence makes the heart grow fonder so by that line of reasoning we’ll really love them more when they hit the road in the late summer on a headlining tour, can’t wait!!

DevilDriver Setlist: End of the Line; I Could Care Less; Not All Who Wander Are Lost*; Hold Back The Day; Grinfucked; The Mountain; Clouds Over California*; Meet The Wretched.

Click here to access interview with Silenoz

Dimmu Borgir Lineup: Erkekjetter Silenoz (Sven Atle Kopperud) - guitars, vocals; Hellhammer (Jan Axel Von Blomberg) - drums; ICS Vortex (Simen Hestnæs) - bass, clean vocals; Shagrath (Stian Thoresen) - vocals; Mustis (Øyvind Johan Mustaparta) - keyboards; Galder (Thomas Rune Andersen) - guitars

Unfortunately, we missed Unearth’s set in lieu of an interview with Silenoz and Hellhammer. However, if you must miss a band, interviewing headliners would rank high, right? Oh well, no used in crying over spilled milk… We also heard that Unearth performed as if tomorrow were ending. Guitarist Buz McGrath had broken away from the “confines” of the stage, ran into the crowd, mounted an adjacent bar (stage left), then proceeded to run down the bar itself whilst playing. According to our staff writer Sharita Lira, “It was a sight to see as the crowd cheered wildly to McGrath’s antics!” Sharita also had another interesting tidbit to report in reference to the bands’ set, “They just did not seem themselves, there energy was off”… Not to mention singer Trevor Phipps partaking in consuming libations on stage, what the…oddly enough the explanation came a little less than a week later when the band let longtime drummer Mike Justian go. Erika and I seriously regret missing their set but we do wish Mike all the best and hope he finds another band where he feels at home with right away! However we do have a shitload of pix of the band from their headlining tour last year, click here. …Now on to the aforementioned headliner, the celebrated Dimmu Borgir!

Dimmu were pumped tonight, news broke right before the band rolled into town that their newest album, The Serpentine Offering moved over 14,000 units here in the US, as I said before, this band is TRULY a success to break above the Norwegian black metal underground movement; they’ve make the genre accessible. If I have said it once, I will say it a thousand times more but Dimmu Borgir serves as a bridge or a stepping-stone, if you will to the dark world of black metal. What else can be said about their music asides from extreme symphonic metal majesty, and cold? It’s bitter, evocative, and tasty. Songwriter and guitarist, Sven “Silenoz” Kopperud was more than thrilled! Unbelievably, smiles will creep across his and drummer extraordinaire’s austere exteriors. We witnessed more random displays of happiness, during my interview. I need to add that the band too were thrilled to be able to infiltrate so many American homes. Many of an invaluable lesson was learned tonight, as one can never judge a book by its cover because I am here to say, the men of Dimmu Borgir are some of the nicest people we’ve had the pleasure of running across…sorry to debunk the myth! Their reputations precede them with the whole devil-worshipping thing, and in truth if they do, good for them! We all have the right to our own beliefs!! Any who, let me jump off my soapbox right the hell now. Next…

During changeover the impatient crowed chanted, “Dimmu, Dimmu Dimmu…” To build the anticipation more, the heartless bastards (just kidding) tormented us further as the "Intro" filled the venue through closed curtains. The audience went nuts cheering and whistling loudly, and out of nowhere, a pit erupted. Once the curtains opened, drummer Hellhammer took his throne, the pit ceased as they too wanted to see the rest of the materialize. The rest of the band joined then stood with horns extended towards the crowd motionless on stage. How cool is that for them to pay homage to their fans. During of which, an eerie moment of silence befell the venue, talk about reverence. The band then ripped into one of their best-known songs, “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse” off their 2003 release, Death Cult Armageddon. The entire venue erupted from floor to the ceiling, everyone rocked out to this song. Never fear, the pit resumed! To intro the next selection, Shagrath, the menacing blackened master of ceremony, spoke to his flock, “Good evening Chicago! Make some fucking noise!”, the crowd went berserk! “It’s been four years since we were here in the US…” it was hard to make out what else Shagrath said over the cacophonous applause of which the demonstrative reaction of their faithful minions warmed their cockles of their hearts! The band then performed another Death Cult song, “Vredesbyrd”.

The one thing that truly stands out about this incarnation of Dimmu is Hellhammer; his presence/performance raises the bar as he completes the band! For what he has done for DB is astounding; they have never sounded better or tighter. On to “Cataclysm Children”…Shagrath growled at the awestruck onlookers, “Are you guys ready for some more Norwegian new black metal?!” The crowd howled with excitement. Without a break, the band ripped into one of guitarist Silenoz’s favorites “Kings of the Carnival Creation”…he played this song with purpose and conviction. Guitarist Galder also breathed new life into this song as well. Again, the sound engineers worked magic as every instrument could be heard clearly. Simen’s bass was majestic. Hellhammer and Mustis sounded magickal. Now on to my personal favorite, “Sorgens Kammer-Del Pt II”! Shagrath, the conqueror addressed his minions again, “Beginning in 2005 we decided to re-record our album Stormblåst. So we’re now going to slow this set down a bit. I would like to dedicate this song to all of the beautiful women out there tonight!” As you can imagine, the place went nuts! Oh yeah, I was part of it, don't think I wasn't. The song was damn near flawless. It was like heaven in hell to hear Jan intro the song. WOW!

Fast forwarding, the band had gone on to perform a couple of older tunes. Shagrath then intros the next selection, “You guys wanna hear some new shit? We finally got our shit together after four years and recorded a new album, it’s called In Sorte Diaboli and this song’s called “The Serpentine Offering”!” Blissfully, the crowd clapped in unison during the into of the song. However, this is where the disenchantment began to seep in; for some strange reason the song itself was sped up and Simen’s clean vocals were way off. Of course, we soaked it up because hey, it’s Dimmu and how often do they hit our shores? Something that did spark our ears and ignite our souls was Hellhammer’s drum solo…it was indescribable closest we can come is that he plays like a man possessed; coupled with the light show that took place around him…[Scoffs] The crowd stood divided, some remained in a state of fascination, others cheered like crazy. It was unforgettable. Well kids, this is where the review ends, we too were “Spellbound” (by Dimmu Borgir) and next thing you know [poof], their set was over but this band showed us what they had with their amazing stage presence and tighter than fuck musicianship. In our book, they will remain the “True Kings of Norway, For All Tid!” Takk, takk!

Dimmu Borgir Setlist: Intro; Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse; Vredesbyrd; Cataclysm Children; Kings Of The Carnival Creation; Sorgens Kammer Del, pt II; Indoctrination; A Succubus In Rapture; The Serpentine Offering; Drum Solo; The Chosen Legacy; The Insight And The Catharsis; Spellbound (By The Devil); The Mourning Palace; The Fallen Arises.

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