Amon Amarth at The Norva, Norfolk, VA, 4/28/09 With Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch, and Lazarus A.D.

While I can’t say I’ve been to a great many, The Norva remains my favorite concert hall. The  sound quality is superb, the place is shaped perfectly, there’s plenty of space, and most of all, the crowds are usually totally into it. Amon Amarth isn’t one of my favorite bands, but I do enjoy them, and I knew seeing them at the Norva would be all the more worth it. AA has the perfect sound for a live show – their songs are all sweepingly epic and grandiose with plenty of heaviness and emotion. Therefor, it was a must-go.

M83’s Saturdays=youth – My Long-Awaited Genre-Buster

M83 is a French shoegaze band with 5 currently available albums. I’ve listened to a bunch of their songs, but mostly the albums ‘Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts’ and ‘Saturdays=youth’. While I love ‘Dead cities…’, which is one of the band’s pure shoegaze albums, their latest release, Saturdays=youth, has become one of my favorite albums for it’s interesting genre-bending.

Satyricon Live Experiences – 2/25 and 3/1 2009 Norfolk (The Norva) and Springfield (Jaxx) VA With 1349, Cradle of Filth, and Others – How I Almost Died For Metal

(pics will be added when they are uploaded)

I am not a big Satyricon fan. Or a fan at all. My mom, however, is a diehard devotee. They were her introduction to black metal a few years back (long before I got into it) and remain among her top 5 or so favorite bands. Satyricon hasn’t been able to play in the States for some 6 years because the drummer, Frost, wasn’t allowed in the country, so my mom’s been very looking forward to seeing them. They finally got to do an east coast tour with Cradle of Filth playing all the mid-large venues as the secondary band, and they did a few headlining shows here and there in smaller venues, one of which was Springfield VA where they brought along 1349, which Frost used to be the drummer for.

I really did not want to go to either show, however my mom was not allowed to go alone. Therefor, she literally dragged me to both. The first time, my cousin came along, and the second a friend of mine. Reluctant as I was, I don’t dislike Satyricon, and knew it would be worth it to see Frost, since any black metal fan can tell you he’s one of the greatest black metal drummers there is. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by their performances, even if I could have died.

Full Protomen Show on Youtube – Get it While You Can

A great show, and the entire thing! sound quality is not great, partly due to venue size. vid quality is amazing though.

Vocals, Lyrics, and Delivery

Singing is most often a combination of voice and lyrics. ‘Vocals’ is used to describe the nature and quality of the voice. ‘Lyrics’ describes the words being sung by the vocals. A word that is used a little less commonly is ‘delivery’ which is perhaps most important. A great voice has to sound right in relation to the lyrics, and great lyrics mean nothing if they aren’t sung well.