Lamb Of God Tops Mtv2's Headbangers Ball

[DudeAsInCool]

Rock Review: MTV2 Headbangers Ball: Up From the Underground

December 6, 2003

By BEN RATLIFF

When MTV gets involved with a rock tour, you expect bands

on the heavy-commerce list. But the MTV2 Headbangers Ball

tour turned out to be a little different: it has moved

through a medium-size club circuit, drawing 1,000 to 2,000

fans a night around the country. The New York stop was at

Irving Plaza on Wednesday, with a four-band bill of

Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God and God

Forbid.

It's tempting to praise MTV2, MTV's more experimental

sister channel, for actually being cool, generously

cultivating the underground when it doesn't have to. But

this is a logical development. Since the old "Headbangers

Ball" left MTV in 1995 after an eight-year run, much more

metal has gone overground and has done extremely well. If

Staind or Linkin Park or Nickelback wants to tour, these

groups don't need MTV's banner to help them.

As for the rest of metal, its endless subgenres don't mean

much anymore: the field has been unified by Internet

downloading as well as by Ozzfest, whose diverse

second-stage lineups have raised the profiles of smaller

bands like those on this tour.

A nice thing about Wednesday's show was the obvious

solidarity among bands: by Killswitch Engage's closing set,

members from all bands were milling around by the side of

the stage. This is punk-rock behavior: the anti-showbiz,

low-key fraternity of souls.

The feeling spread to the crowd. "We're going to do this

old-school thing now," said Randy Blythe, the singer from

Lamb of God, during its set. "It's called the Wall of

Death." The moshers split into two sides, creating a ravine

down the center of the floor, and at his signal - "One,

two, three, four!" - converged, whipping arms and legs and

torsos around in a sort of graceful, peaceful imitation of

violence.

Lamb of God stood out on the bill: it has created a huge

sound with sculptured edges, putting some swing in the

rhythm while keeping the indistinct, low roaring vocals and

sequential riffs of underground metal. (The overground sees

potential, too: the band was signed a few months ago to the

major label Epic.)

It also proved that a low-slung assault of pure guitar

density and rhythm can be more powerful than melody and

solos in riling up an audience. Killswitch Engage and

Shadows Fall used melody in their songs but didn't push it

quite far enough into the realm of the memorable anthem.

And while Lamb of God has nearly stripped guitar leads from

its music altogether, Shadows Fall and God Forbid adhere to

the old model of guitar solos as moments of wowing baroque

detail. Those solos were nice 1980's nostalgia, but they

diluted the assault of the music. The crowd's reactions

seemed to indicate that metal has moved totally into the

post-solo age.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/arts/mus...7baedca473e2028