The Black Procession Tour

w/ Machine Head, Hatebreed, Bleeding Through & Emmure
The Hi Fi Bar, Brisbane – 27/03/10

Arguably the heaviest band of the night, New York band Emmure steamroll their way on stage, legitimately threatening to bring the Hi-Fi to its knees with their seismic brand of deathcore. If ever there were a time to use the words ‘thundering bass’ it would be now,  as the band showcase some of the heaviest bass this reviewer has ever heard. If the Hi-Fi had any windows, they would’ve been blown the fuck out by the time Emmure were done.

As Emmure work their way through the set, however, it becomes painfully obvious how much the bass overshadows the other members’ technical ability. Frontman Frankie Palmeri has some of the deepest indecipherable growls around, and guitarists Jesse Ketive and Mike Mulholland would have opportunities (not to mention the talent) for some insane solos, had the focus not been on using bass to reduce brains to mush.

Orange County metalcore outfit Bleeding Through are up next, but fail to stand out amongst the heavy lineup. The band is on par tonight in terms of performance, but it’s unfortunate that their performance is entirely unmemorable. Their brand of metalcore (or hardcore, if you want to be picky) is nothing that hasn’t been done before, and they seem destined to be the filler band of the evening. Most of the set was spent staring at frontman Branden Schiepatti’s pornstache, and admiring the utter uselessness of keyboardist Marta.

Don’t get me wrong, chicks in metal are great, but it seems as if they always fulfil one of two roles – the vocalist with a background in classical music, or relegated to the sidelines as a bass player or keyboardist. While Marta is undoubtedly beautiful, she’s about as useful as tits on a bull – aside from a few bars of eerie haunted house-esque music here and there, she spends 90% of the set headbanging and miming the lyrics to the crowd. And if you’ve ever seen someone headbang over a keyboard, you’ll know how laughable it is to watch.

Thundering on stage next are Hatebreed, with enough fucking energy and force to convince anyone that they’re the headlining band of the evening. Frontman Jamey Jasta has charisma coming out of his arse, and manages to create moshes in a venue that’s entirely unconducive to moshing. Tracks like Beholder of Justice, Doomsayer and Perseverance, and As Diehard As They Come get everybody screaming along, and whirling their shirts in the air during Driven by Suffering.

Lemme take a moment here and get personal (read: bogan/inarticulate), because there’s really only so many ways I can say this. Hatebreed were fucking AWESOME. Even if you can’t stand Hatebreed and want to punch Jamey Jasta in the face, go along to a show and you’ll be fucking converted. Before you know it you’ll be swinging your shirt above your head, screeching along to Destroy Everything and In Ashes They Shall Reap with the rest of us, and you’ll be stockpiling pink Jasta g-strings and wearing them on the outside of your pants. I’m as serious as Jesus on this.

A testament to Hatebreed’s charisma and stage presence is how utterly boring Machine Head seem in comparison. Despite being the headlining act and touting a shirtless Robb Flynn, the energy is much lower during the metal veterans’ set, making for a painfully slow hour and change.  Opening tracks Clenching the Fists of Dissent and Imperium initially get everybody riled up and jizzing their pants, though this quickly wanes, with the set growing increasingly painful through Take My Scars, A Nation on Fire, Ten Ton Hammer, Now I Lay Thee Down, and Beautiful Mourning.

Flynn continually harps on about the crowd’s intensity, so inevitably there are some people enjoying the incredibly long set. It’s just in this reviewer’s experience that tracks like All Falls Down, Aesthetics of Hate, Old, Seasons Wither, Bulldozer and Block have more people swaying and nodding than moshing. I do comment the band for changing shit up though, having more melodic tracks like The Burning Red intertwined with the otherwise thrash-heavy list.

Eventually Machine Head temporarily depart the stage in the lead-up to the encore, leaving the crowd to scream “Machine Fuckin’ Head” ever so articulately. The band return soon enough, and I finally see the intensity that Flynn has been babbling about all night – the band’s energy is explosive, and the crowd has reached fever pitch. They move in to utterly destroy crowd favourites Halo and Davidian, with the roaring as powerful as the fabled Davidian shotgun blast. Now I gotta ask, if the band are capable of that kind of energy, why did they act like geriatrics for the rest of the set?