High Bias stagestruck

OPETH/LACUNA COIL/YAKUZA/REMAINS OF SOMETHING HUMAN
@The Back Room, Austin, TX
May 9, 2003
I've been a huge fan of Opeth since I was turned on to its landmark 2001 LP Blackwater Park, so I was thrilled that the Swedish quartet brought its Fair Judgement tour to Austin. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt looked like a gentle hippy with his long, straight hair and beard; his sedate demeanor between songs belied his ability to do the bowel-ripping vocals required in most Opeth material (though it fit his remarkably beautiful clean vocals perfectly). He and the rest of the group (guitarist Peter Lindgren, bassist Martin Mendez, drummer Martin Lopez) seemed genuinely happy to be in Austin, and the crowd was even happier to host them.

The Swedish quartet did not disappoint. Opening with "The Leper Affinity," the epic monster that also leads off Park, the band proved that it's no studio creation, navigating the song's twists and turns from savagery to serenity with the same easy skill as it does on the album; the only difference was replacing acoustic guitars with clean-toned electrics. The dynamic prog metal of Morningrise's "Advent" followed, and it became apparent that the sound was barely adequate. A muddy mix, a problem that would occur throughout then performance, blunted the impact of this largely instrumental number. Whoever was running sound for the show continued struggling with the balance through the title track of Deliverance, one of the best tunes from that album, and almost got it down by the time Opeth hit "The Drapery Falls," one of the band's all-time best tunes, given a superlative reading here. Åkerfeldt and company continued to dig into the back catalog with the next two songs, the majestic "Godhead's Lament" (from Still Life) and the mellow "Credence," a mostly-fingerpicked song from My Arms, Your Hearse that sounds like a precursor to the current release Damnation. (Side note: the band played nothing from Damnation, the gentle, non-metal sound of which is a departure. Åkerfeldt promised a separate tour to promote it later this year.) "Credence" ran directly into "Bleak," the most immediately striking song from Park, with its Middle-Eastern riffs and perfect shifts between roar and hum; it was probably the highlight of the show.

Opeth closed the main set with a beautiful run through "A Fair Judgement," both the softest and most epic track from Deliverance. The crowd went wild as the band exited the stage; while I was hoping for more from Blackwater Park (cries for "Harvest" were ignored), I was more than satisfied. Seven songs may not seem like much of a set, but with a band whose tracks are at least 10 minutes long, it was definitely a full experience. The audience seemed confused; everyone wanted more, but two decades of encores becoming commonplace didn't exactly encourage the crowd to demand it. Fortunately, someone finally started a chant of "Opeth! Opeth!" and the group returned to the stage, reaching back once again to My Arms, Your Hearse for the ripping melodic death metal of "Demon of the Fall." It was a strong capper to an excellent show, making me anticipate the Damnation tour even more.

Opening the show was a trio of bands from diverse backgrounds. Austin's Remains of Something Human kicked things off with a short set of generic, if spirited, alternative metal. Chicago's Yakuza plied its jazzy thrashcore to good effect; its violent dynamic shifts between fragile beauty and intense fury presaged the headliner. And it's nice to see a saxophone in extreme metal. Italy's Lacuna Coil then cleared the palate with its melodic Goth metal. One of the original "beauty and the beast" bands, the Coil traded mostly heavily on the pretty vocals of its female singer, with the male singer adding guttural tirades as needed. The song performed in the group's native language was the best; the male vocalist seemed much more comfortable with Italian than English. But the rest of the band's material, while bordering on cheese (especially when the members whipped their long hair in unison), was pretty good as well. The group's innate sense of grand theater suits its approach. There were a few too many taped keyboard swells and background vocals, but overall Lacuna Coil was a nice warm-up for the main attraction. Michael Toland

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