Soundwave Festival 2011 Wrap-Up – Part 2 in Reviews

Here we go again – part 2 of our Soundwave 2011 wrap-up and this time round we are looking at DevilDriver, All That Remains, Dimmu Borgir and High On Fire.

DevilDriver
Having seen DevilDriver countless times before i must admit they never fail to impress and i’m not sure what it is about them that impresses me honestly, but it is likely a little bit of everything – the music, the band, the atmosphere. Having known of and followed Dez since his days in Coal Chamber i must say when DevilDriver came onto the scene i was pleasantly surprised as while Coal Chamber were a successful band and i did like their music i can’t say i find myself listening to any of their stuff these days, and if i were to pull out the odd album i have a feeling i would only be listening to 1 or 2 songs like ‘Loco’; not sure what album it’s off but came out in like ’99 from memory? Anyway, moving on….

If you haven’t seen DevilDriver before, you should probably put them on your list of ‘must sees’ as their groove metal and melodic death metal amalgamation drives everybody into a moshing frenzy.

All That Remains
Up next were the metalcore stylings of All That Remains – probably my favourite of all the ‘remains’ bands and another band i had not seen live before and as a consequence i probably made the wrong decision staying to watch them (when Stone Sour were on across at the main stage [i have seen Stone Sour before on their own headlining tour and while Corey is fucking brilliant on stage along with the rest of the band i thought i would stick around for a band i was yet to see, much to the disappointment of my wife i might add] ). Unfortunately while the band was energetic and lively and Philip Labonte’s vocals were spot on the entire sound just seemed to be lacking in depth. Normally i find bands sound heavier live but in this case their sound was somewhat disappointing – maybe the sound guy is to blame but none the less it was a bit of a letdown.

Dimmu Borgir
I had waited a very, very long time to see these guys. And unfortunately for them, they were the only band to have technical difficulties that prevented them from performing their entire set (they started about 15 minutes later than they should have). But once on stage, they lived up to what i expected: “For those that do not know, we are.. Dimmu Borgir… and we are from Norway” Shagrath stated after a song or two in his evil sounding Norwegian accent. Contrary to what some others say, Dimmu Borgir are not sell outs *cough*Undercover.fm*cough* – having watched and listen to their music and video clips for the better part of two decades they were exactly what i expected on stage; dark, symphonic, theatrical and brilliant. Maybe the aforementioned website thinks they are sell outs due to their constant lineup and role changes or the fact that they are the first black metal band to have a #1 album in their native Norway (for their album In Sorte Diaboli) but they do not elaborate? Photos below are copyright their respective owners and were found through a simple Google Images search.

High On Fire
Last up in this episode we will take a quick look at High On Fire, who i have to say i had no interest in seeing. For those you who read our Soundwave Festival 2011 Part 1 Wrap-Up you would know i am just not a fan of doom or stoner metal, the latter of which High On Fire definitely fall within. So i think the nicest thing i can say is that their dirty sound seemed to be to the liking of the crowd in front of their stage but i don’t know enough about this genre to make any adequately intelligent comments.

In our next and final wrap up of Soundwave Festival 2011 we will take a look at Murderdolls, Ill Nino, Slayer, Kylesa, Rob Zombie and last but not least Iron Maiden.