Concert Review: Sacrament Tour (Wiltern) A-

Date of show: 02/25/07
Machine Head (A)
Trivium (B)
Lamb Of God (incomplete)

Ventured out on Oscar night in Los Angeles to the venerable Wiltern theater to catch Lamb Of God's Sacrament tour. While not terribly excited to see the headliner's brand of 'pure American metal,' I was jazzed to see openers Machine Head and Trivium.

Machine Head went first (after French death metallers Gojira, whom I happily missed) and proceeded to play the most devastatingly heavy five song-set I've ever heard. They opened with the mammoth Clenching The Fists Of Descent. It's not often you see a metal band these days open a show with a ten-minute-long track, let alone the opening ten-minute-long track of their as yet unreleased masterpiece, The Blackening. The veteran group also unveiled another new track, Aesthetics Of Hate, with a solemn spoken introduction by frontman Robb Flynn, explaining the tracks tribute to Dimebag (which elicted a raucous 'Dime-bag, Dime-bag!' chant, which I might've called pandering...if the song itself wasn't about the reaction to Dime's death). Filling out the set were new (Imperium) and old (Old and Davidian) classics that showed the band in top form. I'd be lying if I said the bulk of the audience were giant MH fans (although it was nice to see I'm not the only one who knows the words to the new tracks), but I will say the crowd gave a generally warm reception to the material, old and new. My only nit-picky complaint (well, other than the short set-time) had to with an overly loud rhythm section, oftentimes drowning out the masterful guitarwork of Flynn and fellow axeman Phil Demmel.


Next came Trivium, with their fancy lightshow, over-dramatic intro music, and 80s throwback stylings (white tennies to go with white T-shirt and black jeans, nice touch, Heafy). Not that I dislike Trivium, I've had some fun seeing them twice over the past year. But seeing them immediately following the bludgeoning Machine Head is kinda like watching the best band at a high school talent show go on after Metallica. They're good, but...they're just kids (frontman Matt Heafy turned 21 last month). Trivium put on a spirited eight song set that was a little too weighted towards 2006's The Crusade. Filler tracks Unrependent and To The Rats stalled the engine for a little while until it was time for more material off 2005's more urgent Ascendancy album. I will say this, however; there are a lot of Trivium fans out there, a whole lot. Hearing the ridiculous 'Woah-woah, yeah-yeah' chant from Anthem (We Are The Fire) sung by thousands of fifteen-year-olds just confirms this fact.

Finally, it was time for Lamb Of God. I admit, I was very curious to see what all the fuss is about. LOG is arguably the 'biggest' underground band in metal today, and honestly, I just don't understand. I thought their latest album, 2006's Sacrament, was decent, and by being decent was easily the band's finest achievement. Still, I went into their performance with open eyes, hoping to finally see the light.


Nope. No light. Not even a flicker. LOG suffers live from the same things that hinder the group on their albums: limited, grunting vocals, repetitive and uninspiring riffs, and less-than-spectacular leads. Add to this a bland stage set-up (Trivium's stage and light show were a dozen times better, and can anyone tell me why singer Randy Blythe is still using a corded mic? Is it just to keep his guitar and bass bandmates standing still at the front of the stage while Blythe has free roam of the completely empty space? Because that seems to be what it causes.), and you've got a recipe for boring. But don't tell that to the rest of the audience who were absolutely eating the whole thing up. After three songs, I had had enough and vacated the venue, leaving the cough, enlightened, to enjoy the rest of the set.