Crustcake Reviews: Opeth, High On Fire, Nachmystium - Irving Plaza 9/18/08

by theseseans (NYC) photos by Jesse Angelo

Shows have been starting early lately, and when I saw that the doors at Nokia Theater were opening at 6, I made sure to get there early, at 6:15. Of course the one time I get there early, the show didn't start until 7:30.

This minor annoyance, however, could not touch the good mood that Nachtmystium put me in when they kicked into "One Of These Nights." The band played the first three song of their latest album, Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 intensely. Following those was "Your True Enemy" before the band spent the second half of their set on older material. Nachtmystium kept the intensity high through out their show, playing for a half an hour without even giving pause to announce who they were. Those not familiar were clearly confused, as Nokia already had the High on Fire banner hanging.

My only complaint was that during Nachtmystium's set, the sound was terrible. Really, really terrible. Both guitarists were at times inaudible; this was accented by the fact that when either one took a lead the first half couldn't be heard, only to be awkwardly boosted halfway through.

High On Fire are like a force of nature. My friend Andrew leaned over to me during the song "Death Is This Communion" and said "Dude, if I were a T-Rex THIS is what I'd want to hunt to." Matt Pike was beyond entertaining with his obvious enthusiasm towards his trade, their set began with him approaching the mic and saying "check this shit out!" before they ripped into "Fury Whip." He honestly looked like a kid at Christmas every time a guitar solo came around. Their set sounded enormous. The bass drowned almost everything else out, but in a way that was appropriate and invigorating.

Opeth are almost hard to describe. Their set was an hour and forty minutes, and ten songs long. Mikael was himself: hilarious, docile, and musically dead-on. Opeth opened with what is quickly becoming one of my favorite 'heavy' Opeth tracks, "Heir Apparent" and rolled right into "The Grand Conjuration." Their set list spanned seven of their albums, and flowed well between their crushing death metal and more melodic side. The only thing I would have changed is to swap out "The Night and The Silent Water" (off of Morningrise) for something newer, but still the set list was thoroughly enjoyable.

Song selection isn't the only thing that matters in a concert, of course. There is the performance as well. New guitarist Fredrik (previously of Arch Enemy) was flawless; bringing his technical shredding style into some of Opeth's older material was a welcome change and a great fit. He and Mikael seemed comfortable trading and taking turns handling the lead duties, on both new and older material. In previous live settings with Peter on guitar, Mikael had done all the lead work; Mikael seemed comfortable and confident with this Opeth line-up and his enthusiasm was tangible. The rest of the band was were equally relaxed on stage even when playing older songs like "Serenity Painted Death," to which Mikael said they hated playing "because it's so fucking hard to play." Crustcake gerf had told me that Opeth had always been hit or miss for him, so I was pleased with such an excellent show for my first time with the band.

Opeth Set List:

Heir Apparent (Watershed)
The Grand Conjuration (Ghost Reveries)
Serenity Painted Death (Still Life)
Hope Leaves (Damnation)
The Lotus Eater (Watershed)
Bleak (Blackwater Park)
The Night and the Silent Water (Morningrise)
Deliverance (Deliverance)
Demon of the Fall (My Arms, Your Hearse)

Encore:

The Drapery Falls (Blackwater Park)

Nachtmystium









High On Fire






Opeth









Special Live Text Message Review of Opeth:

These Seans: You at Opeth?

Crustcake Gerf: Fuck Yeh!

These Seans: Indeed!

Crustcake Gerf: You Here?

These Seans: Mid center of crowd

Crustcake Gerf: Fuck yes! Blackwater Park!

These Seans: YESSSSSSSSSS

Crustcake Gerf: Deliverence!!!!!

These Seans: This is my favorite song, can't wait for the ending, oh man!

These Seans: oh here we go!

Crustcake Gerf: fuuuuuuuuuck

Crustcake Gerf: this is my favorite song [in reference to "Demon of the Fall"]

These Seans: Can I has encore please? kthxbi

Crustcake Gerf: "Nobody really likes solos except the musicians that play them. Because they're gay." - Mikael Akerfeldt