Morbid Angel at the Garage Glasgow - 09/12/14 - Random Thoughts.
Posted: 10 Dec 2014, 17:38
Long time lurker, seldom poster here.
I've been a fan of MA and a follower of Trey's guitar ways since Altars arrived in my possession, crappily recorded via tape-to-tape, back in the day. Fact is, for most of my life I have lived and worked in remote and inhospitable places and as such, going to see bands is often a rare treat for me. Long story short, I happened to be within striking distance of the Glasgow Garage last night and was able to check out MA playing Covenant in it's entirety.
Here are some random thoughts. If you don't like 'em, I'd consider it a courtesey if you would skip over this post, rather than shooting my ass down in flames, as these are simply one person's thoughts and I have no intention of entering into a bout with any keyboard Rambos.
While metal may be the greatest art form of the 20th Century, I sometimes wonder at how our culture has changed over the years. The best way to describe the assembled gathering last night was 'sedate'. In fact it came as something of a kick in the balls when Trey appeared through the rear door and walked to the side of the stage and no one even uttered a sound. My opinion: the hard-on bearer is a fkn luminary of the genre and a word-class guitarist. He deserves more respect.
The show kicked in at 21:00 and the laid-back theme continued with the audience taking a while to warm up. There was no pit, initially, minimal banging and most folks seemed more keen of protecting their posh camera phones and assorted other devices, than witnessing the fkn onslaught. A little dissappointing. But who cares? MA were tight and sounded a helluva lot cleaner and more precise than some of the dodgy recordings I've heard in the past.
Say what you like about Vincent, but he is a quality frontman. He wins you over, regardless of whether you like his campy S&M-lite look or not. His voice stayed strong and accurate to the end and he didn't use any obvious effects of digital trickery. By the time we reached The Lion's Den I was starting to feel the way MA tend to make me feel, listening to them at home, in the car, on my iPod in the back of a helicopter.
I won't beat about the bush here, Trey looked tired last night. He was restrained. He did not freak out. He rarely looked at the crowd and when he left the stage without an encore, he looked slightly relieved. In truth, I'm not entirely sure how he feels about this kind of music and about MA these days. Indeed, I think that the main negative about the "I" album is the fact that it hardly feels like he's there. That sense of absence was replicated a bit last night.
That said, he is one of my guitar heroes and on that front, he did not dissappoint. Riff-wise he was very tight, the overall craftsmanship beyond reproach. At his best, his solos are just beautiful chaos, but watching him last night I was not aware of how much of that was generated by right hand on the fingerboard type of stuff: pinching those wierd harmonics and odd pick slides at bizarre places and times. That was a great demonstration of how a guitar player can and perhaps should think outside the box.
At the other side of the stage, that Destructhor hard-on bearer... just was. I'm indifferent to him. While I can see he is an able guitar player and managed to do a very admirable job of being a 'Brunelle' to Trey rather than a 'Rutan', I don't have much to say about him.
At the other end of that particular spectrum, I fkn loved Tim Yeung. He is tight, he has the stamina and, in the absence of Pete on top form, I think he made them sound like a fkn machine rhythmically.
Regarding the set list, here we go. I think this is spot on but feel free to correct if anyone recalls it differently:
Covenant (whole album)
Where the Slime Live - Straight off the last chord of God of Emptiness. They played it well, I came!
Bil Ur Sag - A surprise for me. Vincent phoned in the vocal parts on the Tucker stuff just a little bit. I'd probably be the same to be fair.
Ageless Still I Am - Probably my fave 'G' tune. This was really cool. Destructhor kind of didn't sound too hot on the end solo though.
Enshrined by Grace - Hearing something from Heretic live was surprisingly ace and this was Vincent's best performance of a Tucker tune. One of the best of the night.
Existo Vulgore - I have softened on 'I' quite a lot recently. Blow me if that offends you. They played this fkn well.
Immortal Rites - Badass and Vincent just about managed to coax the audience into singing along the keyboard parts!
Fall From Grace - One of my favourites from my favourite MA album. This was a fkn high water mark of the night.
I reckon that's about all. I've tried to attach a pic I took below, but I'm not really a computer geek, so fk knows if it'll work or not. Oh yeah, for the guitar guys, Trey used the InstaGib (which actually looked quite clean and tidy in the flesh) and his Ibanez Universe 7 string with the green and yellow pickup covers. I saw both analogue pedals and some kind of other controller on the floor. Not too much I can confirm other than there was a Morley Bad Horsie wah present.
That's it. I have a few more pics of Trey and Vincent. If anyone's interested, I can add them.
I've been a fan of MA and a follower of Trey's guitar ways since Altars arrived in my possession, crappily recorded via tape-to-tape, back in the day. Fact is, for most of my life I have lived and worked in remote and inhospitable places and as such, going to see bands is often a rare treat for me. Long story short, I happened to be within striking distance of the Glasgow Garage last night and was able to check out MA playing Covenant in it's entirety.
Here are some random thoughts. If you don't like 'em, I'd consider it a courtesey if you would skip over this post, rather than shooting my ass down in flames, as these are simply one person's thoughts and I have no intention of entering into a bout with any keyboard Rambos.
While metal may be the greatest art form of the 20th Century, I sometimes wonder at how our culture has changed over the years. The best way to describe the assembled gathering last night was 'sedate'. In fact it came as something of a kick in the balls when Trey appeared through the rear door and walked to the side of the stage and no one even uttered a sound. My opinion: the hard-on bearer is a fkn luminary of the genre and a word-class guitarist. He deserves more respect.
The show kicked in at 21:00 and the laid-back theme continued with the audience taking a while to warm up. There was no pit, initially, minimal banging and most folks seemed more keen of protecting their posh camera phones and assorted other devices, than witnessing the fkn onslaught. A little dissappointing. But who cares? MA were tight and sounded a helluva lot cleaner and more precise than some of the dodgy recordings I've heard in the past.
Say what you like about Vincent, but he is a quality frontman. He wins you over, regardless of whether you like his campy S&M-lite look or not. His voice stayed strong and accurate to the end and he didn't use any obvious effects of digital trickery. By the time we reached The Lion's Den I was starting to feel the way MA tend to make me feel, listening to them at home, in the car, on my iPod in the back of a helicopter.
I won't beat about the bush here, Trey looked tired last night. He was restrained. He did not freak out. He rarely looked at the crowd and when he left the stage without an encore, he looked slightly relieved. In truth, I'm not entirely sure how he feels about this kind of music and about MA these days. Indeed, I think that the main negative about the "I" album is the fact that it hardly feels like he's there. That sense of absence was replicated a bit last night.
That said, he is one of my guitar heroes and on that front, he did not dissappoint. Riff-wise he was very tight, the overall craftsmanship beyond reproach. At his best, his solos are just beautiful chaos, but watching him last night I was not aware of how much of that was generated by right hand on the fingerboard type of stuff: pinching those wierd harmonics and odd pick slides at bizarre places and times. That was a great demonstration of how a guitar player can and perhaps should think outside the box.
At the other side of the stage, that Destructhor hard-on bearer... just was. I'm indifferent to him. While I can see he is an able guitar player and managed to do a very admirable job of being a 'Brunelle' to Trey rather than a 'Rutan', I don't have much to say about him.
At the other end of that particular spectrum, I fkn loved Tim Yeung. He is tight, he has the stamina and, in the absence of Pete on top form, I think he made them sound like a fkn machine rhythmically.
Regarding the set list, here we go. I think this is spot on but feel free to correct if anyone recalls it differently:
Covenant (whole album)
Where the Slime Live - Straight off the last chord of God of Emptiness. They played it well, I came!
Bil Ur Sag - A surprise for me. Vincent phoned in the vocal parts on the Tucker stuff just a little bit. I'd probably be the same to be fair.
Ageless Still I Am - Probably my fave 'G' tune. This was really cool. Destructhor kind of didn't sound too hot on the end solo though.
Enshrined by Grace - Hearing something from Heretic live was surprisingly ace and this was Vincent's best performance of a Tucker tune. One of the best of the night.
Existo Vulgore - I have softened on 'I' quite a lot recently. Blow me if that offends you. They played this fkn well.
Immortal Rites - Badass and Vincent just about managed to coax the audience into singing along the keyboard parts!
Fall From Grace - One of my favourites from my favourite MA album. This was a fkn high water mark of the night.
I reckon that's about all. I've tried to attach a pic I took below, but I'm not really a computer geek, so fk knows if it'll work or not. Oh yeah, for the guitar guys, Trey used the InstaGib (which actually looked quite clean and tidy in the flesh) and his Ibanez Universe 7 string with the green and yellow pickup covers. I saw both analogue pedals and some kind of other controller on the floor. Not too much I can confirm other than there was a Morley Bad Horsie wah present.
That's it. I have a few more pics of Trey and Vincent. If anyone's interested, I can add them.