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Rhode
Island small blackened/smoked death metal powerhouse Vital
Remains deliver quite the alright performance in this their
first DVD. But alright sometimes doesn’t cut it. For fans of the
band, Live Evil Death should be it; a fucking feast to
satiate their thirst for brutality, the best, cleanest and
crispiest document attesting the raw power of Vital Remains.
Certainly, these dudes have no technical problems delivering
blasphemous metal and the guitar tandem of Tony Lazaro and Dave
Suzuki is one of the most outstanding in the underground,
speeding through all of the nine tracks contained here like they
are in a hurry to get to the bakery. Or the gym. The show is only accented
by the numerous professional camera angles (the drummer is
greatly ignored though), which when panned from afar reveals one
obvious fact; strip death metal off all its gimmicks (of which
Vital Remains have none) and it clearly belongs in a small
stage. In a big venue, the power of the music is lost somewhere
between the band, the audience and the tall ceilings. Plus, Lazaro and Suzuki are very low in stage presence with Lazaro
focusing his eyes in his slashing riffing and Suzuki blowing his
throat in every single chorus and offering truly tasty solos
with each cut.
Recorded in
Poland during the Metalmania Festival in 2007; Live Evil
Death shows a small and dexterous death metal band running
through a pretty convincing comprehensive set of death metal
standards. And when I say standards I fully mean it. Ever since
the band’s inception in 1988 and since their first album Let
Us Pray (1992) released through Peaceville, Vital Remains
has failed to catapult itself to the big leagues. This could be
due to two factors; their undistinguishable sound and their
unstable line up. For these shows in Poland they had to resort
to the vocal services of Damien Boynton (of Oregon’s Desolation)
who straddles the stage making ugly faces and walking around in
a funny way; kinda like a dancing troll. Boynton of course, is
replacing Deicide’s Glen Benton, who is one of the greatest
characters in death metal history, big shoes to fill for sure.
I much prefer
the extras; an interview with both Lazaro and Suzuki revealing
much of their history; here we learn that changes in line up are
of no consequence, that these two are Vital Remains and the rest
don’t matter. We also learn that with each subsequent release
Lazaro always thinks he’ll be unable to surpass the brutality of
the last record, but that each time he surprises himself and
does it. We also learn that Suzuki is nearly a mute, all he does
is move his head up and down for about thirty minutes. Also, we
get a few minutes of Dave Suzuki playing riffs and solos and surprise,
surprise, the man can talk. Dude can play alright, evidently
much of the work that goes into his work gets lost by the sheer
brutality of their songs. Check out the part where he plays “Dechristianize”,
baldy makes it seem so easy and then calls it straight forward.
More interesting is the show at the Mega Club, which proves my
point that brutal metal is, sounds and looks much better when
played in a small venue.
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