Falling in Love Again ! - Arch Enemy and Exodus rock the Worcester Palladium! (01/23/10) Jan 24 '10 (Updated Sep 19 '10)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Arch Angel was absolutely awesome. Angela Gossow must be seen to be believed.  Exodus was excellent, and Arsis is an up and coming band to watch! I woke up this morning and my ribs hurt, my throat was sore and I feel like I got hit in several places. There is a ringing in my ears. Yet, I feel strangely happy.  Like the men in The Hangover, I try to piece together what happened. I'm wearing a shirt that says Arch Enemy -  Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 on it. Where did I get that? Oh, a ticket in my pocket says Arch Enemy Worcester Palladium 01/23/10.   I have a large oversize postcard that says Arch Enemy on it too. A beautiful blonde woman gives a knowing look surrounded by four scary looking guys.   It is all coming back to me now...... The Worcester Palladium January 23rd, 2010 My son and I and a few of our friends traveled out to the Worcester Palladium for an incredible show of death metal.   Headlining was going to be the awesome Arch Enemy fronted by that beautiful valkyrie herself, Ms. Angela Gossow.  Also on stage was the famous thrash metal band from San Fransisco, Exodus. Warm up bands were Arsis and Mutiny Within.  We arrived in Worcester early and had a meal at Pizzaria Uno. Judging by the number of black T-Shirts with metal bands emblazoned on them, others were here for the show as well. After downing our pizzas and burgers and one large brownie bowl sundae we walked up the street to enter the Palladium as the doors opened at 7:00.  It was a downstairs show, so we headed in, checked out the merchandise table and wandered around.  The show was to begin at 8:00 p.m.  The house PA played various songs as we looked through the metal fans seeing many familiar faces and some new. Shirts emblazoned with names like Kreator, Evile, Moonsorrow, Hypocrisy, and concert events like Heathen Fest, Mayhem Fest, and Pagan Fest were everywhere.  We also saw several people wearing shirts for shows we were just at, Cannibal Corpse, Ensiferum, and Korpiklaani. Of course many people were already decked out in new Arch Enemy Rise of the Tryant 2010 Tour shirts as well.  The PA suddenly blared Tell me what you want, what you really really want. We looked up with a half smile as the Spice Girls played over the house PA to a crowd of metal heads. It was rather funny. They followed it up with Bad Romance by Lady GaGa.  The funniest part was seeing some fans almost subconsiously lip synch the words. Lady Gaga is everywhere.  The house music went back to metal until the lights went out for the first band. Mutiny Within The first band to hit the stage was Mutiny Within. They don't even have a wikipedia entry, so I can't tell you too much about them. They sounded like they were going for a generic power metal sound. They had a terrible mix, the band had six musicians, 2 guitarists, bass, singer, drums and a keyboard player. However, in this small venue, I couldn't hear the keyboards at all, and the guitars didn't stand out terribly well.  They were okay as a warm up band, but none of us wanted to run out and purchase any of their records. Arsis The next band to hit the stage was well received, an all American melodic death metal hailing from Virginia.  They used twin guitars, bass and drums and put on a terrific show.  Although most of my favorite melodic death metal comes from Finland or Sweden, it is catching on in the US, and we have a growing death metal scene here.  Singing by guitarist James Malone was sort of a shrill screaming style. Him and Nick Cordle on guitar layed down some great shredding skills. (band member names courtesy of Wikipedia).  We all enjoyed their set, and the band members hung around their merchandise table before and after their set to meet and greet fans. I stopped by to shake hands with them and tell them how awesome their set is. I will definitely pick up one of their albums. Exodus The next band, Exodus was a thrash metal band from San Fransisco, with the same Bay area thrash roots as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and a certain little band called Metallica.  We all ventured deep into the front of the crowd for Exodus. Exodus features Rob Dukes on vocals, he is a large man who looked to me a little like a thinner John Goodman. Wearing a Rangers T-Shirt (didn't he know he was in Bruins country?), he belted out vocals in a brutal death metal style. He was quite energetic and loved old school metal, frequently yelling to the older fans in the crowd to show the yunguns how its done and stirring the mosh pit into a ferocious circle one song and a huge wall of death on another.   Original guitarist Gary Hold and new guitarist Lee Altus demonstrated plenty of death metal style fast shredding.  I was quite happy to be close enough to watch their tapping, double tapping, string bending, and hammering fingers work magic on their Flying V guitars.  On five string bass, Jack Gibson kept up the bands paced, and not to be forgotten towards the back was drummer Tom Hunting. I always feel bad for the drummers, because they are hard to see from behind their drum kits, especially when you are very close to the stage because of the angle.  The guitarists played to the crowd frequently almost leaning out into us to play.  We got in quite close, about 4 to 5 bodies back with the mosh pit swirling behind us at hurricane frenzy. The entire crowd swayed back and forth, we were all pushed forward, pushed back, and pummeled side to side.  At one point, my son and I had no one to slam into and keep us standing to our lefts as we were hit to the right and we tumbled like dominoes. Fortunately, mosh pit etiquette kicked in, and as I watched several hands bring my son to his feet, I felt hands on my shoulders and arms doing the same for me. We joined back in the fray for several more songs, although after that my son took a break from the Pit, and we went for water at the bar at the back of the Palladium. From there, you could really see the dynamic of the band and the circle pit.  Things look very different depending on where you stand. Its all hand and heads in front of you with the band members looming just a few yards away as you struggle for balance in the pit, but further back, you can see the rhythm to the chaos.   As Exodus left after performing an awesome thrash metal set, I went forward to the stage again to see the beautiful Angela Gossow. Arch Enemy One of Sweden's most popupar melodic death metal band's since the big three (In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates) started the Gothenburg sound is Arch Enemy.  They were just another melodic death metal band until they hired German born singer Angela Gossow in 2000. The rest as they say is history.  This teutonic beauty has a death metal growl singing style that commands immediate attention.  We could feel the pressure of rows of bodies as smoke filled the stage and the giant Arch Enemy banner floated down at a little past 11:20 p.m. First the drummer Daniel Erlandsson hit the stage, to the cheering fans, hitting some basic drum beats.  Next, the brothers Amott hit the stage, Daniel and Christopher. Both are shredding geniuses on guitar, and in my mind they are the best guitar brothers since The Scorpions Schenker brothers, Rudolf and Michael. The bass player, Sharlee D'Angelo appeared behind the cloud of smoke and everyone around me was in constant flux jockeying for position. Suddenly a loud screaming growl filled the Palladium and through the smoke like a Valkrie, Angela Gossow strutted to the stage.  Arch Enemy was in full swing!  Gossow is tall, blonde beautiful and embodies sheer sex appeal, power and pure f**king metal.  (In fact, one T-shirt had the band's catch phrase on it, but I didn't buy it, feeling it might be school innappropriate for my son. We went instead with one with the demonic beast from their Rise of the Tyrants album on the front and the band and tour dates on the back).   I recall screaming I love you Angela! and singing along with the crowd and chanting when Angela told us to.  Angela Gossow knows how to work and inspire the crowd, frequently shaking her fists and arching her back as she screams out Arch Enemies songs.  Between songs she yells to the crowd in her normal voice wiht a heavy German accent. You might think a heavy metal show would be a total sausage festival, but you would be quite wrong. Angela Gossow inspires young women to do whatever the heck they want. She is quite an inspirational and impressive role model.  Not only do women come to these shows, but their aggressive style in the pit has to be seen to be believed. One young lady cleared her own circle with her moshing and nearly gave my Finnish friend (who is 6'2", and an amatuer wrestler) a bloody lip.  Another woman who was 5 foot nothing sailed over my head crowd surfing, got nearly dropped, but for me catching her. After I set her upright, she went right back to rhythmic jumping and shaking her hands in the air. You do not mess with the women at a heavy metal show, especially in the pit. They will hurt you! In any event, I stayed quite close to the stage for most of Arch Enemy's set, only a few yards from Angela and the Amott brothers. At one point, the protective layer of bodies behind me disappeared and I found myself being hit by the circling moshers, at other points, I had to keep my eyes not only on the stage but up as well, as several crowd surfers were passed in rapid succession over our heads, legs and arms flailing. I didn't try crowd surfing, because I am afraid I might be too heavy and get dropped.  The show included several songs from Arch Enemy's newer album Rise of the Tyrant and Doomsday Machine as well as many of their old catalog to promote the band's latest album The Root of All Evil which is basically songs from the band pre-Angela re recorded with the current line up.   Angela looked and sounded fantastic, she was even better than I dreamed that she would be, a fallen angel ascended back to Earth to be among us. Guitar fans were also pleased at the extended guitar solos performed by Christopher and Michael Amott including the classical sounding Intermezze Liberte from Rise of the Tyrant.  Arch Enemy also reminded me of old school metal as the state cleared and Daniel Erlandsson got his extended drum solo. Give it up for the drummer!  Many times they seem to be forgotten at metal shows, even though their tireless double bass drum beats are what keep the pace of the songs so fast. At 12:30 a.m. Arch Enemy performed their last song, which was quickly followed by an encore song. After that, the band threw picks and drumsticks into the crowd. My son's friend caught a drumstick, was immediately buried beneath a pile of bodies and unfortunately lost it.  We headed to the merch table to choose T-shirts and memorobilia and I don't remember what happened after that. Did Angela and I get married?  Did I lose a tooth in the mosh pit?  Did we steal Mike Tyson's tiger? Or was all that a dream as I fell asleep on the ride home?     I remember waking up this morning with ringing in my ears, a sore throat, sore ribs and an Arch Enemy ticket stub in my pocket, and wearing an Arch Enemy Tyrant's of Evil North American Tour 2010  T-Shirt.   I think this is where we came in. Do you want to take Angela home for yourself? Arch Enemy - Tryants of the Rising Sun - Live in Japan Other metal tales from the Worcester Palladium! Ensiferum, with Ex Deo and Blackguard Korpiklaani and Tyr Devil Driver, Behemoth, Suffocation, Thy Will Be Done and more Epica, Blackguard and Threat Signal Atticus Metal Festival with Unearth & more Finnish Metal Festival! Finntroll, Moonsorrow and Swallow the Sun New England Metal and Hardcore Festival 2010 Hypocrisy, Scar Symmetry, Hate, Blackguard and Swashbuckle Fear Factory, Silent Civilian, Prong, Thy Will Be Done and Acaro Dream Theater Transmission Festival Hell and other places Mayhem Festival 2010 - Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God & more OzzFest 2010 - Ozzy, Motley Crue, Rob Halford & more Rush - The Time Machine Tour

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