FOLIO
by Ora ?Tre? Brasel
Arriving on the steps of Hard Rock Live for the Dethklok and Mastodon show, it was instantly noticeable that this was the place to be if you were looking for a proper helping of heavy metal music. Onlookers were dressed accordingly for the night’s affair with black, of course, being the color of choice used to pay respect to the metal gods. There was much anticipation before the doors opened with numerous hoots and hollers ringing out through the crowd as the time to open grew nearer.
From the moment we got in the music was already going courtesy of High on Fire, a band that had traits somewhat relative to that of Motorhead. They provided a nice opening to a night which would eventually reach epic proportions. Next up however was the much less engaging band Converge, who were less than enthralling to say the least with their irritating stage antics and far too lengthy set.
At last it was time for Mastodon to come and conquer the stage with their original brand of metal, which crosses many traditional boundaries of the genre. Armed with some of the most engaging visuals out there today, and the epic story that lies behind their latest album Crack the Skye, it would have been hard not to get caught up in this performance. After playing nearly the entire new album, the guys came back out to treat us with a few cuts off of previous records, and drop our jaws to the floor a few more times.
There was only one act left and that was the cult cartoon creation Dethklok, which is helmed by the show’s creator Brendon Small, and two other musicians. They bring the band to life via a large backdrop screen, which the cartoon band appears on, addressing the audience throughout the performance as the actual musicians play just below. It is apparent that though many may consider this a comedy rock type of act, it holds much more leverage with its devoted fans. Although there is much comedy within the characters in the performance, the music is very much real heavy metal and it is done quite well at that. The audience went just as crazy as if it were a real band speaking to them when the characters spoke, especially when they mentioned Florida being the Death Metal capital of the world. It was an interesting show to see performed live and without question it was done to great effect.
Metal shows seldom get better than what Mastodon and Dethklok offered up to the sweaty masses down in Orlando. It seemed as if between them they covered just about everything a heavy metal fan could ask for, and then some. From the top notch visuals and lighting that rivaled the best psychedelic acts in the business to the relentless and brutal riffs that beg one to throw the devil horns up with pride, to a nice heaping chunk of metal-based humor, if there was something missing from this event you certainly wouldn’t have been able to easily notice. And even then, there was just too much fun going on to really care.
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