Primordial @ Empire 9/12/2012

Went to see Primordial  with While Heaven Wept and Cormorant @ Empire (empire) ($15 tix). This was show 3 of the Metal Gauntlet. There were about 60 or so people there at the most. Most bands had CDs and shirts, but Primordial just had shirts. I got a WHW CD ($15.). I initially was way more pumped for While Heaven Wept  (despite the horrible band name), based on the smooth progressive metal with clean vocals that I heard. But I will say that Primordial has got to be the 4th best Irish band (after Thin Lizzy ,Gary Moore , and VNV Nation(unless you don't count them as Irish))

Cormorant was OK, they were a bit all over the place. Each song was different, and inside each song there were different styles- from black metal to metal, to funk , and even some atmospheric acoustic guitars... I just couldn't really get into them, just as I was feeling a song, they switched it up. The vocals were unintelligible, but the guitars and drums were solid. I got a pic with the frontman later.

After I submitted to a Corona, While Heaven Wept rolled on to an instrumental heavy song. The vocals were a bit subdued and drowned out until like the 2nd or third song in, at which point some sound guy made them about 3x as clear. The frontman (Rain) was very positive and a very polite guy. He was full of positive energy and made the set that much more enjoyable. I dunno what his deal was...maybe he was born again (not that there is anything wrong with that- it gave off more positive vibes). During "Vessel." a group of fans got super excited an surged to the front to sing along. A minute later we discovered that it actually was the Cormorant group!

Primordial came on and  were way better than I expected, and their vocalist was full of energy. Def got the crowd so pumped up. I was expecting a more low key and doomy set. The vocalist also had some kind bad looking corpsepaint (tho not as bad as the haphazard streaks the bassist had). It was very odd that only 2 out of the 5 guys had some manner of corpsepaint. Either all of them should have it, or just one guy (a la King Diamond). He def got the crowd (some of which had left after WHW, for some reason) moving rather effectively.


Show 3/4 down

Photos:
Cormorant
While Heaven Wept, 
While Heaven Wept II
Primordial
Primordial II
Primordial III
Primordial IV
Primordial V

Cormorant

•  Scavengers Feast
• Funambulist
• Blood on the Cornfields
• Two Brothers
• Unearthly Dreamings

While Heaven Wept

• The Furthest Shore
• Saturn and Sacrifice
• The Drowning Years
• Of Empires Forlorn
• Soulsadness
• Vessel 

Primordial

• No Grave Deep Enough
• Gods to the Godless
• As Rome Burns
• Lain With the Wolf
• The Golden Spiral
• The Mouth of Judas
• Heathen Tribes
• Bloodied Yet Unbowed
• The Coffin Ships
• Empire Falls