After getting back to the hotel around 330am, it probably took me a good 30 minutes to fall asleep. I was up the next morning around 8am (body clock can piss off), so I went to go get breakfast, and then took a nap until around 12. I would have slept longer, but I wanted to see one of the early acts. I reluctantly rolled out bed and moseyed on over to the Hard Rock for the last day.
Zeal and Ardor
What started off as an experiment born from a 4chan dare came a fresh take on the black metal genre. Zeal and Ardor brings blues and spirituals and mixes it with black metal, both musically and lyrically. It's an interesting dichotomy of spiritual sounding chants, with the lyrics praising worship to the lord of darkness.
Zeal and Ardor only has one album, clocking in at 25 minutes, and several tracks are filler tracks. They filled the rest of the time with new songs, which sound fantastic. My complaint with the first album is that the genre blend wasn't quite there yet. I think it will take a few album cycles before they get comfortable with the sound. The new songs are a step in the right direction, and show a sense of maturation.
Frontman and founder, Manuel Gagneux, was excited to see that he was playing in front of a crowd at all. He was worried we'd be too hungover or too tired to attend the early time slot. By the 3rd day, they were getting more strict on set times. Unfortunately, they ran out of time and had to cut their last song, and asked the audience if we wanted to hear something new or old. He decided to play one last new song, and had to cut Devil is Fine.
Abbath
Abbath Doom Occulta had a nasty split with his former band Immortal. Long story short, Abbath was ousted from the band, and the two parties fought over the name. Ultimately, the other members kept the name while Abbath continued on as simply Abbath.
Most bands took a long time to setup and soundcheck, which was a big part of what contributed to the festival ending up an hour behind on the first day. I don't blame the bands really, sometimes there was only 15 minutes allotted between bands. That means the previous band has to get off the stage, the next band has to setup, AND soundcheck in 15 minutes?
When Abbath was setting up, there was basically one snare hit, one strum on each guitar, and the curtain opened way sooner than everyone expected. Abbath stood there with his hands out to his side as if asking everyone "y'all ready?" He kicked into the first tune quickly, and even the house wasn't ready as the lights were still on and the mains weren't on yet.
Abbath only has one album under his belt, but much to my delight he busted out several Immortal hits. Just like Carcass, Abbath just seems to "have it." He's a great frontman, is very charismatic, and has a great sense of humor. Abbath doesn't take himself too seriously, which is unusual for a black metal band.
Cult of Luna w/ Julie Christmas
This right here is the reason I bought a ticket in the first place. The fact that the rest of the lineup was completely stacked was only icing on the cake. Mariner was my favorite album of 2016 and simply one of the best albums ever. The album was never meant to be performed live as it was logistically difficult to get a bunch of older dudes with real lives to find time to tour. Couple that with Julie Christmas being on the other side of the planet. Somehow, a severely limited amount of tour dates in Europe came together. I honestly considered booking a ticket to Europe just to see it. Months after that little mini tour was finished, they announced they would be a part of the Psycho Las Vegas, and a few days after that they announced they were doing a limited US tour. Unfortunately, the rest of the tour dates didn't go further west than Las Vegas. I don't need much of an excuse to go to Las Vegas, so this was an easy decision to make.
It was day 3, I was tired, but still full of nervous energy and anticipation. I secured my spot as soon as the previous band was done, basically in the 2nd row. I was behind what appeared to be a Cult of Luna superfan. He had a Cult of Luna shirt on, he couldn't stop smiling and he was constantly geeking out about how excited he was. He looked like what I was feeling on the inside.
Once the lights dimmed and the opening droning notes of Mariner started, Mr. Cult of Luna superfan busted out his phone. Perfectly normal concert behavior these days. I noticed he was filming, which is also normal to film like a minute or so. However, his phone never went away. He recorded the whole thing. WHY?! Mr. superfan that was so excited to see this show, ended up experiencing it through his little screen, missing out on just being there and experiencing it, and pissing off others in the process. I had to bob and weave to be able to see past his stupid arm and screen.
I also had an issue hearing the vocals. By the time they kicked into the third song, The Wreck of S.S. Needle, I took out my earplugs and it sounded a lot better. I should have accounted for the fact that I was close enough to the stage that the sound from the mains go right over me. On top of that my phone was vibrating, and I wanted to check on it just in case it was an emergency. I saw that it was the doggo hotel that was calling, and they usually call when there's an issue. I didn't want to leave to take the call or listen to the voicemail so I ignored it, but it was in the back of my mind.
Despite everything that was trying to prevent me from having a good time, I was finally able to just let everything go and enjoy this experience. The band also happened to warm up and fall into a rhythm (there were some sketchy moments in the first couple songs). This was their first show of their US tour, so this was essentially their rehearsal for the rest of the tour.
With my earplugs now out, the band warmed up, and just forgetting about phone filmy mcgee, and everything was all good from here on out. Julie Christmas and company put on a stellar performance, and giving it their all up there. During their closing song, Cygnus, I almost lost it when the band kicks back in leading to the outro. When they were done, Christmas jumped down from the stage and gave the front row a huge hug. I was close enough to touch the top of her head but I didn't want to be weird creeper guy.
Mastodon
This is it, the final headliner for the final night. Everyone was so tired at this point, and ready for it all to be over, at least I was. I seriously considered skipping out Mastodon, having seen them twice already. But, this would be my first time seeing them up close and I also wanted to get my money's worth.
The band aren't particularly interesting to watch, with the exception being Brent Hinds (pictured, left). Dude is truly a madman, running around all over the stage, rocking out with all different parts of the crowd, while the other dudes kind of stood there. At least they played well though, and surprisingly their live vocals didn't sound as assy as they usually do.
They fully knew that the audience was reaching their peak, and they were grateful that we all stayed behind to see their set. At the end, Brann Dailor came out from behind the skins and thanked everyone for sticking around. It was a great way to end the festival, and heading back to my hotel, I was absolutely beat but extremely happy. This was one of the best concert experiences I've had.