JAM Showbiz
Live Review: SOAD in Toronto
By Steve Tilley – Toronto Sun
TORONTO – It had to be the biggest, loudest, hardest, brightest, wildest
and (to use the proper vernacular) most completely f—ed up `see ya
later’ in modern metal history.
And if it had been an outright `goodbye’ instead, the Molson
Amphitheatre might have been levelled last night.
On their final visit to Toronto before a self-imposed hiatus that’s
expected to last at least a few years, System Of A Down closed out the
marathon of metal that is Ozzfest in a way that had to be seen and heard
to be fully appreciated. Even if it meant being both temporarily blind
and deaf, which a good portion of last night’s capacity crowd will be
today.
This Ozzy Osbourne-less stop on the tour did not suffer from the
grandpappy of metal’s absence one iota. Even Ozzy might have had
troubJle following System Of A Down’s enthusiastically received (read: A
massive, impromptu mosh pit breaking out on the mid-level concourse
walkway) headlining set, which drew heavily from last year’s Mezmerize.
Blame that giant photo of SOAD’s Serj Tankian to the right, but there
simply isn’t the space to touch on most of the acts that made up
yesterday’s 71/2 hour buffet of molten sonic energy. To try to do so
would do justice to none of them.
So, no disrespect to Norma Jean, Bleeding Through, Unearth, Atreyu,
Lacuna Coil, Hatebreed or especially Avenged Sevenhold and their awesome
giant, winged silver skull. You guys surely rock like the ves foundation
of the earth.
But the reality is the Amphitheatre didn’t get jammed all the way back
to the back of the lawns until Chicago foursome Disturbed took the stage
and unleashed more than an hour of aggressive yet melodic rib
cage-rattling metal, from Guarded to the band’s cover of Genesis’
still-relevant Land of Confusion to, of course, Down With The Sickness.
Uh-WAH-AH-AH-AH!
A bolder man might even say that Disturbed’s bald and barrel-chested
frontman David Draiman injected more raw passion into the evening than
System Of A Down’s Tankian did. Truly, one of the highlights of the
night was Draiman’s near-religious rant against bands who, in his eyes,
dilute the purity of genuine hard metal. It’s probably safe to say he
doesn’t have any posters of The Killers on his bedroom wall.
Still, there was no eclipsing the totality of System Of A Down’s
performance, from the hypnotizing lights aimed at the crowd to the
creative rearrangement of familiar hits (Violent Pornography started out
sounding suspiciously like a power ballad) to the fans’ rabid and
rapturous response.
Enjoy your time off, gentlemen. And if you think `so long’ was insane,
wait until you see `welcome back.’
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