On Saturday, October 23, I made the 100+ mile trip from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the Black Label Berzerkus tour. The tour features Black Label Society, Children of Bodom, Clutch and 2Cents. Zakk Wylde of B.L.S. and Alexi Laiho of C.o.B. are two of my son’s favorite guitarists and since his birthday was the day after the concert the timing couldn’t have been better (or the excuse for me to go!). Read on for a sample of music from these bands and some of my thoughts on them aswell.

2Cents – The Hollow

2Cents is a nu-metal band from Los Angeles, California. These guys started out in 1996 and have released three albums to-date. Though I’d never heard of them before this tour I understand that they’ve enjoyed some amount of national attention here since 2006.

I can see why they’ve gotten some attention after witnessing the intensity of their live performance. They were an excellent opening act with high energy anthemic styled songs. Vocalist Adam O’Rourke was masterful at getting crowd participation with his humorous antics and charismatic stage presence.

Try some out with The Hollow from their third full-length titled Dress to Kill released in 2009. If you like that check out their myspace for a little more.

Clutch – Mr. Shiny Cadillackness

Clutch is a long running band from the state of Maryland who’s sound includes elements of metal, stoner rock, blues rock and some psychedelic and alternative elements aswell. Throughout their twenty year career they have maintained all four original members which is an incredible feat in itself.

This was my second time seeing Clutch live and they’ve been solid performances both times. They are the band that makes everyone’s head bob to their grooving jams and you just can’t help but do it – but don’t mind either. They are true Rock ‘N Roll road dogs.

Here’s one of my favorite Clutch songs Mr. Shiny Cadillackness. It’s a good example of their humorous side and jamming abilities. You can find it on the 2007 album From Beale Street to Oblivion.

Children of Bodom – Angels Don’t Kill (Live!)

Children of Bodom has been here a couple of times before and I’m pretty sure you all know something of them already. In case you don’t though, they’re a Finnish Extreme Metal band with melodic Death Metal and Power Metal flavors active since 1997 (under the C.o.B. name).

Founding member and guitarist Alexi Laiho is widely considered to be one of the modern greats of the instrument and he plays the hell out of the damn thing. There are some beautiful dueling melodies with the guitars and keyboards which they pull off seemlessly live with a little bit of flashy showmanship to boot. All-in-all a great performance from an awesome band.

Here’s a live clip of Angels Don’t Kill taken from the Chaos Ridden Years – Stockholm Knockout Live DVD released in 2006. The song comes from 2002′s Hate Crew Deathroll album.

Black Label Society – Parade of the Dead

If you didn’t already know Black Label Society is the Southern Metal band of ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. Formed in 1998 B.L.S. has churned out eight full-length studio albums and one live album so-far.

Zakk is also highly regarded in the Metal and Rock communities for his musicianship and showmanship alike. I’ve seen him play with Ozzy three times and this was my third time seeing B.L.S. and I think this was the best yet. They played a set lasting over an hour and a half which included a piano and bass duet, and old-school several minute long guitar solo and a tribute to Dimebag with the song In This River among a well balanced set list of their heaviest songs.

Check out Parade of the Dead from the Order of the Black album released earlier this year. This is a fan made video for a B.L.S. contest.

Tags: American, death, Finnish, Live!, melodeath, melodic, nu, power, rock, Southern, stoner

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Gig Report, Music Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.