Review: Revocation, The Contortionist Piece Together Big Night On MetalSucks Tour
What if I told you that four MetalSucks favorites are now on tour together? Toothgrinder? Check. Fallujah? Check. Revocation? Check. The Contortionist? Check. Check? Check. So we had to check it out, and check it out I did at the tour’s second stop in Joliet (uh, Chicago) on Sunday.
Here’s the deal: Go see this show.
Why? These bands sound way better live. That’s a compliment! It’s interesting because each of these four bands have completely different way of punching your brain into delirium, each utilizes the concert environment distinctively.
Toothgrinder, a kinda-unknown band from Jersey, played DEP-style math metal madness with over-the-top amounts of crusty hardcore. Frontman Justin Matthews bunny-hops onto speakers and yells at those standing around with hands in pockets. Fallujah, via sensitive riffage and Halo-esque choirs, foregoes the slapstick. They just thump chests with double bass and blind us with strobe lights. I remember thinking, So far so very, very good!
Predictably, the night’s stars were Revocation and The Contortionist. For the former, Dave Davidson oozes charisma, shredding flawlessly like Dimebag and Rhodes, totally contemporary and contemporaneous. So Revocation in live form is all smiles and spectacle: fun, fast, furious, and fuckin’ fabulous. The Contortionist is your college-age theater troupe that reads postmodern literature. Expect drama: fog machines, hungry stares, the stage banter of a serial killer, and nerdy progressive oh-faces. Creepy in the same enticing way as Donnie Darko.
From Davidson and Revocation’s superhero guitar powers to The Contortionist’s eerie and melodramatic stage presence, from Fallujah’s synth-driven wall of noise to Toothgrinder’s ability to, well, grind your teeth to the gums, we got four shows in one. Don’t forget to mosh!
MetalSucks presents The Contortionist and Revocation with Fallujah and Toothgrinder tour continues Friday in Jacksonville and Saturday in Tampa. Full dates here.
