September 6, 2024 @The Rickshaw Theatre
Vancouver, BC
Review by: Fred Souzaor
It’s Friday Night in Van-fucking-couver! Or the ‘Couve as some locals call it. It’s humid and sunny, the perfect setting for a metal show in the city! At the very core of ‘crack town’ there lies the city’s most important and long standing Metal concert venue. A refurbished little theatre called The Rickshaw. This place used to host a ‘kick ass’ stream of martial art films back in the 70’s but now it’s more host to plenty of ‘karate in the mosh pit’.
Going to see a show here any day is pretty much like witnessing a George Romero zombie apocalypse set and it’s double as scary cuz you never know if some random dude is just gonna stab you through no fault of your own. The city has been reporting multiple stabbings in the city so I was a little apprehensive going down there but when the Thrash/Death gods demand your presence you gotta just repeat the metal words of the one they call Cronos “If God won’t help me, then the Devil must!!”
Also Brazilian girls playing their brand of metal like some thrashing capoeira ninjas on tour? It didn’t make sense to cower at home on a Friday night.
Opening band Shattered Throne was already playing as soon as I went in. The Black Metal ritual had begun! Starting the night out with some Black Metal is always good for the ear, it cleanses the palette and primes you for a night of increasing wattage and voltage! It definitely is necessary to go to these live shows after working all week and listening to mainstream music everywhere you go in order for any metalhead to keep their sanity. Shattered Throne got better with every song and the banter was on point. They provided plenty of dynamics and BM familiarity but also coupled with some off-kilter dissonant segments that left the crowd impressed, what little crowd dared to be there at 7:30 pm
Shattered Throne’s live rating: 6.66
I almost bought their CD but I clearly wasn’t drunk enough yet and to be honest the last Black Metal band I supported was actually Venom. But what excited me more was the potential to Lich King come up and sing their heralded “Black Metal Sucks” song and possibly have Shattered Throne join them on stage but I was asking for too much I suppose.
Hatriot comes out next decked with the Flying V’s and sounded great, very solid ‘Retro-Thrash’ outfit that once had Zetro Souza on the mic. I did hear one song that made me realize that they could easily switch it up as a Metalcore band and it made sense because apparently it’s all the rage these days. They also provided some killer melodic double axe solos but overall the Thrash Metal vibe ruled over all of it. I’m sure Zetro is very proud of his boys! One odd occurrence at the very end of their set the singer called out Zach from Lich King and asked him to come onstage to pose for their crowd photo for some reason but then he remarked “Fucker so short tho nevermind” or something to that effect as I was standing next to the Lich King merch table I noticed Zach was making his way to the stage but when he heard that remark he was asking “WTF” with open arms.. I thought that might lead to some sort of drama but if it happened backstage I’ll never know unless Hatriot is suddenly dropped from the tour lol
Hatriot’s live rating: 7.5
Lich King detonates on stage next and the hype blows up nicely. People are scrambling, moving, headbanging, drinking and swirling in the pit to the lush sounds of Attack of the Wrath of the War of the Death of the Strike of the Sword of the Blood of the Beast! The middle of the set Lichy started to sound a tad repetitive and I was getting fatigued from working all day so I sat down in the theatre chair section of the venue. The setlist seemed to lack the great covers this band is known for and alas, no “Black Metal Sucks” too bad but I guess if they were headlining things would be different.. Not to mention these guys haven’t released a full album since 2017 which leads me to believe these guys have…. wait for it…. DAY JOBS!! eww ….. Anyway Lichy got a second wind with some killer tunes to end their set and it was off to gear up for the Brazilian goddesses.
Lich King’s live rating: 8.0
Nervosa rises and the volume level, as expected, is pounding the chest.. The last band always wins the volume wars. What I like about Nervosa is the sheer spectacle of seeing some nice looking females playing some brutal Death Metal, it’s just not as common as it should be but who knows what they’re feeding females in Brazil because Heavy Metal just seems to be more prevalent over there on the surface. Brazil has even given us Crypta which Fernanda Lira broke out of Nervosa to form, sadly I personally have cancelled Fernanda because of her penchant for Beyonce and her social media display of worship of that talentless, shallow and trite “Pop Star” diva.
I digress the band played some solid stuff and displayed their technical prowess within the very skilled Helena Kotina and Prika’s long blond windmill headbanging is very hot to witness. Bass player Natalie Nova (filling in on bass on this tour) held down the bass nicely and I realized I saw her walking around like nothing in the crowd earlier but nobody approached her despite her awful good looks. By now, Nervosa knows how to deal with the crowd and gave us a memorable fun Friday night that soothed the Metalhead junky in all of us there at the Rickshaw.
Their latest single Jailbreak worked nicely live and it got the crowd fist pumping and screaming along. it’s too bad the pit wasn’t a flat out frenzy like I’d seen at the Rickshaw before but there was some movement, no fistfights or bloody noses or random drunk hulk crowd killing unfortunately but hopefully next time haha.
I would totally go see Nervosa again especially when the ticket price is only $35 for four very decent bands.. Obrigado Nervosa!
Nervosa’s live rating: 8.5
Keep on Rockin’ \m/