Cradle of Filth / KillSwitch Engage / Shadows Fall / Sworn Enemy The Beaumont Club, Kansas City, MO July 18, 2003

Review by: Megiloth

I love these type of shows. Heavy bands that are playing at the local redneck joint…yee-haw pardner! Of course if the club is packing the venue at $22 a person, they’re not complaining much :)

So, first on the agenda was NYC hardcore band, Sworn Enemy. I’m not much into this style, but if you like standard hardcore riffs with lots of jumping around and saying, "Yo, whassup motherfuckers" or "C’mon motherfuckers" between every verse, then you wouldn’t be let down. The most annoying thing about their set was the vocalist kept saying "Whassup Kansas" or "Hey Kansas", "You Kansas motherfuckers are crazy", etc. One problem…the club is in MISSOURI. Get your geography straight before trying to connect with your local audience. Some people were obviously annoyed and were yelling back, "YOU’RE IN MISSOURI!!" Another fun moment of their set was during their song "I.D.S." Me and a friend were yelling along, "I…Need…Eggs" because, well…that’s what it sounded like. As far as I’m concerned, they were standard hardcore material.

Next up was Shadows Fall. I haven’t heard any material by them, so I hoping to be impressed. I was not let down. They were a well-rounded mix of hardcore, thrash, and metal. Even had a few guitar solos in the songs. Very cool. A word of warning though…if you’re within spitting distance of the vocalist and he starts to windmill with his dreads, he’ll knock your ass out. Think Predator, and you get the idea. Good set.

KillSwitch Engage kicked some major ass. I’ve only heard one song of theirs, so once again I was hoping to be impressed. And once again, I was not let down. Excellent set. Excellent stage presence. The blasted from one song into the next with minimal pointless yapping between songs. Vocalist Howard Jones has a helluva vocal range. Most of it was the hardcore vocal style, but he could pull off some nice melodic vocals as well. He’s one of the best frontmen I’ve ever seen live. When he saw the crowd going nuts, that just fueled him even more to make comments like, "Make these big fuckers up front earn their pay" and pointing to the bouncers who gently pulled crowd surfers down with the finesse of a professional wrestler getting ready to body slam someone. Another funny comment occurred just a few songs into their set, when the vocalist commented on the heat in the building…"Damn it’s hot in here. I feel like a nigga back in the cotton fields!" Keep in mind Howard Jones is a big black guy who is obviously a body builder and could bench 3000 pounds!!! Sure, you go tell him, he can’t say that…hehe.

After an exceedingly long break, Cradle of Filth took to the stage. I’ve seen their live videos, but that’s nothing compared to actually seeing them. (un)Holy shit!! The sound could have been a little cleaner, but nobody seemed to mind. They flawlessly excreted tracks like "The Promise of Fever", "Cthulu Dawn", "Funeral in Carpathia", "Cruelty and the Beast", "Her Ghost in the Fog", "Thank God For The Suffering", "Dusk and Her Embrace", and "Nocturnal Supremacy". During a couple songs, they had some sort of mini Cirque de Soleil action onstage with 10 foot crab women on stilts slinking around the stage and leather clad dancers doing some rather racy gymnastics with each other. There was a nervous moment or two though. During one of the songs, some female dancer came out with two torches, and someone else let loose with a blowtorch shooting flames about 10 feet in the air lighting the previously mentioned torches. She was using the things like nun-chucks spinning them around and such. Also, they brought out some machine that was shooting sparks everywhere. Pretty cool…but I must say that there were some of us in the front that were looking around for the Exit signs, in preparation for another Great White incident. Luckily everything in the general stage and ceiling area was metal. After playing for more than an hour, they closed the set with “Ebony Dressed for Sunset” and “The Forest Whispers My Name”. I was really hoping to hear “The Principle of Evil Made Flesh”, “Lord Abortion”, or “From the Cradle to Enslave”, but no such luck. Other than the lack of personal favorites being played, their set was simply amazing.

A great time was had by all. I like to gauge this by how long my ears ring and how sore my neck is when I wake up the next day. Needless to say, it's now the next day. My ears are still ringing and my neck hurts like a sum-bitch.

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