A Concert for Your Dark Side

No matter how much your musical tastes evolve over time, sometimes you can't help but go back to what you liked during your teenage years. When this Phillyist was in junior high, there was one type of music, and only one type of music, emanating from my bedroom stereo: Metal. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead... you get the idea. Even though the Death CDs have lately collected dust on the shelf in favor of Death Cab for Cutie, the appeal of metal hasn't waned completely. Heck, some of the best non-metal bands out there today have overwhelming metal influences:Coheed and Cambria comes to mind. And really, there's very little that gets the blood pumping like good metal.

Metal is a tricky thing, though. It's one of those genres where, when it's good, it can be really mindblowingly good; and when it's bad, it can be brutally my-ears-are-bleeding-make-it-stop bad. And unfortunately, most metal lately, at least for this Phillyist, has been falling into the latter category. But in 2005, there was one metal album that was jaw-droppingly good, and it was Avenged Sevenfold's (MySpace) breakthrough CD, City of Evil. Avenged Sevenfold released the follow-up to City of Evil a self-titled album, a couple weeks ago and are now on the road to support the new album. They'll bring that show to the Electric Factory tomorrow night. Because of how hectic life has been lately, we unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to give the new material a listen. The buzz is that it's not as good as City of Evil, but realistically, that's not a big shock.

Joining Avenged Sevenfold on this road trip are The Confession (MySpace), whose recent LP Requiem was produced by Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows, and really has his stamp on it. The Confession utilizes the same kind of dual-guitar work that Avenged Sevenfold does, and carries the same Priest/Maiden influence. And they're pretty damn good at it. Requiem is a well-executed piece of work, particularly considering it's The Confession's full-length debut. (They put out an EP in 2005.) It's heavy at the right times, restrained at the right times, and varies up song structure and tempo nicely. We find that most metal bands end up having all their songs sound exactly alike because they don't know how to move around where choruses, bridges and solo breaks appear, and because every song uses the same beats per minute. The Confession, like Avenged Sevenfold, doesn't have that problem. We saw The Confession at this summer's Warped Tour, and they were really good but also really out of place. As a result, they were playing to a fairly small and only moderately-interested crowd. That shouldn't be a problem at tomorrow night's show, because honestly, you're not going to be at the show unless you're a metal fan. But if you are a metal fan, it's going to take a very good excuse to justify not being there.

Avenged Sevenfold w/ Operator, The Confession, and Black Tide
Thurs., Nov. 15, 2007
Electric Factory, 421 N. 7th St.
7:30 PM (Doors 6:30 PM)
Tickets: $25

Image of the Confession via MySpace.