Dysentery, Captain Frapat, and Polarys in Paris

Wednesday night, that's as good a night to go to a show as any! So I rolled on out of my apartment and down to an interesting little venue called Palais Porte Maillot which was actually built into the famous Palais de Congres. I got to check out three bands, two belonging to friends of mine, and it made for a memorable soiree, with music that ran the gamut from brutal death metal, to hard rock, and then ultimately, to corny power metal of the sort that everyone secretly loves. In other words, it was one of those nights that invoked the spirit of the underground.

Dysentery were the first group to play and I had been looking forward to seeing them for a long time. Through their muddy riffs and distortion laden chugs, I started to find the sort of pure anarchic death metal that made me fall in love with the genre. In all honesty, it reminded me a bit of early Master and other such primitive, primal death metal bands. Dysentery are an inexperienced live band, but by the end of their set people were bopping around, heads banging to the nihilistic rhythms of their one guitar attack. These guys grasp the spirit of pure gore metal and want to annihilate your soul as you fall into the sort of grinding crush that makes this sort of music so sublime.

Captain Frapat were up next, this is the sort of hard rock filled with tasty riffs and chunky vocals that no man can hate. Their set was high powered and fun, this three piece really know how to deliver. One notable aspect of the bands sound is their two vocalist approach. While their is definitely a dominating singer (Who also plays guitar) the drummer contributes on a lot of vocals and gives the tracks a very unique texture. Asides from being memorable because, hey, not a lot of bands have drummers who sing, they really did a good job of blending the distinct vocal styles into something fresh and exciting. It left the crowd buzzing for more after a solid forty minute set.

Finally we got to Polarys who plaid their entire opus, The Va'Aidan Chronicles to a fun video backing that ranged from a powerpoint showing pictures of the band, to exciting CGI images filled with lava and icy landscapes. These guys really know how to deliver, and the bands singer Douchan has the voice of a god, he really brings it, even when playing essentially on his own. As a side note, I think it's awesome that the bands gifted and bombastic keyboard player is called Fabio, it simply adds to the 'power metalness' of what could very well be the Paris's tightest power metal act. Filled with fabulous solos and fun riffs, Polarys brought their A-Game and left the crowd happy.

In conclusion, this was a fun night, and even the school friend I brought to the show (Yes, a normal person!) was shocked at how tight some of the bands were. Dysentery in particular have a sort of very graphic appeal, getting to the 15 year old boy within all of us. Captain Frapat simply reminded me why I love rock music with a simple, yet very appealing set. Finally, Polarys, being the first power metal band I've seen in a long time, helped to get me once more invested in the genre, proving that power metal, and by extension, heavy metal, will never die.

Find the bands on Facebook!

Dysentery: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dysentery/537097946381388

Captain Frapat: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Captain-Frapat/295827460477073?ref=hl

Polarys: https://www.facebook.com/polarysmetal

Iron Fist-Motorhead

 This is a classic album from one of the greatest of the metal bands. Iron Fist is often considered to be one of the top Motorhead albums ever recorded. This album shows everything that Motorhead is about, really hard thrash and speed metal. Even if Motorhead will not admit it that is what they are. The instruments are incredible, the guitar has some spectacular parts, in particular the solos are amazing. The drums and bass also have their own fair share of air time. The vocals are pure Motorhead, with Lemmy barking out his lyrics, lyrics that are usually dark and violent. Interestingly though there is some cleaner Lemmy singing on this album as well. This is really amazing heavy metal with all sorts of intricacies that make this the world's hardest and possibly best power trio.

The guitar is amazing. There are spectacular solos and really powerful power chord riffs that hearken back to Jimmy Hendrix and early Led Zeppelin. The guitar has some really cool riffs in the solos as well. Practically every song has a solo and every single one of the solos is amazing and can blow your head off. The solos build up nicely and create a really nice atmosphere and sound which fly around the album. It feels almost GNR like, when you really get down into the riffs. The riffs are really well complimented by Lemmy's bass which gets a lot of nice powerful fills that make the music very powerful and satisfying. The bass fills up the music remarkably well. The drums are high powered and are also very intricate and awesome. These are all nicely complimented by Lemmy's singing and lyrics.

The vocals are pure Lemmy. However seeing as no other band really imitates Lemmy all Motorhead singing can be considered to be pure Lemmy. Anyway, Lemmy barks out his lyrics and provides a dark and powerful feel to the music that makes the music sound a lot heavier than it originally was. Lemmy has a great voice for making a metal band sound heavier, but the song really needs too be written for his unique voice. The lyrics are usually angry and try to describe the anger that Lemmy feels. However other songs are about love or violence, or both in the same song. All in all the vocals are very good, being unique and purely Motorhead, the lyrics are very dark and interesting.

All in all this is an excellent album that really embodies everything that Motorhead stands for. It fuses punk and heavy metal and it is just great to listen to. I like this album because it is hard and loud and bold. The instruments have amazing parts, most notably the guitar, which is loud powerful and awesome. The bass also has good lines and makes a tight rhythm section with the drums. The vocals are excellent and classic Lemmy Kilmeister. The lyrics are dark and angry and often punk-like. This is an awesome album which has all sorts of great music and awesome sounds that just come together to create a true piece of art. The best track is probably Iron Fist, however most of the songs are good.

OVERALL 9/10