Avenged Sevenfold, Anuryzm blow concert goers out of their boots, crowds are an epic fail – gig review. 
Avenged Sevenfold and Anuryzm hit the Flash Forum this weekend hard and loud spewing ear-drum-wrecking riffs and beats across the Flash Forum stage – to a pathetic crowd of 2,000 (and we are being generous there!).
For a band (A7X) who has been selling out 50,000 capacity gigs, it must have been a disappointment to travel from sell-out shows to see the lacklustre attendance by Middle Eastern metal and rock ‘fans’.
It is a bit hard to start this review since I have so much to say – and not all good. So, we will start with the good bits:
The Good
It was great to see the 500-600 people who were there in time to catch Anuryzm rip up the stage, the energy, screams, metal horns, arms-waving and general excitement and headbanging were great to see and every single one of you who came to support deserve a big WELL DONE.
It was wonderful to see such support and such enthusiasm from you all. The semi-circle pits were amusing and the fact that they were all ages was pretty awesome. Kudos to the thumping, headbanging, sweating, jumping people actually attempting to mosh at the gig despite some large and uninitiated security guards who seemed to think moshing meant a mass riot was going to start. And WOW to the biggest circle pit we have seen in the UAE!
Also a big WELL DONE to the 2,000-ish people who actually came to the gig. It is people like YOU who will encourage big event companies to bring out more metal/rock acts.
Both bands put on one hell of a show, and although I expected nothing less, it was great to see A7X going all out despite the poor turn out from the Middle East ‘metalheads’ and rock fans.
I loved that A7X got friendly with the crowd and pulled out that sign welcoming the band to the Arabic metal family. Am dying to know who made that sign – and wish I could have got a picture! There were no egos in evidence from either band and despite ongoing sound issues, both bands were epic and took the good with the bad. I am sure if it had been Axl he would have stormed off stage.
If was a fantastic night and whoever came down was lucky to be there.
The lighting for both Anuryzm and A7X was also fantastic, although as someone commented the lighting for Anuryzm looked a bit like the lighting designer had a terminal strobe-light fixation.
It is also great to see that ThinkFlash is investing time and money in bringing out alternative acts. I am really pleased to see big event companies like this making a real effort.
The Bad
Well, yeah. The sound.
The Flash Forum has weird, echoey acoustics and with the venue at half-capacity, to be honest the sound was awful.
We hear from our sources that Anuryzm had to bring their own backline including amps, which I have never heard any organiser ask a band to do before. This caused problems in getting the sound right for the band.
It was also obvious to see that in the beginning Nadim, Anuryzm’s vocalist was having problems hearing himself in the inner ear monitors and the rest of the band seemed to be struggling as well, although the problem seemed to smooth out as their set went on.
Unfortunately the sound for the crowd did not improve hugely, vocals were almost impossible to hear as was most of the drum-kit except for the cymbals.
Lead guitar was totally lost.
This was such as shame as Anuryzm sound a hell of a lot better than they did on that stage.
When A7X came on stage, the sound was a huge improvement, BUT, the sound engineer pumped up the volume to over 106 decibels, well above the 100 the system was designed for and, according to our sound experts, instead of lowering the sound across the board and then raising certain instruments such as lead guitar, vocals, they just pumped everything up to full volume, again causing massive reverb and muddy sound.
I took time to stand all over the venue from front to back and either side and let me tell you, I could hear the vocals best when standing outside!
I remember at the 30 Seconds to Mars gig the sound was far better, Flash had put drop cloths from the top of the tent every second roof strut, I think this helped to control the sound echo and it was a shame it had not been done this time.
Perhaps the venue needs a bit of a remodel before another metal/rock band plays there.
Did anyone else notice how bored Synyster Gates looked, I think he smiled once!
The downright ugly.
Attendance. For the last three years I have been involved with underground rock/metal acts in the UAE, all I have heard is people whining about there not being enough gigs. Yeah? Really?
You can’t even be bothered to pitch up when an international band comes to town, do all you ‘metalheads’ (yes I put it in inverted commas because clearly for you metal is something you dress up for and to rebel against your parents, even if you are in your 20s or 30s) really think big organizers will bring out acts like Kreator etc if you can’t even be bothered to attend a show like A7X?
Yeah, it may not be to your taste 100%, but the idea of music is to support it, why were you not there to support Anuryzm if you did not like A7X?
It can’t be the cash because most of you spend upwards of Dh300 a night going out anyway…
Or is it because most of you do not know the bands that come out here because you cannot make decisions for yourself? Someone has to tell you a band is good before you go.
I think it is a combination of both.
I have to include this tweet I received from a teenage metal ‘fan’ just to show you the mentality:
“Shove faggy bands up your asses then shove real metal. Thrash or die.”
I wonder if he knows that one of the world’s best drummers Mike Portnoy left Dream Theatre to play with A7X? Or that A7X routinely fill stadiums of 80,000 or more.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but really, do they have to be so offensive about it?
In conclusion
The UAE will never become a hub for big metal bands until the fans pull their fingers out and start attending. Stop whining and start representing or everyone is going to lose interest in you.
Anuryzm set list:- Breaking The Ballot
- Wide Awake
- Sintax Of Trinity
- Fragmenting The Soul
- Where Mockery Falls
- Killing Time
A7X set list:Nightmare
Critical Acclaim
Welcome to the Family
Almost Easy
Buried Alive
So Far Away
Afterlife
Beast and the Harlot
A Little Piece of Heaven
Bat Country
EncoreFiction
Second Heartbeat
Unholy Confessions
Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:40 pm
