Meshuggah
Live @ Alcatraz, Milano 05.12.12

THE REVIEW

There you see up there, those are the Decapitated, and well, they're ugly and they even annoy you with this story of "country that produces Volvo," but they rock enough to make you understand the evolution of the show.

Then they arrive, and they're good-looking too. After all, they're just a band, as they say, fusion... well, fusion with a bit of an edge. But what can I say!

Perfection, a devastating show. Kidman's upside-down smile is a metaphor for a subversive genre, a world turned upside down, a genre that can bring everyone together. And indeed, our approach to the genre has always been different; here there is no longer the distorted classic heavy metal song or the disjointed geometries of technical/brutal death, I don't even feel anything deadly or mournful here. It makes me really feel good. And how much this is about joints, almost peace & love! Definitely about joints. This is Gent. It's their own genre, falsely emulated by others.

It's poetry.

"I Am Colossus"... one of those moments to immortalize. The awareness of a new rebirth and a declaration of poetics, indeed. An impossible piece, I really believe it could be the challenge for cover bands in a parallel future to ours. Or maybe it's simply the phrase that Kidman seemed to pronounce that evening after observing his own member. Right, what colossal reality is hidden beneath a man capable all evening of provoking with graceful and harmonic movements, a face fierce but visibly relaxed, and a voice that doesn't waiver! Indeed, how physically difficult it is, in my opinion, to maintain such composure on such an evening. We will probably soon hear about a sort of pilates for Gent groups. Ok, I'll stop. These were the paranoias of my brain observing the miracle of such a piece, it truly must be heard live.

And then, without much ceremony, "Bleed!". And what can I say, powerful, vicious, clean, and so evil that it's a real treat. It moved me, I could no longer feel my legs from how much they didn't want to stay still, but I assure you I wasn't tired. It was just a matter of getting into the Gent mechanism, and they manage to make you understand it in an instant.

One of my companions said, after the last piece: "They ridiculed every other band previously appearing here at the Alcatraz"... and indeed, after Opeth 2011, I can almost be certain. A wonder, the metal of the future, certainly a profoundly avant-garde genre. So much wellness, purification.

Well, certainly, an undeniable urge for beer afterward. But that's part of the lack of oxygen, or maybe the draft beer at €6 per 33 cl? ...

Never mind, they know how to carry you forward, even with this. As they say, they're not really for listening to, they're for living. And perhaps with this, I'd better start doing something else.

Great.