Metal is arguably a cult genre with a devoted fan base. When it comes to the stronger groups of fans within an already defined aggregate of people, they will stick out significantly. They will wear the shirts, scream the lyrics and have to get skull repairing surgery from banging their heads too frequently. There are two kinds of veteran bands in metal. You have the bands that have stuck it through it all and have amazed everyone with their efforts to never give up. You also have the bands that do disband– viciously so –that seem to somehow return when we least expect them. Converge is the former example with a following as strong as the loch ness monster itself. The latter is At The Gates, who seemed as likely to spot as big foot. These two monstrous acts shook, broke and teared us all apart.
Converge have aged gracefully before our eyes, and you can tell that they have acknowledged their years on stage. I’ve seen Converge live before, and while this show was as intense as any show they have ever done (aside from the odd one that breaks out in fights), it’s new for the band to slow things down to talk. Jacob Bannon remarked on the band’s successes and the bands that played that evening. His body, dripping in sweat and tattoos, told a story of a metal artist that has seen it all. Converge rode the wave this whole time, and it seems like this is a time where their seemingly impossible achievement truly hit them.
Bannon drooled all over the stage as he screamed. Kurt Ballou’s guitar tones were rigid enough to make Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore proud. Nate Newton crunched out bass lines while jumping, and proceeded to howl demonically into the microphone. Ben Koller, a drum god as always, still is had to follow with the amount of speed he carries. The band had fun as always, but they’ve also recognized their place in metal. A usual set list staple would be the two songs Concubine and Fault and Fracture back to back, as they are the two linking songs that start off their opus Jane Doe. Instead, they closed the show with Concubine surprisingly leading into the ten minute self titled epic off the same album. It’s the closer on that release that’s been acclaimed for its ambitions. Converge performed to gift wrap their legacy, whereas they usually performed in the moment. It was a nice change. This mythos they used to carry is now more humane and tangible. It was a beautiful display of devastation.
Whereas Converge had to take off their masks of aggression to show their gratitude, At The Gates had to make up for lost ground. They have done so since 2010 and they even released a new album last year. They’ve found their footing again, so we were given a show that was actually fairly comfortable. While not as violent as Converge’s set was, At The Gates were very much like your token heavy metal band in terms of stage presence. Each guitar player would coast around and lift their guitars up as they played. Tomas Lindberg would plant his foot on top of the stage equipment as he screamed into the rafters above. He’d prowl in circles like a predator when he wasn’t solidly planted. These guys were flashy through both their playing and their strengthened unity.
Converge brought heart to their usually catastrophic shows, but At The Gates just had a lot of fun. They have a completely different perspective on their band’s history, especially with the on-again-off-again life within it. The guitar tones were well balanced, and even the bass was present and booming. Adrian Erlandsson’s waterfall drumming spilled all over the stage around him. Everything was pleasantly mixed, and so the energy rolling out was effortless and without conflict. With a tapestry of old and brand new material, At The Gates’ set was, too, a tribute to their history.
At The Gates looked back and admired what they had. Converge pieced together a setlist that would have blown away the most devoted of fans. Both legacy bands pulled off a viciously victorious evening at The Phoenix. They were a great pairing of bands that perfectly captured different sides of metal. Some bands come and go. Some bands stick through thick and thin. Some bands are challenging on album but are all for fun live. Some bands try to replicate that chaos live. There are many reasons why these two bands are so sought after, and there is now a reason why so many people in Toronto will have stiff necks for months. They saw both the loch ness monster and big foot in the same room: A band that is represented by abstract cacophony and an iconic image of an ambiguously dead model, and a band that was seemingly one we’d never see again if this was ten years ago.
