By Jim Shea

It has been said before, but it has to be said again-Roseland really knows how to throw a metal concert. Over the years, there have been exciting shows at Roseland Ballroom in New York City with bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Hatebreed, Biohazard, Judas Priest, Type O Negative, Incubus and a dozen more playing at this historic venue where many of heavy metal greats past and present have performed. The Ballroom’s location is great as it’s located in the heart of Times Square and it’s not difficult to get to as it’s one of the subway stops on the 1, 2, 3 and 9 line.

The show in question is from Lamb of God’s current tour with some of metal greats such as Fear Factory, Children of Bodom and Throwdown. As you probably know by now, Virginia’s Lamb of God is currently being dubbed the “next big thing in metal.” There is no question about it though, they have already shined on the Second Stage on this year’s Ozzfest tour and are steamrolling their way through the charts with their brand new album, Ashes of the Wake, released through Sony Music. Simply, Lamb Of God is showing no signs of slowing down as this Oct. 13 performance at Roseland pretty much reaffirms that Lamb Of God will be around for quite a long time.

The show began with the hardcore act from Orange County, CA known as Throwdown. They too shared the Second Stage with Lamb Of God at this year’s Ozzfest, but the interesting thing about Throwdown is that they’re “straight-edge.”

For those of you who are not familiar with what a “straight-edge” band is, it’s usually a hardcore band that promotes a “clean” life by not drinking, not smoking, not having promiscuous sex and so on. However, that doesn’t mean the sound is toned down by being “straight-edge.” Throwdown still puts on one brutal performance for the Roseland crowd. The highlight of Throwdown’s performance has to be their take of Sepultura’s hit song, “Roots.” This cover won over the crowd and the band ended on a high note.

Following Throwdown’s performance is probably, without a shadow of the doubt, the most popular underground metal band right now. Hailing from Helsinki, Finland, Children of Bodom gave it all their best, which totally blew the crowd away.

A good selection of songs on Children of Bodom’s setlist came from their latest album, Hate Crew Deathroll. Everyone in the band was right on the money, as the dueling guitars pleased the crowd while the keyboards added an extra bonus to Children of Bodom’s music. Despite being an underground hit, it seemed like the entire Roseland audience fell in love with Children of Bodom once they were done with their set.

Moving right along, Fear Factory made their return to Roseland after they played there last April during the Jagermeister Tour with Slipknot and Chimaira. Just like with Children of Bodom, the crowd was also delighted with Fear Factory as they performed some classic hits (“Martyr,” “Shock”), as well as some new hits (“Slave Labor,” “Archetype”).

You could say that that this Fear Factory performance was incredibly similar to the one they had last April, but it was definitely a step up from that one as the band finally got back to the swing of things since they’ve been out of the game from 2002 to the beginning of 2004.

Whether you know this or not, Andrew WK is an outspoken fan of Children of Bodom (probably because Children Of Bodom will be doing a cover of an Andrew WK song on their next EP.) It came no surprise that Mr. WK was present at this show, but it was when he hopped up on stage to perform “Edge Crusher” with Fear Factory that he made his presence felt throughout the entire crowd.

However, Andrew WK wasn’t the only guest to appear at the Lamb Of God/Fear Factory/Children of Bodom/Throwdown show. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo were also there at the show as guests. It appears that with their presence alone that this had to be the most important metal concert of the year.

Eventually, it came down to the band that all of this wouldn’t have been made possible-Lamb of God. It’s quite amazing to see Lamb of God receive so much popularity within the past year and appears to have reach the proverbial “Top Of The Mountain” in the music world. Their performance meanwhile had so much to it, as vocalist Randy Blythe was 100 percent on his singing as well as the screams and screeches he produced. The instrumentals were also great since guitarists Will Adler and Mark Morton played to perfection while bassist John Campbell and drummer Chris Adler provided the backbone for Lamb of God’s music. With brutal songs such as “Laid To Rest” and “11th Hour” came brutal pits, half of the crowd was tearing things up, while everyone else was just in awe of how great their music was.

Although they “unofficially” retired it, the crowd knew what to do at the last song, “Black Label,” as the crowd separated into two and went head on for the “Wall of Death.”

Not only was this the most talked about metal concert in a long time, but as mentioned above, this was also a very important concert for Lamb of God. Because of the support from legends like Fear Factory and Children of Bodom, Lamb of God can finally say they are on top of their game for good. n