IN PHOTOS: Pulp Summer Slam 2017

Have you ever felt like you’ve showed up late to the party? It was my first time attending Pulp Summer Slam on this scorching hot day on April 29 at Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City. 

Pulp Live has been doing this for a few years now, and by a few I mean, this is the 17th installment! This festival has become the mecca for metal music lovers all across Southeast Asia, not just here in the Philippines.

Now, I’m not a huge heavy metal fan by any means, although growing up, I was fond of a few songs by Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy, while AC/DC is still one of my all-time favorites.

The headliner for the day was Megadeth, a pioneer from from back in the early ’80s that are more of a thrash metal style similar to Metallica, Anthrax, or Slayer.

Since the old-school heavy metal days, the genre itself has morphed into many forms, each differing slightly in terms of instrumentation, song structure, tempo, vocal style, and the techniques in which the musicians play guitar and drums. Metal music today includes numerous genres and subgenera’s like metalcore, power, thrash, death, speed, alternative, nu, glam, and even Christian metal.

What they all generally have in common is an aggressive vocal technique, which extends to screaming and rapid-paced instrumentation. The screaming style is nothing new in rock music and can be heard in various types, from blues, to heavy metal, to punk rock. In today’s alternative rock music you’ll hear the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl screaming vocals for emphasis, as he came from Nirvana, where Kurt Cobain employed intense screams into the melodies. Listen to the Pixies and you’ll hear Frank Black scream most of his lyrics. Go back to the roots of rock and listen to Elvis Presley scream some of the lyrics of “Jailhouse Rock.” Wolf Alice and Future Islands are a couple of my recent favorite bands to incorporate the style, although they do it more for emphasis at opportune times within the song or just as a nod to the genre itself.

The artists I preferred performing at Pulp Summer Slam 2017 were the ones that didn’t overdo it with the screaming and mixed in clean vocals. Perhaps my favorite of the day, other than the headliner, was Dragonforce, which had more of an old school vibe – the lead vocalist reminded me a bit of Styx at times. 

The grounds were set up well, and the technical aspects throughout the event went down relatively smooth, which is what you’d expect from an established festival event. There were a couple of tech hiccups – at one time, the microphone cut out when Dragonforce was performing and there was a short delay getting I See Stars up and running. It was nothing major – maybe a delay of 30 or 40 minutes or so from the original play times – and the artists handled it all without a flinch, and the crowd looked on patiently.

One thing you can be sure of at these large scale events is that things never go quite as planned. To match the style of music, the fans were also rather aggressive, as they created circle pits on either side of the center divider, kind of like a mosh pit. Basically, folks ran around in a circle, pushing and shoving, randomly thrashing with their arms and elbows, it was more of a contest of who could push who the hardest. Remarkably, for such aggressive “dancing,” I didn’t see anyone get carried away with any major injuries.

More than the setup and the crowd, what impressed me here was the high skill level of musicianship across the board, from the international groups to the established local bands. 

Here’s a quick rundown, in descending order of appearance, of the international artists who performed this year. All of them are prominent in their subgenera, the leaders of their class. It’s an impressive line up indeed.

Megadeth is an American band hailing from Los Angeles, California. As mentioned earlier, these guys have been around the block, forming in 1983, they are actually one of the groups responsible for the development of thrash metal. They’re currently comprised of Dave Mustaine on lead vocals, bassist David Ellefson, guitarist Kiko Loureiro, and Dirk Verbeuren on drums. They’ve been producing music on a steady basis, with 10 albums and tens of millions in sales. 

They performed well, with a style that showcased fast rhythms and technically complex arrangements. Their music features themes of death – not unusual in this category – war, religion and politics. With these prominent topics, they are no stranger to controversy, at times even being banned from certain media outlets. As the crowd waited for them to appear, the organizers let everyone know that they were about to take the stage by launching fireworks, a nice touch.

After a few songs, an overzealous fan threw a plastic soda bottle on stage. Dave was less than happy and let everyone know they would not continue if that happens again. And he wasn’t bluffing, he was pissed. The remainder of their segment went on without a hitch. There wasnn’t much banter in between songs, but Dave later apologized for his outburst. They weren’t as wildly active on stage as the other bands for the night, but they didn’t have to be, they let the music do the talking. 

DragonForce is a 6-member band from the UK, formed in 1999. There was an old school vibe with this group. Marc Hudson was on lead vocals, with more of a smooth screaming style, which I preferred.

What I found mesmerizing here was they had two lead guitarists, Herman Li and Sam Totman, and they played complex arrangements like they were as one, with the sound ascending and descending rather quickly.

Li showed prowess on the guitar that most musicians can only dream of, with unreal whammy bar effects, various fingering techniques, and even a small device he wore on his hand that created some interesting sounds.

Crossfaith are a Japanese band hailing from Osaka. The band consists of vocalist Kenta Koie, guitarist Kazuki Takemura, bassist Hiroki Ikegawa, drummer Tatsuya Amano, and Terufumi Tamano on keyboards. They let loose with an intense performance and the onlookers responded in spades.

They’re listed as electronicore, which mixes a metalcore style with today’s EDM, so there is a vocal screaming with a bit of a growl to it, along with an upbeat high-energy show. These guys had the fans fired up, Terufumi, on occasion, would come out from behind the keyboards and interact with the crowd, sharing his whiskey or briefly crowd surfing. Again the level of musicianship was top of the line. 

Whitechapel, hailing from Knoxville TN, are within the subgenre of Deathcore. The lead vocalist, Phil Bozeman, belts out darker and deeper growling vocals on a steady basis. It’s an extreme style, and perhaps one that you either love or hate. They have released 6 studio albums and are on their way to becoming one of the most popular in this genre. 

I See Stars from Warren, Michigan performed at Pulp too, with Devin Oliver on lead vocals mixing it up with a varied style of screams, growls, and clean vocals. Mix in some intricate keyboard work and vocals from Andrew Oliver and you have quite the layered sound.

 

Devin worked the huge crowd like a pro, he had fans jumping in sync on numerous occasions. With his hometown boy good looks, you might mistake him for a star on the big screen. The stage presence here was beyond their years, perhaps from the experience of performing on tour last year with one of the largest festivals in the US, the Vans Warped Tour. They weren’t bothered by the slight delay and a technical glitch about halfway through the set, it was all taken in stride. 

Gods of Eden started out in 2010 and are from Australia. They took the stage with authority and their solid performance perked the crowd right up. 

To round out the day the following local bands also made an appearance: Slapshock, Greyhoundz, Wilabaliw, Razorback and Kjwan. 

Overall you can see why this event is so popular, with its thoughtful line-up, well-organized grounds, and high production value with plenty of smoke and fire. If you’re a fan of metal music, or have an affinity for black clothing and an abundance of long hair flying around, then catch this largest and longest-running metal festival in the Philippines – even if you’re a little late to the party. – Rappler.com