Suma, Chang Ffos - Dooming Thursday
Recently I got my hands on a record of Swedish doomsters Suma, a record that I like pretty much because of its droning heaviness. So when I accidentally stumbled upon their concert in 013, I just had to be there.
Opening act for tonight was Chang Ffos, a band hailing from Croatia. Already before they entered the stage, it was obvious they were extremely stoned. Perhaps it�s not such a good advantage that it�s possible in The Netherlands to just buy it from a shop, because it sure influenced their performance. Immediately in the first track some big mistakes were made, which gave them a pretty bad start already. They pulled themselves together a bit, asking for lights that weren�t moving so that they could see what they were doing. Their music was a sort of doom-rock, with obvious comparisons to The Melvins and Big Bussiness and such. Some parts were pretty cool, others really failed to convince me. The vocalist had a pretty nice scream, but his clean vocals just basically sucked. Best musicians in the band were definitely the bassist and the drummer (who I saw drop a stick twice�). Probably not their best day.
Suma took the level of performance up immediately. Their dronish doom guitar sound blew everything away, displaying extremely slow grooves and some more up-tempo stoner-rock passages. This drummer is actually the first guy I�ve seen that gets near to the level of Justin Greaves� doom drumming. The immense power and groove he packed was enough to make this an awesome experience, I mean every time a drumstick touched a part of his kit it had turned 180 degrees, with speed. BASH, BASH, BASH, BASH!!!!! Unfortunately they had a vocalist, who seemed like a guy into sports (and that doesn�t mix with doom metal for me). His vocals had immense echoes on them, making them slightly bearable because he isn�t exactly the best singer I�ve ever seen. And his stage performance made it even more ridiculous. Too bad, because the rest of the band was awesome. If I had anything to say about it, I would make this band an instrumental trio, because the riffs and rhythms pack enough power and conviction to make it a success. Great band, bad singer, good show is my conclusion for today.