Music as a Weapon IV Tour with Disturbed with Chimaira, Lacuna Coil, and Killswitch Engage Entertainment Art Charter One Pavilion Chicago, IL May 16, 2009

The Music as a Weapon IV Tour tore a bit of a hole in this normality. While the four bands could be classified as “nu metal” – drawing inspiration from heavy metal originators like Black Sabbath and Metallica – the crowd that came out to witness this batch of standardized head-banging, hair-waving, bass-busting bands was diverse. There were pre-teens with stone-faced expressions trying to seem as bad-ass as possible. There were pierced black-clad moshers and super-pumped fellows that could easily join the ranks of the WWE. A leather-clad biker gang was spotted roaming the grounds, too. So while the atmosphere was ripe for serious hard rock, there were differences in taste due to the variety of bands.

On the metal scale, the bands ranged from relatively light to near-hardcore. And while Disturbed was the best-known, most radio-friendly bunch, two of the other groups hovered on the heavier side, which justified the presence of the more serious concertgoers. Chimaira took the stage first, announced by a black hole of a bass note that sucked all attention to the stage while the crowd screamed and Adam’s apples shot up into everyone’s mouths.

These guys proved to be one of the heaviest performers on set, as double bass drums pounded, accented by vocal yelps and f-bombs. Several tracks were highlighted off their April album, The Infection, including “Secrets of the dead” and “Destroy and Dominate”. The hoarse-voiced Mark Hunter encouraged moshing with “Pure Hatred”, lyrics consisting mostly of the phrase, “I hate everyone”. That’s about as pure as it gets, and the thrashing mass agreed.

Lacuna Coil came up next. They produced a more melodic sound with a layered vocal effect. The Italian rockers headed by Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro brought a combination of Evanescence-like grandeur and more direct metal thunder to the set with “Spellbound”, the first single off their recent LP, Shallow Life. “Fragile” and “Our Truth” brought out something that sounded like an accompaniment to an Irish jig – less metal and more vocal experimentation. While this change of pace was welcome, the fans who clearly came to see a real rock show were disappointed, a few flashing the bird every time the pair blurted out a line.

Killswitch Engage brought a dark atmosphere back to the venue with a wall of guitars, drums and bass, as the mosh pit opened up to the commanding voice of Howard Jones. Jones’ vocal power really showed ability, instead of only roars and yelps. There was a mix of these and long, flowing segments of singing. When this was supported by stripped-down, roaming guitar passages, the reflective, soft side of metal shone through. These alternating modes added much-needed variation to the night, and carried emotional might without blanketing it in dueling guitar parts.

By the time the main act, Disturbed, came onto the stage, a change of scenery had taken place. Covering up the bare walls and replacing the light display of multi-colored skulls used by the previous band were steady additions of ramps, amps, and staircases. What resulted was vocalist David Draiman being pushed out on a stand-up stretcher, bound in a straitjacket, his face covered with a Hannibal Lecter-type facemask. This combined with the now bi-level stage floor promised something extreme. But Disturbed played a rather level-headed show with equal parts force and focus. Draiman’s near-operatic voice characteristically machine-gunned through verses on “Prayer” and “Ten Thousand Fists”.

Coming onstage for a second half of power anthems, the army fatigue-clad Draiman addressed the audience as his “Brothers and Sisters” - since the performance took place in the band’s hometown. An acoustic start to the sweeping “Remember” gave way to a stinging guitar riff and an eventual full-on electric version, as the candles that illuminated the stage puttered out and lights came back on. A tempo-varying drum solo introduced “Down With the Sickness”, Draiman groaning from a black pedestal in the center of the head-banging masses.

A cover of Phil Collins’ “Land of Confusion” presented a clear message with anti-war lyrics “There’s too many men, too many people causing too many problems, and there’s not much love to go around…” This was the first time the word “love”, or anything close to it was heard that night, which only cemented the fact that the main act was oddly lighter and more listener-friendly than its openers were.

The equal parts of theater and music that Disturbed are known for did not impress all attendees, some commenting that the performance was “light” and “watered down”. But it did make the dozen audience members brought onto the second level of the stage wildly dance, as it did most of those in attendance.

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