Adam Cichetti
Camilleri
Eng-170
11/30/23
Crafting the Perfect Metal Concert
It was November 30th, 2019, and Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills was about to take the stage for the biggest show of his life. He was headlining a show at the palladium, a venue in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. He had gone all out this time with over-the-top theatrics and special effects to make sure this was a night to be remembered. He had perfected the craft of the metal performance and would only rise in popularity from here. When analyzing a metal concert there are four main aspects of the show to look at, they are lighting, sound design, special effects, and performance. The question then arises of what is the perfect combo of the four and how much effort should be put into each category? To answer this question, we must also look at the rhetoric of metal concerts and why this is important.

To understand what makes for a good metal concert, first the question of the purpose of metal concerts must be answered. Concerts as a whole have one main purpose, for musicians to perform the music they have written and recorded in front of a love audience. There are many reasons a musician will choose to perform including, but not limited to, money, promotion, exposure, and fans (Haberfield). When it comes to metal concerts there are often times opening bands and the main headliner. This is important as the reasons may vary depending on what slot the band is playing in, with the headliner being the most popular and successful while the opener is often times a small unheard-of band. The main factor that drives all bands no matter popularity is money. The members need to eat and putting on live performances is the best way to increase their profits. A lot of the other reasons are all subsets of the money factor. For a band that is a headliner they will often times be focused on the promotion of recently released music. Performing new music will drive up sales of records, increase the popularity of specific songs, and keep people coming back to see the artist multiple times to hear the new music straight from the musicians. Opening bands will often times focus more on exposure. Playing before a more popular act allows new people within the genre to hear the band at its best. If a band doesn’t have a high enough budget the music that they release may not be the best quality, so hearing a band live can put to the test their true skills and sound. However, what truly makes a concert important for the artist is the fans. Without the fans there is no performance, there are no ticket sales, no merch sales, no new listeners for smaller bands, it all is for the audience. Due to this bands are going to want to put on a memorable show for the crowd, so they go home and either want to listen to the music more or even see them again live at another later date. In order to do this the band most focus on the four main aspects of a concert.

The most important aspect of a concert is sound. If a band doesn’t sound good the crowd might become disinterested and want to leave earlier. Sound design is often left up to three main factors, each with a different level of controllability. The first most obvious factor is the band themselves. This relies solely on the members themselves and there’s audio engineering can do for problems that are coming from the members themselves. If a guitarist is playing sloppy, a bassist is behind in the song, a drummer can’t keep the beat, or a singer doesn’t have a natural voice or didn’t warm up, that’s all on them. There is not much an audio engineer can do to fix or control problems that arise internally. Musicians being unprepared can leave a bad sound in the ears of the audience that might turn them off from the band causing them to lose money. The next factor is the venue itself. There are different levels of venue size and structure that all play a role in the audio quality and acoustics. For metal concerts the venue can be anything from a basement to a field to a classical music hall to a football stadium. When a concert takes place in a basement it is hard to control the sound of the instruments due to the small size and improper materials of the walls. While playing in a field it is once again hard to control the acoustics as there is nothing for the sound to bounce off of. The sound shoots in all directions from the amp and will get absorbed by the ground below causing little echoing. When playing in a venue built for music the room itself can aid in the quality of the audio. The shape, size, and design of the walls are all taken into account when the venues are built leading to optimal sound design (Mommertz). Halls are often time designed to be 15,000-20.000 square feet in a rectangular structure (Mommertz). This allows for the sound to travel off the walls in such a way that can completely fill the room and make every single person in the crowd feel engulfed in the music they are listening to (Mommertz). Walls and ceilings are often made of vinyl, wood, or concrete to allow for the best reflection of sound and to maintain a minimal reverberation time (Mommertz). Additions such as curtains or pillows can be used to mute reflective surfaces and change the echoes of venues when needed (Mommertz). Finally, stadiums are often the hardest to control. Stadiums for sports such as football and baseball are often designed to echo the sound of fans to make it louder for those in the stands or on the fields. These large venues are essentially an echo chamber meant for cheering, not for music. Yet often times many large concerts take place at venues such as these. Doing concerts of this magnitude requires extremely intense planning by audio engineers to make sure they can control the audio in the best possible ways (Rothstein). This is where the third factor most often comes into play, the audio engineers and sound designers themselves. Bands hire a team of professionals to scope out venues to make sure they can create the best sounding performance for each band on the bill (Rothstein). This is also the most important factor as without this team a band might go into a show with unbalanced levels where feedback can occur, and other instruments can overpower others. These experts are able to take any venue and use all different sorts of speakers and equipment to make it suitable for the band that hired them. All three of these factors play major roles in making up the sound aspect of what creates a good metal concert.

The next important aspect in creating a good metal concert is the lighting. Seeing the band physically on stage is one of the main reasons people go to concerts. This makes having enough white light on the band the most important aspect of lighting. However, to impress audiences to keep them entertained and coming back bands need to up their game from just being visible. This is where lighting synced with the songs comes into play. As the songs change, lights should change. When bands play fast, aggressive flashing lights can be used to visually intensify the feeling of the song (Lucas). If a song becomes more mellow the lights should become more flowy and fade in and out (Lucas). This all appeals to the visual element of music and can give audience members an even deeper connection to what they are listening to. To go along with changing and flashing lights is colored lights. Different colors can evoke different emotions in people due to color theory (Mohr). Studies have been done on both what emotions do you think of when you see this color, and what color do you think of when you see this emotion (Mohr). Using these studies and theories bands can influence the crowd simply by changing what color they are standing in. When a band plays an angry song, they often times put on red light to signify that anger. This is because most people associate the two together (Mohr). While if a band chooses to play a softer, sadder song, blue is the obvious go to due to the reasons stated before. One other example is a love song, where the go to color ranges on the spectrum between red, purple, and pink. Each song will change colors but not every song will have a unique color. Another reason bands may apply certain colors is due to album covers. This can be shown in a live video of Metallica bathed in yellow light while playing the song Lux ÆTerna off of their newest album 72 Seasons, where the main color on the cover of the album is yellow. (“Metallica: Lux ÆTerna (Detroit, MI – November 10, 2023)”). Lighting is an important aspect when it comes to making a concert memorable for an audience member.

The third most aspect in creating a good performance is special effects. These are often times used to accentuate certain parts of songs. Pyro and smoke are the two most commonly used effects that go off in concerts. When a metal band hits a note hard or transitions to a faster part of a song, they will often shoot pyro to signal this to the audience as well as create a feeling of excitement. The band Metallica demonstrates this when they perform their song Moth into Flame live. The song features a point where the singer shouts burn and the song changes into a harmonized guitar part leading up to the blazing fast solo, as he shouts this, big bursts of pyro shoot up around the stage and circle the band every beat as the song changes tempo (“Metallica: Moth into Flame (Arlington, TX – August 20, 2023)”). When a band uses smoke, they will often times shoot it off during a breakdown to indicate the slow heaviness that is about to inspire. This can be seen clearly in the performance of the song Immaculate Misconception by the band Motionless In White (“Motionless In White – The End Of The World Tour (FULLSET, SOLDOUT SHOW) Hammerstein Ballroom NYC” 0:15:47). As well as using pyro and smoke other special effects can be used as well such as confetti, streamers, small explosions, and beach balls, all to magnify transitions point or simply just signify moments that hit hard while live.

The fourth and final aspect is the performance of the band itself. This includes a variety of things such as stage presence, on stage movement, interactions with the crowds, scripted or unscripted speeches, or even on-stage skits. The vocalist of a band will often take time between songs to talk to the crowd and give a short speech to get them amped up for the next song they are about to play. The singer will also sometimes allude to the song they are about to play in the speech without saying the name. This is done well by the singer of the band Avenged Sevenfold, M. Shadows. Before a performance of their song God Hates Us he goes on a speech about how it is Sunday and how everyone should be at church but instead they are at a heavy metal concert (“Avenged Sevenfold – God Hates Us (Live at Rock Am Ring 2011) ᴴᴰ”). This shows that the singer is not just a celebrity but a human just like everyone else there, using humor and rhetoric to get a crowd excited about the next song when they don’t even know what it is. Another huge factor is stage presence and the ability to control the crowd. The band Avatar, or more specifically, the drummer, is able to get a crowd cheering and excited simply by just waving at them and hitting his drums at an increasing tempo (“AVATAR – Get In Line [Live at Alcatraz 2019]”). This creates excitement in the crowd as well as anticipation that is fulfilled when the song finally kicks in and the crowd cheers as they recognize what they are about to hear. A band that features a lot of on-stage movement is Slipknot. When there are nine members there’s bound to be someone who has the ability to move around freely on stage. This can be seen throughout their performance of their hit song The Devil In I. As the song goes on two members climb on top of their drumkits and start waving at the crowd and just getting their attention and increasing excitement (“Slipknot – The Devil In I (LIVE)”). This all builds up to a point where the singer stops the song after the breakdown and waves to the crowd to get them to cheer as loudly as possible before kicking in the last chorus ((“Slipknot – The Devil In I (LIVE)” 0:04:16). All of these actions taken by the band lead to more enjoyment of the audience and a higher focus and concentration as well.

Combining all four of these aspects into one is where bands will be able to see dramatic growth and attendance in their concerts……..