Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

November 20th, 2007

Dissident Saint CD Relesase Party

Oh The Kathedral. How I love you so. This particular Sunday night would be a treat because I was going to, for the first time, go out on an excursion with someone from work. Well, other than a going away dinner we had for someone who was able to leave the hell-hole I call work.

But yes, tickets were purchased during working hours, and we were all set to go. The bus station was confusing, and we were getting there much later than anticipated. No matter, Dissident Saint were the last band playing anyways to close off the night so we had time to show up.

I also invited my friend Dan along because he’s a musician and likes metal music and overall is someone who wants to hang out with lots of people so it’s nice safe place to hang out… for a recovering alcoholic who is now stuck in a bar. Heh.

Anyways, the show was pretty awesome. I promised Ilya (my co-worker, and one of the guitar players) that I would bring my camera to make him look like a rock star. He believed me, and loved the pictures. Actually everyone loved the pictures.

The music live reminded me very much of the music on their CD. Proof of one thing, they are the real deal. I’ve had bands send me CD’s before and then invite me to their show and they sound nothing alike. And Dissident Saint sounds as good on stage as they do in the studio. It was pretty awesome.

The crowd was amusing and hilarious and surprising for me. I’ve not really gone to a whole lot of metal shows or progressive rock shows. I’m much more into the punk rock and the punk pop and the pop rock… that’s about all the combinations that come out of that. I’m into that more and there’s a whole lot of girls screaming and jumping up and down. This show kept opening up mosh pits and people running in circles and into each other.

I feared for the safety of my camera.

Although these mosh-pitters were kind enough to try and keep it to themselves and not involve the non-interested as much as possible. There was also some stage-diving, which wasn’t completely encouraged, but not discouraged either. A week before I had been at the same venue for the Matadors show and security interrupted the set to announce stage-diving was not allowed. So I must admit I was surprised.

Other than good music and energetic crowds, I think the only thing I can really say is there was a LOT of hair on stage. And I haven’t really been able to think about Ilya, my co-worker, quite the same since then.

One awesome thing that came out of it is my friend Dan is a pretty big fan of Dissident Saint now. He’s gone to other shows they’ve had in Toronto and continues to go, and for one musician to be impressed by another musical group… it’s unheard of in my world.

October 9th, 2007

Dissident Saint - The Rise

Posted by rokky in General, Metal, Progressive, Rock
Dissident Saint - The Rise
Name: Dissident Saint
Album: The Rise
Released: September 27, 2007
Members:
Sergey Perunov - vocals
Ilya Maximenko - guitars
Dimitry Chebanov - drums
Andrei Zaretski - keyboard
Alon Shenfield - bass
Gera Kisselman - guitars

Website: www.dissidentsaint.com
Favourite Song: Into the Fold (Track 1)

I think the only harder thing than reviewing a band that you have a schoolgirl crush on, is reviewing a band where one of the members is someone you see at work every day (or… every other day during the school year.) At the same time, I asked for it, so I guess it’s my own fault. *Sigh* And because I can hear the millions of people wondering who on earth in the band I work with… I work with Ilya. There. Happy?

So Ilya’s told me about a thousand times that his band is Progressive Rock. Well, the band’s Myspace says Metal & Progressive. iTunes told me nothing, so I had to put in Progressive Rock all on my own. I had my friend Brandon describe Progressive Rock as really technical music that’s a cross between rock, and classical or opera depending on how the songs are written. I’m now throughly confused although I can’t disagree with any of it.

When my friend B told me that progressive meant that technical and really hard to play, he wasn’t joking. Randomly I’ll be listening to a song and be thinking “Goddamn, does this guy have 17 fingers on one hand or something?” Anyways, out of everything, I think the vocals stand out the most to me because it’s the only part of music that I can understand the best, and I swear the vocalist has had opera-singing training or something similar. And I think I don’t hear enough keyboards in songs anymore, I can’t figure out exactly what to make of them because they can sound so different every time. Hmm…

I think I have to see Dissident saint live on stage to really experience the music properly. Thankfully they’re playing soon because I’ve been bothering Ilya for a show date I think for the past six months at least by now, ever since I found out he was in a band. Besides that I’ve been enjoying hearing The Rise in my car, because… why not. My stereo system in my car has been complimented for being pretty good.

Dissident Saint has scheduled two shows in the coming few weeks.
October 20, 2007 - Reverb at the Supernova Battle of the Bands
November 4, 2007 - The Kathedral for the official release party for The Rise
Go and say hi. And see if any of them will give you an autograph. Bonus points if it’s on a body part!

P.S. The riffs? Epic. :)