Valient Himself reaches out from across time and space to melt your gray matter with the power of rock. Photos by .
Praise Odin for space travel experience. The fact that they’re intimately familiar with adverse situations on a galactic scale helped to keep their minds and hands calm as they made their way to Denver from Salt Lake City through a sick spring blizzard to play the Friday night.
That trip was humorously documented on Twitter throughout most of Friday afternoon, as Valient Himself reported their progress to some avid Thorriors and other followers. He reported once that Wyoming resembled the planet Hoth (home to a rebel base in “The Empire Strikes Back”), followed by a photo of the road that looked eerily similar to the ice planet. To simple earthlings, the situation may have seemed quite precarious. But to time-traveling rockers from Venus, it was just another day on the road, spreading the gospel of loud, hard and fast rock ‘n roll.
Joined onstage by Eidan and Voiden Thorr (guitars), Lucian Thorr (percussion) and Dr. Professor Nitewolf Strangees (bass), Valient led the band through their usual onslaught, laying waste to the growing mosh pit with song after song full of speed metal fury, mixed with just the right amount of Southern deep-fried rock.
There’s a wild adolescent in me who will forever crave the abandon of 100 percent balls-out metal, and the brand that Valient Thorr served up in their live show provided precisely the correct dose. Each song was an epic quest, filled to the brim with screaming vengeance. Valient Himself was a charismatic and incendiary singer, and spoke to the audience tirelessly between each song. He spoke fondly of the Hoth-like conditions the band had just come through “…without the benefit of a single taun-taun to split open and crawl inside for warmth.”
Both Thorrs on guitars wielded their instruments masterfully, trading impossibly fast licks between complex chord progressions as if they were one. Lucian and Dr. Strangees, meanwhile, backed the offensive axe blitz with a fast and steady power rhythm that catalyzed the audience to fury. At the beginning of nearly every song, the mosh pit would explode with geysers of liquid from cups either thrown or sent flying, unfortunate collateral damage, towards the stage.
As they left the stage, Valient Thorr thanked the crowd for braving the weather and coming out to rock. Of course, it was the band that deserved thanks for braving the elements, arriving fresh and ready to put on a truly kick-ass performance.
Denver band deserves more than a mention for playing a strong set before Valient Thorr. Featuring Randy Olinger (guitar, vocals), Ross Miller (drums), Jay Ditchen (guitar) and Dave Harper (bass), the band spewed a slick combination of death metal and Southern rock, crossed with just a tad of psychedelia. Their execution across wildly variant time signatures inside songs was near perfect, noticeable particularly in Harper’s wicked bass prowess, and it all added up to a monstrous, cohesive set.
Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s giglist at
Tina Hagerling is a Denver-based freelance photographer and web designer. See more of her work .
MORE PHOTOS:
