CONCERT REVIEW/INTERVIEW: EPICUREAN

Opening for Rotting Christ Jan 21st at the Starlite Room were Minnesota metalheads, Epicurean. Their performance like most opening bands was expected to be sub-par compared to the headliners, a consequence of seeing that exact formula time and time again.

Much to my surprise these five guys from Minneapolis did an excellent job at getting a crowd whipped up and ready for a night of destruction!

Front man John Laramy, can provide power in his vocals that propels Epicurean's energy all the way to the back of the room and back again. His transition from dirty to clean vocals is almost seamless and even though he is not the most animated on stage his stage presence is strong enough that he can command an audience.

Laramy's band mates cannot be undersold at all either. For young talent, guitarist Jarod Mills has all the makings of a great entertainer as well, his charismatic mannerisms, whilst still executing riffs with lightning precision makes him a well rounded performer and clearly a crowd favourite. Bassist Eli Pete and substitute guitarist on this tour, Brian Koenig (Luna Mortis) rounded off the string section well. Epicurean, like most melodic metal would be nothing if the percussion and keyboarding fell short. This group did nothing of the sort, with machine-gun drummer John Gensmer let loose on tracks like "Behind the Chapel Walls" and the backing tracks of temporarily absent keyboardist Jared Shneider setting the ominous tones over the entire set, Epicurean proves that not all melodic metal has to be Opeth-esque in nature.

This stellar performance from relative unknowns propelled this band from my periphery to dead center in my sights and in my mind as some of the new American metal talent to watch for.

I believe that with Chicago dark metal staple and metal veterans, Novembers Doom dropping off the Lucifer over America tour at the beginning of January for medical reasons left a void that allowed Epicurean some breathing room. If lead singer John Laramy's vocals are any indicator, they are taking some big breaths and making the best of their time in the spotlight.

Such a terrific set could not go unanswered for, so Epicurean agreed to sit down with The Forge and chat about all things music and many other things that had nothing to do with music whatsoever.

Joining me, were founding members, John Laramy, John Gensmer, Jarod Mills, and Eli Pete

After some deliberation about whose mall was bigger West Ed or their hometown's Mall of America, playful banter about Dave Mustaine's diva-like antics locally here at Gigantour, and some excellent song recommendations from (Jarod) Mills. We started to finally get down to our Q&A session, only occasionally being distracted by attractive female tennis players with long Russian names on the TV's behind us.

Forge-It may seem somewhat cliché to ask, but what were your first influences in metal that made you decide to get into metal yourselves?

Mills, Gensmer (almost in unison) - Megadeth! and also Dimmu Borgir's album Puritanical (Euphoric Misanthropia)

Laramy- Definitely the song "Epic" by Faith No More

Pete- Uh, I don't know, my first taste of extreme music was like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, that kind of stuff.

Forge-So, you basically made the transition from grunge into metal?

Pete-Yeah, that's it.

Forge- What do you guys like to do when you are on the road other than anything music related?

Mills-(laughs) smoke a lot of weed!

Pete- Sleep mostly

Laramy-We do a lot of stuff, I don't know we're all just a bunch of "goofy douche bags" you know?

Forge- How do you like this tour, being just signed on with Metal Blade in 2007?

Gensmer- It's way better than our old D.I.Y. tours, never being sure of whether or not you're getting paid, being stranded in places, it's way better on this tour.

Forge- Speaking of being on tour, or in this case, not. Where is your man (Jared) Schneider?

Now, at this point, the guys preferred that I not share the intimate details of it, suffice it to say, he had prior commitments that wouldn't allow him to attend the touring portion of the trip.

Mills- He's still a huge part of the creative process, he does a lot of our writing like 51% and we just put his keyboards on the back track to make up for his absence.

Forge- So, who does the other 49% of the writing then?

Mills- I think we all do, we each contribute a little bit, collectively.

Forge- Like taking each of your individual experiences and bringing it to the table?

Mills- Yeah pretty much.

Forge- Being on tour, are you guys leaving any significant others behind? girlfriends, that sort of thing?

Mills, Gensmer, Laramy, Pete- Oh yeah. Sorta

Forge- Then what's with all the talk about girls and the like from earlier?

Laramy- Hey, it's all good to preheat the oven as long as you do your cooking at home!

Forge- If you guys weren't in this band, doing metal music what would you more than likely be doing?

Gensmer, Mills and Pete- Probably working in a warehouse somewhere, thats kind of how we all know each other from working in warehouses.

Laramy- School.

Forge- What for?

Laramy- English or Physics

Forge- Oh alright guys, final question, hypothetically speaking if your careers were going to end forever with no way back but, you had the opportunity to go and play one last show in any country you wanted where would that be?

Gensmer- Romania or Greece

Laramy- Japan definitely

Mills- Japan

Pete- Japan or to play Wacken (German Open Air Festival)

The boys are in no danger at this point of having their careers ended prematurely, if nothing else the future holds big changes for the guys. Bizarrely, the band now has a Canadian connection, coming on in February, is a new lead guitarist to fill the gap that Brian Koenig is sitting in on for this tour. Originally a native of Newfoundland, this artist has resided in Windsor, Ontario for a few years and despite the guys from Epicurean completing over 150 pieces of documentation just to bring him over they still say he is not one hundred percent legal yet. From what they say he is supposed to be an incredibly talented individual and I, personally cannot wait to see what developments take place after their new addition comes onboard.

Hear the three debut EP songs released by Epicurean and much more, simply click here for their site.