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Agresión: Emancipated Aggression

After a show like this, I'm ready to make my reservation
04 juli 2002, Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)

Tekst: Martÿn ter Haar

Beeld: Sander Lameijer

Publicatiedatum: 13 augustus 2002

There's one thing you got to hand to nu-metal: For the first time in metal history, the male/female ratio at concerts approaches 50%. Why? It can't be the music, because whatever is nu about nu-metal, it is not the aggression levels. On the contrary: Compared to a band like Slipknot, even something like Carcass sounds pretty tame and Metallica's quintessential metal album Master Of Puppets turns into Rush at double speed. So the change comes probably from the audience site, where the vicious circle of the perception of metal as music for men leading to metal being music for men seems to be broken by a new generation. Because that's the other thing about nu-metal audiences: They are all extremely young. Now on one hand, the male-chauvinist pig metalhead in me has no problems with standing in a packed crowd surrounded by lots of young girls; but on the other hand, these kids are *young*. A lot of them were probably not even born when Master Of Puppets was released. And Sepultura's Refuse/Resist and Prong's Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck were probably played pre-show as classics. To me it seemed like they were released yesterday. After a show like this, I'm ready to make my reservation for the old people's home.

The anonymous opening act — all the program said was "special guests" — was a clear example of the fresh wind blowing through metal: a girl singer and guitarist and male rhythm section, all frightingly young. Less fresh was the music, which lacked anything resembling an individual style. But the execution was decent enough, so by the time the band's average age reaches 20, they could be great.

Headliners Agresión presented their new album, Cultura 3. With their Deftones-meet-Soulfly sound, they turned the Melkweg into a crowd-surfing, moshing, multi-headed monster in no time. If anything was proven tonight, it was Agresión's effectiveness as a live act. Which is their biggest selling point, because just like the opening act, Agresión does not score high in the "originality" and "varied" departments. We're talking finest quality immitation here, however, and that's good enough most of the time — certainly when Green Lizard singer Remi Tjon Ajong joined the band for My Sin. Now if singer Alejandro Londoño had left home his tough guy attitude, everybody would have had a fun time.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/agresi-n/agresi-n-emancipated-aggression/1764/
Meer Agresión op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/agresi-n