Flaw/Mark Rizzo Review:

By Eddy 'Metal' Burke

This was a special show. I had seen Flaw not long ago at Expo 5, but this show blew that one away.

I got there a little late, so I missed Nailgun Strategy, but I was able to see the whole set of Brazilian Mark Rizzo and his band, the former guitarist of Soulfly. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was amazed at his guitar talent. It's very hard to describe his music. Flamenco/Latin/Portuguese folk music, mixed with some hardcore thrash! The down tuned acoustic guitars resulted in an odd mixture of South American metal/rock/hardcore. I admit the vocals were a bit on the doo-doo side, but the killer guitar work made up for it. Dude was all up and down the guitar neck in every fashion. His acoustic flamenco solos were off the fargin hook! Wicked!

The band played Sepultura's "Territory." It wasn't very impressive and I was thinking that I coulda kicked dude's butt on vocals, easily (he stomped me on guitar, though), but nevertheless it was still cool seeing a band play Sepultura. They played Soulfly's "Eye For An Eye," which was the best song of the night for them.

Flaw then hit the stage with the best performance I've seen from them in a long time, maybe ever. For some reason, this was a special Flaw show. Everyone and their mammy was there, their fans were going nuts and it was packed.

"Ya-ger-bombs! Ya-ger-bombs!" was the chant between songs as the band tore into classic Flaw tunes with reckless abandon. The sound was killer, the Chris Vols' vocals were excellent and the sound system at the Hill was right on the money. The fans were singing along quite loudly, as they knew all the lyrics and apparently were having a blast.

Highlights for me were "The Letter," "Only the strong" and "Recognize." I think being on the road for a bit has really tightened up the band as a whole, compared to the Expo 5 performance. The show was a success and I had a killer time! Mofos were getting torn up, believe me. I'm sitting here the next morning, hung over, writing this. Uuuuugghhh. My poor innards. Seriously, Flaw is truly one of Louisville's best metal bands, ever!