Pictures from Metal Alliance

[wshaffer]

A few pictures from my latest foray into pointing cameras at people holding guitars. I'm quite pleased by how some of these turned out:

The guitarist from Black Crown Initiate:


Dagon from Inquisition. This is one of those happy shots where I was actually able to crop out the heads/cameras/upraised arms of the people in front of me, and still have something nice left in the shot.


Archaon from 1349. This is his metal face.


Orion from Behemoth. I love Orion's pose in this one, but the original shot was pretty washed out. I put it in black and white and fiddled with the contrast, and got something that was pretty decent.

Comments

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I've observed two common basic patterns in concert lighting. One is to sweep the stage with moving patterns of colored lights (often with white spotlights mixed in) and to have the colors switch in some regular pattern linked to the tempo of the music.

The other very common pattern is to use more static lighting of a single color (or sometimes two colors) to evoke a mood. I've most often seen this used with blue or green to set a more melancholy mood, but red for passion and aggression works as well.

I think red is also used to represent flames or blood, which are pretty common lyrical themes in black metal. (And both 1349 and Behemoth have used burning torches and firebreathing as part of their stage act, although neither of them did that at this show.) I certainly saw way more red lighting used at this show than I've seen at shows featuring other styles of metal.