JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: DAATH’S EYAL LEVI ON THE “INJURY PARADE”
Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Eyal Levi
So in metal it seems like one of the highest honors your band can get is to score some high rankings on the brutalometer. If you hear “THAT WAS FUCKNG BRUTAL MAN” and the dude is covered in sweat and looking at you like you have led him through war victoriously, you have won him over via metal.
It’s really amazing to me that music can be described as brutal. What an emotion to try and communicate. I can’t think of anything more cathartic than playing a brutal show where the band and audience are 100% on their game (It’s a two-way street, dudes.). But the other part of the brutal coin isn’t as much fun or psychologically rewarding. I wonder before every tour about which injuries I’m going to come home with. What new permanent marks will I have to add to the collection?
Well this past time it was a whole amazing array of bruises all over my body and random cuts on my hands and wrists and last but not least, a broken rib. Yes, a broken rib.
The last night of the tour took place at The Norva in Norfolk, VA. They have a very welcoming backstage and I felt very at home getting blackout drunk to celebrate the last night of such a killer tour. At some point, Kevin Talley and our tech, Eric, had me pinned against a wall and were punching me. I grabbed Kevin’s wrists and started smashing them into a brick wall… and then I got kneed in the ribs. And then I bit a chunk out of Eric’s neck. Interesting reaction to getting kneed.
Anyways, I didn’t even feel it and kept of partying. The next day we had an off-date show and I played it. I tried to warm up by doing pushups… No dice. I tried jumping jacks… no dice. Anything involving my side felt like I was getting stabbed. I still played the show. Headbanging at that show was one of the more painful things I’ve ever done in my life. It seriously felt like I was getting stabbed. But somehow the show ended up being a great one.
A week later my rib was still hurting, so I got an xray, and whadda ya know? It’s broken.
The badass thing is that on this upcoming tour (Goatwhore/Abigail Williams), I won’t be starting from zero on the injury list. I’ll be injured going in.
That’s the worst I’ve been hurt on tour but there’s always something. There’s always something that’s going to hit you in the head and take you down, like when Emil’s head got clocked by Jeremy’s bass or when some random object hit me in the head at a show and took my ass straight to the ground.
(That was interesting, by the way. I got right back up but then my body started failing me slowly. I couldn’t play guitar and then my legs got limp and I started swaying and then I got the fuck off the stage. I got to listen to the band from a listeners perspective for half a song while I regained myself, but that’s a whole other conversation.)
Fact is, people get hurt on tour. I remember being in the back lounge of the bus on some Ozzfest date when Kevin Talley came in and his foot was bleeding from the bottom because there was a piece of glass the size of a small knife blade that had cut through the bottom of his flip flop. I remember being amazed by how much blood there was and by just how thick the blood was. He took the glass out, bandaged himself up with duct tape, and then played a great show the next day.
And that’s pretty much how we do out there. We get hurt and unless its seriously debilitating, we move on as if it didn’t happen. Being that I still have a lot of touring ahead of me, I’m going to consider this an open topic. I’ll definitely revisit tour injuries in the future. In the meantime I’d like to hear about some of the worst injuries you guys have ever sustained in the presence of metal. From the stage or from the crowd. Just tell me about it. I’m curious.
-EL
Visit Daath on MySpace to get the full itinerary for their summer tour with Goatwhore, Abigail Williams, Abysmal Dawn, and Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky. Please go see a show so Eyal can continue to pay his doctor’s fees.
I lost almost all sight in my left eye for a few months after being smacked in the eye with the head of a guitar.
back when pantera was playing smaller clubs before they got big I went to see em I was standing near some cabs and someone pushed me and it pushed my head into em and split my eyebrow open blood was everywhere pretty sick show tho
I girl crowd surfing landed on top of my head making my neck hurt for a couple days!
lol, TWAT HEADBUTT!!!!
pussy
come on man, you’re a metalhead complaining about a sore neck?
this girl was probaly 140 pounds thrown at least eight feet in the air and lands on my head. That shit hurt but atleast she didnt spill my beer. Twat headbutt lol
The same thing happened to me, this girl who easily weighed over 200 pounds got collectively heaved by a group of people behind me….right on top of my head. And because I had no idea she was coming my way, I didn’t have my hands up or anything, I just took a fat girl right to the dome. Why she was crowdsurfing in the first place, I have no idea. It was either some serious denial, or she wanted to injure people. At that same show (Lamb of God, the day AoTW was released) I also took a steel toed boot to the face from one of those fucking retards who ninja moshes by himself, outside of the pit.
In terms of onstage injury, a few years ago I had a gig with my old band in a shitty little place in Queens where just about everyone in the audience had been invited by us. We were partying nearby before the show, and I took 3 Xanax bars, drank two 40s of OE, did a couple of whiskey shots, and smoked some really dank piff. Miraculously, I did not vomit. Needless to say, I was more or less catatonic. The last thing I remember is taking my shirt off, throwing it into the audience, and having to lean on a mic stand while I was singing in order to stay standing. Now, Xanax wipes your memory pretty much clean, so next thing I know, I wake up on my friend’s couch the next day. No idea what I did the night before, no idea where I was at first, no idea how I got there, and….a massive hideously painful bruise on my right ass cheek. Plus an indescribable wound on my arm that were somehow covered with gauze. I asked around, turns out the wound was from hitting a wall after jumping off the stage. I still have no idea where the bruise came from. So kids, don’t combine alcohol and benzodiazepines before playing a show. Unless you want a story to tell your grandkids someday.
Huh, since when do comments get moderated before they’re posted? I smell fascism!
Personally, I don’t see any difference between 200-pound “fat” girls crowd surfing and 200-pound whatever guys. But I’m little, so it’s all the same to me.
And as for the rest: Duly noted and entertaining as Hell.
There’s no difference at all. It always sucks when a fat person is thrown on top of you.
200 lb. chicks are fat, 200 lb. dudes CAN be buff and not fat. Muscle weighs more than fat, for those who didn’t make it past 2nd grade.
was that place redzone?
Gnarly ankle sprain at the At The Gates reunion show in Worcester last year. Whole foot was purple for a week.
Deployed to Korea, favorite salon in downtown Songtan, a Brazilian waxing gone wrong. Think about it.
Three years in the Army and that’s the worst I got hurt? Not taking it for granted.
Love and Rockets,
Shinaain
Wait, you said in the presence of metal. Hmmmm….Nevermind. I got nothing.
Managed to slam the back of my shaved head into some dude standing on the outskirts of the pit and connected with his fucking front teeth at the most recent Mastodon tour show in Minneapolis [best show I've experienced thus far]. Needless to say I bled profusely and security tried to pull me off the floor. They did not succeed. Moral of the story, If you like your teeth don’t stand on the edge of the pit with your arms at your sides.
sprained my back while surfing a couple of months ago, nothin serious. There was once some asshole doing hardcore dancin and his fist flew in my face, nothin happened to me but he sprained his arm. good for him :-)
I remember seeing a guy passed out and piss all over his pants at a metal show. Im sure his self-esteem was hurting when he woke up does that count?
Fractured my lateral tibia and chipped my patella because one of those karate ass-hole kid moshers scissor-kicked me in the side of the knee on the edge of the pit. Pretty sure other stuff happened that was pretty bad but I was blackout when it happened so it doesn’t count.
Uh at a Lamb o’ God gig i got head butted in the face, causing a mother of a nosebleed. But surprisingly didnt notice the bleeding until about 30 seconds later and was completely covered in blood, a quick visit to the toilets and half a song missed, i was back on the floor getting my ass kicked all over again.
broken boner
torn ACL in my right knee. after they operated to fix it, they said that i’m pretty much going to need to get my knee replaced at some point due to the amount of cartilage damage that was done and the wonderful onset of arthritis in my knee from the injury
Haven’t had that many serious injuries actually, but I remember one particularly. I was at a Bolt Thrower-concert, standing at the very front row, pressed against the stage. People were literally flying above my head and this is not something you see in my country on every concert you attend (I live in Sweden). So yeah, there was this one guy who just kept getting on stage and just jumping into the crowd, and no one fuckin catched the guy, haha. Though, one time, they catched him and threw him witch such an amazing fucking power up to the stage. On the way up there I got his total body-weight right in the back of my neck, slammed my head on one of the monitors on stage and passed out for like 30 seconds or something. I woke up, bleeding, and started to headbang all the way through the gig again.
ITS DÅÅÅTH FFS DÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅTH damn AMERIFAGS! l2Å ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ FFS!
February of 2006, Darkest Hour headlining tour at Knitting Factory in NYC. The Acacia Strain are playing their last song before A Life Once Lost comes on. They do the “last chance to dance, mother fuckers” routine and everyone goes nuts during this breakdown. I’m up against the stage with my lady and some asshole from the pit punches me with all his might in the mack of the head. Being very against the hardcore scene (the idea of ‘family’ from the 80’s is gone because people go out of their way to fuck with people not in the pit, but that is a whole other story), I decide enough is enough and I’m going to give this asshole a taste of his own medicine. I turn and see that EVERYONE is throwing down and in turn have no idea who sucker punched me. I go to turn back around to face the band and as I’m turning around, someone stage dives, and if you’ve never been in this place, it holds 200 people tops, so its small. Someone stage diving should have gotten a few people back, but this dude must have just fallen off the stage. Lands right on top of my head, cracking two of my back teeth and leaving me severely fucked up. I wasn’t concussed but considering how fucked up I was after that, I can’t imagine how much getting a concussion much suck. Still have the cracks in my teeth as a reminder of how much I hate hardcore.
This one kid got his eye gouged out at a liferuiner show. no lie popped his eye
seriously fucked his shit up
Keep that shit coming! I think one thing most of us share is that metal/hardcore shows will at some point inevitably fuck us up! Have any of you been lucky enough to have been carried out of a show in a stretcher?
i fucking wish!!!
Well, at Daath’s concert actually there was this totally shitfaced guy who got a little rowdy and started like playfully punching this guy. the guy didn’t take it too well and it became a fist fight. Lucky me, a moderate sized girl, just happened to be in the middle of the two guys. I ended up with a bruise the size of a frisbee and my arm pulled out of the sauket. fun right?
nose broken at a slayer concert.
yep. good idea.
my parents weren’t thrilled when they had to take me to the hospital when i came home. (i was 16 at the time)
and then the doctors/nurses reactions: blood everywhere, smelling like fuck (as you usually do after shows)…hahaa
great blog post! really enjoyed it
Worst on-stage was a Package show. I slung my head forward at the same time Josh slung his bass up and back. His headstock connected about an inch from my temple. I saw stars and hit the stage. I managed to finish the song crouching in a near fetal position. I knew that if I stood up I’d either pass out or throw up.
Damnit he beat me to this story!! hahaha that was hysterical for me to see, but i know it was painful for you man :)
how bout; Josh fallin offstage and kept playin all the way down? LMAO
HAHA, there were some weak injuries in that list. I think everyone who isn’t a little puss hanging near the back of the crowd at these shows is used to the bruises from pits and sore necks from banging their fucking heads, but here are my most serious:
A fractured nose from the boot of a passing crowd-surfer at Dimmu Borgir… ‘03?
A broken rib – I feel your pain! @ Vital Remains and Goatwhore in March of this year.
FUCKING METAL.
wow hey now lol… they highlight of my injury was my limp arm hanging out of the sauket… not the bruise.
Oh, I wasn’t meaning you, not at all, haha, I caught the arm ripped from socket detail – goddamn…
oh sorry my bad for assuming…
+StayBrutal+
I’m a noob when it comes to metal, but i’m going to the show on the 29th in baltimore. I look forward to what awaits. =P
You going to see Daath? Man you’ve got a killer show coming up. I’m going to the one in Nashville. There is nothing better than the atmosphere and people at a metal show.
I remember while I was doing a show with my old band Carnage Driven at the time, the dudes didn’t know it but while I was drumming (and I’m a fast drummer mind you) I ended up stabbing myself in the eye by accident
and my eye was hurting like hell throughout the rest of the day. The dudes didn’t notice it at all but one of the music fans that was there asked me “what the fuck did you do to your eye!?” I told them what happened and we both agreed that shit happens.
The next day it was soar but it wasn’t hurting as bad as I thought. I kept away from the sunlight as much as possible which helped me. But still, that was an embarrassing moment. I specifically remember playing with my tampered eye closed.
But damn: never have I experienced a broken rib. That’s gotta blow big time.
Y’know, I’ve never been too banged up before–worst I’ve had are some bruises from the Testament show a few weeks ago.
But Eyal, were you at the Burial Rites show at Breakers when Marvin jumped off the stage and slammed into my friend Andy’s face? Afterwards, his face all bloody, he jumped on stage and set his pants on fire for some strange reason….
My douche bag vocalist has punched me in the sternum at two seperate shows in the pit thus cracking some tiny fuckin bone that I have no rememberance of the name of but either way, you can scream or so muchviolently use your arms for about two weeks after that shit….
huh.. this isn’t Ian from Katy, Tx, is it??
Ozzfest 2007 during Chthonic. Got hit in back by a jackass tryin’ to start some moshing. Put my hands down to try and catch myself, and managed to cut my hand open. The cut needed stitches, but I decided I’d go to the ER later because I was NOT going to miss Behemoth, Lamb of God, or Ozzy.
I’ve had 2 injuries that were not all that great..
My first was at a Korn concert where I was standing outside the moshpit and a guy was very literally thrown out of it and elbowed me so hard in the ribs I couldnt breath and passed out. Woke up still in the crowd with my friends and random people standing over me.
Second was sadley at Buzzfest seeing Seether/Shinedown. The show wasnt sad, the fact that someone was trying to crowd surf at this show during a slow song, was. This behemoth of a guy proceded to be dropped on my head, bringing me down and crashing my head into concrete, where the guy next to me accidently stepped on my head with his boot. Woke up later with my boyfriend and a nurse who happened to be there.
at a hate eternal show, was headbanging and this dude punched me in the back of the head. then my head snapped forward, mouth open, into the head of a guy with a shaved head. i bit him pretty bad, and he bled, but we were both cool about it
I think my worst injury at a metal show was when I saw Megadeth back in April of 08…I got wasted and decided that it was a good idea to go into the moshpit. I got a nice elbow to the nose and at some other point I fell (maybe I got pushed…I was so drunk I don’t know) and landed right on my knee. My entire knee was purple for a month and I was limping for a few days afterwards. There was another time when I went into the pit at a Goatwhore show and some guy pulled my legs out from under me and I landed hard on my back. I was running when it happened too so that put some momentum into the fall. That knocked the wind out of me for a few minutes and hurt like fuck. Yeah it’s not a broken rib but that’s the best I got!
There’s another one (doesn’t involve me getting injured but I contributed) at Morbid Angel show in 06 I was standing towards the back of the pit just doing windmills. Someone in the pit gets knocked into me and I flew backwards and my head slammed right into some guy’s nose. I turned around and he had blood all over his face (I never found out if I broke it…probably though). I said sorry and he was all like “That’s ok, IT’S FUCKIN MORBID ANGEL!” as he threw up the horns! \m/
Gotta love the mosh pits!
fuck you for doing windmills bitch!!!!!!!!!!!
fuck you for not being metal…I’ll do all the windmills I want to!
Maybe I should clarify myself, I wasn’t in the pit. I was near the back of it. \m/
holy fuck! I’m really sorry man. It just hit me that by “windmill” you mean the headbanging technique! My initial thought was, that it was some fuckin’ karate hardcore move (I guess I was high when I wrote the commen). I actually do windmills all the time!!! I totally take back my comment.
Rock the fuck on, and keep doing those windmills!!!
P.S. make sure your head does’nt fall off
I went to see a Metallica concert in Arizona and decided to mosh for a bit. There was an Indian looking fellow moshing with out a shirt and by the look of it, he was incredibly sweaty. While moshing, I stepped back to regain some breath and the Indian was pushed off of his feet. I reached out to grab him so he didn’t fall on me and due to the amount of sweat, my hands slipped off of his back and the back of his head met the bridge of my nose. I stumbled back to realize I had broken my nose.
wow…METAL..IT’S WHATS FOR BREAKFAST!!!!
EYAL!! YOU TOOK ONE FOR THE TEAM,!!!!
I was playing in a band in the 80’s when i stepped on a black light that was behind my drum kit that was illuminating our banner, (damn roadie put it ON my drum rug instead of the drum riser), with my right foot.. Took what pieces of glass outta my foot that i could and wrapped it in a hand towel and played .. blood was on the pedal slick as shit till it finally dried and i could get friction…played barefoot then..
oh yeah.. saw Bruce Dickinson on his Solo tour in Dallas .. some over zealous fan bopped the hell out of his microphone and split his gum when it hit him in the mouth.. THE SHOW WENT ON!! WHAT A TROOPER!!!!
The worst injury ive ever sustained is yet to happen… Im going to get my brutal-o-meter turned over, dropped off a building, moshed on, and smashed by a glass bottle… when i share the stage with Daath on July 22nd!!! WOO! Im actually looking forward to this one though.
alright i singg and play lead guitar
i was in an industrial accident the week or so before and had 2 fingers cut off and sewed back on so i had several pins and an overly large cast on (still dont have the use of my pink)
i cut the cast backa few inches and played 2 sets
and in the middle of the first set ihad an asthma attack and the only people that realised what was goingon was the drummer and the other guitarist
i went in a craze for my fucking inhaler
and my other guitrist had to do a solo tobuy time
5 minutes later im back up doing windmills