LIVE(STREAM) REVIEW: Love And Death @ Perfectly Preserved Album Release Show

One of the few benefits, if we’re even able to call it that, of the current global situation is that many musicians within the world of alternative music seem to have been more creative than ever before due to a year unable to tour. In some cases, it’s also led to the reactivation of certain musicians’ other projects, such as in the case of KORN axeman Brian ‘Head’ Welch, who elected to use some of his quarantine downtime putting together a new lineup for his other band LOVE AND DEATH and recording a follow-up to 2013’s Between Here & Lost, soon to become known to the world as Perfectly Preserved. Naturally, with the world remaining mostly on lockdown and finding themselves unable to tour off the back of their new release, the band instead decamped to Nashville, inviting fans into their world via streaming for a very 2021 launch show.

A quick smattering of behind-the-scenes style phone footage greets viewers as the stream begins, showing the band arriving and setting up in their private Nashville venue, before an onscreen two minute countdown set to melancholic album intro Infamy signals the start of proceedings proper. A film-style title card appears onscreen, denoting set opener Tragedy, before camera feeds shift over to a stage dimly lit in green lights, and then we’re off.  What follows across the next 55 or so minutes is a solid encapsulation of where LOVE AND DEATH are as a band in 2021. New members Isaiah Perez and Jasen Rauch put in excellent performances on drums and bass respectively throughout the night alongside Head and longtime-producer-turned-guitarist JR Bareis, powering through new songs like monolithic lead single Down without even the slightest hint of having been off the road for so long.

Whereas bands including the likes of AVATAR and in particular CODE ORANGE have augmented their own lockdown era performances with various elements like multiple sets, costume changes and even CGI visuals, tonight’s show is entirely about the music; to the point where not a single word is said by Welch to his “audience” at any point during the performance, with the time instead spent packing in more songs. As you’d expect for an album launch show, just about every song from Perfectly Preserved gets an airing (with the sole bizarre exception of penultimate track Affliction), along with a few choice cuts from Between Here & Lost, and it’s indeed testament to Welch and co’s song-writing just how well the likes of Death Of Us and The Hunter fit in alongside older favourites like The Abandoning and Meltdown. Carrying exactly as much heft as you’d expect from a man whose day job involves cranking out the likes of Blind and Freak on a Leash to huge crowds all over the world, but the surprising thing to note from this streamed performance is just how well that Welch slips into the role of frontman; his ragged and gritty vocals providing an excellent counterpoint to Bareis’ soaring cleans. 

Things only take a further step up too, as the midpoint of the set sees them joined by BREAKING BENJAMIN rhythm guitarist Keith Wallen for a good half of the set, further augmenting the Welch/Bareis dual vocal dynamic on both older songs like By The Way and newer ones like The Hunter, the album version of which he guested on to great effect. Adding not only an extra voice, but more guitars to the mix only serves to thicken up the band’s live sound too – the addition of a bit more musical heft helping to augment the loss of the band’s usual studio polish.

Much like with the version found on Perfectly Preserved, it’s only really when we get to LOVE AND DEATH’s still frankly bizarre cover of DJ SNAKE and JUSTIN BIEBER’s pop chart smash Let Me Love You that things take a small dip in quality. Despite phenomenal guest vocals from Lacey Sturm, reprising her role from the album version here with a welcome touch more bite, the cover still doesn’t quite hit with the impact you’d assume the band probably think it does, given the relative coverage it’s garnered thus far.  Slightly more successful is their utterly transformative cover of Whip It, last seen on their 2013 debut, which takes the 1980 DEVO original and instead replaces all of the gonzo synth-pop bounce with bucketloads of distorted riffs and ferocious growled vocals. It’s completely ludicrous in a rather hilarious way, particularly as Welch begins the track being crowned by a crew member with one of the band’s iconic red ‘energy dome’ helmets, but in terms of sheer fun factor, it’s a hell of a late-set energy boost.

With time quickly rolling on, there’s room for just a couple more songs; Paralyzed proving the final older song of the evening, before White Flag sees things brought to an impressively energetic close with the introduction of last special guest Matty Mullins of MEMPHIS MAY FIRE fame, who helps put an emphatic full stop on proceedings thanks to a mixture of impassioned singing and borderline rap-metal fire, before the band simply place down their instruments and leave as credits begin to roll.

They may not have presented the most outwardly production-heavy livestream we’ve seen thus far in the lockdown era of live performance, but regardless, LOVE AND DEATH have undoubtedly delivered a musically-impressive performance and succeeded in reintroducing themselves to the world with a bang thanks to this stream.

Rating: 7/10