Sticky Fingers, Göteborg, Sweden, December 9, 2005

Good metal is hard to find. Most of it’s too clean, too pretentious, or too generic. Electric Eel Shock are hard, fucking hilarious, and although they sound good alongside QOTSA and Sabbath, they have their own unique psychosis of good, solid metal sound. I first got turned on to them on Swedish web radio and, from the first time I heard “Scream For Me,” I was hooked. I got their album, "Beat Me," and it played in heavy rotation on my iPod for weeks.

They are officially the number 1 live band in Amsterdam, just voted band of the Year 2005 by Amsterdam’s finest venue, the Melkweg – and, man, do they deliver. They have been touring consistently, one of the most dedicated and hardworking bands around, in support of their album "Beat Me." I was lucky enough to see them at Sticky Fingers, which is now one of my favorite venues. Good, dirty sound and it’s small, with the stage area right up front when you walk in, bar in the back, and a great space downstairs that churned out the metal song after song, G’NR, Sabbath, Aerosmith, QOTSA, Pantera, Slayer, Metallica…on and on. It was like being in a heavy metal wonderland.

Quit Your Day Job started out the show. They were fun, enough energy to keep the crowd rockin’ and enough hard edge to satisfy. But then Electric Eel Shock came on and the place blasted up. Those three guys, Aki, Gian and Kazuto, are such the fucked-up darlings of metal mayhem and have more energy between them than a nuclear power plant. Yeah, the drummer played with nothing but a sock on…nudity aside, they played the hell out of all their songs.

I can’t remember the last time I had such a good time at a hard rock show. Aki is awesome, played and sang with a dark, funny heavy metal heart all the way to the end. From “Bastard!,” which was like a fucking anthem, the whole place rotated and gyrated on its heavy metal axis, to “I Can Hear the Sex Noise,” and “Beat Me,” every song delivered the killer blow you ache for and just fed its monstermouth, hard. “Scream For Me” was spectacular, and anyone who can pull off a Black Sabbath cover has my undying admiration and respect. “Iron Man” played live like a well-placed homage and rocked the place out. Doing a Sabbath song takes serious balls and, although we didn’t get to see any actual balls, the pulse and proof of EES’ kahunas was in every riff and every beat.

EES tore shit up. Now that was a rock show!

Website: www.electriceelshock.com

-Arielle Guy