Only two days after seeing Diamond Head, Birdman and I headed back to The Chance for godfathers of goregrind, Carcass.
We arrived shortly before it started and ran into many of our friends inside. Unlike Diamond Head, however, the venue was pretty crowded.
Dissolve
First one were the Poughkeepsie-based hardcore/ noise rock band Dissolve. I had seen these guys once before two years ago play with All Out War. I found them to be one of the better openers on that bill. Again, they did a pretty good job. They sounded better than last time as the sound at The Chance is better than The Loft, and had great energy. The band made for a fun warm up.
Inter Arma
Next up was Inter Arma. I’d always heard good things about this band and had many friends who liked them, but never took the time to check them out. Inter Arma played a pretty interesting mix of death/doom, sludge and black metal. They were crushingly heavy and made me regret not checking them out sooner.
Deafheaven
After a crushing set from Inter Arma, came on the main support for Carcass, Deafheaven. Neither Birdman or I were ever fans of this band and weren’t excited to see them. We were both open-minded enough to wonder if they could at least be good live (they weren’t). The songs sound just as bad as they did in the studio and their performance was corny. The band all looked like Hawthrone Heights and seemed like they didn’t want to be there. The vocalist also moved his hands in a corny Broadway style.
Carcass
After Deafheaven got off the stage, all of the young hipsters started leaving the crowd leaving it a venue of mostly metalheads. I had once seen Carcass two years ago with Gorguts and The Black Dalhia Murder, and that show was amazing.
This time around, their live tone was unbeatable and Jeff Walker’s banter was hilarious. They had a great set covering greats from Surgical Steele, Heartwork, Necrotism, Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness (and believe it or not, they even played a track from Swansong for whatever reason). All these songs sounded great and I was glad to see them once more. After the show, we left and we both do plan to return in Febuary for Mayhem and Inquistion.
Brace yourself for a most metal Halloween podcast when Carcass guitarist Bill Steer unleashes some choice cuts from the death metal outfit’s long and storied past. Trick? Treat? Both.
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the back burner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
When seeing the lineup for this year’s (2015) Summer Slaughter tour, I was not impressed.
The only bands on the bill I would care to see were Obscura (who would later drop), Beyond Creation and Cattle Decapitation due to all three bands being early openers as well as having seen Obscura and Cattle Decap before. When I saw that Tainted Entertainment booked two of the only worthwhile bands at a venue not too far from me I knew I had to go. I bought a discount ticket off of Will from Necroptic Engorgement (one of the local openers) and the awaited my first time at the Loft all year.
Doomscenario
The first band on was the local powerviolence band Doomscenario. I had seen these guys before play a local show with local grindcore greats BillxNye. Like last time their set was short and sweet!
Declension
After Doomscenario were done I ran into my Connecticut buddy Rodey as well as two members from local thrash greats Prime Evil. Declension are a deathcore band from Albany, NY. I once had to sit through these guys two years ago when they opened for Dying Fetus and Exhumed. Like back then, the band wasn’t very impressive at all.
Necroptic Engorment
After being bored by Declension, Middletown’s Necroptic Engorment were set to go on. During this time I caught up with my Albany friends, John, Filip and Craig. Necroptic is one of my area’s most beloved local bands. They have opened for many great bands including Macabre, Cannibal Corpse, Malignancy and Gorguts and are cool guys too. I’ve seen them many times and never get bored once. These guys plays really crushing brutal death metal with tunes of energy.
Beyond Creation
While waiting in line for the doors to open, I was chatting with Will from Necroptic as well as the sound guy for these Montreal tech death masters. I hadn’t heard too many songs from this band, but what I had heard I really enjoyed. This set made me want to explore their discography a lot more. The band mixed ultra technicality with a lot of energy and weren’t boring for a minute.
Cattle Decapitation
Cattle Decapitation have always been one of my favorite bands ever since checking out their Humanure album due to the graphic artwork. The mix of extremity and brutality along with Travis Ryan’s over-the-top vocals drew me in fast. I had seen them once three years ago and they were long overdue for a second sighting. The band played a mixture of older and newer songs. Ryan did his typical over-the-top theatrics. The crowd was wild but not as wild as I expected. All in all I enjoyed seeing them again.
I recently saw that The Chance booked Cannibal Corpse with Cattle opening in October. For that story you can go here but as far as tonight is concerned, I had an awesome time and eventually went back to reality.
Flordia is known for being one of the first places to have any death metal acts. Legends like Death, Obituary, Nocturnus, Morbid Angel and even some hidden gems like D.V.C all hail from there.
Now in current times, the scene has spawned a new gem known as Sapraemia. The band is young but already impressing both the new and old generations of Floridian metalheads. But this band alone isn’t enough to satisfy bassist/vocalist Julian David Guillen’s need for extremity. To cure this hunger Guillen decided to form a grindcore band called Munchausen, where he plays guitar while his girlfriend Shyann Rodriguiez does vocals. Today, the two lock up with The Bonesaw to chat about these amazing hidden projects.
How would you describe Sapraemia’s sound?
Julian: We’re influenced by Death, Nile, Wormed and lots of really brutal shit. We listen to a lot of the new school and the old-school. I guess the best way to describe us is a fusion of Origin and old-school Suffocation. People seem to really like us. We get a mixed crowd to of tech-death kids and old-school guys who loves bands like Incantation.
What does the name mean and where did you come up with it?
Julian: It’s a blood disease that eats all of your healthy blood cells. You are pretty much rotting from the inside. It’s a pretty metal disease and I found it to be a really cool word. A lot of people mistake us for the band from New Jersey called Sapremia. Maybe one day a tour of both of us will happen.
Any plans for any new material?
Julian: We are working on new material and trying to sell it to labels and stuff. We play new stuff at shows here and there and we do plan on recording it. Hopefully we will have an album before the year is over.
I see you played in Solstice for a short while?
Julian: I played with Solstice for a couple of months last year. When I was offered to join I had no idea who they were but then realized they are legends. It was a great experience playing for a classic band. I was younger than all of them by at least 15 years but it was fun. They’re all great guys.
Can you tell us about your other project Munchausen?
Julian: I was sitting at home one day and I was coming up with grind riffs. Nothing was going on with my other band at the moment so I figured to form a small fun project. I then talked to my girlfriend Shyann and said, “Hey, we should make some grindcore or something. Maybe you can sing.” She told me she didn’t know what to do and I said, “Well, just yell.”
Shyann: Then we discovered that I sound like bullshit. I honestly thought I sounded like crap, but everyone else loved it. I don’t know why, since I’m not trying to do anything spectacular. But I get good reactions so I’ll keep doing it.
Julian: You combine Barney from Napalm Death and Mike from Eyehategod, then make it a girl voice and you’ll get Shyann.
Well if you think about it, grindcore vocals are good for grind but in general are shit vocals.
Shyann: Yes, it works out that way.
Julian: Unless you’re the dude from Insect Warfare. His vocals are just awesome.
Are you guys working on an album? Anywhere people can hear you guys?
Shyann: We do have a bandcamp where you can hear our stuff. We have two singles up on there. We might upload others. Who knows.
Julian: Shyann wanted to keep us as low-key as possible. We mostly just focus on playing shows instead of mostly putting our music out there. I find it annoying when bands over promote. I see it all the time, bands trying to force you to like their Facebook page or wear their own shirts live or even remind you they have merch between every song they play. I’m just like, “Dude, let them find out.”
Shyann: It just pisses me off whenever a friend of mine has a band and their stuff is just all over the place. It’s not just 3 or 5 friends, it’s many assholes online who just spam everywhere. “Like Us on Facebook. Check Out our bandcamp. Look, we’re in this video. Look at our Instagram.” It’s over saturation and just way too much promoting. With Munchausen we just set just set out to make music for fun and don’t care about being huge or forcing our band down peoples throat on stuff like Twitter. I think Twitter is the dumbest shit in the world.
I noticed a song called “Comparing Turds” where you bash random bands in the lyrics. How did you come up with this song?
Shyann: I used to join all these metal groups about a year ago. I think I first saw it in this group called “Unpopular Metal Opinions.” Most of the time when someone compared two bands if someone thought both sucked they would comment “comparing turds” or some variation of it. The one who used it the most was this one girl who was an obvious black metal elitist. We became friends since we both like raw black metal and hate everything. She’s very weird. Whenever we chat she always randomly says that a random band sucks. I eventually got banned from those groups and me and her made our own metal opinions group together. I randomly searched the chat and typed in the word sucks and I got many results such as “Mastodon sucks,” “King Parrot sucks” and “Aeon sucks.” I agree with these bands being bad and we decided to write this song as a tribute to her.
Julian: We aren’t bashing her in any way. We love her. It’s a tribute.
Okay, time for the last question. If you were trapped on a desert an could only bring one album which would it be and why?
Julian: Damn that’s hard. I’d have to go with Blut Aus Nord’s “777-Sect(s).” Some of the nastiest, most experimental black metal out there. I love that band. Very varied and dark. The art is amazing too.
Shyann: For me it would be Alice in Chains self titled album. Alice in Chains is my favorite band of all time. People find it weird when I say that because I’m known for listening to all this ambient black metal. They’re pretty much what got me into I guess you could say heavy music. That album in particular has gotten me through hard times. So if I was trapped on a desert island and somehow had a CD player, that would be the album I’d hope would somehow be there.
Summer Slaughter, the biggest extreme metal tour in the U.S. is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary with a lineup that’s much better than most years (though it still contains too much deathcore). A big surprise came when it was booked at the Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY as this venue always skips out on big shows. I was able to get free tickets through Cannibal Corpse’s PR and thanks to Nuclear Blast I was able to schedule an interview with Terreance Hobbs of Suffocation. At around 2:15 p.m. I got to the venue and interviewed him fifteen minutes later. After a great time chatting with the living legend I got some dinner at Nutty’s and walked in, ran into many of my good friends and watched the first band set up.
Ingested
The first band I caught was the slam group Ingested. While some of my friends were REALLY hyped up for these guys I never gave two shits about them. Every song they played had the same chugging riffs and were full of slams over and over. They didn’t impress me or my friend Jay at all though several people seemed to really love them.
Slaughter to Prevail
Next up was generic deathcore from Slaughter to Prevail. They played songs that were extremely typical of that genre and since I don’t like deathcore I did not like Slaughter to Prevail. Moving onto something better, the next act set up.
Krisiun
These Brazilian death metallers were my first highlight of the day (wanted to check out my buddies in Lung Puncture but the interview time made that impossible). I had caught Krisiun once in 2013 with Funerus and Abnormality and they put on a stellar performance. Here they were no different as they totally killed and made up for how bad the previous bands were. I was watching from the balcony and the view was great (The Chance should have the balcony open for all shows). There’s nothing more brutal than watching Krisiun’s drummer Max Kolesne during their whole set.
Revocation
Tech thrashers, Revocation were on next. Another band I caught in 2013 on a bill with 3 Inches of Blood, Goatwhore and Ramming Speed. Revocation again reminded me how you can have tons of technicality and still be energetic.
Suffocation
After skipping Carnifex by hanging with friends as they got dinner, I went back to the Chance to watch Suffocation. Due to vocalist Frank Mullenno no longer touring with the band due to his work schedule, they had Ricky Myers from the classic brutal death band Disgorge. With this said they did well and Myers sounded great.
After the Burial
Since their is nothing interesting about this deathcore band, I just sat in the loft area and charged my phone. I could still sort of hear them and they did indeed sound awful.
Nile
Me and a bunch of my buddies worried about many songs Nile could play since they only had a 40 minute set and their songs tend to be long. The band was able to make due with this short set as they sounded great and played many classics like “Black Seeds of Vengance.”
Cannibal Corpse
Last but not least was Cannibal Corpse. I didn’t stay for their whole set as I’ve seen them four times before this and their set was very similar to the last one. That said, what I watched was excellent and sounded great like always.
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the back burner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
Rockstar Energy’s Mayhem Fest, the annual touring metal festival with a more mainstream lineup than others. Due to the festival being a haven for nu-metal and metalcore artists, I usually never bother to go.
However,in 2012 I planned on going to see Motorhead, get a second round with Slayer and Anthrax and in 2013 Amon Amarth and Mastodon; but car repairs and work schedules made it impossible. When King Diamond was announced for 2015 I knew I had to go.
I went down to the PNC Bank Arts Center with my friend Drew as well as my middle-aged metalhead friend Jay for our chance to see the King. Due to the amount of crappy bands on the bill, we decided to get there in time for Jungle Rot, skipping the first three hours of the fest. Due to the PNC Bank Arts Center being 90 minutes away and New Jersey being traffic land, we left with an extra hour in between (just in case we got stuck).
Sister Sin
We got there around 3:20. Drew and I had free tickets while Jay still had to buy his. After waiting for Jay at the box office we then walked over to the Victory Records stage, where Sister Sin was playing. Drew and I watched them while Jay looked at merch. Sister Sin were a hair metal throwback band from Sweden and while Drew and I both agreed that though not our thing, they still performed well.
Jungle Rot
Jay came back just in time for us to catch these death metal legends. Both Jay and I have seen these guys before but its been years for both of us. Drew had yet to ever see them and was very curious. As they always had been for us, the band’s hardcore influenced death metal delivered. Due to having a short set they didn’t get to play a lot of their classics like “Fractured” and “Victim of Violence.” This aside, the set was still good and the pit was pretty violent.
Thy Art is Murder
I had already sat through this terrible deathcore band about a year ago at Summer Slaughter and they were the worst band on the bill (although neither them or Within The Ruins stopped it from being one of the best shows of 2014). During their set we just got some disgusting overpriced dinner and came back to hear their last 2 songs (which sucked).
Whitechapel
Drew is a big fan of the first two albums (2007’s “The Somatic Defilement” and 2008’s “This Is Exile”) by deathcore pioneers Whitechapel. He’s also had five chances to see them and missed them every time. Though the setlist only had two songs from that era, Drew still wanted to see them because he missed them so many times before.
Jay and I on the other hand are not fans of them at all. During this time I noticed Jungle Rot were at their merch booth. I waited in line to meet vocalist Dave Matrise in person, whom I’ve also interviewed. Matrise was a really nice guy. I then watched the rest of Whitechapel’s set. Neither Jay or I were impressed while Drew was only impressed when they played the two older songs.
The Devil Wears Prada
Around 6:30 p.m. I was scheduled to interview Slayer’s Paul Bostaph behind the main stage. This left me with about 20 minutes with The Devil Wears Prada. We all walked to the main stage where they were playing. Drew and I had close seats while Jay sat a little higher up. None of us wanted to see them. They played very boring and very generic metalcore. When I was finally called to go back stage I was very happy to not be watching them anymore while Drew and Jay were stuck.
Hellyeah
After that awesome interview with Bostaph, it was time for the show to shift from generic metalcore to generic groove metal. Drew and I KNEW this was going to be bad. Jay on the other hand was curious simply because Pantera’s Vinnie Paul was in the band and had never heard them before (he ended up hating them).
The band looked straight out of Oniontown (a hick part of Dutchess County, NY) and the vocalist Chad Gray of Mudvayne always annoyingly chanted about metal brotherhood. Four days before this show I saw Superjoint Ritual play live. Seeing these two in within a week reminded me why I respect Phil Anselmo more.
King Diamond
The time finally came for the main reason why I was here. Drew and I were huge King Diamond fans for many years and never thought we would ever see him. Jay had not seen him since he played The Chance ten years ago with Behemoth, Nile and The Black Dahlia Murder (where are these tour packages now?). Jay realized that the seating area was pretty empty and that security was pretty bad.
King opened the set with “The Candle,” getting Jay really hyped. The stage was very theatrical with coffins, grave stones and a woman who would play characters from King’s songs. The set contained classics like “Tea,””Welcome Home,””Eye of the Witch” and “Sleepless Nights.” It got even better midway through the set. Slayer’s Kerry King got on guitar and they played the Mercyful fate songs “Evil” and “Come to the Sabbath.” King then ended the set with THREE songs from his 1987 masterpiece “Abigail.”
Slayer
The final act of the night was Slayer (or as people like to call this lineup, “Slayodus”).
I saw Slayer once five years ago with Megadeth and Anthrax. Slayer had the original lineup and played all of 1990’s “Seasons in the Abyss” and some other random songs. Megadeth played all of their greatest album (which also came out in 1990) “Rust in Peace,” plus some random songs as well. Rather than keep tradition and play all of their 1990 classic “Persistence of Time,” Anthrax met the others halfway and just played seven random songs.
Jay has seen Slayer many times with the last time at this point being Mayhem Fest 2012. For Drew this was his first time. They started the set with mostly newer songs. If you had read my ranking on Slayer albums you know I mostly like the older Slayer albums other then a few songs (which some of those were played). The band then shifted into a set of older songs. I was really glad they played “Hell Awaits,” ”Postmortem,” ”Chemical Warfare” and “Ghosts of War”- which were all songs they didn’t play last time. While it wasn’t the original lineup, it still was a great set and all three of us were glad we went (which is all that matters anyway).
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the backburner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
When Superjoint (formerly known as Superjoint Ritual) got booked only 40 minutes from me I was pretty curious. I’ve been a fan of Phil Anselmo’s work for many years and while I don’t like Superjoint as much as Down, Pantera, Viking Crown or Necrophagia; I do find Superjoint to be a fun project and way better then The Illegals. When I got to the venue I bought a ticket off of Kurt from Blast Furnace (the show’s local opener). After talking to a bunch of fellow metalheads at the door, they finally opened up and the show began.
Blast Furnace
First band on was Middletowns own Blast Furnace, who play really heavy old school death metal. Being from the area, I’d seen them play several times before and they are always a fun watch. Blast Furnace is definitely a band from middle to upper New York worth checking out.
Fulgora
Next up was one of several Housecore Records artists (including the headliner) Fulgoria. As mentioned in my Maryland Deathfest 2015 article, this band plays some sort of sludgy death metal. Album-wise I’m not a huge fan of the band but just like MDF they performed well.
Child Bite
Around this time the show started getting crowded. Because of this,the venue opened up the balcony. Child Bite plays some kind of weird post-hardcore. The set was mostly boring except when they covered “My War,” my favorite Black Flag song.
King Parrot
I have always heard hype about this band. Even at the show my friends Cheyenne, Mercedes and Ray all talked about how excited they were to see them and how over-the-top they are. Throughout the whole set vocalist Matt “Youngy” Young was wearing nothing but pants that were too big for him and shoes. This caused his ass to be seen during the whole set (not making this up). He would also spray the audience with water over and over. King Parrot played a mix of thrash, sludge and grindcore with vocals that were just high pitched squawks. These guys were the second best band of the night (the first seems obvious).
Superjoint
It was finally time to see the main act of the night. Superjoint’s sound is a little hard to describe. They play very short thrashy songs with sludgy riffs. This is mainly because Anselmo hates the use of subgenres – something he mentioned at the show. I was stoaked when he praised Blast Furnace and laughed when he bashed MetalSucks.
Superjoints energy was intense. They had a great set playing classics like “Fuck Your Enemy,””Dress like a Target” and “Ozena.” They also randomly covered “My Sharona” by The Knack. Sadly no Pantera songs were played but seeing Superjoint was good enough on its own… so good it made a random guy shit his pants (seriously).
After a most excellent Friday night we woke to another crazy day with an even better lineup to boot. After some Chipotle Jason and I headed to the venue while Herb and Matt went back to the hotel. The two of us got to the fest just in time for a band we both really wanted to see.
Demonical
A Centinex offshoot, Demonical which were similar to their step-band and also like Centinex, they were killer live.
Gruesome… again
Since Gruesome was playing the same exact set again (this time on the day they were actually scheduled), I just used this time to look at merch. Seeing as nothing changed, it’s safe to say they played and sounded well.
Deranged
Swedish brutal death metal legionaries Deranged were another band I was curious about. BDM is hit or miss to me and this band was a surefire hit. Around this time Herb and Matt finally came to the lot.
Tulus
Another band I was curious about. Tulus are a 90’s black metal band from Norway that just never got as big as acts like Mayhem and Darkthrone. Tulus was good but nothing mind-blowing. They also did a very random cover of “Slowly We Rot” by Obituary.
Hirax
California thrash legends Hirax were one of the Saturday bands I wanted to see the most. As soon as their set started they easily became one of the fest’s best. They sounded spot on and vocalist Katon W. De Pena showed the crowd how it’s done. Pena was running around shaking everyone’s hands and giving crazy facial expressions that reminded me of a friend back home.
Atrophy
In the ashes of Hirax’s wake were another 80’s thrash band called Atrophy. To me they were not offensively bad but were very forgettable and boring. Long story short, Hirax is a tough act to follow.
Hail of Bullets
While I am a big fan of Martin Van Druuen’s work in both Asphyx in Pestilence, I find Hail of Bullets boring and this set (which didn’t even have him in the lineup) didn’t improve my view of them at all.
Impaled Nazarene
After two boring bands, the fest got good again with Finland’s Impaled Nazarene. I had seen them at my very first MDF back in 2011 and found their set to be powerful and lots of fun. During most of the set I hung with Coco who I met at last year’s MDF.
Exciter
These speed/thrash titans were the band I wanted to see the most of Saturday’s Edison Lot lineup. Exciter had the entire original members playing this show as well (always a plus). Their set was intense with more moshing then you’d expect from a band this old-school. After they wrapped up their set I ran down to Soundstage.
Haemorrhage
Being one of my favorite goregrind bands, I was pretty excited to see Haemorrhage. Since I’ve already seen Nuclear Assualt twice and Testament once before I figured I was done with Edison lot for the day. Between Haemorrhage’s awesome songs, energy and the theatrics of the lead vocalist Lugubrious (yes, his stage name is Lugubrious), this was one of the best sets of the year.
Infest
Powerviolence pioneers Infest followed, continued and indulged in the lugubriousness. I only watched a little of their set (though I’d later find out they actually didn’t play that long), what I saw was intense (like all hardcore shows should be).
Grave Miasma
After Infest I headed to Rams Head and caught up with Herb. Grave Miasma put on a crushing, heavy performance that impressed just about everyone in the crowd but Herb (how they didn’t I’ll never know) and prepared us for what was next.
Dragged Into Sunlight
Dragged Into Sunlight were another one of the bands I wanted to see most (esepcially since they dropped last year). They did not disappoint at all. Dragged Into Sunlight’s multi-subgenre sound translated very well at Rams Head and their performance was top notch. On stage were flicking strobe lights while the singer T (what’s up with these stage names?) had his back turned to the audience. This didn’t stop the band from having a really intense pit. After their set we stayed for one more Rams Head band.
Craft
Originally I was going to see Discharge at this time but unfortunately they dropped due to issues with their Visas (why don’t they just get MasterCards and be done with it?). Because of that we decided to see Craft instead while Jason went to see Drugs of Faith at the Sidebar Tavern.While a downgrade from the amazing set Dragged had, Craft still delivered and it was cool to catch this classic band.
After Craft’s set we said goodbye to a bunch of our concert friends and went back to the hotel where Matt and Herb were.
Another year, another MDF and another adventure. With an amazing line up as always, I knew I wasn’t going to break the chain of MDF every year.
The night before, my friend Matt and I stayed at our friend Herb’s and headed for the annual metal fest the next morning. When got to the hotel we dropped off our stuff, met up with our friend Jason and headed down to the venue. After taking a cab down, we got there around 3:50 and started watching the band that was on.
Centinex
We got there during the middle of Swedish death legends Centinex’s set. Due to en-route traffic, we missed Horrendous and a good chunk of this band’s set. However, I was still able to catch several songs from them including the classic track “Moist Purple Skin.” Centinex sounded great and the fans were not disappointed.
Novembers Doom
Next up were Chicago’s melodeath/doom giants Novembers Doom. Around this time I ran into some of my Chicago friends who included members of Nucleus and Morditorium. I also ran into members of a Facebook group I’m part of. While I do like Novembers Doom I was never a massive fan. With that said, I did enjoy their set and thought they sounded great.
Wormed
Spain’s brutal death outfit Wormed transitioned the tone of the crowd from slowly brooding to intense and mosh heavy. Being one of my favorite bands of this subgenre, I was stoked to see them and my expectations were exceeded. After their set Jason and I head to Soundstage.
Bruce X Campbell
With a name liked that who would skip them? Bruce X Campell are a power violence act named after the one and only Bruce Campbell himself. And like the man with the iron chin, they were awesome.
Gruesome
After Bruce X Campell I head back to Edison lot. During this time slot, the classic death metal band Sinister was supposed to play, but due to dropping at the last possible minute Gruesome (who were already scheduled to play the next day) took the slot.
Gruesome is a band I have mixed feelings about. I don’t dislike their music but at the same time feel no need to listen to it as it sounds so much like Death that it feels pointless when Death’s music still exists. I watched them with an open mind. They sounded good live and were fun to see. They also did a great job with the Death covers they played.
Hemdale
After Gruesome I went back to Soundstage with Herb based on a recommendation from Herb’s friend Sam. He compared them to acts like General surgery, Exhumed and Carcass – all of which we’re both big fans of. Hemdale was very entertaining and the vocalist told hilarious jokes about the internet.
I raced back to Edison Lot to catch Paradise Lost. As a fan of mainly just the first 2 albums I was curious of how many tracks from that era they would perform. They played mostly newer songs that were performed well and sounded good live. Midway through the set I did get to hear some tracks I enjoy such as “Rapture,” “Dead Emotion” and “As I Die (the latter being the only post-Gothic song I like).”
Samael
Samael was one of the bands I was curious about seeing once it was announced that they were playing all of “Ceremony of Opposites.” This is my favorite album by them as well as the last one they made that I liked.
When they started I thought they were playing one of their later songs until I realized it was on the album. The band looked like rejects from a bad 2000’s EBM band. They were playing their old songs but remixing them to sound like the later stuff. Though it sounded awful, I was wanted to see how my favorite Samael track “Baphomets Throne” would sound. Sadly, they really fucked it up with not only replacing riffs with synth but with “St.Anger” sounding drums. Once I heard this mess I went back to Soundstage.
Magrudergrind
Though Mayhem were playing at Edison Lot, I figured I’d go see Magrudergrind since I’d seen Mayhem once before. When I arrived I ran into my friends Nick and Cheyenne. All three of us were excited to see these grind greats as we missed them every chance we got. Magrudergrind sounded great and had incredible energy. This was a nice change in pace as the night just got crazier from here.
Rotten Sound
Being one of my all-time favorite (and one of my first) grind bands I was stoked to finally see Rotten Sound. Continuing the trend of the night, Rotten Sound were even more energetic than Magrudergrind. Using Soundstage’s great sound to its full potential, they were among the best bands of the whole fest.
Repulsion
Next up on Soundstage were grindcore pioneers, Repulsion. I only watched about 20 minutes of their set as I wanted to catch Angelcorpse at 12:30. From what I was able to see, the band really killed and continued the late great shows of Friday night.
Angelcorpse
After 20 minutes of Repulsion, I went over to Rams Head for the last band of the night. Being the main reason for Rams Head Friday, Angelcorpse were the biggest must-see band of the night. From start to finish, Angelcorpse put on one of the most intense live shows I’d ever witnessed. The band’s fast and in-your-face style of blackened death metal really worked. Not a second went by that wasn’t amazing during their set. Angelcorpse was one of the best bands of the fest for sure.
After Angelcorpse, Herb, Matt and I went to our hotel (Jason had no Rams Head tickets) and went to sleep to prepare for the next day’s events.
Things get heavy when we sit down with death metal mastermind Matt Harvey. Harvey talks his bands Gruesome and Exhumed, singing for Exodus and much more in this brutal podcast.
The Bonesaw 