Publicist UK, featuring Dave Witte (drums – Municipal Waste), Brett Bamberger (bass – Revocation), David Obuchowski (guitars – Goes Cube) and Zachary Lipez (vocals – Freshkills), have confirmed their debut release of a 7″ limited edition single, Original Demo Recordings.
The single features the songs ‘Slow Dancing To This Bitter Earth” and “Never Gone To School”, and will be released by Static Tension Recordings on 17 February 2015.
Most surprisingly, considering the day jobs of some of the members, there is nary a hint of distortion in the sound, with Publicist UK plying a Death Rock trade with strong Goth and Indie influences.
The band had never actually met prior to forming, nor had, apparently, discussed direction before writing the songs which will make up their as yet untitled debut album, released on Relapse in the Spring of 2015, with further details being announced in the new year.
…And so we continue with our countdown of the Official Ghost Cult Top 50 Metal releases of 2014 by bringing you Albums 20 to 16. As we get closer the top, the sheer unadulterated quality of the albums covered is astounding, and every one of our Top 20 should proudly sit in your collection already. And if they don’t, you should get investigating immediately…
20. VOICES – London (Candlelight)
A truly fucked-up concept album that mirrors the underground and back alleys of a fragmented urban dystopian hell-hole, a dark, horrible atmosphere is conveyed through blackened, deathly, atmospheric riffs and a harsh tale is unveiled and delivered in a deliberately contemporary discordant genius.
“The roots of the majority of this unit may have history together in Akercocke (David Gray, Sam Loynes and Peter Benjamin all previous members) but this is still a new band in some sense of infancy, yet with an already formidable reputation and artistic vision. London is a tremendous feat which not only surpasses expectations, but buries them deep underground, an album that sees Voices as not only one of the UK’s but the world’s most forward thinking and captivating extreme acts, and should be seen as a benchmark release. Huge in scope and style, but pulled off with astonishing effect.”
19. CANNIBAL CORPSE – A Skeletal Domain (Metal Blade)
Thirteen albums in, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Cannibal Corpse’s Death Metal powers should be on the wane. However, summoning the energy and vitality that bands half their age struggle to muster, an extremely high level of musicianship is utilized to produce powerful, slamming riffs without descending into showboat territory, and once again the Corpse show why they reign in gore.
“Bringing more violent, gory goodness that only Cannibal Corpse can create, what makes this album stick out and not sound like “just another Cannibal Corpse album” is the sheer evil and eerie direction that the instrumentals and lyrics take you. A Skeletal Domain from start to end is a roller coaster of terror, aggression, and more blood than a pit of zombies and has shown the world that Cannibal Corpse is still on top of their death metal game and just how evil these guys can be.”
Formerly known as Code Orange Kids, this sophomore effort is one hell of an aural growing up. The grit of Neurosis and the dervish of Converge mixing elements of drone, post-Metal and post-Hardcore, all captured in crushing sonic perfection by the ubiquitous force du jour Kurt Ballou.
“Overall, Code Orange have proven on this release that they are no longer kids, as I Am King shows the makings of a band not content to just sit in the realms of safety and complacency. But a band ready to expand their sound and not afraid of experimentation to broaden their horizons. At times heavy, trippy and crushing all at the same time, I Am King is what all follow up albums should strive to be”.
Sprinkling more accessible moments such as twin guitar breaks and the occasional cleaner bellow and working intelligent dynamics into their aggressive, technical (without being techy) melodic Death Metal, Boston’s beasts of the underground and unknown have made their mark with another critically acclaimed album that should place them well and truly in the ranks of more modern Death Metal bands who make a difference.
“This four-piece death metal outfit has been dismantling dictators through their onslaught of epic death metal for years now and they continue to get better and better. Revocation’s newest release, Deathless has certainly pushed Dave Davidson and the gang up another notch on the death metal ladder. Ten tracks coming in at around the 48 minute mark will still leave you itching for more, even if all of that shredding has melted your face. Just when I thought this band might have been getting close to their ceiling with the previous self-titled release, Deathless has come around and shot right through this proverbial ceiling and into my ears, and boy does it feel good.”
16. WINTERFYLLETH – The Divination of Antiquity (Candlelight)
The best bands have their own distinctive, defined sound, a series of identifiers that mark who they are while expanding and progressing their style. On their fourth album, Winterfylleth achieve that elusive mix of laying down a career defining opus that intrinsically delivers every aspect of the core Winterfylleth melodic, epic Black Metal sound, while pushing past the boundaries of everything they’ve produced to date.
“Winterfylleth, whose odes to Blighty’s ancient past have struck a chord with those searching for a bit more meaning in their homegrown talent, are a joy to behold. After three albums of high quality “English Heritage Black Metal”, Winterfylleth are sitting pretty and new album The Divination of Antiquity looks set to continue their ever-so glorious reign. In a scene renowned for gimmicks and plagiarism, their brand of sweeping, epic black metal just keeps revealing more with each release.”
Boston death groovers Sexcrement are streaming their new album XXX Bargain Bin Vol 2here. Watch their Victor Bonacore directed video for “Salt Peter” here.
The EP features originals and covers of Alice In Chains’ “We Die Young,” with Revocation’s Dave Davidson guest shredding, and a duet with Mallika Sundaramurthy of Abnormality and Parasitic Extirpation on Pat Benetar’s “Heartbreaker.”
Salt Peter
We Die Young [Alice in Chains cover]
Streetwalker
Heartbreaker [Pat Benatar cover]
For some reason, Halloween is exempt from the Prohibition Against Mainstream Fun that prevents Metal fans from publicly enjoying other festivals. Admit that you like Christmas and you’ll be ejected from The Hall faster than if you’d been seen wearing a Five Finger Death Punch t-shirt, but celebrating Halloween is not just permitted but actively encouraged. Clearly not even a Cannibal Corpse gig is enough to spoil the one Metal Approved religious festival in the calendar, and tonight the Forum is packed with Teletubbies, scary clowns, lazily-made-up-skeletons and a man dressed as a giant penis. The audience is absolutely wired from the off, moshing to silence and bellowing for walls of death before the first band even take to the stage.
Fortunately, their enthusiasm is not misplaced as openers Aeon, having apparently not been told that they’re just a support band, rip into their set as if they’re headlining. In a recent interview with Ghost Cult, Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster described Aeon as a personal favourite of his, and it’s instantly clear why. They’ve been given a rich, heavy sound far beyond most openers and they don’t waste it, delivering taut, commanding bursts of powerful, Deicide-esque Death Metal with utter confidence and control. The audience prove that a band who act like headliners get treated like it, with a crowd response extremely healthy for a band playing at 7.30 to a venue that still hasn’t filled up.
Next up, Boston’s Revocation betray their simplistic name with an ambitious mash-up of Death Metal, Thrash and Hardcore with more progressive elements. It’s a complex, often surprisingly subtle blend that eschews many of the more traditional trappings of Death Metal, with Hardcore-style shouted vocals (occasionally giving way to clean-sung choruses), jagged song-structures and frequently dissonant changes of mood and tempo within a track. On paper they’re an odd choice to support a band as orthodox as Cannibal Corpse, and some old school Death Metallers in the audience are visibly perplexed, but for most people here the sheer savagery of the performance and the band’s clear enthusiasm wins through, earning another hero’s welcome (not to mention a circle pit in which the man in the penis costume sticks out like the world’s sorest most misshapen thumb).
By the time Cannibal Corpse take to the stage the audience are so wired that they’d probably circle-pit to ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’ (PJ and Duncan) on a loop, but the band don’t use that as an excuse to cut corners. By this point in their career, reviewing Cannibal Corpse almost seems pointless – if you’re reading this you know exactly what they sound like and whether you like them or not – but live the sheer, undeniable enormity of their performance simply overwhelms everything else. On record their familiarity can be almost comforting, but live they take repetition to the point of transcendence, one idea repeated so often and so powerfully that it annihilates everything else. The point of a Cannibal Corpse review is not to tell you what they sounded like, but to attempt to capture just how good it was.
The first thing you notice about Cannibal is that the flashy showmanship and theatrics employed by both support bands are entirely absent. With the exception of some endearingly awkward stage banter from George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (challenging the audience to a headbanging contest; sincerely exhorting them to “keep supporting fucking Death Metal!”), there is almost zero communication between band and audience – they stand in a line, lock their feet in place and simply hammer out one song after another like there’s nothing else in the universe. It seems jarring after the usual Metal posturing, but is entirely fitting and consistent with the band’s aesthetic of unrelenting, no-nonsense Death Metal. The second thing is how utterly, terrifyingly tight and precise they are. Watching Alex’s fingers is dizzying in itself, a more fitting visual accompaniment to the musical assault than any amount of shape-throwing or play acting would have been, and it rapidly becomes clear that you are watching a band who – twenty six years and thirteen albums into their career – still rehearse every single day. The music is literally everything, and within the tight parameters they have set themselves, they have attained absolute mastery.
Every possible criticism of their performance – the lack of variety; the relentless, no-pause-for-breath pacing; the lack of showmanship – misses the point of what it is they do, and why. Those aren’t bugs, to steal a phrase from a different world entirely, those are FEATURES. Cannibal Corpse are essentially a machine, constructed solely for the purpose of musically punching the listener in the face as many times as they can until the lights go on – if that’s not for you, that’s through no failing of theirs.
In a genre as insular and niche-focussed as Death Metal bands who dare to put their heads above the parapet will often be derided as sell-outs, but Cannibal Corpse are not just the most successful band in Death Metal, they are its purest and most dedicated adherents, and are still at the very forefront of the genre after twenty-six years.
Death metal legends Cannibal Corpse have addressed the controversial situation that emerged at their show in Russia last week. The band were forced to cancel several concerts in Moscow and St Petersburg after Russian authorities claimed the five piece did not have the correct paper work and also searched one of the bands gigbags for drugs. The band have played in Russia before without such problems and praised fans who did manage to see the band on their disrupted tour.
Press Release: CANNIBAL CORPSE addresses Russian tour issues!
CANNIBAL CORPSE recently completed their tour of Russia, a place they have played previously played many times with no issues. Unfortunately, as many Russian fans are already aware, this tour did not go as planned. CANNIBAL CORPSE has released a statement, which can be read below.
A message to our Russian fans: “As you all are certainly aware by now, our concerts in Ufa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were cancelled. We were present in these cities and ready to perform each of these shows but were not permitted to. In Ufa the power was turned off shortly before the show (we were told because the venue was late on rent), and in Moscow and St. Petersburg we were told that we did not have the correct visas and that if we attempted to perform the concert would be stopped by police and we would be detained and deported (prior to the tour we had been told that we did have the correct visas and that all of our paperwork was in order).
Our show in Nizhny Novgorod also had problems. In that city we performed half of our set before being stopped by police. We were told the police needed to search the venue for drugs and that the show had to be terminated.
These are the reasons for the cancellations as far as we have been told.
On the brighter side, we had a fantastic time performing in Krasnodar, Samara, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg. We were able to play our full set in all four of those cities.
We came to Russia excited and prepared to play all of the scheduled concerts, and we apologize that we were not able to do so. It was beyond our control. We are extremely disappointed. We have played in Russia many times and we love our Russian fans. Hopefully someday the situation for us in Russia will be different and we will be able to return.”
Photos: police raid photo from Nizhny Novgorod, paddy wagon in St. Petersburg
CANNIBAL CORPSE’s European tour with Revocation and Aeon continues tomorrow in Sweden. The dates are below, as well as on the newly re-launched cannibalcorpse.net.
CANNIBAL CORPSE
+ REVOCATION
+ AEON 17/10/14 SE – Stockholm – Debaser Strand 18/10/14 NO – Oslo – Vulkan Arena 19/10/14 SE – Gothenburg – Sticky Fingers 21/10/14 NL – Zwolle – Hedon 22/10/14 DE – Saarbrücken – Garage 23/10/14 FR – Lyon – Ninksi Kao 24/10/14 ES – Barcelona – Razzmatazz 2 25/10/14 ES – Madrid – Arena 27/10/14 FR – Toulouse – Le Bikini 28/10/14 FR – Paris – Trabendo 29/10/14 FR – Strasbourg – La Laiterie 30/10/14 BE – Antwerp – Trix 31/10/14 UK – London – Forum 01/11/14 UK – Leeds – Damnation Festival (only CANNIBAL CORPSE) 02/11/14 FR – Lille – Splendid 04/11/14 DE – Frankfurt – Batschkapp 05/11/14 DE – Ludwigsburg – Rockfabrik 06/11/14 DE – Osnabrück – Rosenhof 07/11/14 DE – Hamburg – Klubsen 08/11/14 DK – Aalborg – Metal Festival 09/11/14 DK – Copenhagen – Amager Bio 11/11/14 DE – Berlin – C-Club 12/11/14 CZ – Prague – Club Roxy 13/11/14 DE – München – Backstage 14/11/14 DE – Glauchau – Alte Spinnerei 15/11/14 CZ – Brno – Fleda 16/11/14 PL – Cracow – Fabryka 17/11/14 PL – Warsaw – Progresja 19/11/14 AT – Graz – Explosiv 20/11/14 HU – Budapest – Club 202 21/11/14 SK – Banska Bystrica – Urban Spot 22/11/14 AT – Wien – Szene 23/11/14 SI – Nova Gorica – Mostovna Club 25/11/14 IT – Treviso – New Age 26/11/14 IT – Milan – Alcatrazz 27/11/14 CH – Lausanne – Les Docks 28/11/14 CH – Pratteln – Z7 29/11/14 DE – Bochum- Matrix 30/11/14 NL – Dordrecht – Bibelot
Many people in New England have a sense of pride for their sport teams, battle tested perseverance through the coldest winters and the most brutal of summers, and that really obnoxious “Bahsten” accent that we think is cool. However, the metal scene of New England can chalk up another addition to their lists of things to be proud of, and that is Boston’s very own, Revocation. This four-piece death metal outfit has been dismantling dictators through their onslaught of epic death metal for years now and they continue to get better and better. Revocation’s newest release, Deathless (Metal Blade), has certainly pushed Dave Davidson and the gang up another notch on the death metal ladder. Ten tracks coming in at around the 48 minute mark will still leave you itching for more, even if all of that shredding has melted your face. Just when I thought this band might have been getting close to their ceiling with the previous self-titled release, Deathless has come around and shot right through this proverbial ceiling and into my ears, and boy does it feel good. This album also marks the Metal Blade debut for the band as they were recently signed to Relapse Records since 2009 and Metal Blade should be quite happy with this pickup. The hardest part about reviewing this album is probably picking out which songs to talk about as every song has the Revocation feel to it, yet each track has its own personality.
The first half of this album is so perfect that Revocation could have released just those 5 songs, called it an EP, and could probably get album of the year. Not saying the second half isn’t as good at all by the way! In fact, the second half is as good as the first half if not better. The first five songs (‘A Debt Owed to the Grave’, ‘Deathless’, ‘Labyrinth of Eyes’, ‘Madness Opus’, and ‘Scorched Earth Policy’) each have their own distinct memorable moments in the song, yet still stay loyal to their sound. ‘A Debt Owed to the Grave’ starts off with in your face riffing and aggression, then builds itself up only to end in one of the grooviest endings to a song these guys may have ever written. ‘Deathless’ was a familiar song as it was released awhile back. On top of that, the song exemplifies everything Revocation has to offer and was certainly a great pick as a single. ‘Labyrinth of Eyes’ is one of the heavier songs on the album that will guarantee to get your head banging and may just cause a muscle or two to get pulled in your neck. Don’t worry, it is certainly worth the energy and pain! ‘Madness Opus’ also does a great job of sticking to that Revocation sound but has an eerie interlude halfway through the song that sounds exactly like a freak show at a carnival. And if you liked the interlude, no need to fear, the song closes out with a refrain on this part as well. ‘Scorched Earth Policy’ is a return to arms if you will for these Bostonians, as this track is the most “thrashy” of all the tracks and reminded me a lot of the tracks from their second release, Resistance is Futile. Another song I could not leave out is ‘United in Helotry’ as this song goes all over the spectrum of heavy music. Start off with a base of Revocation, add what sounds like an Opeth, yes Opeth, bridge around the 2 minute mark, and then finish it off with a groovy outro that Dime would be proud of. For the listeners that love the instrumental tracks that this band put out, check out ‘Apex’, I promise it will not let you down. Dave must really look forward to writing the instrumental tracks on each album as they usually contain the best shred work on each release.
Quite honestly, I could have written an entire review breaking down Deathless track by track. However, I did not do this for two reasons: 1) I like to leave room for imagination and curiosity to grow in everyone’s mind so they actually go and pick this album up and, 2) you, the reader, would have stopped reading a long time ago and just started listening to the album after my praises. Without a doubt in my mind, Deathless will be in my Top 5… scratch that I feel bold, I am going with Top 3 Albums of the Year for 2014! Revocation has now put out 5 albums, 1 EP, and has been touring relentlessly since 2008 and they show no signs of slowing down. New England should continue to be proud of their Stanley Cups, World Series titles, NBA Championships, and Vince Lombardi trophies, but make room for Deathless from one of the greatest bands of the last 10 years to come out of Boston.
French doom monoliths Monarch complete this years Damnation Festival line. They will be joining the likes of Saint Vitus, the reunited Raging Speedhorn, Cannibal Corpse and the events headliners Bolt Thrower at the events ten year anniversary bash at the Leeds University in November.
Press Release:
French drone doom outfit MONARCH! will play their only UK show of 2014 at Damnation Festival.
Their live “sonic assault” completes a PHD Stage cast of Ahab, Solstafir, Black Moth, H A R K, Atlantis and Corrupt Moral Altar.
While the Eyesore Merch Stage makes its return to Damnation, this year with a more sinister black metal billing of Fen, Wodensthrone, A Forest of Stars, , and Falloch, who’ll join previously announced Bast and Obsidian Kingdom in Mine.
The final additons to this year’s event – which will be hosted at Leeds Universtity Union on Saturday, November 1 – are orchestral metal quartet Xerath and Welsh death metal standard bearers, Amputated, who make their debut at Damnation Festival opening a Terrorizer Stage which boasts the brutality of Cannibal Corpse, Anaal Nathrakh, Revocation, Winterfylleth and Aeon.
Completing the line-up is the main Jagermeister Stage offering of Bolt Thrower, Saint Vitus, Orange Goblin, Raging Speedhorn, Stampin’ Ground and October File.
Commenting on their return to Damnation, Fen said: “We are honoured to be invited to play Damnation after our first appearance four years ago.
“It was one of the highlight gigs of our career – this festival (and the audience in particular) – is a very special one for us and we cannot wait to head back to take to the stage again.
“Fen has progressed significantly over the last four years and we are really looking forward to taking the discerning Damnation crowd by storm once more!”
A Forest of Stars added: “We’re extremely excited and honoured to be asked to play the wonderful Damnation Festival.
“We hope we won’t let everyone down too much – especially considering the impressively amazing line up – and look forward to devouring vast quantities of claret and opiates in celebration of the occasion, and maybe even playing a song or two.”
Festival Director Gavin McInally said: “This year’s line-up is fitting of a tenth anniversary party and with tickets on track to have 4,000 friends with us, it’s going to be a bash to remember.”
The complete line-up for Damnation Festival is Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse, Saint Vitus, Ahab, Raging Speedhorn, Orange Goblin, Anaal Nathrakh, Monarch!, Stampin’ Ground, Revocation, Solstafir, Winterfylleth, Fen, Aeon, Black Moth, Wodensthrone, H A R K, Amputated, A Forest of Stars, October File, Xerath, Falloch, Bast, Atlantis, Obsidian Kingdom and Corrupt Moral Altar.
Fans who arrive in Leeds the night before can warm-up for Damnation Festival with A Night of Salvation at The Belgrave Music Hall, featuring Dyscarnate, Hang the Bastard, Latitudes, The Atrocity Exhibit and Cattle. Tickets priced £6 are available on the door.
There have been a lot of killer tours of late, but few packed the variety and the punch of the bill accompanying Crowbar on their latest jaunt. Rather than take out a bunch of similar bands with an overlapping fanbase, the creators of this tour package took a bunch of cool bands that are all slightly different in genre and fandom make-up and sent them out to do something really unique. It definitely worked, because for a Tuesday night, the upstairs of the Palladium was fairly thick with heshers and heifers by the time my awesome photog for the night, Meg Loyal, and I rolled into the venue.
Armed For Apocalypse was already on when I got in, and they seemed to be going over well with the the early crowd. Apparently I also missed a slew of great local talent, which pissed me off. Promoters of shows: stop beginning before 7 PM on a weeknight (Tuesday) when most of your crowd is driving from 65 miles away or more during rush hour. Armed… meanwhile put on a killer show I wasn’t expecting this early. Their talents lay somewhere between a sludgy metal base with some grooves, death metal flair, and occasional flashes of technicality. They also had a gang-vocal-thing going on from most of their band that I liked too. We’ll be looking out for these guys again!
Fit For An Autopsy has been grinding it out live non-stop this year. They continue to pick up steam since adding Greg Wilburn to their ranks. The Palladium crowd also takes a fancy to this band they know very well from numerous shows and fests, and so the crowd was amped up and the pit was instantly activated. These guys always put on a killer performance and inspired the best, most violent pit action of the evening. There is just something about the way they carry themselves with confidence and the brutality of their style, I can really see them stepping up to the level of a Suicide Silence or a Whitechapel when their next album drops in 2015. You’ve been warned, don’t sleep on this band!
At the midway point of the night, I caught myself feeling very positive about the current scene, and that a tour like this can even happen and pass through our neck of the woods. Sentiment. I need to watch that! Meanwhile Havok came on and clearly had some of their own fanbase in the house, because their entire front of the stage was more or less a total circle pit for their set. A band that has hit the 10-year mark and also has a big following in our area, had a triumphant feeling hitting the stage and thrashing their balls off. Front man David Sanchez, like his entire band, has some sweet musical skills and has a shriek not unlike Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, who make a fair comparison for the band too. Special note goes to Marshall Wieczorek of Wretched, who was filling in for Pete Webber behind the kit did a great job. The band recently signed with Century Media and are also planning a new album for next year.
The Palladium, even the more intimate part of the venue upstairs, can be a clusterfuck on any given day. It was cool seeing a lot of my my local brethren of metal fans and friends at the show. It had been a very heavy week of shows in our surrounding area, with many national and local bands worth seeing. Still, I was impressed that by the time Revocation took the stage, the place was pretty full. Ans why not? Being a Boston band and playing this venue was practically a hometown show and many people in the house were sporting their Revocation shirts (a no-no to me, but good for the band I suppose). The anticipation was higher than usual, since the band has signed a new deal with Metal Blade and are on the cusp of dropping their new album Deathless. The band played a tight set with a mix of “hits” and new songs that left bodies sweaty on jaws on the floor. As usual, a lot of folks are just here for the guitar fireworks in the form of Dave Davidson and Dan Gargiulo. Their rhythm section was augmented tonight too, with Jon “The Charn” Rice (Scorpion Child, ex-Job For a Cowboy, The Red Chord) filling in for Phil DuBois (arm injury). Revocation is just one of those bands that wears many hats and pulls it off extremely well.
Heading back stage to interview Revocation, I was just wrapping up my chat when I heard the strains of the first few songs of Crowbar’s set. The went on pretty quick with little turnover apparently, but I didn’t miss much. The crowd was doing the “slow acknowledgment” head-bang to ‘Symmetry In White’ when I finally made it back downstairs. Kirk Windstein made a funny crack about turning all the lights off, then just relegating the rest of the night to a sparse spotlight, that was befitting of this workman-like band. As their set list shows Crowbar is as important to this genre as they relevant today, with a string of great songs and new material that holds up too. Kirk likes to slide to the side of the microphone when not singing, an unintentional but necessary move that puts him where he belongs, front and center. He has a solid group of guys behind him these days, but it makes him shine that much brighter.
About half-way through the set I realized this was about the best Crowbar show I’d ever seen. Kirk has raised his game up a few more levels than he was already at over the years and his laser focus on this band has definitely paid off. While a lot of people associate the band with ‘All I Had (I Gave)’, it was a song like ‘Planets Collide’ that really write the story of this band in granite. Kirk, his voice up to a mic and his hands around a guitar neck are a treasure to the metal community. I hope we get to enjoy them for a long time.
Multi-bands extreme metal touring packages have become a common theme in recent years, where fans get multiple bands on one bill for a set ticket price and exposing them to newer bands at the same time.
Early door time at 5:30 pm appeared to be a stretch as Fit For An Autopsy and Rivers of Nihil both got early call times and played to early birds who came down to catch their sets. Both put on strong sets of crunching deathcore meets death metal, rarely missing a step and giving the crowd a heedful at the same time. Not letting the light crowd affect them, the crowd got into their respective sets and set the pace for the night.
San Diego’s Carnifex has gotten their name around the metal circuit lately with their powerful blend of metallic hardcore-esque mannerisms with death metal style guitars and breakdowns that got the crowd into their sound. Vocalist Scott Lewis worked the room well and kept the tempo high and the energy even higher. Somehow their diverse sound helped them standout and win over new fans as well as well as people who were already into them.
Revocation has already built a following with their unique blend of technical thrash with odd riffing styles, and energy that goes for hours. Guitarist/vocalist Dave Davidson doesn’t speak much to the crowd but his music does that talking. While their sound doesn’t fit the current wave of Djent riffing styles that has taken the metal world by storm, they found other ways to attract fans and beat them musically silly. The crowd definitely got into them immediately, and their high tempos got the mosh pits going throughout their set.
The big return of Whitechapel was highly anticipated and this time as a co-headlining slot and a longer set time. They brought their trademark deathcore sound and gave the crowd the high energy show they are known for. They featured a good portion of songs from their latest record Our Endless War (Metal Blade), as well as spanning songs from their various releases. Frontman Phil Bozeman worked the crowd and got them moving throughout their whole set. While they have put on strong shows over the years, one small flaw that plagued the band tonight was that their sound did somewhat become a big monotonous and a longer set list made this stand out more than usual. Despite this hiccup, Whitechapel did put on a strong set and showed why they have been one of the bigger deathcore bands on the scene today.
Devildriver came out swinging with their modern thrash metal stylings and took command upon starting. Frontman Dez Fafara came out with his old school mic stand and began barking at the crowd to keep up with the band’s momentum, in which they did. The mosh pits were going and the energy was high. They covered a good cross section of their catalog, including the ‘Sail’ cover which has become a staple part of their set list. They showed why they are still going six albums into their career and no signs of stopping any time soon.
Metal, in general, is as vital today as it has in the 80s. Sure, the impact of one record today is not as considerable, but nonetheless vital. Every year we see artists coming with music that makes our hair stand up on the back of our neck, and the impact of such grandiose pieces of art that don’t affect only the metal scene but other scenes as well. Lately it has been the black metal genre getting “all” the recognition, winning fans like Marissa Nadler, Chelsea Wolfe or even the legendary Thurston Moore (a member of the super-group Twilight for their final album). Metal as a whole is vital. Period. But there’s always the underdog thing when comes to metal. In this case death metal is the big underdog. Just like a bud of mine said a few years ago: “These are some of the most brilliant times for death metal. Unfortunately we will need 20 years to take proper notice”. Sonne Adam’s Transformation, Teitanblood’s Seven Chalices, Ævangelist’s De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis, Portal’s Swarth, Mitochondrion’s Parasignosis, and many more. Brilliant records that were released just in the last five years. Impressive? Told ya.
Let’s add another name to our little list: Artificial Brain’s debut album, Labyrinth Constellation (Profound Lore). That’s right, the band formed by Revocation’s guitarist Dan Gargiulo and ex-Biolich vocalist Will Smith has released a monster of an album. Technical death metal with sci-fi themes, a description that doesn’t cover, not even for a moment, all the greatness of this album and the music contained in it. Well, technical death metal – let’s just say technical musical in general – tends to be a dangerous game where wankers are the kings and boredom is the only color of a shitty painting. Not this time. The most impressive thing is to hear and feel how well-thought this album is. How every detail is folded into a single unit making the album coherent and, at the same time, diversified. With an old-school approach the quintet from New York “reworks” death metal, offering dissonance through uncanny atmospheres, tremendous moments of abrasiveness and an album that breath with all the dynamics presented. The melody and weird atmosphere created by the guitar while the madness of death metal is on full mode is probably the biggest highlight of this album. Songs like ‘Absorbing Black Ignition’, where that contrast is for the first time evident, and ‘Worm Harvester’, where the band shifts gears without losing any sense of purpose or brilliance, are some of the moments that standout in an album that will make the year of any extreme metal fan. Brilliant, utterly amazing, breath-taking and challenging from the first to the last second.
