Summer Slaughter 2011 live @ The House of Blues, Hollywood. 7/22/11

Summer Slaughter number five folks. Where does the time go? I still remember my head exploding from the announcement of the very first Summer Slaughter lineup back in 07. For those of you who don't know, this is a traveling extreme metal concert package/mini festival. Like an Ozzfest/Warped Tour for scumbags. Much smaller venues than said tours, but filled with much gnarlier bands (DYING FETUS!!!!!).

So I wasn't too stoked with this year's lineup but for the sake of supporting my boys The Black Dahlia Murder and the mighty Dying Fetus I decided to brave the annual sweat-fest that is Summer Slaughter.

We arrived late and missed the first five bands. This sucked since I really wanted to see Fleshgod Apocalypse and was morbidly curious about Powerglove and their videogame/cartoon metal sound but alas, next time perhaps. Luckily, we arrived just as Dying Fetus was about to hit the stage. Although their set length was tragically short, they made the best of their brief time onstage and simply crushed the House of Blues to pieces. I've gushed about the mighty Fetus before (Crunch Time: Feb 2011) so a succinct description will do: they ruled.

Six Feet Under was next. I loved Chris Barnes' vocals on the old Cannibal Corpse records but sadly, I never cared for his post-Cannibal work with Six Feet Under (save for the awesome track they did with my hero Ice-T) and planned on heading outside to try and chat up the Dying Fetus fellows. THANK GOD I STOOD INSIDE. I totally forgot that Six Feet Under has a new hired gun lineup consisting of two dudes from Chimaira and motherfucking Kevin Talley on drums. Talley has played with over 2.5 million different metal bands including two of my favorites, Misery Index and Dying Fetus. Having Talley and these other young dudes in Six Feet Under is kind of a big deal. The new youth infused band not only blasted through Six Feet Under's otherwise boring AC/DC-ish tunes, but busted out some damn awesome Cannibal Corpse covers! They opened with "Stripped Raped and Strangled" and closed with "Hammer Smashed Face" and the metal fiends at Summer Slaughter went ballistic. Sure, Barnes' vocals sounded a little rough...and those high register shrieks he does are flat out painful to listen to, but the dude gave the people what they wanted and finally played some oldschool Cannibal songs! It was pretty amazing.

Darkest Hour have been one of my favorite bands for years now but sadly, they did not stand a chance on this year's lineup. I really don't know how they keep getting on these Summer Slaughter tours. It's a definite case of "One of these things is not like the other..." The band has energy for days while onstage but it's a matter of their material, more specifically their newer songs that just don't fit the overall Summer SLAUGHTER motif. Older, thrashy/At the Gates-ish tunes like "The Saddist Nation" got the best response from the crowd while newer songs off their latest album The Human Romance just kind of hummed along. It didn't help that John Henry's voice seemed a bit hoarse either (not a good sign on the 1st day of the tour is it?!). They put on a good show and still had my imaginary long hair banging, but they still were totally out of place.

Whitechapel surprised the shit out of me. I really had no expectations for this band after seeing them open for other bands throughout the years but ended up enjoying their set and had a giant grin on my face watching kids go apeshit crazy in the pit during their set. Ironic, my first time seeing Whitechapel was when they opened for Darkest Hour in 2008 and now they were sharing a co-headlining slot and played after them. I still think it's retarded having three guitar players and feel their drummer is waaay to talented to be holding back like he does during some of their songs, but damn if their frontman, although a tiny lad, isn't awesome. He literally stands up on a stage ramp/soapbox and delivers rapid fire guttural sermons of who knows what. Well played Whitechapel. I might have to start listening to this band more often.


Finally, we get to the main event. The Black Dahlia Murder never disappoint live. They came out and owned the Summer Slaughter 2011. Not only does Black Dahlia, or BDM, succeed in writing amazingly catchy death metal tunes and always whip crowds into a frenzy, but these silly bastards are just FUN.

That's right, going to a Black Dahlia Murder show is like a a heavy metal house party. Everyone is singing along, acting stupid and actually smiling. All the newer stuff they played off their latest album Ritual sounded great live, even "Blood in the Ink" which sounds like a gay attempt at The Phantom of the Opera on CD. When they started playing "A Vulgar Picture" I couldn't control myself and handed my camera off to my friend, running down into floor/pit/warzone and somehow ended up crowd surfing. It was awesome. haha. Had I known they were going to play "Nocturnal" right after I probably would have waited on the crowd surfing but eh, still stoked to hear two of my favorite BDM songs played back to back.

The Summer Slaughter 2011 is currently rolling across North America. Be sure to catch The Black Dahlia Murder and Dying Fetus if you decide to brave the sweaty/smelly/extreme metal dude fest.

*Bonus Video*
The dude from ConcertConfessions.com (a great site for awesome reviews/videos) captured me being retarded/crowd surfing. I'm the goober in the white shirt @ the 3:03 mark.