The Decibel Magazine Tour w/ Cannibal Corpse /Napalm Death/ Immolation @ The Observatory, Santa Ana. 5-16-13.

This was it. The most unfuckiwthable lineup of the year. Cannibal Corpse, the biggest selling death metal band of all time, Napalm Death, legendary grindcore pioneers, and Immolation, stalwart NYC metal veterans who release mind bending-ly awesome albums like clockwork, all touring together thanks to Decibel Magazine. The good folks at Decibel cover the "extremely extreme" side of underground metal. I've been enjoying the magazine since issue #1 but I've got to say, they really outdid themselves with this tour.

So the show was sold out. Of course it would, I mean c'mon look at that lineup! The Observatory is kind of a drive from the usual SoCal metal haunts but proved to be an excellent choice for this show. Did we all really need to get packed into The House Blues like sardines again? I think not. This venue offered excellent sight lines, clear sound that wasn't deafening, but most important of all, breathing room. Hundreds upon hundreds of mild (and not so mild) metal heads converged inside The Observatory to catch this near historic show and for once, it didn't smell like a dank locker room inside.

NorCal grinder's Cretin opened the show which was sort of surprising. I was under the impression that they were the main support band for the western region of the tour and would play after whatever local band was added to the bill. But no, they went on first to a less than packed house but they still brought the grind like champs. By the time they completed their set a sizable crowd had gathered inside and was rocking out to their energetic brand of thrashy grindcore.

Unfortunately, Los Angeles natives Abysmal Dawn were up  next and basically put me to sleep. I try not to hate on these guys, they're a fairly competent death metal act (except their sloppy slop drummer), but they're just oh so generic. They're like the Diet Coke version of Behemoth and really don't do anything for me.

Immolation on the otherhand, continue being awesome at just about everything. They've churned out nothing but winners since their 1991 debut album, Dawn of Possession, and are one of the most crushing live acts I've ever seen. I don't even see them as musicians at this point. These dudes are more akin to snake charmers, casting hypnotic spells that sway and and manipulate (i.e., mosh) the masses. Seriously, their music sounds like it was crafted by Satanic magicians. Uber heavy riffs, oddball time changes, thrash breaks, and just about the most menacing vibe you could conjure without a legitimate antichrist popping up. Immolation was on fire this night (get it? I...nvm).

Napalm Death were next. What else can I say. These British fellows are professional thunder stealers. They make every tour/concert they're apart of instantly better just by showing up. Sometimes their performances can be a bit shaky at first, maybe it's muffled sound or the band takes a while to lock in together, but their energy is always off the charts. Besides, the whole "derailed train" motif is totally punk and fits them well. Tonight the band was firing on all cylinders. Being sandwiched between two veteran death metal acts might prove too daunting a task for lesser bands, but this is Napalm Death. If the influx of mohawks and dudes spraying Pabst Blue Ribbon on themselves in the pit was any indicator, one might have thought this was a Napalm headlining gig. I managed to find an excellent viewing spot by the side of the stage during their set, just in time for them to play "Next On The List" from Enemies of the Music Business. Did I mention how awesome this night was?

And then...there was Cannibal Corpse. If anyone could headline a mammoth gig such as this, it's Cannibal. The undisputed heavyweights of the extreme metal world wasted no time once they took the stage, opening with "A Skull Full of Maggots," can causing pandemonium in the process. I don't know why this is but, Cannibal Corpse is the only band I've ever seen in concert where the floor section of the venue gets so jam packed, that the "pit" ends up overflowing and eventually spills into the regular general admission/standing areas. In other words, the nice little perch I had on the side of the stage quickly turned into the mosh pit recovery zone.

The band played a marathon set, mixing old and new jams together with great fanfare. Just like Immolation and Napalm Death from earlier, Cannibal Corpse are one of those workhorse bands that continue making excellent new albums as their career's progress and don't solely rely on their oldschool "golden years" material. Newer songs from the band's last three albums like "Demented Aggression," "Make Them Suffer" and the heavy as fuck "Evisceration Plague," caused just as much excitement as their Barnes era classics...except for the always lethal "Hammer Smashed Face/Stripped Raped and Strangled" combo, that always starts WWIII.

They ended the night by dedicating their set to the late Jeff Hanneman of Slayer, as guitarist Rob Barret played the notes of "South of Heaven," while wearing a Slayer shirt onstage. I have to say, I stood right next to guitarist Pat O' Brien during Cannibal's entire set and, although NO ONE can replace Jeff Hanneman, Pat, who has previously toured with Slayer in the past, seems like a much better choice over Gary Holt from Exodus. It was kind of scary actually how Slayer-esque some of Pat's solos sounded throughout the night. The dude is an amazing guitar player.


Decibel Magazine, kudos for making this tour a reality. It ruled. Hard.

Summer Slaughter 2012 live @ The House of Blues, Hollywood. 7/20/12.

Summer Slaughter, we meet again. As I explained in my review of last summer's annual extreme metal tour/sweat fest, I've been going to this tour since it's inception in 07' making this my sixth time.

This year I was stoked for three reasons.
1) The two oddball headliners. I love Cannibal Corpse. I love Between The Buried and Me. The bands are NOTHING alike. Having them play back to back is either insane or genius.

2) Cerebral Bore- they cancelled their last US tour stops because of visa issues so I finally wanted to see them live.

3) Exhumed and Goatwhore getting exposure to large crowds. I love these bands but they always get stuck playing small shows and are basically preaching to the choir if you know what I mean. On Summer Slaughter they can play to lots of new young faces and hopefully help their careers.

Well as luck would have it we missed Cerebral Bore. I was crushed. At leeeeeast I was able to talk with the band outside at their merch table (where I bought their album). Cool people. Oh yeah, their singer is a girl. OMG. ha.

Exhumed and Goatwhore played criminally short sets. They performed mostly new songs off their latest albums and seemed to win over the crowd of geeky guitar wank teens with their raw/stripped down old school metal material.

I spent the next hour and a half outside chillin'. I had no desire to see the next three bands and since I'm old I really didn't want to deal with unnecessary noise/standing if I didn't have to.

The Faceless setting up brought me back inside. I used to really dig this band and still enjoy their two albums very much to this day, but something is wrong in Faceless land. They're from Southern California and over the past 7 years, I've seen them about 2.5 million times. I've lost count of all the different lineup's (especially drummers) they've been through. Well this new lineup (new 2nd guitarist, bassist, and vocalist) was pretty sloppy. They were seriously off on this night. The new vocalist is loud and has lots of energy on stage but he pales in comparison to Derek so it bummed me out. Also, the new song they played was kind of "eh," also.

So Between The Buried and Me was next and they basically stole the entire show for me. Now BTBAM has morphed from like a tech metal hardcore band into proggy rock, groove aficionados. It's crazy really. They have insane, EPIC 12 minute songs with never ending time changes that are heavy but damn catchy and have beautiful melodic smooth jazz parts and foot stomping 70's hard rock vibes all over the place. Yeah they were the highlight of my night for sure. They also implored a cool little light show, making me feel like I was at the Main Street Electrical Parade or something. Awesome.

Not all the old school, traditional death metal fans seemed to embrace BTBAM's wackiness with such open arms. For being an insane form of entertainment/expression, metal is wildly conservative in some regards. Anyways, most of the long hairs put up with BTBAM even if they didn't really dig it. So while large portions of the crowd either loved or were "eh" for BTBAM, pretty much EVERYONE was stoked for Cannibal Corpse.

Yes Cannibal Corpse. If ever there was a death metal institution it's them. I don't go to church but as far as I'm concerned, attending a Cannibal Corpse concert is the equivalent to tithing on Sundays, it's just something you have to do if you're into this type of music. It's a no brainer. They also played mostly new material off their last two albums, but strangely enough, for a band now in their 24th year of existence, their new material is damn awesome! They saved the older songs for the end and like usual, the crowd went ape shit. Here's their most famous song, the one Jim Carrey dances to in Ace Ventura:

So I caught 4 of the 5 bands I wanted to see most and they all were killer. Best of all, I didn't get smashed or sweaty at all! Spending so much time outside and then toward the side bar area meant I actually attended a Summer Slaughter without getting slaughtered! ha.


*BONUS VIDEO*
Here's Cannibal Corpse playing another old gem "I Cum Blood." iPhone quality > my old Sony Bloggie digital recorder anyday!