Dying Fetus & Exhumed @ The Whisky, Hollywood.

A dark cloud lingered over this otherwise festive evening of cranium smashing death metal, Devourment dropped off the tour just two weeks before the trek began. Bummer. Major bummer. This was to be my first time seeing the legendary kingpins of slam metal (think of the most ignorant, neanderthal riffs imaginable with farm animals grunting to hip hop infused rhythms...and you've got slam)...alas, one day my Devourment dreams will be fulfilled.

Thankfully, Waking the Cadaver served as a surprisingly competent slam surrogate. This was my first real exposure to the band, aside from the negative reputation they've earned online, and I gotta admit, I dug em'. I really did. The three songs I caught from the end of their set had my head bobbing and if I was wearing a hat, I'd have totally turned that shit sideways.

Exhumed was next. This was my fourth time seeing Exhumed in two years. That's crazy when you consider the band was on indefinite hiatus for most of the 00's. Well, they're baaaaack. The crowd inside the Whisky ate their thrashy-death metal jams right up, much like the kids who went ballistic when they opened for Suffocation earlier in the year.
I guess Exhumed should just open for every major underground metal act. Why not? It's like a circus when they play, rife with bloody costumes, chainsaws, oh yeah, and uber loud distorted guitars. Their new album Necrocracy is pretty solid, not as rad as 2011's All Guts, No Glory, or old songs like this one off Slaughtercult, but any Exhumed, is better than no Exhumed. Trust me. That seven year waiting game sucked.


And then...there was Dying Fetus. My love of the Fetus is well documented. No really, my twitter, instagram, letterboxd and PS3 network (what's up CoD fiends? come at me bro!) username is: ferocious_fetus.

Anyways, I missed their tour last winter because of bad luck, but I was ready to get my Fetus fix once again. They're still on the road supporting 2012's Reign Supreme, a sweet ass album that get's back to their slamming, mosh infused roots. Their set was a healthy mix of new-ish material (from their modern era as a power trio) and some awesome throwbacks to oldschool gems like "Killing on Adrenaline," "We Are Your Enemy," and "Beaten Into Submission." Totally unexpected, but totally welcomed.

The world famous Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood...is a dump. Back in the glory days, when The Doors and The Ramones and Van Halen kept the name in the headlines maybe playing there meant something. Now, it's a crappy pay to play club with a dilapidated stage, shoddy equipment and all the appeal of a aging prostitute. Why Dying Fetus and other metal bands insist on playing these ancient venues is beyond me.

No Whisky in 2014. PLEASE.

I hope next time Fetus rolls through town they take a cue from Suffocation's playbook and book a show somewhere like The Vex (a large open floor warehouse venue) or even a Shakey's Pizza, fuck anywhere else! The mosh pit mayhem bands like Dying Fetus conjure from their audience is simply too much for such a cramped/diseased venue like this. When they ripped into the surprise encore of "Pissing in the Mainstream" I was stoked to hear such a killer oldschool jam off Destroy The Opposition, but just as excited to get the hell out of the Whisky and breathe some fresh air. Next time, please play a venue where your breakdowns and guitar harmonics can flourish unspoiled. Thanks fellas. 

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!

Exhumed, Cephalic Carnage & Withered @ The Key Club. 8/7/11.

Exhumed was one of my favorite death metal bands when I first discovered this whole extreme music scene back in the early 00's. I blew my chance to see them live back in the day before they went on "hiatus" for the last 5+ years. So now Exhumed is...back from the dead and I was STOKED to finally catch them live. Too bad this show landed on the same night as Torche headlining over at the Troubadour. I didn't care though, I HAD to see Exhumed.

So, I got off work later than expected and had to scramble to the venue just in the nick of time (like usual =/) so I wouldn't miss Withered. Some of you might remember my praise for this band from HERE. Withered's brand of sludgy black metal didn't exactly wow the crowd, but didn't seem to piss them off either. I'm so stoked I made it on time for their set. Aside from Exhumed's reunion, this was the band I wanted to see the most. Sadly, none of the photos/video I took from their set came out clear enough to use. Oh wells. I did manage to snag this sweet ass Withered poster (created by Paul Romano) from their merch table though!

Cephalic Carnage were next. I was super crushed to learn that drum god extraordinaire John Merryman is no longer in the band. His replacement is supposed to be a hot shot drum shredder and even a close friend of John's but honestly, the guy is NO John. It's sad that the band even opened with my favorite song of theirs ("Wraith") but the haphazard drumming totally let me down. I know it's tough crafting an awesome setlist when you're stuck in an opening slot on a tour like this, but Cephalic's choice of songs and shaky performance left me rather disappointed.

I think I was one of the only people in attendance who didn't care about Macabre. I know they're supposed to be legends or whatever but I've seen them before and the whole telling wacky stories in between songs shtick just didn't win me over. Their music is kind of generic/sloppy thrash that gets hailed as some kind of awesome proto-death metal but I just don't see it. Everyone else at the Key Club was stoked though. I sat down on a nice comfy couch and waited for Exhumed...

FINALLY, after years of waiting Exhumed took the stage. Sadly it wasn't the super star lineup that recorded their awesome new album All Guts No Glory but rather frontman Matt Harvey and some hired gun ringers. That being said, the band still put on an awesome show. New songs off their latest comeback album blended perfectly with older tracks off Gore Metal, Slaughtercult and Anatomy is Destiny. Matt Harvey looked like he was having a blast onstage as the crowd near the front thrashed around while all us folks standing off to the side stood in awe watching our favorite gore metal band reanimated and kicking ass once again. Hopefully they don't vanish for another half decade.