The 2014 Metal Alliance Tour: Behemoth, Goatwhore and 1349 @ The House of Blues, Hollywood. 4-5-14.

This epic pairing of black metal-ish bands from around the globe (Poland, USA, Norway and Columbia respectively) served as an early highlight for 2014. Even though I'm a huge fan of both Goatwhore and 1349, this night was really all about the return of Behemoth. Yes, it's been about 6 years since my last Behemoth show. I've always enjoyed the band live before, but somewhere around the release of The Apostasy, I started feeling like the band had hit a plateau. I stopped rushing to see them on every tour and then Nergal's epic battle with cancer took the band out of commission for a while. Long story short, this was my first time seeing the band in what felt like forever and I was curious to see how Behemoth 2.0 would deliver.
 

I'm glad to report that newly rejuvenated Behemoth did not disappoint. Supporting their new album The Satanist, their strongest album since 2004's Demigod IMO, the band damn near ripped the sold out House of Blues a new skylight. The band opened with "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel," and the capacity crowd went bonkers. Behemoth seem to have taken a cue from their black metal roots, you know...before they transitioned into a tech death juggernaut in the 2000s, since their new material is far more streamlined than their most recent albums but also, far more impassioned. Sure, Inferno isn't pushing tempos past the speed of sound on their new songs, but they still rock pretty hard. In fact, both the crowd and the band's energy level were higher than I've ever seen at previous Behemoth shows. The setlist might have had something to do with that, sandwiching fan favorites like "Conquer All" and "Christians to the Lions" in between the foot stomping/headbanging friendly jams off The Satanist. Hats off to Nergal and his merry men, dudes know how to put on one hell of a show.

welcome back

Goatwhore and 1349 were cool as well even though they both had technical problems with their sound. 1349 was a blur of noise. That's kind of the appeal of their whirlwind black metal approach but the guitar was way too low in the mix and as much as I love the drums, I do like to hear other instruments also. I guess Frost was busy with Satyricon or had more visa issues, either way home boy wasn't playing drums with 1349 (yet again =/) but his replacement did a pretty solid job. I've never seen Goatwhore receive such a large and enthused reaction before in 10+ years I've been following the band. It seems that the streamlined rock n roll vibe of their last two albums has finally garnered them the fanbase they've always deserved. Sure I'd have loved to hear some more older jams in their set, but the crowd seriously loved the shit out of their performance. It almost seemed like THEY were the headliners at one point. Unfortunately, Sammy had some issues with his guitar that ate a few minutes of their allotted time and put a fat lull in the middle of their otherwise, high octane set. I was also bummed I missed Inquisition, but again, this night was all about Behemoth anyways.


BEHEMOTH "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" Official Video Uncensored from Behemoth Official on Vimeo.

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!

Goatwhore & Hate Eternal @ The Whisky, Hollywood. 2/22/12.

I just love it when two of my favorite bands tour together. Goatwhore, my favorite blackened thrashers of the last decade, and Hate Eternal, the pummeling death metal juggernaut, on the same bill. This was like a early Xmas gift. I really wanted to check out Cerebral Bore as well but alas, they had some kind of visa issues and had to drop off the tour. We arrived inside as the other band Fallujiah was playing but wasn't really too impressed with them and their aping Decrepit Birth schtick.

For those of you who've never been, the world famous Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood is actually a dumpy little club I try to avoid like the plague. Fortunately, because the place is so tiny there is no backstage area to store or load gear, meaning the bands have to quickly haul their instruments off stage and run out through a side door to their vans before they get towed or all their gear stolen. Either way, that area near the loading door provides a birds eye view of the stage and since you aren't directly in front of the house PA, can appreciate the band's sound without blowing your eardrums out. That's where me and my girlfriend stayed all night. Yes, I drag my girlfriend to these things.

King of all Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings

Anyways. Hate Eternal came out and slayed the joint. The sheer power and ungodly amount of racket that emanates from this trio boogles the mind. They opened with "Victorious Reign" off I, Monarch and brought out the inner cave man from everyone in the audience. However, calling Hate Eternal's music primitive or neanderthal-ish is a grave injustice. Not only is their music blindingly fast but it's insanely complex & intricate. From our spot near the left side/loading area of the stage we could hear all the subtle nuances of JJ's bass playing, something I don't often focus upon when listening to an album you know? Also, Hate Eternal's drummer Jade Simonetto is easily one of the fastest dudes in the business. Again, thanks to our viewing spot, I was able to hear the awesome wash from Jade's cymbals than just the bass drum trippgers that usually overpower most death metal acts. You can't talk about Hate Eternal without saying how badass Erik Rutan is. Not only is he a guitar phenom, but his vocals are gnarly as hell and even my girlfriend thought he looked rad (like a pissed off lion or something...) onstage. This was my fourth time seeing Hate Eternal over the years and they continue to impress me. Their music, is the soundtrack Darth Vader would bump while commanding a legion of Storm Troopers on panzer tanks. Just saying. And for the record, my girlfriend likes calling them Hate Internal because she's funny like that.

Masters of Apocalyptic Havoc

Goatwhore took the stage soon afterward to an enthusiastic crowd. Nothing says pumped like a bunch of drunk metal heads chanting "WHORE!" I'll tell ya what. They played a crap load of songs off their brand new album Blood For The Master. So new in fact, I hadn't even heard any of this material yet but it didn't matter. These new jams sounded like the Goatwhore I know and love. Vile bursts of Satanic black metal, meets head banging old school thrash and wrapped up in a grimey punk rock ethos and you've got Goatwhore. I've stopped keeping track of all the times I've seen Goatwhore live, lets just say it's a lot (maybe 10) and as of now I've got 4 different shirts of theirs and a nifty sweater (all black...of course). So the band ruled. Again. Like always. I love that they've now released three killer albums on Metal Blade Records, all of which were produced by Hate Eternal's Erik Rutan, yet still go back and play some of their killer old school tracks off their first two records. "Invert The Virgin" is still one of the sickest songs with the sickest riff ever. I especially love the older stuff because of Sammy's awesome background vocals. It's so rad seeing him and Ben's interplay when they both sing, or as I like to call it, who can make the the filthiest sounding shrieks possible. During songs like "Alchemy of the Black Sun Cult," when everyone's head is bobbing on command, I could totally see an arena of Slayer or even Metallica fans rocking out to Goatwhore's music. Hopefully they continue their rising momentum. They're slated for this years Summer Slaughter tour already. If any underground act can and should make it big, it's these dudes/whores.

Watain & Goatwhore @ The Whisky, Hollywood. 11/19/10.

This show seemed cursed from the start. Behemoth's triumphant trek across North America with Watain, Withered and Black Anvil was canceled when Nergal announced he was battling Leukemia back in summer. Watain decide to carry on and headline their own tour with Goatwhore supporting instead of Withered. The venue changes from The House of Blues to the uber shitty Whisky Ago Go. Regardless, I was still excited to finally catch Watain live and am always down to see the mighty Goatwhore in action. Of course since the universe hates me, I was not only unable to get the day off from work, but got stuck working overtime on the day of the show. By the time I arrived at Whisky, Goatwhore had just started playing, meaning I missed all of Black Anvil's set (along with all the local bands...but that might have been a good thing) and the venue was pretty packed relegating me to the back. My lackluster vantage point coupled with my shitty (albeit expensive) new camera  resulted in some horribly blurry and utter worthless photos not worth posting. Plus the Whisky has some gestapo ass policy forbidding any form of video recording inside the venue which means this review will have no live pics or videos =/ LAME I know.

So anyways, Goatwhore comes out and lays waste to the place. This was probably my 600th time seeing Goatwhore live or something but I never get sick of these guys. Their brand of thrashy/crusty/black metal has never let me down. Even the last time I saw them play the Whisky as a trio they still kicked ass. Too bad not everyone in the crowd seemed to give a fuck. Some might have been black metal purists and hated on Goatwhore for numerous KVLT infractions they've somehow committed (music videos? Signed to Metal Blade?) but I imagine most were just smug/jaded LA assholes who are too cool to show appreciation for bands that aren't going to impress hipster broads and get them laid. By the end of their set they seemed to win over most the knuckleheads down on the floor as they finished up with "Apocalyptic Havoc." Heres their official low budget but still looks fancy music video for the song:



So Watain takes a while to set up. Set up isn't the right word, more like create the appropriate atmosphere. See, when you're international black metal rockers and real deal satanists like Watain, you can't set foot onstage until the dark lord himself would be satisfied with the presentation. The dozen or so burning candles, the giant flammable pitch forks, the excessive fog and most importantly, the smell. Yes, the fucking SMELL. The band likes to stash their tour clothes/costumes in dirt with dead animals to encapsulate the true aura of death. Watain also like to throw pig's blood and animal heads into the crowd but I guess the folks at the Whisky threatened them with the banhammer for such PETA friendly activity, so while the Hollywood audience was spared the blood and guts aspect of Watain's live shenanigans nobody stopped the band from shooting tons of rancid scented fog into the air to stink the joint up in anticipation of their performance. Imagine someone covering a slab of roadkill in feces then tossed the burning carcass into a skunk orgy. Thats how it smelled inside the Watain show.


(note: They didn't play this song =/ wish they did though)

Watain's live performance was impressive but was hardly the greatest black metal act I've ever seen (Mayhem was TITS last year). As insane as they appear on stage, their music isn't really all that extreme or abrasive. Infact I'd argue they're more of a Satanic punk rock/jam band (if that makes any sense) than black metal (aside from the corpse paint and shit). Either way, They put on a very powerful and at times hypnotic show. Maybe I was tired from working all day, or nauseous from the smell, but I really felt like I was in a trance during "Sworn to the Dark" and was ready to pass out and wake up quacking like a duck or something. I dug their performance, but was glad to walk back to my car in the rain than having to breathe putrid air inside the Whisky any longer.