The Dillinger Escape Plan @ The House of Blues, Hollywood. 7/20/13.

Summer Slaughter, 2013. This traveling underground metal freak show used to be one of my favorite parts of the season. Bands from across the extreme music spectrum (death metal, metalcore, thrash, prog, etc.) all thrown together for a full day of blast beats and distorted guitars. Unfortunately, there has been a sharp decline in the quality of bands aboard the tour each year. Maybe because I'm getting old and senile/out of touch with the scene these days, but this year's lineup was easily the least exciting I've ever seen. It's true, I probably would have stayed home this year and not even bothered with Summer Slaughter 2013, if it wasn't for the nights headliner, the almighty, The Dillinger Escape Plan. 

I'm pretty sure I've ranted about Dillinger "a few" times before, let's just say...they're the reason I shelled out top dollar for my Summer Slaughter ticket. We purposely arrived late, missing nearly all the other bands except the last two support acts. Unfortunately, this meant we had to watch Periphery. They started their set as we settled into our perch inside The House of Blues and although extremely popular these days, I simply cannot stand this band. Their drummer is rad and they have some cool guitar stuff, but for the most part, I was grinding my teeth during their entire set. Animals as Leaders was next on the bill. I'd seen Animals As Leaders opening for Dillinger a few years ago, so there was some deja vu going on here. Only last time they played a much shorter set, and as much as I appreciate their shred guitar/instrumental music, after a while I felt bored to tears. 

Finally, Dillinger took the stage and all was right with the universe. They opened with "Prancer" and immediately began the high octane circus act that is their live performance. Leaping into the crowd, twirling guitars around like yo-yos, literally climbing the venue's walls and jumping from dangerous heights; I haven't seen the band this possessed in ages. The last time I caught DEP performing at a House of Blues venue was way back in 2005 when they opened for Unearth in Anahiem. Needless to say, the stage was left in utter shambles and people were actually flying off the balcony (AFI singer Davey Havok actually). This time they were in the much larger Hollywood location and were headlining the event. Again, since this wasn't a normal Dillinger gig but rather, the heavy metal hodgepodge that is Summer Slaughter, playing in a large venue before a crowd of new faces meant the band was beyond determined on this night. They played a nice mix of old favorites and new material off their latest album, One of Us Is The Killer.



The thing about Dillinger is that even if you don't enjoy their music, which is almost impossible since I caught several of the 300 pound security guards rocking out during their set, you can still marvel at the band's insane live shenanigans. I lost count of all the times Greg and Ben (who just broke his hand two months ago) jumped into the audience. The highlights of the night were when Greg jumped off the PA system, and later when he ventured toward my side of the venue during the end of "Sunshine The Werewolf" and I sang/screamed/sweated along with him like old times. Check it out (I'm the goober in white):


Once again, Dillinger proved they're the Weapon X of this extreme music shit ("...the best there is at what I do..." for you non-geeks) and put on another legendary performance. Do not hesitate to see this band when they come through your neck of the woods.

*BONUS DILLINGER OVERLOAD CLIP*

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!

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.

About to get Slaughtered...

Warped Tour/Ozzfest for Scumbags =)

About to head off to the launch of the 2011 Summer Slaughter Tour. Since 2007, Summer Slaughter has been the place for scummy extreme metal fanatics to congregate and rock out in style to some of the underground's sickest bands. I'm pretty disappointed with this year's lineup (the ratio of crap bands to good is at an all time high) but I've gone every year since the beginning and my boys The Black Dahlia Murder are headlining so, why not? Should be loud and sweaty fun.