BlackMagic Revolution at The Crest on 3/29

I visited The Crest last Friday to show support for a friend's punk band and was very pleasantly surprised when an awesome metal power trio ended up playing as the headlining act! I had no idea this was how the night would turn out because I had previously visited the band's Facebook page and the posted songs sounded entirely different. These guys played some incredible 80's style metal and threw in some rad covers of Motley Crue & Led Zeppelin. The wickedly fast guitar, ear-splitting vocals, bass and drums were all phenomenal!

The light show at The Crest creates some strange effects.

Lots of shredding occurred!

I can't wait to check out BlackMagic Revolution again! Be sure to catch one of their upcoming shows & say hello to them. The band just recently moved to LA from Uruguay so I'm sure they could use some support from the local scene.

The next event on my concert calendar is U.D.O. at The Whisky on 4/23. Here's a link for discount tickets from the opening band Blak!

The Whisky and The Rainbow - Two Venues in One Night on 1/24!

Apparently Thursday is the new Friday because there is way too much good shit happening on Thursdays lately!
I started off my Thursday evening metal adventure at The Whisky (yes, I'm there pretty often) to see Ascendancy play. If you haven't seen them before, I highly suggest you check them out. They're a local five piece that lays down some seriously heavy groove metal. It was a high energy show and I was stoked to see that there was a decent crowd there to support the band on a weeknight. Of course Ascendancy played a consistently bitchin' set but something hard to describe happened towards the end of the show that unleashed a mysterious untapped reservoir of thunderous energy on stage, giving the band a freakishly powerful finish! All of my hair stood on end! That was some good (but weird) shit, man!

Gus Trujillo on vocals.

Epic shred time.

Next, I wandered over to The Rainbow to check out Rattlehead and Desecrate for their pre-NAMM show.  Both bands are well known on the Sunset Strip for being excellent shredders and great performers.  This night was no different, even though everyone was crammed into the claustrophobically tiny upstairs space that The Rainbow has converted into a concert venue.  I imagine that's what it must feel like to be stuck in a tugboat's boiler room. Desecrate hammed it up by running circles around the smushed audience with their wireless rigs and Rattlehead had to do battle with a drunk girl who kept insisting on providing backup vocals.  Somehow, it all worked out!

The stage is actually below the audience space!

Rattlehead!

Be sure to look for Ascendancy, Desecrate and Rattlehead on Facebook or at their next concerts! The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy and Nekrogoblikon at Mirror Image Studios on 2/15.

Nekrogoblikon at The Whiskey on 1/18

Riding on the heels of my post about Klingon metal, I bring you another delightfully bizarre and original metal sub-genre: goblin metal! Seriously, I cannot make this stuff up.

Nekrogoblikon is a local metal band who writes songs mostly about goblins - except for that one song about bears. They've got kind of a Euro-thrash vibe with impressive twin guitar leads and bitchin' fast keyboard solos. There are also some campy electronic disco beats thrown in occasionally but it kind of makes sense, especially if you've seen the music video for No One Survives. I'd venture to say that fans of Children of Bodom and Powerglove would dig them equally.

Anyway, they put on a totally incredible show and since they were the headliners they actually got to play a long set. I especially enjoyed "Return to the Sky", the song about birds plucking out everyone's eyes and reducing humanity to bird droppings. I'm choosing to believe it was somewhat Hobbit-inspired.

The only photo I got right before my phone battery died.

Make sure you stalk Nekrogoblikon on Facebook or Reverb Nation to find out about their next shows and stream their music for FREE.

The next event on my concert calendar is Scrap Metal at The Key Club on 1/26.

The Glory Stompers at The Whiskey on 1/14

Have I mentioned that recently The Whiskey has gotten a lot better? Well, it has! The last few shows I've seen there have had zero drama from security guards and no bands have had their sets cut short. My only complaint would be that one of the bartenders likes to charge $2 for tap water. Hey lady, cut it out. But mostly, it's alright.

The Glory Stompers played a totally bitchin' show at The Whiskey last Monday! The crowd was a bit sleepy and timid at first but they all warmed up after Joe shouted at them and humped the air for a few songs. Lovely stuff.

James and Mike tearin' it up!

That would be Joe's leg. Mike and Dustin are busy shredding.

I write about these guys all the time and I'm sure I'm beginning to sound rather redundant by now but they're the kind of band that even the average concert-phobic shmoe wouldn't mind seeing over and over again. They've easily got one of the best stage performances of any LA band I know and they're really solid musicians. If you like hard rock or metal you'll probably love this band.

Joe wields the American flag like it's a weapon.

Be sure to check out The Glory Stompers on Facebook or Reverb Nation.

The next event on my concert calendar is Ascendancy at The Whiskey on 1/24.

3 Inches of Blood, Legal Tender, and The Hookers at The Whiskey on 2/11

Mad props to everyone who came out last Tuesday and supported one of my very favorite bands ever - 3 Inches of Blood. Those burly Canadians made my night! It was an incredible evening full of incredible music!

I arrived right before Legal Tender started their set. This band gets better and better every time I see them - which is quite often. I think it's really rad that these guys play as many shows as they do. Everyone in the band was working hard to sell it and it really paid off because their performance was full of great energy and super entertaining. I can't wait til these guys get an album out!

                          Legal Tender got the mosh pit going early in the night.

Boy, was I surprised when The Hookers took the stage. Perhaps their name is referencing all of the catchy hooks their songs had, rather than ladies of ill repute. It was a band of rugged roadhouse dudes who looked nothing like hookers. The music was an extremely fast, extremely loud, in your face blend of metal, punk and hard rock. I'll definitely see these guys the next time they come to LA.

I'm sure it seems that I say this about every band I see but 3 Inches of Blood is really one of my favorite bands, up there with Megadeth and Iron Maiden. I'm so happy to see them finally headlining their own tour! I only wish more people had shown up. It's so disappointing to post about how awesome a show was on facebook only to have several people comment, "Oh,  wish I could have made it. I love that band." Get it together, people! Well anyway, this was the best show I've seen them play in a few years. It was really incredible! Cam Pipes sounded so intense and I could actually hear each instrument perfectly. They genuinely sounded better live than on the recordings and that rarely happens (and I love all of their albums). Those guys totally owned that shit!! I cannot WAIT for them to come back to LA as headliners again.  I took lots of photos at the very front. It was worth getting squished against that horrible shelf that the Whiskey has in front of the stage. We even got a surprise special guest for Deadly Sinners! James Luna of Holy Grail jumped on stage and did some guest vocals.

                           I stayed glued to the spot in front of Shane Clark all night.

    Justin Hagberg and Cam Pipes were rocking out together in the middle of the stage.

                                            Byron Stroud is the beast on bass.

I'll have to try harder to get a picture of drummer Ash Pearson next time. The combination of his excellent hiding skills and my lack of photography skills resulted in zero photos of him.  He's one of the best drummers I've ever seen, though, and he was on fire last Tuesday! Can't wait for the next 3IOB tour!

Check them out on facebook where they're streaming some free music!

The next event on my concert calendar is Holy Grail at The Slide Bar in Fullerton tonight. There are lots of great shows this week, including Arsis on 12/20 at The Whiskey, High on Fire and Corrosion of Conformity on 12/20 at The Mayan, Goatwhore on the 21st at The Observatory, and Hirax, Agent Steel and Bonded by Blood on 12/22 at The Key Club. Better check moshking to make sure you're not missing anything!

Ascendancy, Legal Tender, Desecrate at The Whiskey on 11/17

Local metal bands took over The Whiskey last Friday, November 17th, for Desecrate's "At The Edge of Sanity" album release show. It's always great to see a bunch of local bands pack a venue with their fans. I think I even saw some parents in the audience!

Ascendancy started playing right as I walked through the doors. They had kind of a groove-thrash thing going on, in contrast to the typical thrash sound that has been revamped by a lot of bands lately. (When I describe something as groove metal, I'm saying it has a similar vibe to Carcass, not rap-rock or groovy 60's music.) The killer vocals were actually what stood out as best to me and that's not a compliment I give out very often. I grabbed a demo from Gus, their vocalist, after the set and told him I'll definitely be attending another Ascendancy show.

The next band I was there to see was Legal Tender. I saw them play recently at the Skeletonwitch/Havok show and this show was even better than the last one! These guys are great entertainers and I think they're gonna be the next big thing in the LA metal scene. Fingers crossed for them! I really liked their song "Street Walker". 

Desecrate was the last band to play and they took the stage with a tremendous amount of energy and stage presence.  For their last song they invited everyone on stage to celebrate with them. How rad is that!? I can never seem to remember my camera when I go out but I did manage to get a grainy shot on my phone. 

After their set was over, we all met up at the record store across the street for the Desecrate album release party. I got a chance to chat a bit with Vinny of Legal Tender and Gus of Ascendancy. They were both very cool guys.

Be sure to check everyone out on facebook:

Ascendancy
Legal Tender
Desecrate

The next events on my concert calendar are Eluveitie on 11/29 at The House of Blues, followed by Gypsyhawk and The Sword on 11/30 at The House of Blues.

Skeletonwitch and Havok at The Whiskey on 10/30

Much head banging was had last Tuesday at The Whiskey for the Skeletonwitch and Havok show! Since it was the night before Halloween there was a smattering of costumes and skull face-paint. Major props to the giant banana circling in the pit!

The first band I caught was a local band named Legal Tender. Seemed like kind of an odd name for a thrash metal band but maybe there's a story behind that. Anyway, they were pretty choice. The bassist and the guitar player shared an incredible dynamic and played really well off of each other. I'll definitely be catching another Legal Tender show!

The big surprise of the night for me was seeing Havok. I've heard a little bit of their music before and I seem to recall thinking it was pretty rad but not ever following up with a second listen. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the face crushing, adrenaline surging show that they brought to The Whiskey. As soon as these guys hit the stage, the crowd erupted into a voracious, frenzied circle pit! Both guitarists stormed up a whirlwind of rapid rhythms, furious melodies and immaculate solos, although it was the drummer who really drove the train with his pounding, relentless drum fills and double bass. This band was seriously tight. I will definitely be picking up a CD soon, and a "No Karate in the Pit" T-shirt.

Few bands could have followed a set like that without falling short but Skeletonwitch didn't miss a beat. They tore right into the audience with a song off of their newest album and kept hammering away with all of their old fan favorites like Beyond the Permafrost, Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery, Submit to the Suffering, and Upon Wings of Black. The nightmarish song lyrics combined with Chase Garnette's despair inducing scream really make Skeletonwitch seem like a band that teleported here straight from the bowels of hell. There's a visceral quality to their music. It has the heaviness and complexity of death metal with the speed and dexterity of thrash. 

My throat was mostly hoarse by the end of the night from screaming along to Skeletonwitch. It was the perfect end to a crazy run of six concerts in seven days. Check out Legal Tender, Havok and Skeletonwitch on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/skeletonwitchmetal

https://www.facebook.com/HavokOfficial

https://www.facebook.com/legaltenderband

The next event on my concert calendar is (hopefully) Scattered Hamlet on Wednesday, November 7^th, at The Viper Room. I'll also be seeing Enslaved on Saturday, November 10^th at The Roxy.

TYR at The Whiskey, with Moonsorrow, Korpiklaani on 9/12

After almost three years of being a huge fan, I finally got to see TYR live at The Whiskey! As soon as Metsatoll completed their set, I squirmed up to the very front of the stage to maximize my viking metal experience. And what an experience it was! Sure, there are plenty of other folk metal and viking metal bands out there, most of which I've seen, but no other band comes close to sounding like TYR. Ah, the bright clear guitar tone, the Faroese chanting, the ancient rhythms of old Norse songs... all of these attributes and the feelings they impart are unique to TYR. Their songs conjure up images of viking long ships navigating the foamy oceans centuries long past during the great Norse expansion.... sigh. As expected, their live show was nothing short of breath-taking and it exceeded every expectation I had. Now, all of my metal dreams have come true!

Korpiklaani and Moonsorrow also played great sets and I'd say all around it was a stellar show. Major props to whoever managed to put together such an amazing line up! Sometimes a concert is just a concert, but sometimes a concert is a mind-blowing, time traveling journey into an age of epic sagas and glorious, heathen adventures! 


Check TYR out on facebook https://www.facebook.com/tyrband

The next event on my concert calendar is Accept and Kreator at The Avalon on Wednesday, September 26th.