Posts Tagged ‘graven rite’
Manilla Road & Graven Rite Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 25, 2015
It’s been quite a busy few weeks for shows and last night’s show was a last minute decision that I am so glad I made.
I got to Hotel Vegas right as Graven Rite was setting up so went outside for a bit and ran into Mark “The Shark” Shelton, who I had just seen the week prior at Frost and Fire Fest in Ventura, CA. We spoke for a few minutes. Before heading in to see Graven Rite, I ran into Scott from Texas Metal Underground who is one of the coolest dudes around.
I came in on Graven Rite’s third song, Bloodstone Ring. After that they played Twisted Sister’s The Beast and it sounded good. The closed their set with the title track from their debut EP, The Summoner’s Pit. It was good to catch them live.
After a pretty quick stage switch out, Manilla Road comes on and I move right to the front where a couple of my friends were hanging out. My favorite album by Manilla Road is Mystification and they opened with Masque of the Red Death. Trying to keep up with their setlists is interesting because everything is pretty much decided on the spot. “Let’s play this one…” kind of thing. That means the band has to be ready for anything and they were. I was quite surprised to see so many people wearing MR shirts and singing along to their set, especially some of the younger folks I saw there. After headbanging up front for the first 3 or 4 songs, I moved to the back with the old folks. haha. Plus I could hear everything better. The whole band sounded great and watch Mark shred is such a pleasure. Admittedly I don’t know their whole discography but really enjoyed Cage of Mirrors, The Riddle Master and Divine Victim and the others from Mystification.
I was pretty tired after the show, so I said some quick goodbyes to the band and headed home. It was a great night though. As an aside, I saw a lot of younger “metalheads” at this show. A few I’ve seen at other metal shows but most seem to be, in my view, metalheads for the fashion of it. I’d like to see some of these kids in 5 years to see if they stayed “metal” or if they’re just rolling in the trend. And Matt, if you’re reading this, you’re not part of that crowd. You’re one of the truest metalheads I’ve ever known. :)
My neck hurts today.
Graven Rite – The Summoner’s Pit (2012 demo) Review
From the ashes of Iron Age, Integrity and featuring current members of Ancient VVisdom comes Graven Rite from Austin, TX. I was handed cassette and CD demos a week or so ago by the singer at a St Vitus show . I know all the guys in the band and have been told several times that I’d like it. “Like” is a poor choice of words, really. I love this demo. This is good ol’ American traditional metal that sounds like it could have been on one of the old Metal Massacre compilations. I understand this is a demo, but it really is too short. I really like Jason’s vocals on this much more than what he did with Iron Age, which wasn’t bad either. I just prefer cleaner vocals in general and that’s what you get with this demo. It’s primarily mid-paced, but flows well.
I believe the 2-song cassette demo will be available in July 2012, not sure about the full 5-track CD. If you’re into that classic Metal Blade sound, you’ll want to pick this up when it’s released. A bit derivative? Probably, but what isn’t these days? It’s worth the listen for sure.
You can listen to 2 of the tracks here.
Tracks:
- Preface
- The New Faith (Wulfhere’s Prayer)
- The Summoner’s Pit
- A Slave To The Night
- Bloodstone Ring
cassette cover
The Metal Files 
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