Posts Tagged ‘heavy metal’
Slayer Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 18, 2014
Whew! What a whirlwind it’s been the last month with all of the shows and there’s no sign of it slowing down yet! Last night was not slow. Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies and Slayer were in town to play a sold out show at the Moody Theater (aka ACL Live). I still can’t believe a show like this got booked at such a classy venue, but I’m glad it did and hope that it opens the door for more metal there. Let’s get right into this…
Exodus hit the stage promptly at 7:30PM with Black 13 and Blood In, Blood out from their latest release of the same name. They were fast, tight and Steve Souza sounded great. They only got 30 minutes for their set which is by far too short for a band with such a back catalog. They rolled right into Blacklist from Tempo of the Damned then gave the crowd what they wanted in the form of Bonded By Blood, Toxic Waltz and Strike of the Beast. I’m in the minority when I say I don’t like the Bonded By Blood album. I’ve bought it several times over the years and it just never caught on to me. However, I do love Fabulous Disaster and Pleasures of the Flesh. Gary Holt is doing double duty with Exodus and Slayer and he and the whole band sounded great. Tom Hunting is always the highlight for me in seeing Exodus live. He’s got such a unique style and watching him play last night was certainly a treat.
I’m not the biggest Suicidal Tendencies fan but do love that late 80s pre-funk ST stuff. Last night I became a bigger fan, at least in a live setting. Mike Muir hit the stage looking healthy and just sounded clear and coherent all night. The show I saw a few years back was pretty awful. The backing band last night was totally kickass too. Especially the drummer. Holy shit that guy was a beast. They opened with an extended version of You Can’t Bring Me Down and went right into Freedumb from their 1999 release of the same name. They mixed the set up with songs from Join the Army, the self-titled LP, Lights Camera Revolution, How Will I Laugh and 13. The crowd was completely into it and there was a decent pit most of the time they were playing. Highlights for me were War Inside My Head and How Will I Laugh Tomorrow . Again, Suicidal brought their best game last night and blew me away.
Up next…SLAYER! I’ve been a big fan since Reign In Blood, main reason being Dave Lombardo’s drumming. Well, Dave’s not in the band anymore and it’s completely obvious, at least to me it is. More on that later. Slayer opened up with World Painted Blood and flowed right into Post Mortem. They only played 5 post -Seasons era songs and that was fine by me. They sounded great early in the set but it seemed to deteriorate ever so slightly as the set progressed. They are an intense band and I can’t imagine playing night after night with that intensity, but if it was my job, I’m sure I’d make it work. Araya’s voice sounded great and was actually better than when I saw the Seasons anniversary tour. For me what was brought the show down a notch or two was the lack of Lombardo behind the kit. He brings a certain intensity (I know I’m using that word a lot but it fits) to Slayer and it was missing last night. This is no slight to Paul Bostaph who is a damn fine drummer in his own right, but he’s no Lombardo. Few are. Slayer is like the Rush of thrash metal. Rush fans want to hear all of Peart’s fills and Slayer fans, especially yours truly, wants to hear Lombardo’s stuff played properly. Bostaph did a good job and that’s why he’s in the band. But there were just some little things that made it hard for me to totally enjoy him and the band last night. His double bass work in some songs wasn’t very consistent. Maybe he was having an off night, I don’t know. I remember when I was gigging regularly as a drummer that off nights happen. Sometimes you’re just not in “the pocket.” None of this is to say Slayer put on a bad show, I’m not sure that they could, I’m just saying that I miss Dave behind the kit and the band just seemed out of sorts last night. I went so far as to rename them “Slower”, but that’s probably not too fair. I do need to mention that Kerry King was as solid as ever and I loved his Raiders/Biletnikoff jersey. Gary Holt did fine playing Hanneman’s parts. Holt is a good guitarist all the way around.
In the unlikely even that he comes back to the band again, last night was probably my last Slayer show (that I’d pay for). The setlist was good and I’m really glad I got to hear At Dawn They Sleep, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits and Die By The Sword.
Long live Slayer and RIP Jeff Hannemann. It was a good night.
King Diamond Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 8, 2014
It’s tough writing reviews sometimes because I have trouble being objective when trying to talk about seeing some of my favorite bands.
There was something incredibly special about last night’s King Diamond show that I just don’t know if I can put my finger on it or properly describe in words better than just saying, “That was fucking awesome!”
And it was. It was fucking awesome. Really fucking awesome.
I’ve loved King Diamond (KD) since Abigail came out. That album had me delve back in time to quickly get into Fatal Portrait and Mercyful Fate. But Abigail is #1 for me in KD’s catalog.
I’ve see King twice before tonight (’88/2000) and Fate twice (’93/’99). All of those shows were special in their own ways, especially that ’88 show on the Them tour. King sounded great in all 4 of those shows. With it being 14 years since the last time I had seen him, I had concerns that his voice wouldn’t be what it once was. That thought was quickly removed from my head once they broke into the opener, The Candle. They quickly kept it running hard and heavy with Sleepless Nights and Welcome Home which went over very well with the crowd. Everyone knows the “grandma song”.
They mixed it up with songs from Them, Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul…Please, not to mention 2 Mercyful Fate songs, Evil and Come To The Sabbath. It was a very metal crowd that was very into the show. King’s stage set up was over the top filled with a giant goat’s head pentagram and upside crosses.
Andy LaRouque and Mike Wead were shredding it as expected. Matt Thompson did a fine job handling Mikkey Dee’s drum lines, but he’s no Mikkey Dee. Few are. That’s no slight to Matt, he was killer. Pontus Edberg held down the bass perfectly. The mix was great, especially for an outside venue.
Highlights for me were Sleepless Nights (love that drum line), Family Ghost and especially Black Horsemen. That song is the best ending to any album I have ever heard and it was the perfect closer to last night’s set. It gave me goosebumps last night and I have them again writing this. It was such a powerful show all the way around. I did notice, however, that King had a female backup singer that sang some of the high notes along with him. I tried to listen to the difference in the voices (his and hers) and really couldn’t tell. There were times that he was hitting the notes perfectly and she wasn’t singing at all, so maybe she was just there for harmony and melody purposes.
What a great fucking show!
Hellion Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 24, 2014
Hellion was a band that was always just in my peripheral in the 80s. I owned their album The Black Book and liked it, but still never listened to them that much. When I saw that they were playing downtown on Friday, I had to go. I was absolutely exhausted from the events of the week with Kelz, who I had dropped off at the airport earlier that day. I tried to get a nap in before heading downtown but it wasn’t a good one. Normally I take a ride via Lyft downtown because I know that I’ll be drinking. I didn’t have the energy or wont to drink that night so I drove my car.
San Antonio’s The Blitz Krokus tribute band played right before Hellion. I love Krokus and was excited to see that my pal Chris Cronk (Karion/SA Slayer/Fates Warning/Jag Panzer) was on vocals. They were fun but their set got cut short.
Hellion had a stacked lineup in the band backing Ann Boleyn. Georg Dolivo from Rhino Bucket on rhythm guitar, Maxxxwell Carlise on leads, Greg Smith (Wendy O Williams/Nugent/Alice Cooper/Rainbow etc) on bass, Scott Warren (Keel, DIO, Heaven and Hell) on keyboards and Simon Wright (AC/DC, DIO) on drums. This made for some great signatures in the book!
The band was rock solid and Ann’s voice sounded good. The whole band was great but I was especially drawn to Greg’s bass playing. That guy is just a beast of a player. One of the best I have ever seen. The whole show was fun and after getting the sigs in the book, I went straight home and straight to bed. Highlight for me was Living In Hell from the Black Book. Great song.
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- The Bltiz. Krokus tribute band
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- George from Rhinobucket
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- Ann and Monkey Boy
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- Hellion’s Ann Boleyn
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- Simon Wright formerly of AC/DC and DIO.
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- Scott Warren formerly of Keel
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- Greg Smith, bassist for Hellion and was in Wendy O Williams’ Kommander of Kaos album
Raven & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 11, 2014
As far as NWOBHM goes, much of it is hit and miss for me. Raven was always the miss. I could never really put a finger exactly what but I think it started with their look and the lyrics. It was just a bit too goofy for me. I had seen them live previously in 2000 and was able to have lunch with the Gallagher brothers and their families that day as we shared a common close friend. That was a great day and those guys are really fun to hang out with.
I ran into John again earlier this year when I was in Richmond, VA for the Satan show there. Always polite. Flash forward 14 years and Raven is doing a 2 month long tour across the USA with my pals in Night Demon (Ventura, CA). I had met those guys in Chicago earlier this year when Eternal Champion played the Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalyspe. I had known the drummer for a couple of years prior from his other band that used to come through Austin on the regular. Great guys. I was excited that they were coming to town and offered up my house for them to stay after the show.
The night before the show I was downtown in my favorite bar and there was a couple sitting next to me. The guy was wearing a venom shirt so I struck up conversation. They were from Chile. Victor spoke perfect English but Javiera didn’t really speak any. I speak Spanish pretty well so we all had a nice talk. She had won a VIP contest to ACL, all expense paid. Pretty cool. Neither of them really cared for much of the music at the fest but weren’t going to turn down a free trip. I asked him if he liked Raven and he said, “Hell yes! One of my favorites!” I let him know about the show the next night and they were excited.
On to the show. Sweat Lodge opened and I’m just not into the hippie stoner rock stuff that much. I guess they’re good at what they do, I’m just not into it. Night Demon comes on and blaze through their set efficiently. Their brand up upbeat NWOBHM inspired metal went over well with the crowd that was there. They especially got everyone’s ear by playing a cover of Road Racin’ by Riot. Riot is a big deal in Texas and it was only coincidence that Night Demon played it. The metal faithfuls loved it. They gained a lot of new fans that night.
Raven comes on and the crowd loved it. There were about 10-15 people right up front who all first saw Raven and Metallica in 1983 in Austin and this show was a bit of a reunion for them. That was pretty cool to see all of them right up front singing every word. As stated above, I’m not into Raven but they are energetic live and John can still hit the high notes pretty well.
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- John Gallagher and Jason McMaster
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- 2 metalheads from Chile that were in town for ACL Fest
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- Raven doing their thing
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- Jarvis and Night Demon delivered a great set
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- Joe Hasselvander (Raven/Pentagram!) and Monkey Boy
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- Night Demon and Monkey Boy. photo by Andrew Bansal (metalassault.com)
Satan Concert Reviews, San Antonio and Austin, TX, October 21-23
Days 2-4 of Mitchfest with Kelz consisted of 3 straight shows with Satan in San Antonio and Austin and it’s just easier to 
combine the reviews all in one post.
We mess around Austin for a little bit before heading back to the house to rest up for Tuesday night’s show with Satan in San Antonio at The Korova. We got there a little before Satan showed up and helped them load their personals from the van to Korova’s green room. They looked pretty good after playing Houston the night before. They recognized us from the Richmond show earlier in the year. Satan was being backlined on this tour by the venue and/or the opening acts. Seemed that there were a few compatibility issues with guitar heads to the effects that Ramsey/Tippins used but those quickly got fixed with the arrival of a couple of Marshall amps.
Austin based Firestarter ’82 opened the show and I stuck around for their set as their bassist is a good pal of mine. She did a fine job as always. Local thrashers, Aggravator, played next but we missed them as we were having a couple of drinks next door.
We get back right before Satan hits the stage and as expected, they delivered an awesome set to about 40-45 people. The crowd size was quite unfortunate, especially for a city that often touts itself as the metal capital of the USA. Things change I guess. And it was a Tuesday night…but still. How often are you going to get the chance to see Satan? Satan played flawlessly as expected. They were great when we saw them in Richmond this year and I expected no less this time. They did not disappoint. It really can’t be stated enough how great of a guitar duo Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey are. Ross’ vocals are stellar, especially for a 61 yr old man who can still belt out the falsetto with no problem. Sean and Graeme held the bottom down as Satan rolled through a mostly similar set to earlier this year with only a few changes. They were awesome and have become one of my favorite live bands. Brian’s not a big talker between songs beyond introducing the next song and I’m fine with that.
It was also great seeing some old pals that I hadn’t seen in a while, namely Rob Doom, Jaime, Mando and of course Rodney who was the show promoter. A new friend, Henri, came in from Holland just to see these shows with Satan and Militia. Pretty cool!
Kelz and I left promptly after the show for the 75 minute drive back to Austin. Of course it was full of conversation about the show and old times.
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- Graeme English
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- Brian Ross
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- Steve Ramsey
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- Russ Tippins
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- Sean Taylor
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- Steve and Russ putting on a clinic
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- Firestarter ’82
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- the backline
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- Eternal Champion
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- 3/5 of Satan loves meat! Stiles Switch BBQ rules all.
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- Satan and Monkey Boy.
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- Kelz impatiently waiting for Satan
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- Kelz and Russ
The Metal Files 
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