Posts Tagged ‘hirax’
Upcoming shows…
Lots of great shows coming to the area. So many that I have to pick and choose a little more carefully to be able to afford the ones that I really want to see.
Tomorrow night I am heading to San Antonio to see Loudness. Saw them back in 2006 and they were great. RIP Munetaka Higuchi.
Next Friday is Orange Goblin and Naam(!!!). I’m not a huge OG fan but I’ve never seen them. Naam, however, has become one of my favorite bands. This is part of the Chaos in Tejas music festival.
There’s also the M.O.D. reunion show in late June that I am fortunate enough to be a part of as Milano asked my Motorhead tribute band to open up.
I just bought tickets earlier this week to see Armored Saint and Hirax at the Key Club in Hollywood. Should be a fun show. I’ve never seen Armored Saint and saw Hirax for the first time 2 years ago. I’m really excited to see Saint.
Odin is doing a reunion show in August at The Whisky and I’ll be heading out there for that one as well. I love Odin. Always have. Do a search for them on this blog site, you’ll see my inner fanboy. haha
September sees Return To Forever coming back to Austin. I got to see the first of their reunion shows a few years ago and it was quite mind-numbing. Unfortunately Al Di Meola isn’t on the tour, but Frank Gambale is a competent enough player to handle the duties. We get Jean Luc-Ponty this time as well!
Concert Review – Hirax – Austin, TX – 08/29/09
It was 1986 and Metal Blade Records was practically the greatest metal label on the scene. They consistently released 
great compilations like the Metal Massacre and Best of Metal Blade series. Best of Metal Blade Volume 1 (1986) included Call Of The Gods by Hirax. I always loved that song but for no logical reason whatsoever did I never check them out any further. I also liked Bombs of Death from Metal Massacre 6. There’s really no explanation as to why I didn’t follow through on these guys, and after last night I feel like I missed out on some additional great metal in the last 23 years.
So about a month or so ago I read in the local show listings that Hirax was coming to Red 7. Even though I was not even remotely familiar with any of their material beyond the 2 aforementioned songs, I definitely wanted to see this show. Through the years I’ve always seen Hirax playing the Euro festivals and have read interviews with Katon W. DePena and have always respected his attitude about music. The guys has proudly been flying the flag of metal since day 1.
So I get to the club a little early to get MM6 and Best of Metal Blade 1 signed as well as my copy of “Headbangers: Worldwide Megabook of Heavy Metal” (Mark Hale, 1993). I know the club owner pretty well and he let me go in to the green room to meet Katon and the band. I was looking forward to this for a few reasons. One to meet Katon, who really is a true metal legend. The other reason was to meet Glenn Rogers, former guitar player of Deliverance. I dug those guys back in the day. When I went into the room, Katon was in there with his lovely wife, his bassist and guitarist Lance and Steve Harrison and some other guy that I didn’t know. Glenn was out and about with a friend so I would catch up with him later.
Katon invited me over and we talked for a bit just about music and such and Katon asked about my book. As he’s flipping through it reading about his band and tons of other obscure bands that are listed in the book. He signed it and my 2 CD covers and said, “Is DRI in here? The guy beside me if Felix from DRI.” Felix thought they wouldn’t be in there but I knew they were. Much to everyone’s pleasure, there was even a picture of band during the era that Felix was in it (85-90). I hung out for a bit and asked Katon if he ever had any interactions with Billy Milano, which he had. So I asked if he wanted to walk over to the club that Billy works in to say hello. We popped over there for a bit and they shook hands and caught up for a few minutes then I took them over to another club so Katon could catch up with an old friend who unfortunately wasn’t there at the time. Back to Red 7. It was great seeing the respect this guy was getting from people in the club, some of who came from Houston and I think a few from Mexico to see this show.
I really expected a much larger crowd, especially with this being on a Saturday. Typically the San Antonio crew would come up for a show like this but I only saw a few folks from that crowd there. The Sword was playing up the street for the 2nd night in a row and I can’t imagine they stole much of the crowd from this show. The club booked 4 grindcore bands to open up which I thought was a bad pairing. I didn’t go in to check out the other bands as I’m not really a fan of the grind stuff in general. While the grind bands were playing I got to talk to Glenn Rogers who let me know that Deliverance was going to do one more album with the original lineup sans the drummer.
But then it was time for Hirax. It was already around 1 or 1:10 AM but the crowd had increased. I’m guessing there were about 90 people in there. Cover charge was $15. Well worth it for me. Hirax kicked in and just kicked ass. Katon is a great frontman, reminds me a lot of Jason McMaster. Knows to to work a crowd and keep them interested during guitar tunings and such.
I have to say that I was truly blown away and really felt a bit guilty about not having checked them out deeper. But there’s no time like the present, right? Their set was cut short due to time restraints and I must say I was a little let down that Call of the Gods wasn’t on the set at all. But it didn’t matter, they were great and I hope they make their way back to Austin again.
Setlist as I remember it:
- El Dia De Los Muertos
- 100,000 Strong
- Blind Faith
- New Age of Terror
- Chaos and Brutality
- Hate, Fear and Power
- Broken Neck
- Bombs of Death
- El Diablo Negro
- Walk With Death
- Mouth Sewn Shut?
I am not so sure about the ones after El Diablo Negro.
Katon W. De Pena (Hirax), fat dude (me), Felix Griffin (DRI)
The Best of Metal Blade Vol 2
aka “One Of The Greatest Compilations Ever”
Let’s just say that Metal Blade Records really helped shape my metalness during the mid-80s. For the most part up until about 1989, if it was on Metal Blade Records, there was about a 90%+ chance that you were getting quality metal. There were exceptions of course…like Canada’s Sye. Terrible. Really.
But Metal Blade was great at putting out cool compilations like the Metal Massacre series and the Best of Metal Blade series. Today we take an in depth look at the Best of Metal Blade Vol 2.
1. LIZZY BORDEN “Notorious” – Let’s make something clear here…right now. I’m a Lizzy Borden fan and have been since I first heard them. I’m pretty sure the Give ’em the Axe EP was my indoctrination. My interest was first piqued when I saw a little blurb in Circus Magazine about the band and there was Lizzy standing there with the band on a rooftop with this huge double-bladed axe. They looked totally badass. Great albums overall but I’ve always been a little partial to Menace To Society and especially to this song. Great hooks, cool lyrics, nice production. This song has it all.
2. OMEN “Teeth of the Hydra” – Not my introduction to Omen (thanks Daniel!) but one of my favorite songs by them for sure. JD Kimball’s vocals (RIP) really set this band apart from most metal bands. He could add a tone of despair in his voice that I have never heard too many other singers do. Mustaine had that quality on the first 2 Megadeth albums as well. Something about the way they wail, it’s a bit haunting. While not my favorite of the classic 3 Omen albums, this ranks as one of my top songs from them.
3. FATES WARNING “Prelude to Ruin” – John Arch. You are the man. Fates Warning offered us another treat with Awaken the Guardian. As good of a song as this is, it’s certainly not my favorite from this album.
4. HALLOW’S EVE “Lethal Tendencies” – Yes! Great song from a great album. Sure, not the most technically proficient thrash band, but they delivered it well.
5. SLAYER “Black Magic” – (classic) SLAYER! ’nuff said.
6. DESTRUCTION “Eternal Ban” – see below
7. SODOM “Deathlike Silence” – You know, these 2 songs never did much for me. In general, was never much of a fan of either band. I think the production really ruined them for me on this early stuff. One day I’ll revisit their back catalog again…maybe.
8. SENTINEL BEAST “Dogs of War” – Awful.
9. DETENTE “Holy War” – I always dug Detente. One of the few female fronted metal bands that I could tolerate. This album was pretty good as is this song. Dawn Crosby (RIP) was a rough one. My current guitarist lived with some folks from this band back in those days and the stories and video I’ve seen of them is trippy. Talk about drinkers? wow.
10. HIRAX “Criminal Punishment” – Another band I never got into mainly because I never tried. I don’t dislike this song, but I never really paid much attention to the band. I do respect that Caton is still out there proudly flying the flag of metal.
11. FLOTSAM & JETSAM “Der Fuhrer” – Oh man. One of the greatest thrash songs ever. Period. Everything from this album just rules. But this song…oh man.
12. JUGGERNAUT “Slow Death” – Juggernaut was always hit an miss. This song is no exception. Miss!
13. HERETIC “Whitechapel” – But this song is a hit. It’s perfect. It’s mid-paced fist-pounding metal. Nice shrill-style vocals and it was about Jack the Ripper. What more could one want in a metal song?
14. SAVAGE GRACE “Trial By Fire” – Love it!
15. SOUND BARRIER “Gladiator” – I think I am one of the few who actually like these guys. This is a cool song too.
16. CIRITH UNGOL “Blood & Iron” – Ahhhhh…Cirith Ungol. How I have always held a soft spot in my heart for these guys. There were the old men of metal in LA. very unique band, very dark. Plus they had the best album covers (Michael Whelan).
17. LIZZY BORDEN “Live & Let Die” – I detest Paul McCartney.
18. CITIES “Burn Forever” – Burn burn burn…burn foreveeeeeeeer! Awesome song. The album was pretty good too. Love the vocals on this.
19. EXXPLORER “Run For Tomorrow” – Again, out of my circle of metal metal head friends, I think I was/am the only one who got into these guys. Great vocals.
20. KRANK “Rented Heat” – This is one of those songs like Crazy Night (Loudness) or Balls To the Wall (Accept) that just makes you nod your head to the mid-paced beat and want to put your fist in the air and sing along. Too bad the album was one of the worst things Metal Blade ever put out.
21. DEAF DEALER “The Fugitive” – I adore this song. One of these days I hope to run across this on CD. Hey Kelz, you still have yours?
If I think about it later, I’ll upload this for your listening pleasure.
The Metal Files 
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