Exhumed, Macabre & Friends End North American Tour On A High

Rating:

Exhumed interview | Macabre interview | Cephalic Carnage interview | Withered interview

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal, August 7th 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: There was a lot at stake for Exhumed as they took the stage here at the Key Club for the last night of their three-week North American run. Not only did they have a killer new release to promote, but since this was their first tour in six long years, they had to make up for that lengthy period of inactivity by putting forth a performance that would satiate their fans. They brought with them the mighty gore-grind masters Macabre, veteran Colorado grindcore quintet Cephalic Carnage, and Atlanta sludge warriors Withered. I was already a fan of Cephalic Carnage and WIthered's live performances having seen them before, but I was really curious to see how the other two bands would turn out to be, whether or not they would live up to expectations.

After I was done with my four interviews, I entered the venue at around 8 o' clock, and the sound of Metallica's "Seek And Destroy" playing on the PA hit my ears straightaway. The DJ was pulling out some real classics while we waited for Withered to take the stage, songs like Dio's "Rainbow In The Dark" and Sabbath's "Paranoid". This might sound like an irrelevant detail but I felt it was important to mention because it put me in the perfect spirit for the show ahead. The PA music that's played at some of these other club venues is simply despicable, and I'm glad at least somebody cares enough to put together a list of legit metal tunes. But even before I had entered, the local opener Enthraller were already done playing. I regret missing their set, because I arrived at the venue at 5.30 specifically so that I can get all the interviews done well in time to allow me to catch the whole show, including Enthraller. But as it turned out, I couldn't get them done before 8. But I've seen them open for Hate Eternal recently, and they put on a solid show. I'll be determined to catch their set the next time they play a show.

Withered took the stage and it was interesting to note that they included some of their faster stuff in order to cater to this kind of audience. This set was different from their usually sludgy style of death metal. But besides the fast-paced tunes, their set had the slower segments as well, which made for contrasting passages of music and resulted in an enjoyable set. I think the slower segments allowed the crowd to kind of ease into the show, They presented their music in such a way that it came across as quite multi-dimensional, and a blend of various styles of metal. And for these reasons, Withered turned out to be a great opener for this line-up.

Cephalic Carnage came out all guns blazing and largely succeeded in waking up this lifeless crowd. Even though I attended their last show performance with Between The Buried And Me three months back, I was having some health issues that night and couldn't enjoy the show at all, and I was quite upset that I couldn't write about the show because of that. So tonight I really enjoyed Cephalic Carnage's set, probably more than anyone else in the crowd. Frontman Lenzig Leal was a beast on vocals throughout the set. The word 'beast' gets thrown around a whole lot when it comes to metal-related reviews, but Len truly was like a beast on those vocals. Towards the latter part of the set, he pulled out a video camera and started filming the crowd, telling them to start a wall of death. The band's on-stage intensity still wasn't quite enough to inject life into this crowd, and it was the weakest wall of death I've ever seen. It was pretty clear to me that the people were here to see Exhumed and Macabre, and weren't going to open their mind or move their body even an inch for anybody else. But despite that, the relentlessness in the band's music, Len's funny monologues and the refreshing smell of marijuana in the air made it for a terrific set. Len introduced his band mates to the crowd while the drummer played a solo in the background, after which the band played one last song and said goodbye. This humor-filled, pot-laden grindcore outfit from the rocky mountains never disappoints, and tonight was just another example of that. Well done Cephalic Carnage, well done indeed.

A loud roar went up as Macabre took the stage next and got off to a blistering start. Their mode of performance was pretty unique, with frontman Corporate Death telling a story before every song. The microphone was wired up to his mouth, and not having to use a mic-stand gave him the freedom to move around while speaking, which I thought added more impetus to his stories. The 40-minute performance had a largely comic feel to it, and one or two of the songs sounded almost like pirate metal rather than deathgrind. Every time Corporate Death talked about a serial killer, the crowd cheered loudly. The show had a sufficiently visual aspect to it that went well along with the lyrical content, without being overly theatrical. Zodiac killers and headbangers in donkey masks made their appearance on stage at opportune moments. They looked very tired when I talked to them just a couple of hours before they started playing, and whatever they did to recover in those two hours seemed to work because they were extremely tight and precise while playing the music, specially Dennis The Menace with his machine gun-like drumming. And as if this wasn't already enough, Len from Cephalic Carnage reappeared on stage, contributing vocals for "Zodiac". The nursery rhyme-style crowd sing along that formed the intro to one of their songs towards the end of the set was one of the funniest moments of the night. All in all, Macabre truly brought down the house with their performance here tonight.

And finally, Exhumed took the stage and treated the crowd with a crushing performance of tunes old and new. Their set took shape brilliantly as they started with three tunes from the newest album All Guts No Glory, then going straight back to the first album to dust out "Necromaniac". The rest of the show mainly consisted of the older material, much to the delight of their fans. Even though the old songs got the strongest response tonight, I feel their new album is absolutely killer and I'm sure more songs from it will find their way into the setlist on future tours.

With this being their last show of this tour, they might have been tempted to 'go through the motions', just get the show done with, and get back on the road to their homes for a well deserved rest. But that was definitely not the case, and not only Exhumed but every other band tonight gave more than a 100 per cent towards entertaining their audience, proving themselves to be thorough professionals fueled by the passion of presenting their music in the best manner possible.

I read comments from a few people today, saying things like "Macabre owned the show", and "Macabre was the sickest band of the night". I don't agree, because I think both Exhumed and Macabre were equally impressive. While Exhumed might not have had the comic element that Macabre had, their music was more solid and consistently brutal throughout the duration of their performance, and they really did put together a setlist that made up for their six-year long absence, playing a lot of the older material.

An eclectic, hugely enjoyable night of extreme music.

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