By Avinash Mittur

May 5th 2012, House Of Blues, Hollywood CA: It’s been three long years since Meshuggah have toured the United States. In those three years, the band’s massive influence on modern metal has truly become apparent. The so-called “djent” bands have taken Meshuggah’s heavily downtuned riffs and ludicrous time signatures in whole new directions in the last couple of years, but the original article has yet to be topped. Last night, Meshuggah proved this notion with a stellar set, and gave the House of Blues a fun Saturday night with more than able support from Decapitated and Baroness. Continue reading →

By Elena Whidden

May 3rd 2012, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: The last time I saw Overkill was back in 2007 in their home state of New Jersey, where they annihilated a die-hard crowd of east-coast fans. Because of this, I’d say I brought some pretty high expectations to Thursday’s show, but Overkill lived up to them one hundred and ten percent, and as I walked back to my car I couldn’t help but feel a little sad thinking that they had a whole tour to finish before they might be back.

This show was one of a number of stops the band will make in support of their sixteenth studio release, The Electric Age, which dropped in March. Downtown L.A.’s Club Nokia hosted them, and the most striking thing about this venue was that it was practically empty. The entire upper gallery of seats was closed because, as I heard the man in the box office tell some fellow concert-goes, not enough tickets had been purchased. If I had to make a guess, I’d say the lack of online sales was due to the high price of tickets, originally around $60 for pit on the internet. They were reduced at the door, where my friend purchased hers for $30. Although the choice of a larger venue more than likely pushed up the price of tickets and precluded a lot of people from attending the show, it did wonders for the way the concert sounded.The mixing for all the bands was really professional, and each instrument sounded incredibly clear as the music resonated through the large space of the club; this was something I really appreciated, since sound quality can often be lacking in the smaller venues. Continue reading →

By Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal

April 15th 2012, United 21, Thane, India: After two interesting outings in Chennai and Bangalore, horror-themed traditional heavy metal band Albatross brought “The Kissing Flies” EP launch tour to their hometown of Thane. This gig, christened Wither 2012, also featured Workshop, Cosmic Infusion and Varcas, along with Providence, a last-minute fill-in for Pillbox 666 who had to withdraw from the gig due to unfortunate circumstances. Because of Pillbox 666′s withdrawal, this became an all-Mumbai lineup, and gave me a chance to get my first proper taste of the city’s metal scene.

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By Avinash Mittur

April 13th 2012, The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA: The Melvins is a band that I have consistently taken for granted when it comes to their live performances. This band has been on tour nearly non-stop over the past few years, and I couldn’t even count the number of times they have stopped by my area. For the first time, I finally took the chance to see the band live, and I was certainly not disappointed. This may not have been a mind blowing concert to end all concerts, but it was a good deal of fun, and it was certainly worth the twenty dollars most people paid for their ticket.

One thing I immediately loved about this show was the short bill. Where far too many metal concerts attempt to attract more fans with wildly different acts on one bill, this show truly succeeded because of its small number of bands, only Unsane and the Melvins. The fact that show was sold out weeks in advance is even more evidence that this concert didn’t need a ludicrously large lineup in order to get people in the door. Continue reading →

By Avinash Mittur

April 12th 2012, Key Club, Hollywood CA:  First off, I’d like to start this review by saying that this event was not a conventional concert. It was advertised as an instrument clinic, and to a degree, that’s what it was. What started out as a simple exhibition being put on by some of metal’s greatest performers became a pure celebration of the genre and an absolutely amazing evening of music and expression of love for heavy metal music.

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