By Andrew Bansal
Jan 14th 2012, The Echo & Echoplex, Los Angeles CA: Originally scheduled to take place on August 27th of last year, the 5th edition of the Gathering Of The Bestial Legion festival was cancelled due to a shutdown of the Proud Bird venue, and was then rescheduled to be held on January 14th at the Echo & Echoplex. There were three changes to the original line-up with Goreaphobia, Infinitum Obscure and Grave Ritual dropping out, and Winterthrall and Divine Eve being added instead. After seeing the show, I came to the conclusion that it was a worthwhile gig for the paying fans, and it was in fact these two replacements that made it so.
Because of the fact that I was at the Scion gig earlier in the day, I had already missed the first two bands Infernal Damnation and Crypt Infection by the time I got to the Echo/Echoplex, even though I was coming to this show straight from the other one. I wanted to make it in time to see these bands, but due to Saturday evening LA traffic, it didn’t happen. I’m sure both bands played good sets, and I’ll catch them next time they play.
The first band that really caught my attention was Ritual Combat, who played on the Echo stage. They did complete justice to their name, with their music as well as appearance. The LA-based three-piece black metal band played a fierce 30-minute set that garnered a great response from the crowd. There are hundreds of black metal bands out there, but when it comes to live performance, many of them don’t have nearly the same intensity they portray in their anti-religious lyrics and appearances. Ritual Combat is undoubtedly an exception to that rule, and their sound was absolutely killer. Besides the compelling music, they gave us the funniest moment of the night. Their bassist/singer unplugged his bass by mistake at the end of one of the songs, and when he realized it, he asked us, “Oh shit! How long was that out for?”
While the Echo was all about the performing bands and their music, the scene at the Echoplex downstairs was vastly different. The stage was obviously bigger, but there were merch stands everywhere. There was one merch stand for the bands playing the show, but there were numerous others with huge collections of metal bands’ merchandise. There were shirts, patches, CDs and vinyl for sale, at standard prices. So if you weren’t finding the band on stage to your liking, you could simply roam around the hall and hunt for your favorite band’s merch. I myself found an epic Death Angel shirt at the Lock & Shock stand. It was a carnival atmosphere, and almost felt like a massive heavy metal swap-meet.
As for the bands that played the Echoplex stage, the first two I got to see were Depths Of Misery and HOD. What they played was pretty much straight-up death metal, and even though it was nothing I hadn’t heard before, they had plenty to offer for die-hard fans of the genre. Divine Eve was the one that impressed me the most. There was more to their music than mere death metal, and they were the first act on the main stage to get the crowd going and induce serious mosh pits.
I managed to balance my schedule, and ran back and forth between the two stages sufficiently to be able to see a large portion of Sanguis Imperum’s set, and the entire Winterthrall set at the Echo. Sangius Imperum were pretty impressive, and the crowd was lively during their performance. I loved the manner in which the lead vocalist/guitarist and the other guitarist combined on the vocals, with the latter doing the deeper growls. They sounded menacing, and theirs is most definitely a band I’d be inclined to watch again, whenever they do a show next time.
Without even a shadow of a doubt, my favorite band of the night was Winterthrall. The LA-based Steve Nelson-led quartet were simply fantastic. Their music was incredibly diverse and progressive, having the heavy sections to appease extreme metal fans, but also possessing some delightful mellow segments that could be appreciated by lovers of good music, irrespective of genre. Steve Nelson was not only brilliant on the guitar and vocals, but also did his bit to keep the crowd entertained in between songs. All of their songs were amazingly dark and powerful, and the couple of newer tunes they played offered something different as compared to the older ones, which proved that they’re constantly progressing as musicians and not rewriting the same album over and over. All in all, Winterthrall proved to be a worthy headliner of the Echo stage, and in my opinion, the best band of the night. No gimmicks, just pure extreme music.
After that I headed back to the Echoplex to catch the remaining three bands. I thought Acheron’s music was really cool, and their song “Blessed By Damnation” in particular stuck with me. That tune boasted of a crushing chorus. Besides the straight-up brutality of the vocals, guitar riffs and rhythm section, they had a couple of well-crafted solos to add another dimension to it all. Lead vocalist/bassist Vincent Crowley did an awesome bass solo during one of the songs as well. But, he really overplayed the Satan card by talking about it after almost every song, and I thought it took away some of the intensity from their performance. Other than that, they impressed me with their music.
Incantation and Autopsy played brutal sets as well, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with their performance. Fans of the two bands were more than delighted to get a chance to see them perform, specially the Autopsy fans who hadn’t seen the band in a long time. But, I had already seen so much of extreme metal over the past five hours that these two bands really didn’t do anything that stood out to me. May be it was because they hit the stage so late and I was already tired, and it’s quite possible that I would at least get into Autopsy a lot more if I see them do their own headline show rather than a festival-type gig in the future. But as for last night, these two bands certainly weren’t my favorite.
In terms of the set times, initially when I looked at it on paper, I thought there was too much of overlap. But as it turned out, it was done perfectly. It allowed for a true festival setting, where you could stage-hop and watch a portion of every band’s set, and there was enough breathing space to ensure that things didn’t get too hectic for someone who’s trying to catch all the bands.
Overall, I would say I liked the Echo stage line-up a lot more, and all three bands that I got to see on that stage were hugely impressive. They also attracted a livelier crowd, and there was a clear back-and-forth energy exchange going on between the bands and the crowd, something that was slightly lacking at the Echoplex. With that said, I’m glad that the Echo & Echoplex were the venues chosen for this festival. Both have great sound systems that allowed for the best live representation of the bands, along with a generally pleasant atmosphere for the paying fans to be part of, so it was no surprise to me that the turnout was as great as it was.
Gathering Of The Bestial Legion V was without doubt a success. A perfectly organized event that presented some phenomenal extreme metal bands, I hope this festival continues to live on forever.
Rating: 9/10
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