By Avinash Mittur
March 20th 2012, The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco CA: For the majority of people, the term “heavy metal” has a pretty one-sided connotation. Loudness, speed, rebelliousness, hatred, violence, devil worship, and vocals that would frighten the Cookie Monster are some of the things that come to mind for most people. There are a countless amount of heavy metal bands that defy this image in so many different ways, but perhaps Deicide is the one that best fulfills it – proudly, I might add. On this Tuesday night, Deicide brought their classic brand of death metal to San Francisco and turned in a tight, though flawed show.
I arrived in time to catch the second act on the bill, Abigail Williams. Unfortunately, due to reasons beyond my control, I was unable to get to the venue in time to see Lecherous Nocturne. I will give them the benefit of the doubt however, and assume they ably warmed up the crowd for the following bands.
Abigail Williams gave the audience about thirty minutes of atmospheric black metal with symphonic elements. Although I have seen far more epic performances from bands in this style of music, Abigail Williams were still plenty enjoyable though. The three tracks they played were executed to perfection by the band, Radiance in particular was great to hear. The sound was given a “black metal” treatment, which really added to the set, despite being at the expense of some clarity. Ken Sorceron’s vocals were slightly buried in the mix, and Zach Gibson’s drums sounded simply tremendous. His hands flew about his kit like there was no tomorrow, and his drum sound in general was truly something to behold. Ian Jekelis’ guitar was the dominant instrument in the mix, and he ably held his own when it came to his parts. The audience seemed to enjoy the band by the end, and gave them a deserving applause upon the set’s conclusion.
Setlist:
1. Ascension Sickness
2. Radiance
3. Beyond the Veil
Next up was Jungle Rot. I went in knowing nothing about this band, but I came out of the Regency a huge fan of their music. The band played a style of death/thrash that got my head moving almost immediately. Frontman Dave Matrise possessed a charisma not unlike Lemmy- after the opening fire of Their Finest Hour, the man successfully ordered audience members hanging out in the back to move up. I can’t think of many other guitarist/vocalist that can pull something like that off after only a song’s worth of interaction. The band bang out about forty minutes of high energy death metal that had many heads banging, even if the moshing was relatively light. I do have one minor complaint with the set though; the bass drum sound was absolutely horrible. To call it double bass would be outright incorrect because the sound possessed no bass frequencies. It sounded extremely artificial and one could tell it came entirely from digital triggers. Triggers are meant to complement and enhance a live mix- if a drummer uses them exclusively they may as well be playing electronic drums. The fact that drummer Jesse Beahler played to a click track made the drumming seem even more lifeless. As a result, I felt as if I was listening to studio versions of the tracks. I still immensely enjoyed the set, if only for the fact that I loved the music, but it was missing a true “live feel” for lack of a better term. The setlist was a great mix of songs from throughout the band’s career. Every album was represented, and the newer tracks showed that Jungle Rot are just as musically relevant as they were fifteen years ago. One of the newest songs, Worst Case Scenario, was certainly a highlight. Its mid-tempo marching rhythm, along with its thrashing verses, had my head banging for its whole duration.
Setlist:
1. Their Finest Hour
2. Blood Ties
3. Demon Souls
4. Worst Case Scenario
5. Misplaced Anger
6. Let Them Die
7. Rise Up & Revolt
8. Fight for Life
9. Strong Shall Survive
10. Gore Bag
After what seemed like an eternal wait, Deicide took the stage and promptly kicked off their set. Much to my delight, the band wasted no time in starting the show and began the night with Homage for Satan. The band’s infamous bassist/vocalist/spokesperson Glen Benton often cracked jokes with the audience between songs. Glen showed that his irreverent personality has remained intact over the years, making wisecracks at topics as random as Canada and the Big Four. The band’s set was played to instrumental perfection, but it lacked the energy that this style of metal needs. Glen didn’t move a muscle during every song, maintaining the same pose: body slightly turned to his right with his head tilted upwards and his knees bent just a little bit. Lead guitarist Jack Owen, while thrilling to listen to from a guitar player’s perspective, hardly moved onstage. His movement consisted of occasionally bobbing his body and a light nodding motion that most would replace with headbanging. The band’s other lead axeman, Kevin Quiron, fared better with his more animated performance. Audiences often feed off of the energy that a band gives during their show, and because of the lack of stage presence Deicide displayed, this San Francisco audience was only somewhat active. Motion could always be seen in the first couple of rows, but the pit was sadly still for a good deal of the set.
One thing I really liked about the set was the efficiency with which the band cranked out the tracks. In about seventy five minutes, Deicide managed to pump out twenty songs, a remarkable feat when other groups try to stretch less than fifteen tracks in an hour and a half. As stated before, the band was musically on top of their game. Glen’s vocals were surprisingly spot-on, never resorting to a thrash shout unlike many of his contemporaries. Despite coughing and spitting throughout the set, Glen’s vocal performance was undoubtedly ace. Drummer Steve Asheim managed to successfully recreate his high flying blastbeats from his studio performances without missing a beat (and without a click track), while Jack and Ken’s solos were amazingly fluid and a crazy sight to behold. The set mainly featured large chunks of tracks from a few of the band’s albums rather than a more even collection. Given the high quality of Deicide’s latest album, To Hell With God, I was happy to hear six songs from it, but I’m sure the large number of fans sporting Legion t-shirts would have made a few changes. For me anyway, the big highlight of the set was How Can You Call Yourself a God, but the final one-two punch of Lunatic of God’s Creation and Oblivious to Evil managed to make the more old-school oriented audience happy. The song’s epic intro was a cool change of pace from the more straightforward tracks, and the band as a whole seemed a bit more enthusiastic when playing the song. They Are the Children of the Underworld, which seemed to have more of a thrash influence also piqued my attention more so than some of the other tracks.
This was an enjoyable show, even if it wasn’t perfect. My main issues with it were Deicide’s lack of energy and the short set. Most audience members paid somewhere around twenty five dollars for their ticket; for that price, the crowd at least deserved a full ninety minute set. Considering the rate at which the band pounded out the songs, and the wealth of material they didn’t touch throughout the set, I know a full set was well within Deicide’s capabilities. It’s not like the band was extremely tired and drenched in sweat by the end of their set (with the probable exception of Steve). Despite these issues, I had fun, and I’m sure the couple hundred or so death metal maniacs at the Regency did as well.
Overall rating: 8/10
Deicide Setlist:
1. Homage for Satan
2. Dead by Dawn
3. Once Upon the Cross
4. Scars of the Crucifix
5. When Satan Rules His World
6. Serpents of the Light
7. Save Your
8. Hang in Agony Until You’re Dead
9. Conviction
10. Blame It on God
11. They Are the Children of the Underworld
12. Death to Jesus
13. Witness of Death
14. Desecration
15. Into the Darkness You Go
16. How Can You Call Yourself a God
17. Kill the Christian
18. Sacrificial Suicide
19. Lunatic of God’s Creation
20. Oblivious to Evil
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