By Avinash Mittur
November 30th 2012, House of Blues, Hollywood CA: Since 1982, Brian Slagel’s Metal Blade Records have been one of the most important champions for heavy metal music. The label was the first to release music from the likes of Metallica, Armored Saint, and Overkill through its Metal Massacre compilations and was the home for the first three albums by Slayer. Thirty years after Brian started the label out of his parents’ garage, Metal Blade now has a wide variety of acts on its roster and it remains one of the largest forces in the heavy metal record industry. Last Friday night at the House of Blues, Armored Saint, Sacred Reich and Gypsyhawk joined forces to celebrate Metal Blade Records and the result was a rousing night of music and a thousand thoroughly banged heads.
That Metal Show’s Eddie Trunk and Don Jamieson were the first to take the stage to introduce the initial act, Gypsyhawk. Though the audience in the venue was small at this point in the show, Gypsyhawk made sure to offer a tight and lively set anyway. Andrew Packer and Erik Kluiber’s southern-fried guitar harmonies were the perfect compliment for Gypsyhawk’s classic hard rock songs, and their trade-off solos were the best parts. Though the crowd was slow to be won over, the band’s cover of “Black Betty” convinced them that Gypsyhawk was the real deal. For me though, the high point of their set was “Hedgeking,” a song that contained an almost MC5-like drive and the Allman Brothers-style harmonies at the end were beyond cool. Frontman Eric Harris’ repeated endorsements of weed, drinking and partying struck a chord with the audience and they were often cheering as much for his little chats as they were for the band’s songs. All in all, I enjoyed Gypsyhawk’s set a good deal. Their revival of classic metal and seventies hard rock is nothing new, but the band does it better than most and I genuinely look forward to seeing them with The Sword in just a couple of weeks.
After another short intro from Eddie and Don, Arizona’s Sacred Reich made their first LA appearance in over fifteen years. The crowd was full of the band’s fans; Sacred Reich tees were a more than common sight throughout the floor. Sacred Reich was advertised as playing a short set, but this set was borderline silly in its brevity. The band were in jolly spirits onstage, with bassist and vocalist Phil Rind having a huge smile on his face throughout the set. He also offered anecdotes for the audience, including his story of meeting producer Bill Metoyer for the first time and how the opening track “Ignorance” made its appearance on the Metal Massacre 8 compilation. Seeing as the band made it a point of playing only three songs, I thought it was a very poor choice to have one of them be a cover, Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” These songs were all very well performed, but playing only three songs, and not even having all of them be Sacred Reich songs was quite simply, a bit lame. The audience was enthusiastic for Sacred Reich, offering a solid pit for “Ignorance” and “The American Way” and singing along with every word of “War Pigs” but their disappointment at the short set was very audible when the band left the stage. I’m hoping that Sacred Reich don’t pull a similar move at their headlining date at the Key Club next February- I can’t imagine many fans being too pleased with their appearance at this date.
Sacred Reich Set List:
1. Ignorance
2. War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)
3. The American Way
Eddie and Don returned for the last time, this time with Metal Blade head Brian Slagel in tow. After a quick apology for Sacred Reich’s short set (apparently Brian asked them to play for longer, but the band didn’t oblige his request), Brian thanked the audience and all the Metal Blade staff for their years of service. After they left, we were left with a wait that truly felt like forever.
Luckily, LA’s hometown heroes Armored Saint came out and proceeded to undo any dissatisfaction that Sacred Reich had caused. The band came out all guns blazing with “Lesson Well Learned” from their first EP, but perhaps more poignantly from the Metal Massacre 1 compilation. What happened onstage was both one of the most surreal yet also one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a band do live- everyone in Armored Saint came out dressed as if it was 1982 all over again. Joey Vera and Gonzo and Phil Sandoval came out in the battle armor from the “Can U Deliver” video, but even more trippy was John Bush and Joey ascending the stage with full shocks of curly brown hair. My mind was quite simply blown- it was as if I had stepped into a time portal and been transported to a Saint show at the Country Club thirty years ago (luckily Jeff Duncan wasn’t dressed up like he was during his time in Odin). After a blazing run through of “March of the Saint,” the band took off their outfits and wigs and soon the Armored Saint that I saw two years ago in Santa Clara, CA returned. Regardless of what they were wearing though, the band was in top form throughout the entire set. John Bush already had a great voice back in the ’80s, but with every passing year his singing seems to gain even more richness and character; his performance tonight as both a frontman and a singer was outstanding. John constantly made sure to engage the crowd, run back and forth between ends of the stage, headbang and not miss a single note throughout the entire set. The other standout was Joey, who could be seen running about the stage and offering the crowd plenty of bass-faces to check out while his fingers would fly about the strings with ample velocity.
John made it a point to say how important it is for a band to change their live set list frequently, and he certainly lived up to his word by introducing “Control Issues,” a song that had never been played live by Armored Saint. The entire set was vastly different than the one I saw two years ago; out of the thirteen Armored Saint songs played at this show, eight hadn’t been played at that Santa Clara date. This made for a very special show for me personally, and I loved never knowing what could possibly come next in the set. What made this show special for all in attendance was the guest appearances though. First up was Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg and Bernie Versailles from Agent Steel and Redemption. The two assisted Armored Saint on a cover of Metallica’s early classic “Hit the Lights,” yet another song that first saw the light of day on Metal Massacre 1. Johan was in fine form, and his death growls worked shockingly well for one of the original thrash songs. After a rare reading of a deep cut from Symbol of Salvation, “Dropping Like Flies,” Fates Warning’s Ray Alder and Agent Steel’s Juan Garcia joined the Saint for a truly left field cover, Slayer’s “Die By the Sword.” When it comes to the show, the song’s appearance was plenty justified (the album from which it hails, Show No Mercy,was Slayer’s debut on Metal Blade Records), but Ray Alder was the last guy I would have chosen to cover this song. Luckily Ray completely proved me wrong and turned in a vicious, wild-eyed vocal, and Juan more than held his own against Phil and Jeff.
The next guest appearance wasn’t a Metal Blade artist, but as John himself said, a youngster who could very well be one in a few years. This guest was a small child named Giuseppe and he ably provided the high notes in “Can U Deliver” while rocking an adorable tiny guitar. The munchkin hit every vocal cue John had for him, and probably displayed a better much attention span than I did at his age. He even did a killer job on the final screams of the track, and probably hit higher notes than even John himself could do nowadays. Armored Saint soon went back to business though, and capped off the set with a raging “Chemical Euphoria,” a song that I’ve wanted to hear live since I hunted down a copy of Raising Fear two years back.
The Saint made a relatively understated return to the stage with “Aftermath” from Delirious Nomad, but the band soon upped the bombast by bringing out Doug Pinnick from King’s X, Nick Van Dyke from Redemption and Eric from Gypsyhawk for a rendition of “Hollywood (Down On Your Luck)” by Thin Lizzy. This cover was more of a stretch when it came to its association with Metal Blade; the song is off of the album Renegade, which saw a reissue from Metal Blade in the ’90s. Regardless of the minor association to Metal Blade though, the eight-piece band offered a fun performance of the obscure Thin Lizzy track. Doug in particular offered a truly soulful performance, throwing in plenty of his ad-libbed wails and screams that he is all too happy to employ with King’s X. After an expectedly badass showing of my all-time favorite Armored Saint song, “Reign of Fire,” the band finished things off in spectacular fashion with their eternal show-stopper, “Mad House.” Doug, Bernie and Ray all returned to the stage to help the band out but this time they were joined by a reluctant, yet ultimately willing Brian Slagel. The four all offered assistance on background vocals, and the crowd went as crazy as one might expect. Hitting the final note of the song thirty times to mark thirty years of Metal Blade, Armored Saint ended their fantastic ninety minute celebration in grand form.
Armored Saint Set List:
1. Lesson Well Learned
2. March of the Saint
3. Left Hook From Right Field
4. Long Before I Die
5. Control Issues
6. Hit the Lights (Metallica cover with Johan Hegg and Bernie Versailles)
7. Human Vulture
8. Dropping Like Flies
9. Die By the Sword (Slayer cover with Ray Alder and Juan Garcia)
10. Little Monkey
11. Can U Deliver (with small child named Giuseppe)
12. Chemical Euphoria
Encore:
13. Aftermath
14. Hollywood (Down on Your Luck) (Thin Lizzy cover with Doug Pinnick, Nick Van Dyke and Eric Harris)
15. Reign of Fire
16. Mad House (with Doug Pinnick, Bernie Versailles, Ray Alder and Brian Slagel)
Despite the disappointing showing from Sacred Reich, the sets from Gypsyhawk and Armored Saint were more than enough to supply a fun Friday night of music. For a little under $25 (the free show posters were a much appreciated bonus), fans were treated to a stellar night of heavy metal. Armored Saint in particular proved why they remain one of the best live acts in their field. The performance was killer, the set list gave me incentive to see them again, and the band offered just the right amount of music to make fans head home happy. It helps that Armored Saint haven’t made a less than great album in their thirty year career. All in all, I had a great time at this Metal Blade 30th Anniversary show, and I can’t wait to see what another thirty years of the label brings to the heavy metal world- there isn’t a better time to be a fan of heavy metal music, and I know that Metal Blade Records will continue to deliver plenty of great new music to my CD collection in the years to come.