By Andrew Bansal
May 4th 2013, The Airliner, Los Angeles CA: The Bloodletting North America tour began in San Francisco on Friday and made its way to Los Angeles’ Airliner club last night. Headlined by French technical death metal band Gorod, the tour also featured Fallujah, Vale Of Pnath, Inanimate Existence, Kamikabe and The Kennedy Veil, along with local support from Isolation In Infamy and Memory for this show alone. I had never been to this place nor heard of any bands I know of playing there. It promised to be an interesting adventure and it actually was, in the end.
There are so many things about this show I want to talk about, but I’ll focus on the performances first. There were two stages, the main stage upstairs and the smaller one downstairs. The show kicked off downstairs with Memory from Chula Vista playing an impressive 30-minute set. Being the kind of tour this is, I pretty much expected them to play the exact same style of extreme metal but they surprised me with their variations and with the sheer quality of their material. They had progressive, atmospheric elements but kept the intensity and strength that appealed to this extreme metal crowd. I’d be inclined to check out their studio recordings and see them again. LA’s very own Isolation In Infamy came next on this stage, and did what they always do best. Their exemplary guitar work and tremendous stage presence were the two standout aspects of this performance, with Chris Audish ripping it up on the 6-string bass and adding even more meat to the sound. They announced one song as ‘brand new’, and this slow tune was a fun addition, a good change-up from the older songs and great for the headbangers. They closed out with their most recognizable ‘hit’, ‘Psychological Bombardment’ and got treated to a well-earned applause from the small gathering. The final band for this stage Gortuary couldn’t make it to the show, so with the end of Isolation In Infamy’s set, that was it for the second stage.
The main stage got going even as the proceedings went along on the stage downstairs, and after Memory’s set I caught a portion of The Kennedy Veil. This brutal death metal band from Sacramento CA are only part of the West Coast leg of this tour, and they managed to entertain. The band showed good crowd interaction skills and weren’t merely looking at their instruments while playing, as most other bands did last night. Vocalist Taylor Wientjes in particular displayed great energy. His mannerisms (and at times his voice) were reminiscent of Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe. The lower down a band is on a touring lineup, the harder they have to try to impress crowds. The Kennedy Veil, led by the vocalist, certainly did that and succeeded to a large extent. The music itself sounded thick and crisp, with scorching guitar leads and blast beat drum attack. Some of the following bands played a similar style too, and me being unfamiliar with everyone other than Gorod to be honest, it actually worked out in The Kennedy Veil’s favor that they played first.
The next two bands Kamikabe and Inanimate Existence did not really do anything to grab one’s attention. They both had some cool change-ups and interludes but when it came to the meat and potatoes of the music, it all sounded a bit too repetitive. As opposed to the original schedule, Kamikabe were supposed to go on as the third highest band on the bill, but their spot was switched with Denver, Colorado’s Vale Of Pnath, and after witnessing what this band did, I’d say rightly so! Vocalist Stevie
Boiser had an on-stage personality all of his own. His expressions were pretty wild and even for people who’re not into their music, it’d be really hard for them not to pay attention to the band with a singer like that. They seemed to have a huge fan following, judging from the response of this crowd towards them, and the band didn’t disappoint their fans one bit. It was a fantastic set by them. The musicianship was tight and the songs were strong. They ended with a song based on the ‘Total Recall’ movie, and Stevie yelling out ‘Start the reactor!’ in the middle of the song to start a moshpit was a fun moment. They’re definitely destined to be the next big thing in modern metal, and should make rapid strides in the near future.
Next came San Francisco’s Fallujah, and they brought a much needed element of melodic death metal as well as old-school extreme metal to this otherwise modern metal show. I’ve always been a big fan of melody in extreme metal and I enjoyed Fallujah’s set. I’ve come across their name several times in the past but never got a chance to see them live before this. It was a solid performance by a band that looked perfectly comfortable and confident with what they were doing, primed through loads of touring and hard work over the past five years. This is the kind of band that should be on tours like Mayhem and Summer Slaughter, and I have no idea why they’re not.
Finally, Gorod took the stage and tore it apart. The endlessness of musical talent in Europe amazes me, and there continues to be a plethora of bands that are undiscovered in America. After seeing Gorod last night, I’d firmly put them on top of the European extreme metal underground, for they should really be a lot more popular than this. Their music fits every positive adjective you can find to describe modern extreme metal. Fast, heavy, technically brilliant, progressive, atmospheric and intense. The set list consisted of songs old and new, and was compiled together perfectly well to showcase the different facets of the band’s music. Some songs were ultra-fast and engaged moshpits, while others were just all about pure brutality. The crowd was loving this set and the pits were going nuts with every passing song. Despite their super-late entrance, they played for close to an hour and ensured that the crowd left the venue satisfied. A great first impression by Gorod, and hopefully there’s more to come from them soon.
As good as the majority of the bands were, there were certain aspects of the show itself that ruined the positive impact the Bloodletting tour should have had. This could be long but I’ll keep it as brief as possible. First of all, a 21-plus venue does not work for a modern extreme metal show. This music is made for younger audiences and it’s sinful to deny the under-21 entry into such a show. Secondly, and most annoyingly, the time between bands was way too long. You can’t take 30-minute breaks between 30-minute sets. It all led to the headliner taking the stage at 25 minutes past midnight. I mean, that’s just ridiculous. I know it was a Saturday night but that doesn’t mean we had all damn night to stay at that venue while they took their merry own time to set up. Thirdly, the lighting on the main stage was much too low, to the distress of Gorod whose clear request for ‘more lights on stage’ wasn’t heeded. Fourthly, much of Gorod’s set was soured by a photographer who was positioned on the stage behind the ban, facing the crowd. Because of the extra-dark surroundings his camera’s flash was going nuts. It was extremely distracting for the band and more so for us in the crowd. I was just wishing he would get the fuck off that stage, but he stayed there for more than half of Gorod’s set. And lastly, there was a fan right in the corner of where the force of the mosh pits would be felt, believe it or not. Not the fan you’re thinking of, but an actual fan, a pedestal fan. Unfuckingbelievable. It was extremely hazardous to place that there, and no wonder it was bumped into and smashed several times during Gorod’s set.
All in all though, the Bloodletting tour brought some impressive bands in front of this LA crowd, and had it not been for some of the shortcomings mentioned above, the show could have been a bigger success than what it ended up being.
Remaining dates on this tour:
5/05 – Las Vegas, NV – Cheyenne Saloon* (w/ The Kennedy Veil)
5/06 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall (Moon Room)
5/07 – Albuquerque, NM – Hooligans
5/08 – Oklahoma City, OK – Conservatory
5/09 – Houston, TX – White Swan
5/10 – New Orleans, LA – TBA
5/11 – Tampa, FL – Brass Mug
5/12 – Atlanta, GA – TBA
5/13 – W. Columbia, SC – New Brooklyn Tavern
5/14 – Charlotte, NC – Casbah
5/15 – Springfield, VA – Empire
5/16 – Reading, PA – Reverb
5/17 – Cleveland, OH – TBA
5/18 – Clementon, NJ – Harper’s Pub
5/19 – Brooklyn, NY – St. Vitus
5/20 – Albany NY – Bogies
5/21 – Keen, NH – Railroad Tavern
5/23 – Ottawa, ON – Mavericks
5/24 – Montréal, QC – Alize
5/25 – Québec,QC – L’Agitee
5/26 – Toronto, ON – The Rockpile
5/27 – Chicago, IL – Reggies
5/28 – St. Paul, MN – TBA
5/31 – Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
6/01 – Vancouver, BC – Astoria Pub