By Andrew Bansal
May 15th 2013, The Viper Room, Hollywood CA: Following the release of their sophomore full-length effort ‘Ride The Void’, Los Angeles’ very own metal warriors Holy Grail have been highly active on the road lately, finishing a successful run on the mighty Metal Alliance tour alongside the likes of Anthrax, Exodus, Municipal Waste and High On Fire. They will go on their own tour next month, but in the meanwhile they are enjoying their break in LA, turning up to perform a headline show or two, like they did last night at the Viper Room. As support acts, they had with them three fellow LA bands in doomsters Behold! The Monolith, death/thrash/punk outfit Gravehill and Cliff ‘Em All, a tribute to ’81-’86 Metallica. Being as heavily involved in the LA gig circuit as I am, I look forward to these all-LA shows probably more than anyone else. I got there at around 8.30 PM, and the stage looked set for a fabulous LA metal night.
Cliff ‘Em All kicked off the show at around 8.45. The complete ‘Ecstasy Of Gold’ intro a la Metallica proved straightaway that this band took their act very seriously. They tore things up right from the get-go with ‘Fight Fire With Fire’, and once you open with a song like that, there’s just no looking back. You simply can’t go wrong with early Metallica, as was evident from the positive response of the crowd even at this early point of the evening. The band was top notch in their performance of the songs they chose to play, which included ‘No Remorse’, ‘Whiplash’, ‘Damage Inc’ and ‘Creeping Death’. The whole set itself was great, but there were two major pleasant surprises for me. I didn’t think anyone would ever attempt ‘Anasthesia–Pulling Teeth’, but these guys did so, and sure did a good job at it. I had no idea that the lead guitarist and bassist are from the band Lightning Swords Of Death. It was highly amusing to see them play Metallica songs up there. I’m so glad they didn’t do the generic Metallica ‘hits’, specially that criminally overrated ‘Seek And Desterrroy’. The other surprise was a cover of Slayer’s ‘Die By The Sword’, as Cliff ‘Em All became Slay ‘Em All in honor of Jeff Hanneman. In all, it was a feel-good set by Cliff ‘Em All and it was great to relive the magic of those classic Metallica tunes all over again.
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Set List:
1. Fight Fire With Fire
2. No Remorse
3. Anasthesia–Pulling Teeth
4. Whiplash
5. Die By The Sword (Slayer cover)
6. Damage Inc.
7. Creeping Death
Gravehill appeared on stage next, with frontman Mike Abominator glistening gloriously in stage blood. I’ve seen these guys a few times in the past. They’re the kind whom you can’t possibly hate when you’re seeing them live. If you like the music, great. Even if you don’t, their visual aspect with the stage blood along with the humor infused by Mike’s hilarious facial expressions and crowd banter makes them entertaining to watch. The Viper Room places a catwalk which extends the stage down its center for some of their events. Last night was one such event because of a porn sideshow going on between the bands’ sets that I did not give a flying fuck about, no pun intended. But it made for some uniquely funny moments during Gravehill’s set as Mike Abominator marched down the catwalk, blood dripping everywhere, careful of every step and worried about the catwalk collapsing under him. Now that’s a Gravehill experience I never thought I’d get. Their music was filled to the brim with good ol’ death/black/thrash, compelling the head-bangers to get their necks in motion with their invisible oranges raised high. They ‘punked’ it up for the last two songs of the set though, with a G.G. Allin cover followed by the set closer ‘Crucify’. Killer set by Gravehill, as always!
Set List:
1. Death Curse
2. Devil Worshipper
3. Open Their Throats
4. Fear The Reaper
5. Unending Lust
6. I Kill Everything I Fuck (G.G. Allin cover)
7. Crucify
The LA metal vibe was so strong and relentless, I could almost smell it. Doom trio Behold! The Monolith were next. They impressed me the first time I saw them, opening for Armored Saint at the Sunset House of Blues in 2010, and I’ve kept tab on their activities ever since. I found their most recent full-length album ‘Defender, Redeemist’ to be fantastic, one of the best ‘undergod’ releases of last year. And indeed, they opened this set with the 11-minute doom treat ‘Redeemist’. They brought along a completely different atmosphere as compared to any of the other bands that played this show. At the start, there was smoke everywhere, and as guitarist Matt Price fired away the sweet, clean guitar segments on his Gibson Les Paul, it was an ethereal, psychedelic feeling. Even with the strong doom vibe, they had plenty of variations within each of these long tunes. Having seen Motörhead the night before, I couldn’t help but think of Matt Price as a younger Lemmy because of his appearance. ‘We Are The Worm’ was the other song off of that album, following which they belted out a Celtic Frost cover, and ended with a new unreleased tune which makes me excited for their next album even more. A mighty awesome performance by Behold! The Monolith.
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Set List:
1. Redeemist
2. We Are The Worm
3. Into The Crypts Of Rays (Celtic Frost cover)
4. Mithridatist
Sharply at midnight, headliners Holy Grail took the stage in front of a now-packed Viper Room. It was a little over two years ago that I saw them here on this very stage, when they were kicking off their first ever headline tour, and that was also then-new guitarist Alex Lee’s first show with the band. Time has flown by, the band has done numerous high-profile tours, released another album, and I was very much waiting to see how they’ve progressed as a live band. And sure enough, they’ve improved leaps and bounds as on-stage musicians and performers. They seemed to revel as a headliner, playing to their own crowd and their energy was transferring well into the audience. They mixed up the set perfectly with 6 songs each from the Crisis In Utopia and Ride The Void albums, although I would have also liked to hear ‘Cherish Disdain’ and ‘For All Eternity’, specially the latter, a forgotten Holy Grail classic that never made it onto a studio release.
Of course, the staple crowd favorites like ‘Immortal Man’, ‘Call Of Valhalla’, ‘My Last Attack’ and the final song ‘Fight To Kill’ sent this crowd into a frenzy. The songs off of Ride The Void sounded great and blended with the older songs better than I was expecting. ‘Bleeding Stone’ was as enjoyable as any of the old songs actually, along with the tile track ‘Ride The Void’ and ‘Take It to The Grave’. Singer Luna and guitarists Eli and Alex were definitely enjoyed the extra stage room by utilizing the catwalk to its fullest. It made for an entertaining show and their on-stage personalities were there to be appreciated by one and all. Technically, there was one flaw in the set. The vocals were mixed too low, and were being drowned out by the drums. All bands were playing on the Viper Room’s house kit so may be that had something to do with it, but things sounded fine for the opening bands, so the mess-up during Holy Grail’s set was a bit weird. I mean, I could see Luna hitting all the right notes, but sadly couldn’t be heard too much (I was in the front row but I verified this with people in the back).
Other than that, it was a kickass performance that delighted die-hard hometown fans of the band and largely gained the approval of first-time Holy Grail concert attendees. I would like to thank the promoter for putting on such a killer all-LA lineup. I love Los Angeles metal, and I hope for many more such nights in the near future.
[Check out Holy Grail’s headline tour schedule here]
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Set List:
1. Immortal Man
2. Bleeding Stone
3. Too Decayed To Wait
4. Dark Passenger
5. Call Of Valhalla
6. Ride The Void
7. Crisis In Utopia
8. Hollow Ground
9. Take It To The Grave
10.Crosswinds
11.My Last Attack
12.Fight To Kill