By Andrew Bansal
June 23rd 2014, The Down & Out Bar, Los Angeles CA: Following the release of their debut full-length album ‘Mirrors For A Prince’, Washington DC-based progressive rock/metal quintet Wings Denied embarked on a US headline tour on June 5th and made their way to the West Coast. Having started out in 2012, Wings Denied were playing their first ever show in Los Angeles, headlining a ‘Metal Monday’ gig at the Down & Out Bar in downtown LA, put together as always by local promoters Church Of The 8th Day and Thee Static Age and also featuring LA bands Andraus and Livin Alive as support acts.
Hailing from the San Gabriel Valley, old-school metal quartet Livin Alive started the show at 10:40 with an avalanche of fast-paced blackened thrash tunes filled to the brim with scorching riffs, solos and harmonies to go with strong vocals and a solid rhythm section. The band has been playing shows on a regular basis, and the more I see them, the more confident and expressive they seem to get, bringing forth a stronger presence each time they take a stage. Along with bands such as Night Demon, Gypsyhawk, Holy Grail, Legal Tender and Diamond Lane, Livin Alive are fast becoming worthy flag bearers of classic metal in the Los Angeles scene, and those who haven’t yet seen Livin Alive are highly recommended to do so because their live performances invariably make for a good time.
Livin Alive links:
facebook.com/LivinAlive
instagram.com/LivinAliveSGV
Next up, Pasadena-based two-piece heavy experimental act Andraus took the stage and put on an exhibition that combined Austin Cox’ highly skilled shred guitar play with Andrew Cox’ equally technical drumming. It was certainly a relentless bombardment of notes and intricate patterns, and even though the band itself is a very new entity, the musical pedigree of the duo was quite evident from their performance and it was clear that they’ve grown up spending hours upon hours perfecting their craftsmanship on these instruments. They combined touches of thrash, doom, death and prog metal to deliver a crushing sound. Because of its experimental, progressive and richly textured nature, Andraus’ music is definitely an acquired taste and isn’t for everybody, but those of you that have an appreciation for shred and technical intricacy will no doubt enjoy what Andraus has to offer.
Andraus links:
facebook.com/AndrausBand
twitter.com/AndrausBand
Andraus.bandcamp.com
And at around half-past midnight, the headliners Wings Denied began their set. They looked excited to be playing a gig in Los Angeles and it showed in the unwavering levels of energy and enthusiasm they displayed throughout this set. This Metal Monday gig here at the Down & Out didn’t by any means attract the largest audience you would ever see, but Wings Denied carried themselves with the right attitude and played exactly the same way they would have done on a bigger stage in front of a bigger crowd. The seven-string guitars and the five-string bass were put to apt use as the band presented a monstrously heavy modern prog metal sound. The guitar playing was exemplary, the other instruments combined excellently with it and vocalist Luka Kerecin lent a great balancing touch to it all by adding a great degree of emotion and melody to the expression of the band’s overall sound. I found it certainly worth my time to witness what was hopefully Wings Denied’s first of many Los Angeles gigs, and I can imagine them doing extremely well with the likes of Periphery, Tesseract, and bands of that nature.
It was also interesting to see this band being booked and given an opportunity by the folks in Church Of The 8th Day and Thee Static Age, who usually go for bands that are a lot more ‘old-fashioned’ musically, so to speak. There is no reason why the old and the new styles of heavy music can’t co-exist, and the onus is on local promoters like these guys to prove that by putting together the likes of Wings Denied and Livin Alive under the same bill. All in all, good times at another edition of Metal Monday at the Down & Out.
Wings Denied links:
facebook.com/WingsDenied
twitter.com/WingsDenied
WingsDenied.bandcamp.com
Remaining Tour Dates:
6.24 Long Beach, CA @ The Prospector
6.25 Mesa, AZ @ The Underground
6.29 Austin, TX @ Dirty Dog Bar
6.30 Baton Rouge, LA @ The Library At Northgate
7.01 Tallahassee, FL @ TBA
7.02 Tampa, FL @ Insomniacs Bar
7.03 St. Augustine, FL @ Panama Hatties
7.04 Athens, GA @ The Cha Cha House
7.06 Greensboro, NC @ Club Orion
7.08 Washington, DC @ The Velvet Lounge
Church Of The 8th Day links:
8thDayTix.com
facebook.com/ChurchOfThe8thDay
twitter.com/Church8thDay
Thee Static Age links:
TheeStaticAge.com
facebook.com/pages/Thee-Static-Age/232515196785467
The Down & Out Bar links:
DownAndOutBar.com
facebook.com/pages/The-Down-Out/345069255526