By Jason Williams
November 14th 2014, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: Chuck Schuldiner. The name resonates a vast variety of emotions in metal fans. Professional, soulful, brutal, memorable, inspiring, and legendary. These are only some of the descriptions that hailed Chuck throughout his career, and especially afterwards. Two years ago, Chuck’s best friend and then manager formed the Death To All group, a tribute of Death’s music featuring former members of the band, as well as a charity to musicians with disability and financial problems. This Club Nokia gig were to be the third time this group has performed in Los Angeles, and with an old-school death metal support lineup consisting of Obituary and Massacre, fans came out to this event for another special tribute to celebrate Schuldiner’s incredible and monumental legacy.
Despite the sold-out Slayer concert at The Forum a mere 10 miles away, there was quite the line forming at the door for this event. I absolutely knew that had it not been for the Slayer event, this event would have sold out, as the other two performances from DTA in Los Angeles were. And starting up the show at 8 PM, Pennsylvania’s technical death metal blasters Rivers Of Nihil opened up the fairly packed venue. Rivers of Nihil’s style of uncompromising style of intense death metal actually made the band stand out from the rest of the lineup, to the point that they’re the only death metal band tonight with blast beats. Right away, you could see Adam Biggs’ fantastic and proficient bass playing on full display. Major props to the high quality sound of Club Nokia, as the bass tone and volume was fairly present in the mix. The riffs were full of dissonance, something I especially appreciate and love in death metal. “Birth of the Omnisavior” stood out for me, and it included a fun clean section with some promising lead guitar filling it. Vocalist Jake Dieffenbach was very grateful to be on this tour and mentioned as such to all in attendance. Doing his best to get the crowd going and to warm them up, I’d say he did his job. While standing out in this brutal lineup, Rivers of Nihil performed an impressive 30-minute set of technical death metal.
Set List:
01. Terrestria I: Thaw
02. Rain Eater
03. Central Antheneum
04. Mechanical Trees
05. Birth of the Omnisavior
06. A Fertile Altar
07. Soil and Seed
Starting out the old-school portion of the show, death metal veterans Massacre got the ball rolling at 8:45 PM. Massacre formed shortly after Death and consists of two former Death members, bassist Terry Butler and guitarist Rick Rozz, the latter played on Death’s second record Leprosy. The crowd embraced Massacre with the first large mosh pits of the evening in full motion. Normally, I don’t find old-school death metal to really be my thing, in retaliation I absolutely love Leprosy, but their sound was quite heavy and crystal clear, which made the instrumentation far more enjoyable to listen to than otherwise. It was rather surreal to witness, as Rozz’s whammy bar style of lead guitar, as clearly evident on Leprosy, was displayed fully. You could close your eyes and not know who was on guitar, and by hearing him play it, know who it was. Butler consistently nodded at the crowd while headbanging away himself. Not too familiar with their material, I was actually surprised on how great “False Revelation” was on their most recent album, Back from Beyond. Chugging catchy riffs with a groove to make anyone nod in approval at the very least. The highlight of their set though, was a cover of Death’s “Mutilation”. The song has been in Death’s demo stash for quite some time, and it also told me which Death song would NOT be played by DTA tonight. A wild frenzy of pitting and chants of the chorus, “Mutilation!” were in full order. I enjoyed Massacre’s set much more than I thought I would coming in, and was also glad to see them get the crowd reaction and support they deserve.
As Obituary got ready to start, the crowd was incredibly engaged and elated for their set. Witnessing their performance at the 2011 Scion Rock Fest, their set left me bored and non-engaged. To be fair, their sound at that event wasn’t the best, and Agalloch put on an unbelievable show right before they played, so my last impression of Obituary definitely wasn’t proper. I must say, I dug this set a whole lot more. The sound was far better and their mid-paced style of 90s gore-laden death meta made much more of an impact. The Tardy brothers, drummer Donald and vocalist John, forming the band back in 1988, let their presence be known, with the drums thumping loudly all across the venue, and Tardy’s screaming highs really impressing the crowd. This performance was already night and day above the last time they played, with “Chopped in Half” being my favorite song in their hour set. They don’t throw crazy curveballs in the songwriting, and the songs are all generally mid-paced, yet their guitar tone makes each and every note count and leaving nothing in its wake. All around, fans in Obituary shirts soaked in every metal moment, not withstanding their cheerful ovation of the classic “Slowly We Rot”. Although still not my fair cup of tea on album, this performance was what I wish their 2011 show should have been. Obituary simply tore it up, and brought out old-school death metal on this Friday evening.
Set List:
01. Bloodsoaked
02. Immortal Visions
03. Infected
04. Visions In My Head
05. Violence
06. Chopped in Half
07. Turned Inside Out
08. Back to One
09. Inked In Blood
10. Slowly We Rot
And before we knew it, it was 11 PM, with “Chuck!” chants loudly prevailing in the air. Just like the show in April 2013, many intros were in place for select songs in their set. To a short sample of “Out of Touch”, the crowd roared in delight and the Death To All group opened the set with the fan favorite, “The Philosopher”. The pit floor was absolutely full, and was only able to slightly open up when any violent mosh would occur. All around the venue, you could see fans in shock and singing their hearts away, as these poetic, intelligent, memorable, and gruesome older songs have been with them for quite some time. As with each DTA tour, the lineup changes in some form, with guitarist from the Symbolic record Bobby Koeble, longtime bass wizard Steve Digiorio from his time on Human and Individual Thought Patterns, Cynic’s drumming extraordinare Sean Reinert guesting on the Human record and Max Phelps, who was handling the vocals and Chuck’s guitar work. The sound was clear but could have been higher in the mix. That all completely changed at the opening notes of “Spiritual Healing”. I absolutely cannot describe how loud and mindblowing the earthquake-like guitars were, with the drums turned up to meet the deadly massacre of brutal sound. A loud and proper horns salute to the sound man who made this performance the heaviest sounding show of the year thus far. While Phelps was in charge of the growling and screams, Digiorio was the one who would joyfully respond to the crowd in between songs and happily thank everyone for attending, also mentioning the Slayer show. And compared to last year’s show, the song selection was far better, as the previous show was only an hour and had sound issues. “In Human Form” was a wonderful selection, “Overactive Imagination” being one of my actual favorite Death songs, and “Zero Tolerance” has always been an underrated track off of “Symbolic.” Watching Phelps is interesting in the sense that he plays the same stealth style of guitar Chuck played, holding the guitar the same, and impressively nailing Chuck’s older style of growling. He handled Chuck’s lead fairly well, adding his own twists in some of the sections. Because the sound was greatly enhanced and quite loud, Phelps’ vocals could have been louder, although still at a fine volume. While there was a large Death logo as the main banner of the stage, it would have been a nice touch to have added a piece of Chuck, whether it be a picture or something else. But this show clearly adopted a ‘Less is More’ approach. And that’s where comparing shows has to come into play. The very first DTA show in June 2012 was remarkably special, with DTA playing a 22-song set in a truly magical and unforgettable performance and the lineup changing at each different time period. A large picture collage of Chuck from all ages, displayed through it all, bringing tears to the sold-out Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, which is the show this writer attended. The problem is, that gig absolutely set the bar extremely high, may be too high. To have such an uplifting and untouchable performance is a key component to a show of that magnitude, and anything else even slightly below it wouldn’t be the same. Tonight’s 90-minute edition of classic Death songs, although them not playing anything from The Sound of Perservance was a bummer, was still met with the kind of appreciation and memory any death metal fan should have of Chuck. The encore, “Pull the Plug”, engulfed the ears of this packed house, with the pre-chorus lyric “Why don’t you..” yelled profoundly by all in attendance. In no way was tonight a letdown. By far the loudest and heaviest sounding show I’ve attended this year.
Chuck’s memory will forever carry on within our hearts and minds. This Death to All performance was definitely a step up from last year’s LA show, All those who chose the Death to All show were reminded again why Chuck Schuldiner will never be forgotten and why he is the most influential man in death metal.
Set List:
01. Out of Touch/The Philosopher
02. Suicide Machine
03. Spiritual Healing/Within the Mind
04. Flattening of Emotions
05. Living Monstrosity
06. Overactive Imagination
07. In Human Form
08. Leprosy
09. Left to Die
10. Crystal Mountain
11. Symbolic
12. Zero Tolerance
13. Zombie Ritual
14. Baptized in Blood
15. Pull the Plug
Remaining Tour Dates:
11/18 – Seattle WA – Studio Seven
11/19 – Vancouver BC – Rickshaw Theater (feat. Untimely Demise)
11/21 – Calgary AB – MacEwan Ballroom (feat. Untimely Demise)
11/22 – Regina SK – Riddell Centre (feat. Untimely Demise)
11/23 – Winnipeg MB – Park Theatre (feat. Untimely Demise)
11/24 – Minneapolis MN – Amsterdam
11/25 – Chicago IL – Metro
11/26 – Cleveland OH – Agora Theater
11/27 – Toronto ON – Phoenix Concert Hall
11/28 – Montreal QC – Le National
11/29 – Boston MA – Brighton Music Hall
11/30 – New York NY – Best Buy Theater
12/03 – Springfield VA – Empire
12/04 – Charlotte NC – Tremont Music Hall
12/05 – Atlanta GA – Masquerade
12/06 – Tampa FL – The Orpheum (no Obituary)
12/07 – Miami FL – Grand Central