By Andrew Bansal
April 10th 2015, Five Star Bar, Los Angeles CA: Canadian traditional power/thrash metal warriors Striker have enjoyed eight prolific years since their 2007 inception, releasing an EP and three excellent full-length studio albums, and touring Canada and Europe during this period. But, for more reasons than one, they couldn’t line up a US tour and their cult fan-following in the States have awaited their arrival for a long time. Finally, after canceling their participation in the fall 2014 Onslaught/Artillery US tour, they have made it here as main support to Artillery. The first show of this tour was at the ever-awesome Five Star Bar in downtown Los Angeles last Friday April 10th, an event that turned out to be a long and tiring hangout for many in attendance.
Besides Artillery and Striker, there are three other bands on the touring package, VX36, Potential Threat and Dahlmer’s Realm, which already makes it a long show, and in addition there were three local openers on the bill for this particular event, which was definitely excessive and one felt that Witchaven should have been the only local opening act. An 8-band lineup was unnecessary, as any promoter or venue would find it a huge challenge to handle it and maintain decorum. This event started on the wrong foot as the first band went on more than 30 minutes later than scheduled, and it just kept getting worse. By the end, it was 80 minutes behind schedule. Artillery got only ten minutes to set up their equipment and do their line check, all that to only be able to play a 40-minute set before the bar had to be closed at its curfew time, which made no sense when some of the local and touring openers took upwards of 40 minutes to get ready for 20-minute sets. Even before Artillery started, a few attendees were seen sleeping on the couches, bar stools and on the sidewalk outside the venue, which was sad and hilarious at the same time.
I was there for the entirety of the event and more, from 6:45 PM till 1:45 AM, and checked out every single band. In all honesty, aside from Witchaven, none amongst the three local openers and the three touring openers did anything worth mentioning in a positive light. Their lengthy setup times definitely did not help their cause as it was easy to lose interest in their performance when it was taking so long to start. But leaving that aside, the drum sound for these bands was particularly unimpressive and at times was St. Anger bad. Bad drumming ruins thrash bands more than anything. Anyhow, focussing on the positives, the dudes in Witchaven put forth a typically strong set, their song ‘Empty Chasm‘ getting the juices flowing as it always does. This band has been a force to reckon with for a number of years now and continue to show how it’s done.
At 15 minutes past midnight, Striker finally hit the stage and singlehandedly made this evening worthwhile, laying down an extremely impressive set, and one could not possibly imagine a stronger US live debut from them. It has been a while since I last saw four microphone stands in the foreground of the stage for a heavy metal band, and sure enough, Striker’s performance relied heavily on the four-pronged vocal harmonies delivered by lead singer Dan Cleary and his band mates on the bass and guitars. The guitar tradeoffs/twin solos and drums were equally excellent as well, and Striker did their country’s longstanding reputation of producing tremendously compelling traditional heavy metal bands no harm whatsoever. Songs off of their 2014 album ‘City Of Gold’ sounded fantastic and so did the older ones, but I am still unhealthily obsessed with their 2012 release ‘Armed To The Teeth’, and ‘Lethal Force’, a song that successfully captures all elements of Striker’s musical style, was my highlight of the set. I was disappointed to discover that ‘Wolf Gang’ from the same album, perhaps my favorite Striker tune, was excluded from the set, but was genuinely pleased to experience this criminally underrated band perform on an LA stage at long last. A righteously fist-pumping metal performance.
Related: In Conversation With Striker Drummer Adam Brown
Despite all the delays, most Artillery diehards were still awake and in attendance, and gave the band a great response throughout their curtailed set. This band has been carrying the torch for real underground thrash for more than three decades, and they did their best to put forth as accurate of a representation of their career as they were allowed to. All layers of their sound were dialed in perfectly as their decades of experience enabled them to know exactly how to work with the sound guy, an aspect many local/younger bands fail at, and the speed in Artillery’s thrash is still unabatedly representative of the very basic foundations of the genre. If anything, they could perhaps switch around the order of songs in the set and make better use of the newer material which has more dynamics, to give the set a more varied persona as a whole. That being said, it was still a performance worthy of their respectable stature.
Interview coming soon
Overall, Artillery, Witchaven, the great underground metal vibe at the Five Star Bar, and most of all Striker made this otherwise excessively lengthy and uninteresting event worth the attendees’ investments of time, effort and money.
Remaining Tour Dates:
4/13/2015 The Three Links – Deep Ellum, TX
4/14/2015 The Dirty Dog – Bar Austin, TX
4/15/2015 Walter’s – Houston, TX
4/16/2015 Siberia- New Orleans, LA
4/17/2015 West End Live – Orlando, FL
4/19/2015 The Brass Mug – Tampa, FL
4/21/2015 The Pour House Music Hall – Raleigh, NC
4/22/2015 The Syndicate Venue – Birmingham, AL
4/23/2015 Good Time Charlie’s – Tupelo, MS
4/24/2015 The Metal Grille RK NYDM Spring Bash ’15 – Cudahy, WI
4/25/2015 Vaudeville Mews Des – Moines, IA
4/26/2015 Bushwacker’s Saloon – Denver, CO
4/27/2015 The Metro Bar – Salt Lake City, UT