By Andrew Bansal
August 16th 2015, Complex, Glendale CA: Longstanding Los Angeles extreme metal stalwarts Dreaming Dead made a rare local live appearance at Complex in Glendale last Sunday August 16 2015, for a headline show presented by the omnipresent and prolific Church Of The 8th Day in association with Thee Static Age, and featuring Morbid Eclipse, Mysticism and Terraforming as support acts. On one hand was Dreaming Dead, one of the most respected underground bands in town, and on the other hand was Morbid Eclipse from outer space, conquering planet earth at the speed of light. The event was an exciting prospect for LA metal enthusiasts, and by the end they certainly felt fortunate to have been in attendance.
Locals gathered even in searing temperatures, as the show began at 9:20 with East LA extreme metal group Terraforming taking the stage and playing a solid set, but their efforts to set the tone for the rest of the evening were somewhat negated by the next band Mysticism who completely failed to impress with their bland, generic, uninteresting thrash. Full credit for effort, but one could be certain that things were only going to get better after the end of Mysticism’s set.
Morbid Eclipse, an extreme metal band in theory but so much more in reality, debuted their brand new stage show with additions to the lighting rig and a new stage prop, and took the impact of their live performance to levels previously unimaginable. No matter who they share the stage with, they will always be the band that stands out strongest in memory because of their hypnotic powers that come across in a manner as extraterrestrial as their lyrical and visual themes. Talking of hypnotism, in a new ceremony they performed for the first time ever on stage, they brainwashed a poor, unsuspecting soul by strapping him into a chair and forcing him to watch a sequence of images on an ancient television screen. Purely on musical merit, the songs ‘Storm Grinder’ and ‘Nineteenth Day Of Theptar’ stood out as the highlights, and even though the fantastic ‘Black Abyss’ was missing from this set, this will go down as a tremendously memorable performance in the minds of first-timers and die-hards alike. After a series of strange LA area appearances, Morbid Eclipse finally got to perform in front of the right crowd, with the right promoter at the right venue. One can expect even greater things from them in the near future, and LA metalheads are advised to bear witness to their next mind-bending ritual at Los Globos with Bolzer on October 14.
Set List:
01. Storm Grinder
02. Envoy From Space
03. Poison Winds
04. Sonic Demise
05. Vorpal Patch
06. MTMACD
07. Relics
08. Nineteenth Day Of Theptar
09. Green Jewel
And lastly, despite suffering through vehicle problems earlier in the day, Dreaming Dead made it in time to scorch the already blazing hot Complex with an exhibition of technical death metal mastery in a manner they have perfected over several years. Frontwoman Liz Schall is undoubtedly one of the finest vocalist/guitarist personalities in the community, and led her band on this stage with utmost aplomb. It is nothing short of a travesty for not only the Los Angeles metal scene but the extreme metal genre on the whole that bands far inferior than Dreaming Dead are more popular, but that’s what makes every Dreaming Dead show special. In terms of the set list, they played some older tunes as well as material off of their upcoming album ‘Funeral Twilight’. Judging by the title track itself, it crushes skulls with greater ferociousness than any of the band’s previous work, and makes the album a highly anticipated one, slated for release at some point before the end of the year. The crowd loved every minute of it, even though head-banging seemed grossly out of fashion and standing in the front row with folded arms was clearly the hip thing to do.
The quality of the sound for all the bands was as supreme as it always is at Complex. As pointed out by Liz Schall, the turnout was appreciably good for a Sunday evening, and those that did not attend definitely missed out on an incredible show.