By Lisa Burke
November 14th 2015, Complex, Glendale CA: Last Saturday night I chose to complete my heavy metal mission with some quality death metal bands of various styles, and of course what better location would you expect to find your favorite death metal band playing a live show other than Complex in Glendale? On this night, headliners Hate Eternal performed with the tour package titled ‘The Infernus Tour’ including Misery Index, Beyond Creation and Rivers Of Nihil, along with the local opener Servile Conceptions, for an event put together as always by Church Of The 8th Day.
As per usual, with Complex shows of this caliber the room was packed and the sweltering Florida swamplands were seeping through my pores despite the semi-chill temperature of the outside. For those of you that have attended Complex you know there is no marquee or venue title sign out front, so basically you just look for the metalheads and perhaps a tour bus to know you have arrived. The reasoning behind this apparently is that it costs an arm and a couple of legs to gain the rights to this in the town of Glendale. Seems a shame yet it makes life interesting for everyone, and it means you don’t go there unless you know who’s playing, so I’m not really complaining as that has its perks.
I arrived for the beginning of this one as I was curious to see the opener Servile Conceptions for what they could possibly bring to the table. These guys and girl are a an LA-based quartet that was formed in 2011. The female guitar player who mastered hair whipping and had some decent riffage was about the only highlight for me with this band, unfortunately. I was highly disturbed by the confusing drum beats, and was hoping for more vocals of a more creative style. It was painfully obvious that Hate Eternal was a big influence for this band, yet the rate of success for accomplishing this style of death metal did not, in my opinion, deem them worthy of opening for them. The potential exists, yet the follow through was in need of more layers, depth, and technique, especially in the percussion department.
Next up, extreme metal band Rivers Of Nihil from Reading, PA who signed to Metal Blade records in 2012, took the stage by force. They definitely brought their best East Coast metal game to the table, and won over some new fans. As far as death metal goes, they definitely had the screaming hardcore vocals mixed with the interesting death riffage and beats which threw them into the category of typical deathcore for me, yet there was some extra added flavor they mixed in well. Seems to me this quintet is on the right track and rising to the occasion commendably. I also noted that Kermit the frog is apparently a big fan of death metal and this particular band because his presence, or perhaps a look alike, was spotted in the mosh pit headbanging and mouthing obscenities. Not sure what happened to his feet on this particular occasion as he was simply a torso with arms and a head, but I suppose they would probably just get in the way at an event such as this.
My true favorite of the night and main draw to this show happened to be Misery Index, however Beyond Creation blew me away with their progressive death metal set. Apparently, Canadians are born knowing progression because there are quite a few very talented bands from Canada that pull off the prog licks quite tastefully, and Beyond Creation is one of my favorites in this area. The two guitar players utilize their matching guitars to the max which consist of too many strings to count and no headstocks to be found. Then, the bass player plays a fretless 8-string bass that is almost bigger than he is, and of course it seems effortless. No frets, no regrets I suppose. The sound was so clean and so interesting, and I simply loved the progressive jam interludes followed by progressive riffs topped with Dying Fetus-esque vocals that are pristine in sound. The drumming was notably accurate as well as interesting, and I could have easily enjoyed another hour of these guys. Coming from the girl who is very picky about the progressive bands she likes, this should mean the world. I might get a little slap to the face for saying this, but I’d take them over Opeth any day.
Misery Index is pretty lucky they are so technically skilled as well as creative that they could follow a band like Beyond Creation with such ease. For a band like Misery Index who comes from the East Coast territory of Baltimore, Maryland, they stand out so high over other death metal bands because of their fluidly clean mixture of grind that they stir up to the perfect consistency. Adam Jarvis may have just surpassed Keith Moon for the best drummer on this planet award in my opinion from watching him at this show. He has been a drummer for Hate Eternal as well as Pig Destroyer, and on this night his drum beats were beyond perfection in cleanliness, creativity, and brutality. I can not stress enough how a little creative think-outside-the-box drum implosion goes a long way. There was a fun moment where the singer announced “Ladies and gentlemen, we broke shit” and less than a minute later they bust out into raging perfection again without a care in the world. The dichotomy of the dueling guitars and the dueling vocals were spot on and extremely compelling as well. It’s an appeasing dynamic of two greatly skilled frontmen in my opinion. Their latest album ‘The Killing Gods’ has some great masterpieces on it as was further proven when performed in a live setting. The crowd was engaged from start to finish and the set duration was as it usually is at Complex. One last attribute I must mention is that this band proves that sometimes you don’t necessarily need long hair or a creative wardrobe to make killer music and blow the audience out of the water.
Finally it was Florida’s larger-than-life trio Hate Eternal‘s time to shine, and if you have never seen Erik Rutan perform live as I never had previous to this night, then you are missing out. His stage presence is out of control, his guitar skills are pretty impeccable, and he is pretty much a one-man show. There is the vibe similar to that of Zakk Wylde that eminates through him yet it is quickly manifested ten times over to the point where if you are in a room with this man, basically no one else exists as his presence is completely mesmerizing. Yes, the bass and drums are great too, but only if you can get past Erik to even notice they are in the room as well. This is pretty straightforward brutal death metal yet extra powerful in its delivery and there are some great commanding riffs that shine through in every song. The only downside is a slight stagnancy in the jumps from one song to the other, creating some monotony, yet all of it is still so powerful and interesting that I don’t really mind the similarities. Erik from his luscious locks to his badass red guitar, handled the audience like they were putty in his hand. Glad I got to witness these dudes and definitely would never want to be on an opposing team from Erik Rutan ever. End of story, but please get out there to see this great line up if you can, and get your mind blown from some diehard death metal masters.
Remaining dates:
11/16 – Las Vegas, NV @ LVCS
11/18 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
11/19 – Lubbock,TX @ Depot Obar Live
11/20 – Ft Worth, TX @ Tomcats West
11/21 – Austin, TX @ Dirty Dog Bar
11/22 – New Orleans, LA @ Siberia
11/24 – St Petersburg, FL @ State Theatre Saint Petersburg *
11/25 – Sanford, FL @ West End Trading Co *
* = Hate Eternal only
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