Review by Lisa Burke, photos by Matt Nielson
May 16th 2016, The Regent, Los Angeles CA: The Los Angeles metal scene has been thriving on new collaborations and promotions that either float or sink, and every night of the week there is usually a heavy metal show or six going on. With growing popularity, new weekly or monthly nights are being added in almost every day of the week and they seem to have the most impact on school nights. On Monday May 16th 2016, I attended a new monthly heavy metal night called Black Communion at the Regent. It kicked off with much success and a very decent turn out, featuring headliners Holy Grail with support acts Thrown Into Exile, Harassor, Infinite Death, and Ascension. With an offering of such a great line up for free for over 21 and $5 for under 21 with all local bands, you really can’t go wrong.
Ascension took the stage first in a very professional manner and hung up their large backdrop with band logo behind them for extra bonus points. They all proved to be skilled musicians and did not disappoint, especially where the guitar melodies and vocals are concerned. They are a mix of death with blackened thrash, yet they definitely have their own style. The harmonizing vocals were well done, and as much as you may want to write it off as an easy accomplishment, it really is not easy to do and it’s hard to get the combination of musicians right, but these guys seem to work very well together. They were a great send off to the rest of the night and got a positive reaction from anyone who was unfamiliar with them prior to this occasion.
Ascension photos:
The next local group to fill out the stage was Infinite Death, which is a melodic blackened death quintet, and their finest quality is the girl guitar player in my opinion. She possessed the most interesting presence and technique among her team. They all are skilled, and really the weakest link here was the lack of range from the singer, as it was very typical death growls with not too much creativity, and the drumming, while it was appropriate, needs a little more strength and creativity as well. They are still a solid band and their new track ‘Carnage’ off their most recent EP was a successful track.
They just don’t stand out in a crowd and need a bit more variety within the songs and they can reach the next level for sure. They also played with Ascension’s backdrop behind them and this was the reoccurring question of the night for three of the bands who used a different band’s backdrop while playing. Why are they using another band’s backdrop? Well, because they don’t have one of their own, but they still had their band name somewhere on the stage, so if you were paying attention you knew what band it was regardless. I say just be happy the stage is such a perfect size to accommodate large backdrops and that it sounds as good as it does.
Infinite Death photos:
One great aspect of the Regent is the raked floor, so you can stand in the back of the room and look over someone’s head rather than try to see through it. One not-so-great aspect is when the stage lights are swiveling and shining clear or red light into the audiences eyes, because not only is this a recipe for seizures and migraines, but it is also is a photographer’s worst nightmare because if caught at the wrong moment it literally makes the band members disappear behind the light on stage. I don’t know about you, but I like to see the band members in all of their glory without the use of sunglasses. This was a reoccurring theme throughout the evening but became particularly apparent during one of my favorite bands of the night, black metal band Harassor.
Pete Majors’ vocals are one-of-a-kind brutal screaming bloody murder madness and the sound quality on this stage suited them extremely well. This trio lacks a bass player and no one has ever missed him, which is not an easy task to achieve, yet this kind of old-school punky black metal thrives in a simple setting. The black magic of this band is in its sheer talent and complex simplicities. They were the first band to play with the Holy Grail backdrop but used a Harassor t-shirt as their logo banner placed in front of the drum kit, which worked just fine to me, and added a little comedy to the black metal bloody murder that was seeping into my ears. This is the first underrated band to grace the stage this evening and are sure not to be the last, and yet if you know of Harassor you love them unless your favorite band is Nickelback and then you don’t get an opinion anyway.
Harassor photos:
Thrown Into Exile have been around for quite a few years and they have had a few line up changes, and on this particular night I was absolutely blown away by the talented hard hitting creative drummer. This is one of those heavy metal bands that comes across as hardcore more than not with some thrashy elements that save them from sounding too generic.
They are what they are, but again they don’t really top the charts in creativity except for the seriously awesome drumming by Zac Morris which made me think maybe this guy was in the wrong band. I’m not knocking the rest of the bunch as skilled musicians at all, because they are and there is a consistency about them that keeps the wheels turning and the amps cranked. I did also find the vocals and commentary between songs satisfying. Mario Rubio is the clear winner on the strings and stage presence in this department as well. All in all, the crowd was appeased and life goes on.
Thrown Into Exile photos:
Finally, it was time for the best head-banging workout of the night as Holy Grail, one of the finest power/thrash bands out there, ransacked the stage with their ridiculously fun speedy guitar and power vocals. For some reason, more often than not, this band starts out with the microphone sound level too low and yet the guitars are always perfectly adjusted. Maybe there is a secret sabatoge going on here or maybe not, but it always gets fixed early on in the first song and we get to appreciate the powerful range of fun vocals and catchy lyrics James Luna provides. If you weren’t sure whether or not James Luna is one of a kind, all you have to do is count the sky punches and invisible oranges he makes with his hands and realize that he is the king of these energetic gestures. Eli Santana and Alex Lee on dueling guitars make for an excellent time to watch with their speedy and intricate thrash-enhanced non-stop power riffage. Bass and drums are also the perfect fit for this band, and you know the bass player is good when you can hear it and it’s complementing the maddening guitars going on around it. This band still always wins most underrated band of the heavy metal universe with me because they were playing giant metal festivals in Europe years ago, and they should be up there with Anthrax at this point in my mind, which they are not, despite their ever growing and loyal fanbase. They are just so unique and fun and the perfect mix of thrash and power metal with five strong players that are capable of anything, and I have to rank these guys as better than some of their power metal rivals such as Dragonforce which speaks volumes because I am a big fan of Dragonforce.
My favorites of the night were ‘Crystal King’, ‘Ride The Void’, ‘Sudden Death’ and every other song as well, because I can hairwhip and headbang to all of them. The funny story of the mosh pit this whole night is people would start a giant pit and then stop moshing, so for Holy Grail there was just ‘that one guy’ headbanging and hairwhipping in the center of the giant open pit all by himself and so at one point I decided I should join in to cure all of my stress and neck pain in one evening. Two days later the bangover is real but it was well worth the workout. Eli sings some great back up vocals to some of the songs except the first microphone check was just him lip synching as a joke till they got it working properly. He also jumps around the stage and makes very entertaining faces which is something that you don’t see too often in metal bands these days, but the more fun they had, the more fun we had as an audience. I hope someone hands these guys who constantly tour, play with a unique style, bust out great album after great album, and work their asses off on stage, a huge check with at least nine zeros in it because they absolutely deserve it. The end.
Holy Grail photos:
So, basically this free five-band heavy metal monthly event on a Monday night is full of successes and the Regent is a great downtown location for this event. The other potential competitor to this is at Crazy Girls rock Mondays which is actually every week anyway and on a stage with not the best sound system. I’m not going to choose sides because I don’t have to, but I’m in full support of Black Communion and can’t wait to see what the next line up will be, although Holy Grail will be tough to beat.
(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt!)