By Lisa Burke
July 16th 2016, Los Globos, Los Angeles CA: When one tyrant diminishes, another one usually sprouts up in its place, or a nearby place, and in the Los Angeles music scene, venues often play musical chairs. Los Globos has quickly sprouted up as a pretty decent medium-sized venue for rock n’ roll and metal among other genres, a place that can easily accommodate two shows at the same time in its two rooms spread across two levels. It used to just be a Latin dance club for a while and occasionally may still be on certain nights, but on Saturday July 16th 2016, it held a fantastic sold-out metal show in the upstairs room, featuring headliners Destroyer 666, with support acts Ritual Combat, Scrapmetal, Iconoclast Contra, and Helfire Deathcult. In the downstairs room there was a booty shaking dance night happening that when the metal stopped could be heard, and vice versa for them, I’m sure. You could also mingle with anyone who visited the smoking patio from the downstairs room which was sort of similar to mingling with aliens from another planet, but all got along just fine on this night, and to each their own.
Unfortunately, I arrived just as Hellfire Deathcult finished their set, so I won’t be able to comment on them, but I can’t imagine a bad outcome with a name like that. Moving on to the start of a progressively exciting night of death, black and thrash metal, Iconoclast Contra shoveled the stage with their own brutality. With their heavy-duty vocals and riffage, they blasted their well-accomplished extreme metal to the dedicated metalheads who actually show up before the headliner goes on. I have to say, at a sold-out show with people lined up to get in outside who are ticketless, to be watching the venue only pack to capacity before the last band is just sad. This was a very well thought-out lineup and I gained new knowledge of bands that I was unaware of that thoroughly blew me away. If you missed them you missed out big time, and yes I missed the first band so I’m somewhat of a hypocrite, but it was not intentional. Iconoclast Contra was compelling from start to finish and the drumming was high caliber, which is so important to make or break a band such as this. Their sound was decent for this venue and they impressed the crowd with their skill and brutalized metal.
Now is the part where the last-minute fill-in band Scrapmetal (replacing last-minute dropout Mutilacion) jumps into the mix and thrashes everyone’s brains to pieces by the end of the set, to the extent that we weren’t sure our chopped up massacred brains ever went back to the proper position, but no one complained. This was excitement from start to finish and anyone that thinks thrash died needs to check this band out because they are doing it right. The guitar riffs weren’t even highly original but they were hashed out in such a way that every song was a great thrasher party. They were so fast and so fun that despite a giant circle pit formation in the crowd, not many were seen moshing perhaps because they were so mesmerized by the brain thrashing that they forgot they could mosh too. It really was one of the more exciting newer thrasher bands I’ve seen in a while and I highly recommend you check them out.
Then came Ritual Combat which is some very convincing black metal that has spots of death and blackened thrash in the mix as well. There were very devilishly persuasive vocal screams happening and the riffs were black metal nostalgia. They had their own subtle versions of black metal face paint and while nothing too unusual happened, this trio had a very solid set of newer style black metal that I will gladly make a point to see again.
Finally, after braving the long flight of precariously built stairs that lead to the patio for perhaps the fourth time, I had my fill of the stair master workout for the evening and I was ready to participate in the destruction of hell through witnessing live extreme metal band Destroyer 666 for the first time. Now with all the bullshit surrounding vocalist/guitarist K.K. Warslut as of late, you can harp on irrelevant shit or you can shut up and listen to one of the more underrated bands to absolutely rule at the death, black and thrash genre. This Australian band has proved time and time again from ‘Unchain The Wolves’ to ‘Wildfire’ that they have no fear and will destroy anything in their path in the most flatteringly cataclysmic way. At times it is reminiscent to a speedier and more blackened death version of Motörhead, which is definitely a plus, and they even played a cover of ‘Iron Fist’ to boot. Some of the first words of adornment K.K. Warslut had for Los Angeles was a couple of “Fuck You”s, followed by some muttering about “absolute bullshit”, followed by calling us all “cunt fuckers”, and then saying he didn’t want to be filmed. I for one happened to enjoy this affection as he was being generous, and while he may have been highly intoxicated and definitely sweating out the anger, he was totally on his game 100 per cent with the vocals and the riffs. The sound for their set was clean, crisp and brutally malignant, and hell hath no fury like K.K. Warslut scorned, because he made that venue his bitch and again no one complained.
This is when a low stage such as this one becomes a bit of a cunt fucker because with a jam-packed audience you either have to push up front to see or just ride the riffs basically blindsided by that one dude’s head bobbing up and down in front of you. I could see K.K.’s nipples through his mesh black shirt but I couldn’t see what kind of guitar he was playing and sometimes that’s just how it goes. The bottom line here is this band should be headlining Summer Slaughter or running for president because they don’t give a fuck except for melting off your face with the raging riffs, and that is what life is all about. It would seem that according to Destroyer 666, P.C. just stands for perpetually cunty, especially when the bullshit was created by hearsay. I think this may win an award for most swear words used in a review and you won’t hear my apology because it is all too relevant to the experience. No one leaves a Destroyer 666 show without at least saying “That shit was fucking badass”. End of story. So after I left, I happened to spot a junior metalhead laying down on his back on the corner of the curb who happened to have the curly hair just like me so I apparently adopted him for a minute to make sure he wasn’t going to take a nap there and told him as a future metalhead he really needed to show he was tough as nails and that there was no napping in metal. Of course he obliged because he had just seen Destroyer 666 and then found his friend as I went on my way.
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Destroyer 666 set list:
01. Rise of the Predator
02. Wildfire
03. A Breed Apart
04. I Am the Wargod (Ode to the Battle Slain)
05. Hounds at Ya Back
06. The Calling
07. Sons of Perdition
08. Satanic Speed Metal
09. Iron Fist (Motörhead cover)
10. Australian and Anti-Christ
11. Satan’s Hammer
12. Trialed by Fire
13. Lone Wolf Winter