By Andrew Bansal
July 24th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: British extreme metal legends Carcass embarked on the ‘One Foot In The Grave’ U.S. headline tour this month, for what would be their last run of dates on the already extended touring cycle in support of their sixth full-length release ‘Surgical Steel’ (2013). The album, their first in 17 years, marked quite a triumphant comeback for Carcass and they began actively touring worldwide again after a long time. To celebrate the release, they played two special sold-out shows at the Troubadour in 2013, which many LA fans missed out on because of such limited capacity and small number of tickets on sale, and even though Carcass headlined the much larger-scale Decibel tour through North America the following spring, they only hit Orange County on that run, and not LA proper. Last Sunday July 24th 2016, they played at the Roxy with touring support acts Crowbar, Ghoul and Night Demon, selling the venue in advance, and ticket holders excitedly made their way to the Roxy for what was a highly anticipated event in the LA extreme metal community.
Upon arriving at the Roxy, it was evident that the venue’s staff were apparently feeling lazy, as they didn’t bother to fill out the marquee with the names of all four touring bands and had only Carcass and Crowbar’s names up there. What’s more, it was clear that fans of these bands are not trustworthy human beings, because everyone attempting to enter the venue was subjected to airport level security, wherein they would take your belongings in a plastic bowl, then have you walk through a scanner. Having gone to my fair share of shows here, this is something I’d never seen before. Doors were supposed to be opened at 6:30 but they were held back until around 6:45, and then given the security measures it took a while for them to get people in. There were about 20 people in front of me, and as I entered, the clock struck 7, the lights went out and the stage curtains slowly lifted, signaling the start of the show.
Ventura, California NWOBHM trio Night Demon took the stage, after a portion of the ‘Riders Of Doom’ clip from Conan The Barbarian, which always serves as the band’s traditional intro music, was played over the PA. Night Demon began proceedings for the evening with a high-energy 30-minute set, but played to a very small segment of the sellout crowd at this 500-capacity venue, to no fault of their own. Even for a Sunday, their set time was far too early for the average LA concertgoer and turned out to be a disservice to the band because they deserved to play to a bigger crowd. The early birds that did turn up to watch the entire show applauded in approval of what they saw and heard, as Night Demon’s clean-sung old-school metal tunes made for ‘easy listening’ for this extreme metal loving crowd, and the appearance of the band’s chalice-bearing reaper-esque mascot Rocky added the visual element and a touch of cheesiness for good measure. As far as costumed stage characters go, this was only the beginning and a small taste of what was to follow, as the next band would run amok with theirs shortly after. Although sadly enough it’s commonly considered fashionable to arrive at a concert after the openers have already played, the ticket holders for this show cannot be blamed too much for being expected to show up at 7 PM for the first band. That being said, those attending any shows on the remainder of the tour are strongly encouraged to get to the show in time to watch Night Demon, because even though they’re far from extreme metal, they’re very much capable of striking the right chord with the genre’s fans, and even if they continue to play to small crowds at these shows, they are setting an example for traditionally styled metal bands to break out of their sub-genre, step out of their comfort zone and stop playing to the same people over and over.
Night Demon set list:
01. Ritual
02. Full Speed Ahead
03. Curse Of The Damned
04. Save Me Now
05. Satan
06. Screams In The Night
07. The Chalice
08. Night Demon
Next up, masked miscreants from ‘Creepsylvania’ Ghoul took the stage with their signature blend of humor-tinged crossover thrash and grindcore, as their crew of costumed hooligans appeared in different incarnations and relentlessly splattered blood all over the crowd in the front few rows throughout the set. The band’s musicianship was precise and effective, and instigated several circle pits in the crowd which had grown considerably in number by now. Starting with the anthemic ‘Ghoulunatics’, their set went from strength to strength, and not only did their fans love it but the first-timers were absolutely blown away. Some of their most diehard fans were seen wearing masks similar to those of the band members, and showed some serious dedication to continue wearing these even in this heat. Ghoul could play only seven songs within their allotted 30 minutes, and they ended strong with ‘Wall Of Death’ and ‘As Your Casket Closes’, but it was quite a pity that they weren’t given a longer set, as it seemed like they were only getting into the swing of things and the performance hadn’t even hit its peak yet. They were right up the alley for Carcass fans and warmed up this crowd perfectly for Carcass, except of course that the headliner was not the next band. In an alternate dimension, Ghoul would have been main support to Carcass and it would have made much more sense, but that wasn’t the case in our world, and Ghoul, the best band of the night, departed the stage leaving the audience wanting more and the remaining bands with an extremely tough act to follow.
Ghoul set list:
01. Ghoulunatics
02. Brain Jerk
03. Word Is Law
04. Off With Their Heads
05. Shred The Dead
06. Wall Of Death
07. As Your Casket Closes
New Orleans sludge veterans Crowbar hit the stage next, living up to the very definition of their sub-genre by building a mountain of extra-slow and ultra-heavy riffs over the next 50 minutes as they went about playing their 10-song set. Guitarist/vocalist Kirk Windstein, through his exploits in Crowbar as well as in bands like Down and Kingdom Of Sorrow in the past, has been quite the tower of power in the stoner/doom/sludge circles, and his performance here was nothing short of what was expected from him. His band mates were also as solid as ever, and there is no denying that with a 27-year career to their name, they deserved the main support slot on this lineup. In all fairness, there certainly were a few attendees that were genuinely open-minded and enjoyed all four bands on this diverse bill, and some Crowbar songs did trigger a slow circle pit or two. But purely from a musical standpoint, the band’s placement between Carcass and Ghoul came across as wrong and odd, and seemed to kill off all of the adrenaline that was build up in the crowd during Ghoul’s set. On most other lineups, Crowbar would have been far more positively received on the same stage, but this wasn’t their night, and the common consensus among this deathgrind-centric audience said that Crowbar’s style of music ‘got old’ quick and did not warrant a 50-minute set.
Crowbar set list:
01. Conquering
02. High Rate Extinction
03. To Build A Mountain
04. The Lasting Dose
05. The Cemetery Angels
06. Walk With Knowledge Wisely
07. No Quarter
08. All I Had (I Gave)
09. Planets Collide
10. Like Broken Glass
And finally at 9:40, the glorious ‘1985’ guitar harmony-filled intro piece from the ‘Surgical Steel’ album rang loud and clear over the PA, as the four members of Carcass stepped onto the stage amidst huge cheers from the now completely packed Roxy. Frontman Jeff Walker remarked that this was the band’s first time ever playing the Roxy, and it wasn’t a bad first show either, as they went on to perform four tunes off of the latest album along with selections from every other album except for the 1988 debut effort ‘Reek Of Putrification’ (a song of the same name appears on the 1989 ‘Symphonies Of Sickness’ album and was indeed played in the set). ‘Surgical Steel’ was widely heralded as the metal album of the year 2013 and the live renditions of its tunes further showcases the quality of the musicianship embedded in it, as evident here from tunes like ‘Unfit For Human Consumption’, ‘Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System’, ‘The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills’ and ‘Captive Bolt Pistol’. Older songs undoubtedly garnered a better response from the fans, as ‘This Mortal Coil’ was once again the highlight of the set. Besides, video screens formed part of the stage backdrop and depicted elements of the artwork accompanying the music being played in the foreground, which was more in terms of ‘production’ than expected from a band like Carcass.
Jeff Walker’s vocal delivery and bass play were both as powerful as ever, while Bill Steer was the real star of the show as he went about his business on the six-stringed instrument with deadly aplomb and stepped up to the microphone to provide backing vocals as well. Meanwhile, the band’s newest members Ben Ash on rhythm guitar and Daniel Wilding on drums also played their part and held strong even alongside such intimidating personalities. At one point, as the band prepared to play ‘Keep On Rotting In The Free World’, Walker called upon J. Bennett from Decibel Magazine (and also a member of Ides Of Gemini and a few other LA-based bands) to join him on stage to sing the chorus. Bennett was clearly not ready for this and it wasn’t something they had planned in advance, as he appeared embarrassed by the predicament he found himself in, but handled it better than most others would have.
Earlier in the set, Walker berated his fans for their low intensity level, saying that the crowd sounded like ‘a bunch of Cinderella fans’, and held up a Sabaton DVD as he challenged them to destroy it in the mosh pit. This was in poor taste in my opinion, and for him to ridicule a band that’s on the same label as his was an uncharacteristically classless act. Of course, the fans obliged and destroyed the DVD and all its package contents to pieces and threw it back on stage for Walker to see. Even as he jokingly admitted himself, there was no doubt that his act made it seem like he’s jealous of a band clearly more popular than Carcass, and this was something the set could have done without, as there are surely better ways to rile up a seemingly quiet crowd.
That aside, even though Ghoul stole the show, Carcass lived up to their stature as extreme metal godfathers, and no metalhead can go wrong with attending a show of theirs on this tour. The ‘One Foot In The Grave’ tour has everything from goregrind to NWOBHM, and comes highly recommended as a show not to be missed this summer.
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Carcass set list:
1985 (intro)
01. Unfit for Human Consumption
02. Buried Dreams
03. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
04. Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System
05. The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills
06. Captive Bolt Pistol
07. Edge Of Darkness / This Mortal Coil
08. Reek of Putrefaction/ Exhume To Consume
09. Black Star / Keep On Rotting in the Free World
10. Corporal Jigsore Quandary / The Sanguine Article
11. Ruptured in Purulence / Heartwork
12. Carneous Cacoffiny
Remaining Tour Dates:
07/26/2016 – El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls
07/27/2016 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
07/29/2016 – Memphis, TN @ New Daisy Theatre
07/30/2016 – Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
07/31/2016 – Columbus, OH @ Park Street Saloon
08/01/2016 – Baltimore MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
08/02/2016 – Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry
08/03/2016 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
08/04/2016 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
08/05/2016 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place