By Lisa Burke
February 20th 2016, The Glass House, Pomona CA: After attending metal, rock, and punk shows for well over twenty years you realize just how many bands there are out there and how while you may think you finally got a handle on it all, you figure out you still have much to learn about and at times discover from the ground up. On Saturday February 20, 2016 I ventured back to Pomona to the Glass House for At The Gates, Decapitated, The Haunted, and Harms Way.
While I’ve seen both Decapitated and At The Gates before I had yet to discover The Haunted. This was a pleasant surprise for me since members of At The Gates formed this band which in its current line up happens to only incorporate a shared bass player. The singer, though not the original, was still on his game and gave a kickass performance, sports jersey and all. I arrived to catch the second half of the performance and the melodies were grooving along with some sporadic thrashy moments. The quality is right up there with At The Gates live, although the cleanliness is often replaced with a rougher sound which does not undermine the intent. Audience members were invited at one point to participate in the scream fest and no one complained. All in all they knocked a few balls out of the park that were never found for return. One aspect of the Glass House I must mention that perhaps I’m more sensitive to than some others because of my taste preference of clean sound versus dirty sound was that I’ve never been at this venue where the sound wasn’t slightly blown and fuzzed out. It’s a great sized fairly intimate venue to see bands with no bad view and an escape adult beverage establishment built in off the lobby if you don’t like what you are hearing or need a break from the loud. Anyway, the point is, Decapitated and especially At The Gates could have benefited from a cleaner sound quality because technicality and melody are so important to bring across to really experience the essence of these bands.
The Haunted Set List:
01. No Compromise
02. 99
03. Trespass
04. The Flood
05. The Medication
06. D.O.A.
07. My Enemy
08. Time (Will Not Heal)
09. Dark Intentions
10. Bury Your Dead
11. Eye of the Storm
12. Hate Song
Decapitated took the stage and I was excited since the last tour they were on with Soilwork that I attended, they had to drop off by the time it came into town, so I missed out on seeing them. Since the 90s this Polish death metal group has been pulling off some creatively intricate technical death metal guitar solos and the drums always sweep you off into blast beat heaven, or hell, depending on your preference. The pit was fierce and fiery and the singer with his impressive long dreadlocks commanded the stage with growls and grace. There is an essence of Cannibal Corpse for me with these guys but the technical style pushes them beyond into their own realm. There is one issue that must be addressed with these guys as of late however, and that is that it seems to be a popular consensus with long time fans that they want to hear primarily songs off older albums and not so much off the latest album ‘Blood Mantra’. I happen to agree also because my absolute favorite song in the set list was ‘Spheres Of Madness’ from their 2002 album with its catchy rhythms and fantastic solos. Not only that, but there is a difference in style from old to new, and with the new album it seems to be less technically creative guitar driven and more focused on lyrics and tempo. This is fine as a direction to take, but I think something gets lost from what the earlier records had that brought them the kind of success they had. In with more of the old and out with some of the new for the set list and I think the audience will become more engaged. I still enjoyed it all and the battle was won for me, yet word on the street seems to be in favor of a revamped set list.
Decapitated Set List:
01. Exiled in Flesh
02. The Blasphemous Psalm to the Dummy God Creation
03. Blood Mantra
04. 404
05. Post (?) Organic
06. Nest
07. Instinct
08. Spheres of Madness
09. Homo Sum
Once At The Gates took the stage the crowd was whipped into submission and the pit was rampant. A shirtless metalhead or two could be found on the outskirts of the mosh pit waving their shirts at the moshers like they were matadors aggravating a bull. At The Gates, as I mentioned before, has a very clean well-rounded melodic sound to their death metal and it it is one of their most appealing aspects. The last show at The Wiltern that I saw them at was non-stop brutality interspersed with bouts of serenity and this show was more of the same despite not quite the same sound quality. In the land of backing tracks in death metal these guys do it right always, from the atmospheric melodies to the ritualistic sermon there is no shortage of imagination and it ties in with the live performance brilliantly. Normally the mosh pit for an At The Gates show is one of the more brutal out there, yet when the song ‘Heroes And Tombs’ from the album ‘At War With Reality’ came on, the brutal mosh pit metalheads turned a little soft and almost looked as if they were doing the metal ballet. We have everything from Metalachi to Baby Metal so why doesn’t someone just start the metal ballet and get it over with? Anyway, the range of songs for At The Gates is nothing but positive and they played in nearly equal amounts off of ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’ and ‘At War With Reality’ which are two albums I happen to be a big fan of and contrary to Decapitated, in this case the newer material is great. ‘Eater Of Gods’ is always a favorite hit, and closing with ‘The Night Eternal’ was a great choice to wind down the audience. I will never get tired of a live At The Gates show and I hope they continue to make music and put out another new album soon as well. The more I travel to Pomona the more tolerable it gets, and while street parking is unheard of unless you live there, when the metalheads are in town it’s not such a bad vibe and there is an entire four block radius that actually doesn’t completely suck in terms of adventure on a Saturday night. Upon leaving the venue I witnessed a band member or two on their way to the tour bus get accosted by fans for photos, selfies, autographs, and more photos and while this is normal protocol for these guys, I suppose it still never sits right for me. It’s like going up to a stranger and asking to exploit them because they are wearing cooler shoes than you. I guess it’s flattering for some artists, but I wouldn’t enjoy not being treated like a human being and peer personally. To each their own, but just remember that these bands are on a limited tour and excellent live so don’t miss out if you can help it.
At The Gates Set List:
01. At War With Reality
02. Suicide Nation
03. Slaughter of the Soul
04. The Circular Ruins
05. Unto Others
06. World of Lies
07. Heroes and Tombs
08. Death and the Labyrinth
09. Cold
10. Under a Serpent Sun
11. Order From Chaos
12. Eater of Gods
13. Nausea
14. The Book of Sand (The Abomination)
15. Need
16. Blinded by Fear
17. The Night Eternal
(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt!)