Corey Taylor And Friends Rock Henry Rollins-Hosted Drop In The Bucket Benefit Event

By Andrew Bansal

Photo by Jay Valena

Nov. 30th 2011, The Avalon, Hollywood CA: Drop In The Bucket, a non-profit organization that works towards building water wells in the African country of Sudan, put together a benefit concert to raise money for the cause last night, and the Avalon in Hollywood was the chosen venue. A few hours before the event, I was given a schedule of performances. I was very much familiar with a lot of the artists listed, not so familiar with a few. It was an intriguing line-up. Quite often, charity-based events are done with the right aim and spirit, but end up being poorly organized. Well, this particular event not only catered to a great cause, but it also lived up to my expectation as far as the actual concert was concerned. Continue reading “Corey Taylor And Friends Rock Henry Rollins-Hosted Drop In The Bucket Benefit Event”

Russian Circles, Deafheaven & Marriages Mesmerize Troubadour Audience

By Andrew Bansal

Nov. 28th 2011, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Amidst the insanity of an unexpectedly busy month of November was this show at the Troubadour, as Chicago-based instrumental rock trio Russian Circles paid a visit, along with San Francisco’s ambient extreme metal outfit Deafheaven, and the first ever West Coast appearance from Marriages, a new band featuring members of Red Sparowes. I had never seen any of these bands before, and I almost missed this show, because I only found out about it last Wednesday. A good friend of mine mentioned it to me at the Cynic show that night. It was a near miracle that everything got sorted out for me in time for the show despite the thanksgiving break, and I was even able to interview the band. I am glad and grateful that I ended up making it to this show, because it was not merely a show, it was an experience, and a musical journey. Continue reading “Russian Circles, Deafheaven & Marriages Mesmerize Troubadour Audience”

Keep Of Kalessin & Abigail Williams Put On Impressive Performance At Mayhem’s Hollywood Gig

By Andrew Bansal

Nov. 27th 2011, House Of Blues, Hollywood CA: Norwegian black metal veterans Mayhem are back touring the United States for the first time in more than two years, and last night they made a return to the same LA venue they played on their previous US tour. They brought with them fellow Norwegians Keep Of Kalessin, Polish blackened death metal band Hate, and Los Angeles’ very own Abigail Williams to complete the line-up. Honestly, I’ve never been a huge Mayhem fan, but I had never seen them live and was willing to give them a chance. Quite often, I’ve changed my opinion on bands after seeing them live for the first time. Live music is what I enjoy most, and thus I went into this show with an open mind. Hate always puts on a good show but for some reason never get a decent response from crowds, and I was waiting to see if that changed this time around. But I was most excited to see Keep Of Kalessin and Abigail Williams, two bands that definitely caught my attention with their previous live performances in LA. Continue reading “Keep Of Kalessin & Abigail Williams Put On Impressive Performance At Mayhem’s Hollywood Gig”

Between The Buried And Me’s Incredible Hollywood Performance Makes Heads Explode

By Andrew Bansal

Nov. 26th 2011, House Of Blues, Hollywood CA: On the back of their latest release, the spectacular 30-minute EP titled “The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues”, Between The Buried And Me toured across North America last May, and played the EP in its entirety. Now, they are back on another North American run called the Saints And Sinners tour, with a completely different set of songs. I was eager to see what they were going to play for the fans this time, and what they still retained from the last tour. Besides changing up their own show, they also brought with them a varied support package featuring Animals As Leaders and Tesseract. Even though I was still not completely over the mind-blowing show put on by Cynic, 3 and Scale The Summit three nights ago, I was hugely excited by the prospect of the Saints And Sinners touring line-up, and was ready to see how this one was going to turn out. Continue reading “Between The Buried And Me’s Incredible Hollywood Performance Makes Heads Explode”

Cynic, 3 & Scale The Summit Take Hollywood To Prog Metal Heaven

By Andrew Bansal

Nov. 23rd 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: On the back of their brand new EP “Carbon-Based Anatomy”, Los Angeles-based experimental metal masters Cynic embarked on a shortish 3-week North American tour to promote this release. The last night of this tour was in their hometown on November 23rd, at the Key Club in Hollywood. I’ve been intrigued by this latest musical offering from Cynic, and was very much looking forward to see it played live, in addition to the older material of course. As the EP is only 22 minutes in duration, I was expecting pretty much the whole of it to be included in the set. It was also the first time Cynic’s new line-up was doing an LA show, and I was interested to see how the addition of Brandon Giffin on bass and Max Phelps on guitar would turn out. Besides Cynic’s own stellar set list and new line-up, they brought with them two excellent progressive metal bands 3 and Scale The Summit as support acts. The package of bands couldn’t have been any better in my opinion, and by the end of the night, I was convinced that it was as good as I had expected it to be. Continue reading “Cynic, 3 & Scale The Summit Take Hollywood To Prog Metal Heaven”

Obscura & Abysmal Dawn in Hollywood: A Brutal Monday Night

By Andrew Bansal

Nov. 21st 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: Just a couple of weeks ago, German technical death metal band Obscura embarked on their first ever North American headline tour, along with support from Los Angeles-based death metal quartet Abysmal Dawn and Last Chance To Reason, a progressive metal outfit from Augusta, Maine. This was also Obscura’s first headline tour in any part of the world since they signed to Relapse Records. Previously, they toured here with Children Of Bodom as a support band last June, a tour that saw huge crowds and surely turned out to be a positive move for Obscura. But this time it’s their own tour, which means a longer set, something the US fans have been looking forward to for a while now. This tour made a stop at Hollywood’s Key Club last night on November 21st. It promised to be a tasty dose of shred and brutality, a promise it fulfilled. Continue reading “Obscura & Abysmal Dawn in Hollywood: A Brutal Monday Night”