Metal Assault: Gig Reviews

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

April 8th 2014, Amoeba Music, Hollywood CA: Los Angeles-based hardcore punk supergroup OFF! released their third album ‘Wasted Years’ yesterday April 8th via Vice Music, and to celebrate the occasion, they played a free all-ages in-store show at Amoeba Hollywood. OFF!’s hometown fans lined up outside the store starting at 4 PM, were efficiently escorted into the aisles facing the stage at 5, and about an hour later, OFF! came on to deliver a 30-minute, 16-song set of unabated old-school hardcore punk glittered with material old and new. Continue reading “OFF! Play Free In-Store At Amoeba Hollywood”

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

April 7th 2014, House Of Blues Sunset Strip, West Hollywood CA: On the coattails of the release of their new album ‘All You Can Eat’ which came out on April 1st, Steel Panther, the undisputed rock ‘n roll kings of the Sunset Strip, have returned to play a threesome of shows on home base at the House Of Blues this month. The first of these shows took place last night, and this being their first residency show here since last October, it was a highly anticipated event amongst Steel Panther’s hometown fans, and as a result, it was sold out and packed to capacity. It promised to be a thoroughly entertaining Monday night for one and all, and it certainly was. Continue reading “Steel Panther Returns To Sunset Strip For First Of ‘Threesome’ Shows”

By Andrew Bansal

April 6th 2014, City National Grove, Anaheim CA: Despite having been in existence since 2001, it was in late 2009 that Danish rockers Volbeat announced their arrival on the North American circuit when they opened for Metallica and played to arena audiences across the continent. It was during this tour that they played an off-date headline show at the Troubadour, to a small crowd of about 100 people. I was one of the attendees at this show, and even though Volbeat impressed one and all with their unique presentation of ‘Johnny Cash metal’, no one in that audience could have predicted the band’s meteoric rise that would subsequently  catapult them to major mainstream success. Fast-forward to 2014, they’re an active worldwide-touring band, and on their current North American headline run, they played a sold-out show at the Grove Of Anaheim with support acts Trivium and Digital Summer. To be honest, I had lost touch with both Volbeat and Trivium in recent years and wasn’t expecting anything great from this show, but I was in for a surprise. Continue reading “Volbeat & Trivium Rock The Grove Of Anaheim”

Photos by Brad Worsham

April 5th 2014, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: Kill Devil Hill, the Rex Brown-led heavy metal outfit, went through a major change in personnel recently when co-founder Vinny Appice vacated the seat behind the drumkit, and former Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly was recruited to take his place. The band booked three West Coast shows for early April, and after Johnny Kelly’s debut gig with Kill Devil Hill at Count’s Vamp’d in Las Vegas last Friday, they drove down to the Viper Room in West Hollywood for Kelly’s first LA appearance for KDH. Continue reading “Photo Gallery: Kill Devil Hill Play First LA Show With Johnny Kelly”

Photos by Brad Worsham

April 5th 2014, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: On a break from their usually hectic and unrelenting touring schedule, Los Angeles-based bands Holy Grail and Gypsyhawk have both been laying low, working on new material and playing the occasional gigs here and there. They took to the Whisky in West Hollywood last Saturday as opening acts for Metal Blade recording artist Monte Pittman of Prong and Madonna fame, and put on typically excellent performances, Holy Grail with their shredtastic old-school heavy metal and Gypsyhawk with their boogie rock. Our man behind the camera Brad Worsham was on-site to capture some of the action through this photos. Check them out in the gallery below (view them here if you’re on a non-Flash device). This gallery has 11 photos of Gypsyhawk followed by 12 of Holy Grail. Continue reading “Photo Gallery: Holy Grail & Gypsyhawk Perform At The Whisky”

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

April 5th 2014, House Of Blues Sunset Strip, West Hollywood CA: The fourth edition of the annual Metal Alliance Tour began in Tempe AZ on April 4th and made its way to Los Angeles the evening after. Featuring Polish extreme metal giants Behemoth along with Goatwhore, 1349, Inquisition and Black Crown Initiate, this year’s lineup once again promised to present something completely different from previous years, with an intriguing combination of bands that would cater to metalheads of varying tastes and preferences. Taking place at the House Of Blues Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, its usual LA venue, this show had been sold out several days in advance and promised to be a massive gathering of the LA metal horde. Continue reading “Metal Alliance Tour Visits Los Angeles”