Metal Assault: Gig Reviews

By Andrew Bansal
[Photos by Brad Worsham]

March 17th 2014, The Avalon, Hollywood CA: The Ronnie James Dio ‘Stand Up And Shout’ Cancer Research Fund, named after the legendary heavy metal singer and founded after his death in 2010, hosts an annual gala event in Los Angeles to celebrate the life of the great man, honor musicians and industry folk with awards, and through ticket sales and auctions, raise money to further the cause of cancer research. The 3rd edition of this gala took place at the Avalon in the heart of Hollywood last night, and this time it was also a celebration of the release of ‘This Is Your Life’, an all-covers album in tribute to Dio. As always, the who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal were present, and it promised to be an entertaining evening for attendees. Continue reading “3rd Annual Ronnie James Dio Gala Takes Place At Avalon Hollywood”

By Andrew Bansal

March 16th 2014, House Of Blues Sunset Strip, West Hollywood CA: Sundays on the Sunset Strip aren’t often as action-packed as the other days of the week, but last night was an exception as a group of local bands came together to play at the House Of Blues, a show for which each of the participating bands gave out plenty of free tickets through their respective online social networks and for a Sunday night, the venue enjoyed a reasonable turnout. Continue reading “Delta Rose & Opus Dai Rock House Of Blues Sunset Strip”

By Darshun

March 14th 2014, The Echo, Los Angeles CA: Texas based post-rock band This Will Destroy You headlined the Echo in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake area last Friday March 14th, along with support act Silent Land Time Machine from Austin TX, for a show which sold out of its online pre-sale tickets roughly a few weeks before the night of the event. I had gotten fourth in line at about 6:30PM and finally at 8:30PM, they slowly injected the line of people for the show into the 350-capacity venue. Continue reading “This Will Destroy You & Silent Land Time Machine Play At The Echo”

By Andrew Bansal

March 13th 2014, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Highly influential death metal legends Possessed haven’t been an active live band in recent times for reasons aplenty, so whenever they do announce a show anywhere, it’s very much a special event for all of their die-hard fans in that town. The band played an eagerly-awaited Los Angeles headline show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go last night, a gig that was sold out in advance and attracted a huge amount of hype amongst LA’s death/thrash faithful. I saw Possessed open for Danzig on an extremely weird lineup at the Grove of Anaheim in 2010 and since then, besides Primus and ex-Possessed guitarist Larry LaLonde lightheartedly playing some riffs of his old band at the Fox Theater last year, I hadn’t had any taste of live Possessed. So I went into this show with a great degree of anticipation, waiting to discover what a Possessed headline show in LA is like. Continue reading “Possessed Performs At The Whisky”

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

March 12th 2014, Glass House, Pomona CA: North Carolina progressive metal band Between The Buried And Me are still soaring high on the success of their massive concept album ‘Parallax II: Future Sequence’ which was released in 2012, and have done numerous tours to promote it, most recently headlining North America and playing the album in its entirety. Now, they’re back for another run of dates, with support acts Deafheaven, Intronaut and The Kindred and are presenting a more comprehensive, career-spanning set of tunes in front of their ever-growing fan base. They visited a sold-out Glass House in the sleepy town of Pomona last evening for what promised to be another epic show for BTBAM’s Southern California fans. Continue reading “Between The Buried And Me Headlines Sold-Out Glass House In Pomona”

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
[Videos by Matt Nielson] 

March 10th 2014, The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA: Chicago-based instrumental heavy rock trio Russian Circles have been going from strength to strength in recent years, and since the last time I saw them headline the Troubadour in December 2011, they’ve traveled quite a fair distance as a band, literally and figuratively. Their latest album ‘Memorial’ has gained widespread praise and as a consequence, they’ve been getting booked on plenty of tours both as headliners and opening act. Currently, they’re approaching the end of a headline US tour with support from Helms Alee and KEN Mode, and played at a sold-out El Rey Theatre in Western Los Angeles last night. Continue reading “Russian Circles, Helms Alee & KEN Mode Perform At The El Rey”