Metal Assault: Gig Reviews

By Andrew Bansal

October 24th 2013, The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood CA: After a successful Summer Slaughter touring run earlier in the year, modern progressive metal stalwarts Periphery are back on their own headline tour this fall, appropriately titled ‘This Tour Is Personal’, a play on words from their latest album ‘Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal’. Along with them they’ve brought Born Of Osiris as the main support act and two Australian bands Dead Letter Circus and Twelve Foot Ninja. Last night, this ‘personal’ tour visited the most chilled-out venue on the Sunset Strip, the Roxy Theatre. The queue of people waiting to get in was already long even before the doors opened at around 7. Periphery had played in LA only three months ago, so while their fans still seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing them as headliners, there was palpable excitement surrounding the appearance of Twelve Foot Ninja. I knew nothing about them, and was very curious to find out what the hype was all about. All systems were set to go for this modern metal extravaganza. Continue reading “Periphery Brings ‘Personal’ Tour To The Roxy”

By Andrew Bansal

October 20th 2013, Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Florida death metal veterans Deicide will be releasing their eleventh studio album ‘In The Minds Of Evil’ on November 25th via Century Media Records, and to provide a build-up to this release, they set out on the ‘No Salvation’ North American tour this month with a solid extreme metal support package consisting of Broken Hope from Chicago, Disgorge from San Diego and Necronomicon from Montreal, Canada. While Deicide’s previous studio album ‘To Hell With God’ was a perfectly brutal piece of heavy music, I was largely underwhelmed by their lackluster performance at the Key Club in early 2011, but I decided to check them out last night at the Whisky with a completely open mind, and having never seen any of the support bands before was an added incentive as well. I arrived at the venue at around 8 PM, and even at this point of the show, the place looked as packed as I had ever seen it. Death metal was in the air. Continue reading “Deicide, Broken Hope & Disgorge At The Whisky – An Extreme Metal Onslaught”

By Andrew Bansal

October 19th 2013, Loaded Rock Bar, Hollywood CA: For those unfamiliar, The Skull was formed in early 2012 by vocalist Eric Wagner, bassist Ron Holzner and and drummer Jeff Olson, three former members of legendary Chicago doom metal band Trouble. It started out as an attempt to bring Trouble’s first two albums ‘Psalm 9’ and ‘The Skull’ back to life but eventually led to new material being written by the group. Sometime after the birth of the band, Jeff Olson announced his departure but ended up making a return this year. Together with guitarists Lothar Keller and Michael Carpenter, they set out to play some shows and came down to the West Coast, visiting the Loaded Rock Bar in the heart of Hollywood last night. Having been to that place a couple of times in the recent past I’ve got to say I’m not a fan of Loaded Rock Bar, and it was a strange setting for The Skull to play here, to be honest. But regardless, plenty of Trouble fans were in attendance to witness this performance, which promised to be a slab of glorious classic doom. Continue reading “The Skull Gets Hollywood In Trouble”

By Andrew Bansal

October 18th 2013, Slim’s, San Francisco CA: Veterans of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal movement that originated in the early 80s, Death Angel started out as teenagers in 1982 and disbanded in ’91, but thankfully for this sub-genre, they reformed in 2001 and have been going strong ever since. They released their seventh studio album ‘The Dream Calls For Blood’ earlier in the week and kicked off a North American headline tour to promote the album by doing two record release shows at Slim’s. The gig on Thursday October 17th was more of a local affair though, with fellow Bay Area bands Heathen, Transition and My Victim in support, but Friday night was the proper kickoff for the tour, with the support bands on the touring lineup 3 Inches Of Blood, Battlecross and Revocation joining in the fun. The event was all ages, doors opened at 7 PM, and every ticket buyer was being handed a free copy of the new Death Angel CD. Things were all set for a thrashtastic evening at this sold-out show. Continue reading “Death Angel Begin North American Headline Tour With Sold-Out Hometown Show”

By Jason Williams

October 17th 2013, The Observatory, Santa Ana CA: Last Thursday night’s show at the Observatory in Santa Ana, California was to be a very special one. It wasn’t just GWAR taking the stage, it was going to be my very first GWAR show. I’d heard so many wonderful things about their live shows, but actually purposely never saw any videos online. I wanted my imagination to take it to the highest level. No long introduction is needed for the almighty GWAR. Nearly 20 years of pure mayhem, crossover metal/punk, extravagant horror themed costumes and incredible hardcore fans.  This was to be a highlight in my concert attending, and I couldn’t wait. Continue reading “GWAR Puts On Amazing Performance At Observatory”