Title? I don't need no stinking title.

For once, I am the bearer of good news. A local Hardcore group, Scarless, are playing Vans Warped Tour in Las Cruces this Friday. (I knew it was only a matter of time.)  Other Metal bands in the line up include Born Of Osiris, Chelsea Grin, Impending Doom, and  Miss May I. Otherwise, it appears to be a blend of Pop-Punk and quasi-Rock. You know, bands like Yellowcard. Yuck.  Personally, I'm a huge fan of Impending Doom. They are, quite simply, deafening and insane.


Speaking of which, if you don't want to go to Las Cruces  just to see those guys, you can check them out at Launchpad. It's an all ages show, but drinks are available for ancient fossils such as myself. God, it's good to be 21. Doors open at 7 PM, tickets are $12, and remember to tip your bartender. Yummy.

So much for Las Cruces and Albuqurque. If you happen to be going the opposite direction, there is Metal Reign In The Northern Mountains, only $5 to see six bands. It's all happening this Saturday at the Quail Ridge Inn at Taos. Roadtrip, anyone? 

While my thoughts are on Taos, I must mention Skate In Da Paint, happening July 15th and August 26th. The only skate park in Taos is falling apart and scheduled to be demolished in the near future. Therefore, while the old park is in it's dying days, the Youth Center is making the most of it's last hours to raise funds for a new park. There's going to be tons of art, giveaways, competitions, and other cool stuff for the skater kids.   Being a skater myself, I can attest to the profound lameness of having no skatepark. Help the kids out, yo.

Wait a minute... I'm talking about youth centers, Metal shows, skating, and fundraisers. I'm pretty sure my life is the plot of a live action family film from the 80's. Son of a freaking bitch. 

Upcoming Shows

A few days ago, I thought I'd just post a single half-assed entry and leave it there for a fortnight. However, fate/Metal/ the internet had other plans. I'm lots of fun and bad with numbers, so I'm pretty sure it's four posts and counting at this point. Well, here ya go.

Domestic Violence is best described as Super Punk Rock. They're so awesome that even people who don't like Punk music are hooked, if only by morbid curiosity. They do have music online, but quite frankly, it will never do them justice. This is an act you have to see live to truly understand the experience. It's kind of like Shock Rock for the Hardcore crowd. Whoah, I thought Metal logos were supposed to be illegible. I can't be sure I'm reading the rest of the line up correctly, but it looks like Colour Me Once, Leaky Faces, Robots Eat Brains, and Society Unknown. The first three words on the flyer are "Punk" and "All Ages", and honestly that's all I need to hear. 

I know I give Santa Fe and Albuqurque alot of cred for their contributions to the Metal scene, but it would be blasphemous to neglect our neighbor Taos. Taos is best known for it's hot springs, wicked ski slopes, crazy hippies, and insane parties. This shindig is aptly titled Metal Reign In The Northern Mountains. The extremely talented Eulogies Of The Forgotten are playing, and I can attest to their awesome shredding abilities.  Obelisk hails from my hometown, and they describe themselves, quite fittingly, as "Party Sludge".  From Sacrifice To Survival will kick your ass, musically speaking. Portrait Of A Mastermind is intricate yet heavy, plus they have a pirate song. If that doesn't shiver your timbers, nothing will. There's two other Metal bands too, so that's just $5 for 6 bands. Wicked. 

So much for June. If you need to take a breather, you can chill during July and start August off with this. As soon as Monday, I will be old enough to see all of the bar shows. I've already gone mad with my newfound power, albeit premature at this point. What could be better than booze and a concert? Maybe if there was some hotties involved, I'd say I was in heaven...

...Oh my! Thank you, Gods of Metal. \m/

Concert Review: Slaughter Survivor Battle Of The Bands

I feel like I was just hit by a semi-truck. I have a ringing in my ears, some new battle-scars, and incredible whiplash. At the risk of of sounding like a hyper teenager, this show was EPIC. Behold:

Defleshment, hailing from Laguna, NM, are a force to be reckoned with. They kickstarted the entire concert with intensely brutal riffs and machine-gun drumming. It was fucking awesome. Thier performance was a taste of New Mexico Death Metal, and pretty much set the tone for the badassery of the whole show.

Next up was Eulogies Of The Forgotten. They have neither CD's (that I know of) nor online music, save for some youtube videos which don't quite do them justice. Hell, that's just more reason to to see them live. These guys are truly badass, coming all the way from Taos to perform, and supporting al the other bands as well. The fact that they could play such an energetic set and then mosh the rest of the night is freaking impressive. They're pretty cool guys, too. Meeting them offstage,you would never guess that they were the crazy bastards who just fucked your shit up in the limelight.

Eat A Helicopter is straight up scary. The name is deceptively goofy, but the music basically delivers a pre-emptive strike on all five (six?) of your senses. It was during their setlist that the mosh pit grew massive. Rowdy doesn't even begin to describe it. If you want a taste of their awesome insanity, check out this video. If you like what you see, CD's and other merch is available. Contact the band on their facebook, I already gave you the link. Fuck yeah.

Futilitarian, in their own words, incorporate "an offensive amount of guitar." Yeah, that sounds about right. The music is painfully loud, so awesomely unholy that it's almost ambient. Their style is so melodic that it borders on symphonic. Their sound is atmospheric and poignant. The murcery icing on the Metal cake is that they gave out free CD's. (EP To Earth  is available on Bandcamp, by the way.) I'm going to be honest: One of my favorite things about Metal is the unique vocal styles, which obviously differentiate it from other genres. As such, I'm usually pretty sketched out by Instru-Metal. However, Futilitarian holds thier own, and they are one of my favorite bands despite (or even due to) the lack of vocals.

Weslandia were the winners of the Battle Of The Bands, and I hope they realize that they competed with worthy opponents. Apparently they are also a Christian Metal band, which is great. Christian Metal has a reputation for being kind of lame, but musicians like this prove these negative opinions wrong. They're almost as brutal as The Old Testament itself.

Of All Forms was a band I had anticipated all night, for they were the only musicians representing my hometown: Santa Fe. And holy faith, can those guys represent. They seem to be the quintessential modern Metal band, almost Dethklokian in their style. Think caustic drumming, with melodic strings juxtaposed against relatively monotone growls. I don't mean to be insulting when I say the vocals are monotonous... as this Interview with Brendon Small demonstrates, the deeper growls are too brutal to be melodic. I'm psyched that I had such a beastly band to show Albuqurque what Santa Fe is made of. I also appreciate their lack of gimmicks. In a local scene that prides itself on novelty, it's refreshing to see a New Mexico band that can just play Metal, heavy as fuck.

A Malicious Plague is amazing. Everything about them is apocalyptic. Their sound, their stage presence, all of it rocks. It's the next best thing to actually festering in your own squalid pestilence. I swear, I'm sure that if The Black Death makes an unexpected comeback, humanity's dying words will sound something like this. They came all the way from Gallup to perform, which increases my already immense respect for them.

Atypical Night is aptly named, because every concert with them is guaranteed to be extraordinary. They certainly ended the night with a bang. Their musical style is a seamless blend of melody and ruthlessness. The resulting chaos is something like Death Metal with amped-up virtuosity. They describe themselves as Melodic Deathcore, which seems pretty accurate, so let's just go with that. They were a sublime conclusion to a concert such as this. As most Joe Angel Productions go, this one also gets five stars outta five.