Metal Alliance 2012

Well, fuck. It's been a rowdy ass weekend frought with mayhem and debauchery. Warehouse 21 hosted yet another Metal show on Saturday, but more about that later. Today, I'm going to focus on the craziness that was the Metal Alliance tour. First of all, it came to my neck of the woods on Easter Sunday. The Holy Day is a pretty weird time to do anything, let alone have a freaking Death Metal Concert. And on Zombie Jesus day, too?! Thankfully, I gave up Christianity for Lent, so I wasn't too worried.

Unfortunately, the tour manager was kind of a bitchy diva, so the local bands had tiny sets. Seriously, I  missed half of Fields Of Elysium's set just by blinking. They only played two songs, both of them recently composed, and both of which are available on the new CD. Last I heard, it only costs $7, and it has some killer cover art to boot.

Whoah, trippy.

 The other local band was From Sacrifice To Survival, who even in their 30 minutes (if that) pretty much upstaged the headliners. You don't have to take my word for it though. They too have an EP, available to download for free. Heavy, intense, and insane.

The only other extaordinary band was 3 Inches Of Blood. Don't get me wrong, the line up was truer than truth itself, but I couldn't tell one band from the next, awesome though they were. 3 Inches Of Blood, however, stood out as a paragon of modernized Traditional Heavy Metal. Think the high-pitched hooks of Judas Priest juxtaposed with contemporary screams and riffs. It was amazing.

Like I said, I love all the other acts to death. That doesn't mean I can differentiate them from each other. For the record, though, it was Wretched, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, and Devildriver. The lattermost band was the headliner, and boast one of the largest Circle Pits in history.

Speaking of mosh pits... I took a beating or two that night. I can usually fend for myself in a slamdance, but this time things got all crazy. I'm not complaining, mind you. It was cathartic as hell. Plus, I look like a badass now. I even have photographic evidence of how cool I am.

Fuckin' owwww.

This might just be the brain damage talking, but I give it five stars outta five.

Losfer Words

Writers block sucks. At least it's a full moon tonight; maybe the werewolf vibes will make me cool by sunset. After an all-nighter analyzing Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde, I'm pretty sure that love itself is nocturnal. Anyway, there's a show at W21 tomorrow, featuring Santa Fe metal bands Grinkai (funky death metal) and Savage Wizdom (heavy power metal), as well as Albuqurque rockers Until Chaos and Mono Stereo. All ages, Five Bucks, show starts at 7, no drugs or violence. 

Easter Sunday gives us another leviathan of a show, courtesy of Joe Angel Productions. Keep in mind, this isn't just any ol' gig; This is the damn Metal Alliance Tour 2012. That's pretty badass, even for JAP standards. Devildriver is just plain epic, a modern gem of contemporary Metal. Job For A Cowboy has a weird name, but brutality to die for. Impending Doom has cool vids, but I've never seen them in concert. Wretched has a melodic style, almost emulating the great Classical artists, and a virtuosity that is rarely seen in most Metal acts. I stil don't know what I should think of The Faceless, they remain an enigma to me.  3 Inches Of Blood features righteous, shreddy guitars and screaming vocals, reminds me of old Armored Saint. If you're on my blog and don't know about Dying Fetus, I don't know what to tell you. They're fucking intense, and you're not worthy.  Local bands include From Sacrifice To Survival and Fields Of Elysium... The former is relentless and chaotic, the latter is painstakingly technical. They're both amazing, despite, or even due to, these different musical styles.

...Shit, so far this looks like a carbon copy of my previous post. I guess I'll jazz things up by reminding everyone that The Devastated were recently signed onto Century Media Records, now amongst the ranks of Heavy Metal titans such as Iced Earth, Arch Enemy, and In Flames. They deserve some mad props for this milestone, so show some support and check their tour dates. Or at least buy a fucking T-shirt.

Cheryl is still lost for words. I'll post again when my brain is more functional.