Death Angel – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Highlights of Aftershock 2025!

Review by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro and Emily Anderson @emilyphotoadventure

Photos by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro unless otherwise stated

Nearly one year ago, at the very end of Spinning Platters’ Aftershock 2024 review, this question was raised: “West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival had such a stellar lineup this year, HOW are they possibly going to outdo themselves in 2025?!?!”

If one hundred people were asked if 2025 was better than 2024, there would undoubtedly be one hundred different answers and opinions. Aftershock 2024 was so exceptionally good and a heavy metal fan’s wet dream – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Slipknot, Mastodon, Anthrax, Clutch, Ministry, Body Count and more! Fans of other genres of rock, punk, and loud music were still out in force, as Aftershock 2024 set an attendance record of 40,000 people per day, but may have felt neglected by the sheer amount of metal that closed every night of the festival.

For the 13th annual Aftershock in 2025, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) altered the overall lineup to cater to the rest of those fans while still appealing to the heavy metal fans, by combining every Warped Tour, Ozzfest and Rockstar Mayhem Festival lineup, put it all in a blender, and poured it in a tall glass of Discovery Park for four days of the best rock, alt-rock, metal, 2000’s nu-metal, hardcore, and pop-punk bands, all in one place at one time in the outskirts of downtown Sacramento!

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April \m/etal show photos + reviews: Obituary, Exodus, Death Angel, and more!

Photo Galleries and Show Reviews by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro

Spinning Platters attended, photographed, and reviewed (not all) a dozen \m/etal shows in April! Beginning the last weekend of March and throughout April, San Francisco (and Spinning Platters!) had become very \m/etal! Just look at the list of 60+ band names on the left column (on mobile, look near the bottom of the page), which does not happen very often around here anymore…

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Kerry King (of Slayer) ‘From Hell I Rise’

Review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
Cover photo by: Jim Louvau @jimlouvau

“It’s gonna sound like Slayer without it being Slayer.” (Paul Bostaph, August 27, 2020, Metal Injection)

“[O]f course it’s gonna sound like Slayer; I wrote 90% of the last record [Repentless].” (Kerry King, May 13, 2024, Revolver)

After an eighteen-month ‘final’ tour, Slayer called it quits on November 30, 2019, and it surprised absolutely no one that Kerry King would be back. Even the guitar picks that he threw out from the stage every night on the final tour said: Kerry King will be “Reborn” in “2020”.

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Webstream Review: Death Angel “The Bastard Tracks”, 5/29/2021

“The Bastard Tracks”. B-Sides. The meat of the record. Songs not usually on the live set. Deep cuts. Tracks the diehard fans know.

Death Angel created this web stream to dig “deep into [their] catalog to perform older favorites, newer classics and songs that have never been performed live before” with multiple interview segments containing the stories behind the songs and “a glimpse into the collective minds and souls of Death Angel.”

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Film and Show Review: Murder in the Front Row -and- Metal Allegiance on 4-20

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro

April 20 in San Francisco is celebrated annually like a national holiday. Commonly known simply as 420, the day consists of 15-20,000 people basically sitting on a hill in Golden Gate Park smoking pot all day. Coincidentally, the 2019 version actually was a national holiday, as Good Friday preceded, Passover started, and Easter Sunday was the next day. This year’s 420 also had one more reason for San Franciscans to celebrate, and that was the world premiere screening of the documentary Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 12/18/15-12/24/15

Star Wars! Star Wars! Star Wars! Star Wars! Can you believe it? It’s difficult to believe! But it’s here! This week! B… [cough]… it’s… it’s been… a long time since it was possible to look forward to a Star Wars anything. It’s here! Extraordinary feelings.

Now, let’s talk about what’s coming up this week. Let’s preview. Hyperdrive go! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 12/18/15-12/24/15”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/20/11-10/26/11

portis-hat-and-coat-stand__0092851_PE237623_S4 — PORTIS Hat & Coat Rack from IKEA. $29.99. Current average price of Portishead tickets on Stubhub? $150.00

This is another week where you just have to feel lucky living in the bay… It’s a great combination of living legends and awesome low profile gigs, so I hope you have some money and sick time, because this one is gonna be busy!

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: December 16th-December 22nd

Playing Thursday Night At The Independent. Seriously.

By a show of hands, who has started their holiday shopping…

Nobody? Good. Let’s keep it that way.

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