If there is one Death Metal band that seems to consistently captivate me and grab my attention, it is Cattle Decapitation. Having grown up in a rural area with a progressive background, I couldn’t help but develop a strong sense of respect for environmental ecology. I went to clear cut protests in high school, I’ve been a supporter of indigenous tribal water rights and the movement to remove the Klamath Dam (which thankfully came through a few years ago and has already seen a healthy increase in Klamath Salmon numbers now that their run has been restored), and I’ve been staggeringly aware of man’s effects on our home. So when I wandered by the local record store one day and saw the promotional art for Cattle’s death grind album Humanure, let’s just say I knew I was going to be on board with their mission statement: Earth First, Humans Last.
I’ve never been to a concert in Ventura, CA. I’ve also never seen Cannibal Corpse live. So, when given the opportunity to head out to The Majestic Ventura Theatre, a theatre that has seen countless bands over its lifetime, to see one of the progenitors of goregrind death metal, I simply had to take it. Mind you, this was a 50-mile trek for me, but it was a Friday, so I hit that fuck it button, cranked the throttle on my motorcycle, and zoomed off straight from work.
Opening the evening was an Italian death metal group paying homage, not only in name, to the great Lucio Fulci. Fulci was everything a horror movie-obsessed death metal fan could have wanted. In addition to bone-crushing songwriting, they brought awesome visuals directly pulled from or inspired by one of my absolute favorite directors of classic Italian genre cinema. They were relentless, tight, and loud as fuck. I loved it.
Following Fulci was a four-person wrecking crew who went off like a fucking bomb. Full of Hell were insanely high-energy, blending death metal, sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence into quite the unique concoction. Singer Dylan Walker never stops moving, save for a few moments between songs, which are at breakneck speeds and absolutely destructive. I felt a lot like how I felt the first time I had ever heard The Locust, and I say that as a huge compliment!
Municipal Waste is the main “coheadliner” of the tour, and goddamn are they fun. Within 30 seconds, I got hit by flying beer drops. These guys take old school trash and blend it with a no fucks given party attitude. They rile up the crowd and get ’em moving, jeering that whatever city they played before this one had more crowd surfers. Throughout the night, a guy in a banana costume was constantly being heckled into starting circle pits, and he sure did oblige!
As it turned out, this evening’s show was bass player Philip Hall’s birthday, and as such, singer Tony Foresta dedicated “The Art of Partying” circle pit to him. They also took a moment to recognize the passing of At The Gates’ Tomas Lindberg, dedicating the final circle pit to him before launching into “Born To Party.”
As I stated before, I’ve never managed to see Cannibal Corpse live. Partially because it took me a minute to come around to them in my younger, less enlightened, days, but by the time I did, I was absolutely hooked. So when they came out on stage and George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher almost immediately started headbanging, the night was officially ON. These guys rip, and they’re so ridiculously fast while also headbanging and windmilling throughout!
It seemed like Corpsegrinder was having some monitor trouble at first, but they got it figured out by the time he dedicated “Disposal of the Body” to Phil for his birthday. Allow me to say, the meme of “Respect The Neck,” in regards to Corpsegrinder’s inhuman ability to windmill and headbang harder and faster than anyone alive, is well deserved. It’s honestly mesmerizing at times, because I have no idea how he doesn’t give himself whiplash. All said and done, it was a hell of a night, and I’m glad I made the trek!
I love heavy metal. Shocking, I know, and there are still so many legendary heavy metal bands that I’ve never seen, so whenever a chance arises, I try to snap it up. So when I found out that Testament and Kreator were going to tour together and that, on top of that, they got Possessed to join in? I couldn’t beg fast enough for that press pass!
I often hesitate before I type certain statements. Of course, what writer doesn’t, but more often than not, I find myself questioning how much truth I’m putting down. No self-respecting writer wants to publish hyperbole; it is the enemy of serious writing. With that, I think it is safe to say that heavy metal music has been experiencing a renaissance. With festivals like Sick New World, Mayhem, Metal Injection’s inaugural Summer Slaughter (upcoming), and massive world tours with sonically packed lineups like Chaos and Carnage, it’s a hell of a time to be a metal fan.
As one of the resident heavy music fans of Spinning Platters, it is often equal parts duty and pleasure that guide me from show to show. Duty in the sense that there aren’t many other writers in our humble group that cover punk and metal, pleasure in the sense that I absolutely fucking love it. It also helps that we’ve been in somewhat of a watershed year since 2023, for heavy music, with many bands releasing some of their best music to date, as well as a slough of new bands pushing their way into the lights. Nothing quite embodies that statement like the Chaos and Carnage Tour this year, so it was my absolute pleasure to leave work a bit early to zip on over to Downtown Los Angeles to see one hell of a metal music lineup.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve covered a show at a venue for the first time. I feel like I’ve been pretty much living at the Belasco, for example, so getting an address for a different venue is always a nice change of pace, especially when it’s somewhere I’ve never been. Boomtown Brewery has been kicking in DTLA north of the arts district for a while now, but they recently started a show booking partnership with The Knitting Factory, which hopefully will bear more fruit for future shows! So I left work half an hour early to brave the even rush hour traffic across town for an evening of hardcore metal music–shocking, I know–and some tasty beer.
Heavy music has been making a pretty big comeback into the public eye lately. My theory is that when the world around us seems intent on reminding us that we are a species that is hardly worth the time and effort it takes to survive, we gravitate toward music that shares that outlook. No band embodies this thesis wholeheartedly as much as San Diego’s Cattle Decapitation, so it should be no surprise that I’m a pretty big fan. That aside, it was one hell of a night for death metal at The Belasco.
Show Review and Los Angeles Photos by: Oliver Brink
San Francisco Photos by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
This one was a bit special for me. Sepultura is a band that I fell deeply in love with in high school, and their music and the continued projects of Max Cavalera have been with me constantly as I navigate my way through life. I always find moments where I just need a song like “Refuse/Resist” or “Troops of Doom” to help me get through a moment of angry energy. So, of course, I had to jump at a chance to see Max and Iggor Cavalera, finally, and when that opportunity arrived, I jumped right the hell on it, even if it meant going to one of my least favorite venues to photograph. More on that later; bands first!
Sometimes, I get really tired of writing. It’s probably why these articles end up being late every damn time. Trying to think of good opening lines or hooks to pull you, the reader, in when I’m fairly confident you’re probably just here for the photos because how could you possibly relate to my subjective experience of these bands or live music in general? Yet, here I am, all self-deprecation aside, about to rattle on about why you should have been at one of the BabyKlok Tour shows regardless of which of these two juggernauts in their own rights is your favorite. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
It’s been a long and difficult saga for Brendon Small, but with the upcoming release Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, we will finally have a conclusion to the story of the “greatest band on earth,” Dethklok. Despite the more obvious humor of Metalocalypse, there has always been a love and adoration for heavy music, from the overarching score, guitar squealing censor blips, and the four absolute crushers of albums.
