Tag: Slayer

Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.

Review and All Photos by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF 
Additional interviews and content here by: Emily Anderson @wisefoolfilms

For decades, Europe has led the way in the heavy metal and loud rock music festival space. Monsters of Rock (the originator, which started in 1980!), Wacken Open Air, Dynamo Open Air, Hellfest, Graspop, Copenhell, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Summer Breeze, Sweden Rock Fest and Download have always dominated the landscape with their amazing lineups year after year. 

United States was never close in offering an equivalent heavy metal experience. Sure, there was Ozzfest and Mayhem Festival, but those have been gone since 2017 and 2015 and Americans have always leaned more towards indie rock music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, Bonaroo, and Outside Lands anyway.

For the last twelve or so years, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) has been chipping away at the supremacy of the European heavy metal festivals, with Welcome To Rockville, Louder Than Life, Sonic Temple, Inkcarceration, Rock on the Range, Rocklahoma, Carolina Rebellion, and Northern California’s very own Aftershock Festival. With the best lineup it has ever had, West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival definitely lived up to its name in 2024!

Continue reading “Show Review: The. Best. Aftershock. Ever.”

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

Review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
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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Film and Show Review: Murder in the Front Row -and- Metal Allegiance on 4-20

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

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.

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

Show Review: The Final U.S. Slayer Show! (of this Leg of the Tour)

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

January 22, 2018. Slayer announced their “farewell” tour. After over 35 years of yelling “Die By the Sword”, singer and bass player Tom Araya wants to scream no more. As much as the fans would want Slayer to keep performing forever, Tom and the only other original member, guitar player Kerry King, deserve to go out on top and begin collecting their 401k. Gary Holt, the 2nd guitar player, will always have his primary band Exodus, and certainly bands will be lining up for drummer Paul Bostaph’s services once he becomes available again. In the meanwhile, though, according to a press release issued the morning after The. Final. U.S. Slayer. Show., this “farewell” tour still has another year to go!

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Show Review: Dead Cross, Qui, Secret Chiefs 3 at El Rey, 8.21-22.17

“Nothing stops this tour!”

Dead Cross-20

Since supergroups seem to be the big deal right now, it’s hard to recognize any band who comes together in collaboration as anything but. However, it becomes crystal clear, when the band performs live, that “supergroup” is not as appropriate of a term. When talking about Dead Cross it is completely fair to say that this is a band, not another one-off album release. The self-titled album, recently released on Ipecac Records, is a blistering hardcore punk set that injects a new vitality into the genre.

Continue reading “Show Review: Dead Cross, Qui, Secret Chiefs 3 at El Rey, 8.21-22.17”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2016-03-17 – 2016-03-23

Conan, by Frazetta
Appearing Monday, March 21 at The Metro in Oakland
St. Patrick’s Day. Irishness! Excellent.

To go with this week in the Bay Area we also have metal, self-described “country-fed punkabilly,” and the Melvins. Also! Bilingual punk rock with horns as well as bilingual Rickenbacker-wielding one-woman guitar rock. And Conan. Conan!

Let’s preview. Faugh A Ballagh! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2016-03-17 — 2016-03-23”

Show Reviews: Mid-November (2014) METAL Overload with Slayer, Exodus, Suicidal, and Judas Priest!

Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF

There really is no such thing as “metal overload”.  If there was this many epic metal shows per week every week of the year, that would be more like “metal heaven” (except all metalheads are Satanic, right? So, “metal hell”?) …

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 11/6/14-11/12/14

MUNI FAIL
No, the F-Line isn’t supposed to be this close to the MUNI bus.

Post-Election Day we have a panoply of excellent concerts coming to The Bay Area this week. Shows of all kinds. We have shows that are avenging! And dance-y! Secretive! And lemony! Metal! And even including the magic of public transportation.

It’s wonderful that there are so many kinds of shows ’round here and so many buses to take you to them.

Here’s what’s coming up this week. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 11/6/14-11/12/14”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/24/13-10/30/13

You are probably wondering what the above video has to do with our weekly show preview… Well, the adorable red head on the piano is playing several shows this week, including a high profile gig opening up Bridge School each day.

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Show Review: Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater, 7/1/12

I think these guys may have been part of the Christian organization protesting the show from the parking lot. (All Photos by Alan Ralph)

 

I don’t listen to heavy metal music very often. There are two or three records that I pull out on rare occasion to fill a certain void, but at no time would I consider myself part of the movement. So, when the opportunity fell in my lap to cover Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, I wasn’t entirely sure if I was the right man for the job. But, I do really like Motörhead, and life isn’t about doing the safe thing. So, I decided to throw caution to the wind and see what happens when I spend an entire day absorbed in the metallic crunch of a heavy metal show. I put on my most “metal” of t-shirts, which was, most ironically, a Yelle T-shirt that was all black and had “Dance Or Die” written in bold red.

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