Finally, a show on a Saturday! Is that too much to ask for these days? I know we gotta work around touring bands schedules and all but still....hold them hostage and make them play on a Friday or something. Seriously though, with the crazy amount of shows going down during the week anymore it was definitely a relief to find out this one was happening on a weekend. Plus I missed the Deceased gig in Philly so....yeah.
With a car, well an SUV, packed full of people we ended up making it out to Kearny a little bit later than we had originally planned....but what else is new. One of the opening bands had just gone off stage when we walked in so we ended up taking a quick walk down the street to pick up some cheap pizza. After milling around for a bit and scarfing down some food we made our way back inside to catch a local Philly band that I've been meaning to catch up with for sometime now.
Next up was something I wasn't expecting at all; Without End. A menacing NJ/NY Death/Thrash band featuring members of Blood Feast & M.O.D! You heard that right. It's great when an opening band that your not familiar with and not sure what to expect can reach out from the stage and literally suck you in.
If I could only use one word to describe these guys it would be relentless, because they never seemed to let up! Honestly though, would you expect anything less from a bunch of guys who created something like Blood Feast? Plus their from New Jersey and we all know what happens in New Jersey when you give those crazy guys drums and a couple of guitars....total fucking mayhem.
Unfortunately we only managed to film one song from their set and that was of their Blood Feast cover. I'm kinda disappointed that we didn't catch any of their originals because it really was some great stuff, but I wasn't filming so don't blame me! haha. Next time around we'll have to make it a point of capturing their entire set so you guys can see what I'm talking about here. I'm just hoping we won't have to wait too long to see these guys play again around here. Maybe we'll get to see them in Philly sometime soon? Who knows.
After a bit of parking lot antics the guys from Hellcannon prepared to take over the stage. This is a band that I've been looking forward to seeing for quite sometime now. With so many new school bands popping up out there it's almost impossible to keep up with them all, but I try my best.
One of the first things I did when I walked into the venue was head right over to their table and bought a copy of their CD Infected with Violence. I downloaded it awhile ago but unless you can hold it in your hands....it's not real. Plus I'm not some cheap asshole that just downloads people's music without actually supporting them. It takes money to make things happen guys so if your at a show and you've got a few bucks, buy some band merch, it makes a big difference. Enough about that though, back to the bands.
Just like Condition Critical, it's the younger guys that you really have to look out for these days. Hailing from Buffalo New York, this four piece Death/Thrash band that's been around since 2009 got straight to the point, and straight to your face. With songs like Chainsaw Ripping Death, Raiders of the Waste and Speed Killer, these guys cut right through your eardrums using nothing but sheer speed & aggression.
They definitely carried the brutality into their stage set that was captured on their CD, executing it without a single disappointment. Even pulling the plug on us and pulling out a Death cover in the middle of the set, good stuff. But like all good things though, these guys had to bring their set to an end, giving us some much needed time to catch our breath. Later on in the night we had the chance to catch up with them a bit and tossed around the idea of doing some shows in the near future, so hopefully we'll be seeing these guys in our neck of the woods sometime soon. I'm really looking forward to it.
Next up were the leather & steal clad maniacs from Virgina known as Possessor!!! Stepping right into place to pick up where Hellcannon had left off. I knew it would only be a matter of seconds before these guys got some fists pounding and some heads moving. These guys shredded the Free FDR show in Philly the previous week, our very first gig here at Falloutzine, so I knew exactly what sort of chaos was in store for us.
It goes without saying that I'm a fan of metal, or just music in general for that matter, and so naturally I love going to shows. But, not every band that gets on stage with their hands wrapped around an instrument playing music really puts on a show, they just kind of stand there....and play music. Well, when I drive all the way out to where ever the hell it is your band is playing and shell out some cash to watch you guys I wanna see some energy shooting off the stage, I wanna see you moving around, I wanna see some crazy fucking shit going on and I basically wanna lose my mind. This, this is exactly what you get when Possessor walks on stage. These guys actually put some thought and effort into their band and it shows.
Kicking the show off with a sound clip from the second Mad Max film, The Road Warrior, as their intro definitely got the hairs standing on the back of my neck and immediately had me ready to go crazy. If there is one thing that I love it's sound clips from great movies being used on albums or as intro's to a show like this one.
As the intro to the Lord of the Wasteland, the Ayatollah of Rock N' Rolla, came to an end these guys roared into the opening track from their 2010 demo, Hammer and Nails. They blasted through their set list which included the rest of the stuff of their 2010 demo as well as some of their newer material which will be on their debut album 'City Built With Skulls'.
I couldn't help but laugh at how awesome it was that their front man Robbie Rainey got so into the opening of their new song Champions of Chaos that he actually knocked part of the drum kit onto the floor and just kept going! That is EXACTLY what I want to see, some real energy on stage.
These guys are definitely going to have to make their way back up to our neck of the woods again, and if I can help it we'll have them back in Philly before you know it. Good stuff guys!
And now, winding things down with something a bit more mellow and civilized to close out the evening were the fine gentlemen from Deceased! Ha! Yeah right. Before you even knew what was going on their front man King Fowely was already up onstage stomping around with the elegance only found in an old school wrestler! Grabbing peoples attention with his menacing words and clever stage antics; pure genius & pure entertainment!
One thing that had me laughing was this tiny girl screaming her lungs out along with the band who ended up on stage singing along and head banging after the King had lifted her up out of the crowd and handed her the mic! I thought that was pretty damn hilarious.
Musically, I'm usually not much of a deathmetal fan but these guys didn't really fall too far from the thrash tree so I really dig them. The sheer energy of their front man is enough to keep your attention locked in on top of the fact that these guys have been around for a long time and have some pretty deep roots entrenched in the local metal scene. Unfortunately this is another band who we only managed to film a few songs from, and I'm bummed that we missed the song they ended the night with....a cover of Venom's Black Metal!
All in all this was a great show with a solid line up. I wish I was able to get their earlier to catch the first two opening bands that we missed but I'm sure we'll cross paths again. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what else Signature Riff has up their sleeve.
