12 Years of Supporting the Underground and Quality Metal Scene:  Day 1 of Metal Assault 12 Year Anniversary Show

February 12th, 2022

            From starting your passionate project at home, potentially turning it into a career, to getting a scholarship for D-1 wrestling, we all remember where we got our “starts.”  You see where your emotional and mental stage was at that younger age, what you thought you knew, what you were wrong about, and ultimately, that initial excitement of planning, elation, and wanting to put your best foot forward, when you got that call.  For myself, it was in August of 2013, when my friend Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal made a post asking if anyone wanted to review upcoming shows.  I happily offered and volunteered for it, with the first review I ever done:  Vader performing at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana, alongside Vital Remains as main support.  Considering Vader is one of my top bands ever, it was a glowing opportunity and memory, and the only reason I was able to write for Metal Assault for nearly 5 years, and start on my own 4 years this March, was because of Aniruddh and Metal Assault.

            12 years since I first saw Aniruddh pass out Metal Assault info cards to fellow fans waiting in line for Opeth’s Blackwater Park anniversary show at The Wiltern, Metal Assault celebrates 12 years of supporting the local, underground Metal scene, of all genres, as well as giving objective, quality analysis to the larger acts in the business.  To celebrate, Metal Assault would put forth a special 2-day event at the Transplants Brewing Company, in Palmdale, California.  Unfortunately, due to my right ACL and meniscus surgery this Monday (Valentine’s Day, could always be worst, right?), I was only able to attend Day 1.

            My first time in this area, and after seeing the inside of the brewery, as well as the venue, it certainly won’t be my last.  From a varied amount of delicious beer to choose from, absolutely gorgeous colourful, dark paintings from BL Singleton.  Vastly astounding creatures ranging from tortured souls, entering new dimensions, to twisted, memorable designs that immediately caught my attention.  I cannot recommend checking out BL Singleton’s work enough.

            The first act for this weekend, Yandere Chainsaw Regurgitation Factory, a one-man show, all done by Andrew Gonzales.  Up on stage, an empty drum kit, for the next band after.  All of the drumming work was done on the laptop, with Gonzales performing vicious gutturals, furious guitar playing, all while playing in excellent time with the programmed drums.  Retch, one of the first memories of watching a two-piece or less, Brutal Death Metal/Goregrind also using programmed drums, creating such a unique element performing.  Gonzales didn’t miss a beat, performing the quick-sounding riffs that matched the blastbeats only a machine can reach.  Considering he formed this band in early 2021, it’s remarkable the amount of experience you can feel coming from Gonzales.  There wasn’t a magnificent Progressive solo, nor a 10-minute song to be found, just down right dirty, suffocating Brutal Death Metal.  Yandere Chainsaw Regurgitation Factory can be a fill-in for countless shows, and step up to perform more Death Metal tours, and I look forward to seeing it happen.

            Moving forward to the concept of something different:  A three-piece instrumental band.  Bands out there have made instrumental albums, on rare occasions, but to see a band start and play this way, it’s still a marvel to me.  Stealing Yawns, from the strong sound of the venue’s PA, as well as the ability I saw on-stage, impressed the crowd that were enjoying the instrumental interactions.  I’ll admit, the band was quite difficult to find on all sorts of social media, and I admittingly couldn’t find info on the band.  But on-stage, there was a drummer, bassist and guitarist.  I did notice immediately, the pace and technique the drummer had, even performing some blast beats to go with the more mild-sounding riffs.  It was a unique combination, as the guitarist’s riffs ranged from the clean-picked arpeggios, to more Hard Rock chords and the Melodic string-skipping melody you’d find in many Melodic Death Metal verses.  I appreciated the contrast between the mild guitar work, with the changing drums, but the later part of the set felt a little redundant, just not much dynamics for an instrumental band.  I feel there’s another level Stealing Yawns can obtain to, with the fundamentals already in strong degree.

            To a number of their fans right in the front row, Bone Maggot came out to a fairly large proportion of the crowd.  Ranging from Djent elements, late 90s Metal, to Old School Hard Rock, Bone Maggot had the early crowd rocking out, including a number of fans in the front especially there for Bone Maggot.  The different musical transitions went from your typical pause-and-stop riffs between verses, to some more interesting lead guitar and whammy tremolo play from Mike Klein.  There were some tapping solos he sang parts too at the same time, and on his voice, it had that raspy, oozing captivity with the pauses and diction he sang with, I really enjoyed it.  The intro to “Pig Farmer” was humourous, and showed the amount of energy Bone Maggot had on-stage, and with the crowd.  The groovy, “hard rock” elements didn’t do much for me, however their more “Djent” riffs and faster speed songs, felt more at place with the rest of the lineup today.  The crowd absolutely ate up Bone Maggot’s set, and the strengths of the band, stood out fairly decent.

1.  Fear of Life

2.  Bleed It

3.  Shovelfist

4.  Internal Hate

5.  Pig Farmer

6.  Root of the Rot

7.  Distorted Reality

8.  Sunshine Manor

9.  Strawman

            It’s difficult, I personally feel, to stand out as an instrumental band.  You’re not supposed to do the same things as general songs, as the lyrics are evaporated from your ears and musical sight.  In the blink of an eye, Formentor immediately decided to challenge my opinion, and made quite the compelling rebuttal.  Only a two-piece, drummer Dylan Marks and guitarist Adam “Wolly”, made a dramatic impact on-stage, beautifully combining each instrument’s “voices”.  From Jazzy drum fills, powerful counterpoints, Dylan Marks’s frenetic impact left many in the crowd speechless.  The songs varied from spunky, intense, and full of character.  “Wolly” had the fans cheering through the Swiss Army knife of picked harmonics, low-end notes backed by a beefy crunch of distortion, following with palm-muted major octave chords in the vein of Gorguts, allowing Dylan’s hard-nosed hitting to accent the tremendous wordless atmosphere.  Best of all, the tightly-played music was performed with both members either moving frequently, headbanging galore.  The energy was incredible!  I felt the construction, as well as the “concepts” of sound performed, had each song of their 30-minute set, truly stand out.  I was floored by Formentor, as well as the rest of Transplant Brewing Company.  The surprise, highlight, and the general article, of the entire day.

1.  Land Bridge

2.  Seventh Circle

3.  Ring King

4.  You Fool

5.  Thunder Boss

6.  Secret Visitors

            It feels like several years since I saw Fortress of Empyrean, I believe was several years at The Slidebar, in Fullerton.  Even then, I could tell that the band has drastically changed in sound and style, with a Progressive sense of melody and variance within the musicians.  The “Terminator Theme Song” intro, was an excellent touch, I might add.  Javier Cortez led the charge from impaling screams, to clean vocals around the 80s era, in terms of the higher-register, as well as the melodies and generally clean arpeggios, he was performing with Chris Manriquez and Rudy Ramirez on guitar.  With that said, there’s a reason having 3 guitar players is quite rare in Metal, especially when Iron Maiden is generally the first band we mostly think of, in that respect.  Although Javier played some leads and harmonies along the other guitarists, there were instances of him not playing, but singing instead.  No need to use the guitar as a prop.  The surprise of their set, a cover of Megadeth – “Tornado of Souls”.  It’s rare to see a Megadeth cover, as making your own/staying true to Mustaine’s vocal style, isn’t as easy as the haters performed amazingly, the cover was more than done well, and the audience had a blast during it.  Overall, the musicianship and the number of dynamic changes, between the clean moments and distorted elements, Fortress of Empyrean displayed their Progressive Metal sound nicely.

            Speaking of guitar, Malison’s Power Metal sounding solos from Eddie Spade and Mario Lovio, would feel right at home in the 80s, at a pub in Great Britain.  Going from the darker elements of the day, Malison’s energy you could say was, “fluffier”, but the skill level on-stage was far from cheesy.  Fast-paced, exciting guitar-fills, beaming brightness with Steven Rondina’s singing, the music felt like a gallop to the final level in a game.  The riffs stayed around the higher-end melody side, bringing forth this rush of tempo and rhythm.  Fans of older Metal and Rock would love the vocals and cheerful nature of Rondina’s stage presence, as well as modern Metal lovers, would appreciate the tasteful technique between the soaring soloing and clean technique.  Malison’s set went by as quick as the band themselves performed, and a bit of a longer set hopefully in the future, to have the overall vibe and musicianship stand out even longer.

            Judging from the venue and atmosphere, it seemed that Through the Oculus had the most attention on their site.  Right away, you could hear the numerous dynamics the band implores, specifically with both vocalists.  Sarah Gamblin could be heard singing operatic elements, alongside other growling styles that beautifully went with the often times symphonic sounding riffing from Randy Blount.  As with Gamblin, he also took upon different harsh vocals and backup singing roles, and the amount both intertwined together, created a transcendent combination incredibly worthy of praise.  The riffs either took over the songs, with Blount’s various change-ups on full display, or often times, they took a step back, with the space between key vocal lines, patterns, and emotions, being the focal point.  I appreciated Lauren Weatherford’s no-nonsense headbanging nature on-stage, the energy and bass playing, a spectacle to witness at the pace she performed it at.  Through the Oculus hasn’t been around for too long, but the savvy with creating memorable atmosphere with the voices especially, was rather impressive.  One of the best performances tonight.   

1.  Lilith and Lazarus

2.  Harvester of Souls

3.  Obses

4.  Defiled Kingdom

5.  Revenge of the Drake

6.  N-Humane

7.  Eye of Hell

8.  Order of the Eye

            When Voices of Ruin perform at a show, you know you’re getting high-energy, an immense amount of melody, and raging moshing/headbanging your way, and tonight, once more showed the band does not cheat the game.  A rockslide of Melodic Death Metal, able to sing assortment of solos and riffs, note for note, that’s how you want your melodies to be remembered.  Dave Barrett’s piercing vocals shined in “I Am God”, with it often seems that he continues to get better as the show progresses, and not the other way as vocalists/frontmen often do.  The flashy solos, tastefully picked Gain-coated notes from Tom Barrett and Steve Carlton, truly make their signature sound unforgettable.  The amount of fun the band has while playing cannot be overstated, they truly do not cheat the music, or “hone it in.”  However, even their 6-song set still felt short, and would someday really like to see a proper headlining show from the band.  When I saw Sabaton finally headline back in late 2014, the difference between their support and headlining sets, were massive.  From changing up the set to make a captivating performance, playing old and unreleased newer material for example, I hope Voices of Ruin can do something of that ilk this year, and soon.   

1.  Carved Out

2.  Suffering Silence

3.  Reach Toward the Sky

4.  The Undoing

5.  Death’s Design

6.  I Am God

            In accordance with the amount of Metal we all gloriously received today, Claustrofobia brought the mythical hammer down on Transplant Brewing Company.  Death/Thrash Metal from Brazil originally, you would assume it’d be a Sepultura rip-off, and there would be none of that description within this set.  That carnage style of down-beat tempo on the snare, particularly with the vocals spewing rapidly, on top of the massive toy chest of riffs, was certainly in Claustrofobia’s arsenal, but it didn’t feel like a clone of the older Brazilian bands.  Creating this band back in 1994(!), guitarist/lead vocalist Marcus D’Angelo commanded the venue, playing swift tremolo picked riffs, gnarly down picking, and a fantastic mid-range growl, that resembled Peter Wiwczarek from Vader himself.

            The shining moment in their set, was the tremendous speed and fury Claustrofobia had at their disposal.  Brother of Marcus, Caio D’Angelo set the venue ablaze, hitting the scat beat at a brutal, almost blasting pace, and the crystal sounding snare powerfully ringing in these Metal halls, a delight to watch.  They have the main elements of Thrash that I adore: Dark and Mach-speed.  The groovy choruses kept the listener on a string, eventually pulling it out from under you when the blistering, battering tempo methods continued on at that frenetic pace.  Bassist Rafael Yamada windmilled constantly around the stage, adding his own fills and thunderous triplets with Caio’s double-bass.  Aggressive Death/Thrash with groove elements, a lightning bolt to end Claustrofobia’s headlining set tonight.       

            From the loved ones in your life, the special projects and careers you’ll have the opportunity to seek and discover, do not forget where you came from, and what made that meaningful, and symbolic.  Aniruddh Bansal gave me and others that opportunity to give the quality Metal bands, genres and the underground scene, the most clarifying voice you can.  I’m proud Metal Assault has continued to thrive, evolve, staying relevant, and not be taken down from the music corporate.  I hope the ones who could attend Day 2 of the 12-Year Anniversary show, had just as much of a festive experience as I, and countless others did today. 

Metal Assault links:

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Contact Info:  metalassaultla@gmail.com

BL Singleton website:  https://blsingleton.square.site/