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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Unmerciful -- Lawrence, KS -- June 18th, 2010

Sometimes bands get the short end of the straw. They can be really, really talented and make some of the catchiest death metal you'll ever hear, but get terribly promoted and end up only playing in front of a handful of people. But on Friday night, those bands played like they were in front of hundreds.

The first band of the night was Chaos Interval from Kansas City. For a grind outfit with no bassist, their sound was surprisingly really heavy. I came in late for their set so I only caught the last two songs, but I'm really excited to check them out again. I really enjoyed what I heard. 7.5/10

Next up was Independance, MO's own The Roman Holiday. It was my third time seeing them and I have to say, they really have improved with each viewing. When I first saw them, I was ready to dismiss them as another deathcore/brutal death metal band, but they actually didn't fall into that trap and now are just straight up death metal. It's not pure brilliance, but there are parts that are fantastic: the song "Trainwreck" was really fantastic. It sounded at home on the last two Cannibal Corpse albums. They have a lot of room for improvement and I hope they keep on improving: they can't go wrong. 7.5/10

Now for the band of the night. Troglodyte is my favorite local KC-area band and they just reminded me why Friday night. Whereas most death metal bands go for straight up aggression, Trog keeps that intact but also makes metal fun again with catchy music while still keeping the brutality from brutal death metal and the speed and structure from grindcore. It's something special, really. As soon as Trog ripped into "Don't Go Into The Woods" and "They Walk Among Us", they were a breath of fresh air and really sent shivers up and down my spine while they played. If there's one band you should be really excited about from here, it's Troglodyte. 9.5/10

Last but not least is the very first death metal band I ever saw live, Unmerciful. This band has huge ties with the death metal scene, including members and ex-members of Origin and Cattle Decapitation (and the tour I saw them on was with Cannibal Corpse!) and it shows. They make straight-up, in your face brutal death metal, but with enough polish and professionalism that make them stand out. They played some old stuff, played some new stuff, and played a cover of one of my Hate Eternal songs, so all in all, they did great. 8/10

Unmerciful included:

Mass Execution
Seething Darkness
Nailed To Obscurity (Hate Eternal cover)
A few new songs

Troglodyte included:

Don't Go In The Woods
Skunk Ape Rape
We Eat Our Own
Don't Go In The Woods
They Walk Among Us
Die When You Die (GG Allin cover)

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