Gravehill -- Kansas City, MO -- July 8th, 2010

Genre's of music I saw at last night's show:

Slam Death Metal
Brutal Death Metal
Pornogrind
Death Metal
Death/Thrash
Death/Grind
Blackened Thrash

Pretty good mix.

I arrived at the Riot Room as Syphilic was finishing up. Just one guitarist, one mic, and one drum machine. It set the tone for the next few bands. Not as brutal as, say, Devourment, but it got the job done.

Next up was Intracranial Butchery, but he had Clay from Cemetery Rapist do vocals for him. He had a bit of technical difficulties working his drum machine and guitar pedals and it carried over to his performance, but there were some bits that were great. Clay did an excellent job too.

First band I was really excited to see was Cemetery Rapist. Yeah, pornogrind is a joke genre, but the way Clay does vocals is kind of impressive, considering he doesn't use voice altering equipment at all. His sound was the best of the pornogrind/slam bands. It was just dumb fun.

First band with more than one member was Garoted. This Garoted was not the same deathcore/grind band from KC, but a straight-up death metal band from Nebraska. They said they'd be playing more in KC from now on. They sounded pretty good, even a tinge of black metal at times. The drummer is insane, too. Looking forward to lots more of them.

I've never seen Othis before and I was kind of eager because they're on a couple of good shows coming up. However, they didn't seem into at all. They looked really bored on stage and seemed like they were just going through the motions. Not a good first impression at all.

Koktopus is always good, and they've gotten better and better each time I've seen them. This was probably the best time. The guitar tone and volume were just perfect. Throwing in a sick cover of Witching Hour only helped. Really awesome stuff.

Cardiac Arrest from Chicago was co-headlining and they slayed. Mixing death and thrash, they had an infectious sound and got everyone headbanging. Finally had a band with more than just guttural death growls.

Last but certainly not least was Gravehill from California. They dressed up like the kvltest of Norwegian black metal bands, but their brand of blackened thrash metal had enough punk in it as well to incite the only moshing of the night, as well as insane amounts of headbanging. I really, really hope I get to see Gravehill again. One of the best bands of the year.

---
Syphilic: 7/10
Intracranial Butchery (feat. Clay from Cemetery Rapist on vox): 7/10
Cemetery Rapist: 8.5/10
Garoted: 8/10
Othis: 5/10
Koktopus: 8.5/10
Cardiac Arrest: 8.5/10
Gravehill: 9.5/10

Review to come. Holy shit, Gravehill was awesome.

Gravehill included:

Rites Of The Pentagram
Bloodsoaked
Decibel Ritual
Ravager
In League With Satan (Venom cover)

Cardiac Arrest setlist:

Insanity's Grip
Mind and Body Deteriorated
Make Them Die Slowly
Carnage Your Fate
Embrace The Aftermath
Affliction Of The Beast
Right On...Fuck Off!

Koktopus included:

Drink The Fuck Up
The Wrath Of Koktopus
Witching Hour (Venom cover)

Garoted included:

Matricide
Blackest Blood
With The Hammer
Heretic Fire

Cemetery Rapist included:

New Song
Preteen Bitch With The Itch For Dick
Slant Eyed Sex Slave
63 Fag Body Bag
Death by Ruru