Exhumed -- Merriam, KS -- July 21st, 2011

Okay, so my only complaint about the night is that parking at the Aftershock completely sucks. Their lot isn't nearly big enough and we ended up parking 3 rows deep so the cars in the middle were SOL if they had to leave early. But aside from that, Aftershock's biggest show yet was absolutely awesome.

First band up was The Roman Holiday from Independence, and they were surprisingly good. I've seen them evolve and get better and better with each performance, and this was by far their best-sounding show. Too bad they weren't around 25 years ago, or they would be Cannibal Corpse. Can't wait to see them again at Hammerween II!

The only disappointing band of the night was Upon The Wake. It was their last ever show, but they were so disjointed and looked so nervous up on stage that it looked like it was their first show. Their vocalist ruled, though.

Troglodyte, fresh off their blistering (quite literally) set opening for Rob Zombie on Sunday, tore everyone in Aftershock a new face. They have a second guitarist now, and it only adds to their greatness. Caught (On Super 8) is still one of the best damn songs ever written. Long live Sasquatch Death Metal.

The band with the biggest crowd of the night, though, were hometown heroes Origin. It was the last date on their first US tour for "Entity" and they were welcomed home with insane style. The new vocalist, Jason (I got his automagraph!), was so awesome. He's every bit as good of a vocalist as James was, but his stage presence is so much better. He was physically pulling people out of the crowd to stagedive, and during The Aftermath, they had everyone on stage to headbang, and even some moshing and crowdsurfing! I haven't seen that since Suicidal Tendencies back in 2008. But I can't forget Paul, John and Mike. They all sounded fantastic and the sound itself was really clear for both the instruments and the vocals. It was really a legendary performance. It was all filmed and will be used for their music video for "Expulsion Of Fury!"

I'll admit, I wasn't entirely looking forward to Cephalic Carnage. Their last CD was really underwhelming to me, but they actually did a pretty good job. When they were straight-up grindcore, they were pretty fun. Whenever they tried to do anything else, it wasn't that great. There's some better bands that could've taken their place, but there's a LOT more worse bands that could've been there.

Exhumed was so good. Their brand of Carcass worship has more personality and original touches that probably makes them my favorite (at least live) death metal/grind/goregrind band. Matt sounded just like he does on record, and his solo's were spot-on, but Wes had some amazing solo's as well. The vocals were really clear, even for being right up next to the stage. "Casketkrusher" was so good it gave me chills, and ending the night on "The Matter Of Splatter" was just one of the highlights of my year. Hopefully they come back real, real soon!

Exhumed:

All Guts, No Glory
As Hammer To Anvil
Necrotize
Necromaniac
Casketkrusher
Through Cadaver Eyes
In The Name Of Gore
Slaughtercult
Torso
Limb From Limb
guitar solo
Forged In Fire, Formed In Flame
In My Human Slaughterhouse
Decrepit Crescendo
drum solo
Waxwork
-----------
The Matter Of Splatter

Cephalic Carnage:

Wraith
Warbot
Raped
?
Drums
Genital
Abraxas
Weed
Lucid

Origin included:

Expulsion of Fury
Wrath of Vishnu
Finite
Portal
Disease Called Man
The Aftermath
Purgatory
Swarm/Saligia

Possibly some more

Troglodyte:


Symphonies Of Sasquatch
Piece Of You
Mummified Yeti Hand
Fight For Your Life
Caught (on Super 8)
Bring Me The Head Of Bigfoot
Beaten And Eaten
Hit By The Hendersons
They Walk Among Us
The Only Good Hippie...Is A Dead Hippie


Exhumed: 9.5/10
Cephalic Carnage: 7/10
Origin: 9/10
Troglodyte: 8.5/10
Upon The Wake: 5/10
The Roman Holiday: 8/10

Anatomy Is Destiny...In Kansas!

Gore metal titans EXHUMED will be bringing their amazing brand of Carcass-inspired death metal to the Aftershock in Merriam, KS on July 21st! Opening the show is everyone's favorites CEPHALIC CARNAGE, MACABRE, and WITHERED!

Kansas Gets Prog

Between The Buried and Me just announced they've signed to Metal Blade Records and announced a tour which is coming to the Granada in Lawrence!

Between The Buried And Me
Job For A Cowboy
The Ocean
Cephalic Carnage

April 26th
Granada
Lawrence, KS

Too bad JFAC is randomly thrown in there, another proggy-type band would've been great. But BTBAM puts on a great show!

Summer Slaughter 2010 details

Surprised and disappointed at the same time.

Decapitated - Great to see them, and even though they probably won't be nearly as good as they were on the first Summer Slaughter, it'll be fun to see them.

The Faceless - Summer Slaughter is no longer Necrophagist's tour, it is now The Faceless' tour. They're perfectly fine, but Summer Slaughter should be reserved for other bands that don't get around as often as The Faceless.

All Shall Perish - Bored me the last time I saw them, but lots of people really like them, especially live. Maybe it'll be different.

The Red Chord - Heard outstanding things about their live show, but I've never been able to get into them at all.

Veil of Maya - Your run of the mill melodeath/metalcore/deathcore. Boring.

Cephalic Carnage - Could be a much better choice, but Cephalic Carnage will definitely be fun. SS needs as much grind as it can get at this point.

Decrepit Birth - Cool. Another fun band. Straight up death metal.

Carnifex - And now we see that the people behind Summer Slaughter are really reaching for strings. A trendy deathcore band. Worst band on this tour.

Animals As Leaders - Very weird. Instrumental progressive death metal. Actually not that bad, but definitely out of place at Summer Slaughter. A wasted slot.

Vital Remains - Probably the band I'm most excited about on this tour, but they're the lowest billed band. How is a legendary death metal band that's been around for 20 years that featured Glen Benton on vocals for their best albums and has ex-members from Suffocation, Monstrosity, Dying Fetus, Acheron, Incantation and Vile be billed below a couple flavor of the month "core" bands? A huge shame, hopefully the running order changes.

Dates TBA. Summer Slaughter was at the Bottleneck in Lawrence in 2007 but hasn't been back since.

Updates about some possible tours

Back in November I made this post about tours from Mayhem and Suffocation. Well, I have some updated news for both of the tours!

First off, it seems that the Mayhem tour with Marduk IS happening, and Cattle Decapitation and Cephalic Carnage are opening. This might just be the best tour of 2009 by far. So far, all four bands are confirmed to play the Maryland Deathfest (GO) and there's a rumored date of Seattle in June. I'll keep an eye out for more dates.

As for Suffocation, it looks like they aren't taking Napalm Death out on the road, but instead have opted for a tour with opening bands Whitechapel, Decrepit Birth and Veil Of Maya. A downgrade, but I think it should still be worth it. Only a handful of dates confirmed so far (including California Metalfest with CARCASS!!!) but I'll still keep an eye on it.

Now go out and buy the new Kreator and Cattle Decapitation CD's.