Upcoming concert: Abigail Williams last area show!

There is a giant local metal festival at the Riot Room on September 1st that has too many amazing local metal bands to remember. It's for KC Anthem's 5 Year Anniversary show, and it utilizes both the indoor and outside stage at Riot. That's reason enough to go, but Abigail Williams will be headlining the show. They are breaking up after this tour, and their last album was amazing! This will definitely be a memorable show.

Nile -- Lawrence, KS -- March 28th, 2012

An almost perfect show with near perfect sets from every band on the bill tonight. Pure death metal bliss.

First up was Gornography, who is rapidly climbing my personal list of favorite local bands. They are so stupidly heavy it's not even funny. Pure brutal deathgrind, they'll break your neck thirteen times over throughout their set. Their set closer, Lakes of Blood, actually might be the heaviest live song I've ever heard, local band or not. Oh my God, dude. Dude.

Visions Of Gore
Homicidal Maniac
Leech Filled Cunt
Spinal Fuck Fest
Intoxicated Abortion
Vomitous Vaginal Anal Deathmachine
Pissing Blood
Lakes Of Blood

Next up was local death metal veterans Marasmus. They've got their brand of death metal down to a science and they just completely rip through every song without a second thought. Shut The Fuck Up is so much fun, and the band seriously rips. Can't wait to hear the new album.

Set included:

Caskets Made of Ivory
Mountains Of Dead
Shut The Fuck Up And Die
Syphilitic
Modes of Vitriol

I had never really listened to Hour of Penance before tonight, but I'm definitely going to start now. They won me over based only on their absolutely crushing live show. The sound could have been a little better, but they were super enthusiastic and played their hearts out. I think I might like them more than any other Italian death metal band I've heard now! Awesome stuff.

Sedition Through Scorn
Paradogma
Absence of Truth
Incestuous Dynasty of Worms
Slavery in a Deaf Decay
Incontrovertible Doctrines
Ascension
Decimate the Ancestry of the Only God
Misconception

Nile. Man, what can I say? They were flawless. They were having so much fun on stage and the crowd was eating it up. Karl Sanders is a master of the guitar and the back-and-forth solofest during Cast Down The Heretic was just about the best thing I've ever seen. Went nuts during Kafir!, Sacrifice Unto Sebek and Lashed to the Slave Stick. So good. I'll always go out of my way to see Nile as many times as I can.

Kafir!
Sacrifice Unto Sebek
Hittite Dung Incantation
Serpent Headed Mask
Execration Text
Ithyphallic
Supreme Humanism of Megalomania (new)
Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water
Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld
Sarcophagus
Cast Down the Heretic
Lashed to the Slave Stick
Black Seeds of Vengeance

Gornography: 9/10
Marasmus: 8.5/10
Hour of Penance: 9/10
Nile: 9.5/10

Hate Eternal -- February 29th, 2012

I had a work meeting that would've kept me from leaving until 6:00, but it got out a bit early. I made the trek to KC and saw the opening band which, to my surprise, was Decimation from Manhattan, KS. I hadn't seen them in forever. I only caught the last song and a half from them, but they sounded really tight. I hope they get on more shows in the future!

After them was Gornography. Featuring the durmmer for Troglodyte and the vocalist for Diskreet (check them out!), they play really catchy brutal death metal/grindcore. The vocalist was all over the place. He even tripped over and fell from the amps, but hopped right back up and went back in the song.
Super fun. I can't wait to see them again.

Good ol' Trog was up next. Their set was as blistering as ever, and they played a new song! It had a crazy solo in it, so I'm already looking forward to the new stuff. They had a setlist was about 15 songs on it, but they got their set cut a bit. Kinda sucks, because they were absolutely on fire that night.

By the worst stroke of luck, both Cerebral Bore and Fallujah has to drop off the tour. Cerebral Bore never made it over because they didn't have Visas, and Fallujah actually flipped their van and trailer the night before. Thankfully they're okay. Their replacement is Battlecross, who are going to be on that pretty killer Origin tour later this year. They drove straight from Michigan to play the tour. They are mostly fun thrash metal. A few breakdowns here and there, but nothing so bad as, say, Lazarus AD. The vocalist is awesome, and their bassist can rip. They had some bass solos! Really cool stuff. Can't wait to see them again.

I'm a pretty big Hate Eternal fan, so I really enjoyed them last night, but I could definitely see how some people would absolutely hate them live. And I know this is such a cop-out, but their older material translates so much better live than their newer stuff. Erik's guitar tone is just absolutely punishing. There's no room to breathe and no room to rest during a Hate Eternal show. It would be rectified if they would get a second guitarist, but I don't see that happening any time soon. No Catacombs this time, but I, Monarch and Behold Judas were especially great.

I actually didn't stay for too much of Goatwhore. I can tell you that I really like their groovy songs a bit more than the straight-up death metal attack. Alchemy Of The Black Sun Cult was the last song I saw from them, but it was fantastic. Goatwhore was the first metal band I saw live, so it was awesome. But Hate Eternal really sucked all the energy from me.

Hate Eternal (partial, out of order):

The Victorious Reign
Behold Judas
Saturated In Dejection
I, Monarch
Thorns of Acacia
Phoenix Amongst The Ashes
Haunting Abound
The Obscure Terror

Goatwhore:

Collapse in Eternal Worth
Provoking the Ritual of Death
The Black Art of Deception
In Deathless Tradition
Carving Out the Eyes of God
Sky Inferno
Alchemy of the Black Sun Cult
When Steel and Bone Meet
Judgement of the Bleeding Crown
Invert the Virgin
An End to Nothing
Apocalyptic Havoc

Battlecross (out of order/partial):

Push Pull Destroy
Kaleb
Man Of Stone
Deception
Breaking You

Troglodyte:

Symphonies Of Sasquatch
Bring Me The Head Of Bigfoot
Beaten And Eaten
Don't Go In The Woods
(The Only Peace In Me Is) A Piece Of You
Crippled Foot Cast (new song)
Mummified Yeti Hand
The Only Good Hippie...Is A Dead Hippie
Caught (On Super 8) (still one of the heaviest songs ever)
Fossil*
Hit By The Hendersons*
Fight For Your Life
They Walk Among Us*
Skunk Ape Rape*

* = On set but not played

Gornography:

Visions Of Gore
Homicidal Maniac
Leech Filled Cunt
Spinal Fuck Fest
Intoxicated Abortion
Vomitous Vaginal Anal Deathmachine
Pissing Blood
Saliva Soaked Shit
Contortions Of Guttural Mayhem
Lakes Of Blood

Goatwhore: 8/10
Hate Eternal: 8/10
Battlecross: 7.5/10
Troglodyte: 8.5/10
Gornography: 8/10
Decimation: n/a

Upcoming show: Nile!

Nile will make a triumphant return to the Granada theater in Lawrence on March 28th! They'll be bringing Hour of Penance with them, all the way from Italy. Opening the show is Marasmus and Gornography!

Upcoming show: Hate Eternal/Goatwhore

Hate Eternal returns to the Kansas City area headlining for the first time in a loooong time on February 29th at the Beaumont Club! Along with them are great blackened death metal dudes Goatwhore, which were actually the very first metal band I ever saw live! Opening the show are two bands that fit perfectly on the bill, Troglodyte and Gornography.