Ana's Birthday Thrashacre!

Date: November 20, 2010
Venue: The Parlor, Austin TX
Bands: Black Thorn Halo, Death Rites 666, Hexlust

PRE-SHOW
Mr Tony Rivera, one of Hexlust's top supporters, was throwing a birthday bash for his daughter Ana, and chose Hexlust as the main act! We were of course happy to show some love to the man who dragged himself all the way to Killeen from his home in San Antonio just to watch us play, and we were looking forward to playing at the Parlor for the first time since one of our first Austin shows in the summer of '08.

Tonight was also a special occasion in that we were set to debut "Fucked By Fire." This was a song that first took form in the spring of 2008 and spent two and a half years getting re-structured, re-written, argued over, shelved, forgotten about, re-visited, shelved again, and finally brought to satisfactory completion this fall. It is a very dynamic song with a very strong hook, so we were eagerly anticipating the audience's reaction.

BLACK THORN HALO
Admittedly, we spent the majority of Black Thorn Halo's set outside, catching up with friends and getting advice for band-related matters like t-shirt making and acquiring gear for home demo recordings. We did go inside to catch a song or two, though. They had quite a setup going on in there, the kind of gear you'd expect to find on a "full stage," such as floor monitors, floor lights, and a fog machine, set up on the floor of the Parlor right there by the front door. The music itself was well-executed, with everyone in the band obviously being an experienced, very able musician, but not really my cup of tea.

DEATH RITES 666
Dedicated to "public mockery of all that is holy," Death Rites 666 kicked the extremity level up a notch as we unloaded our gear onto the sidewalk outside of The Parlor. Usually, setting up gear means I don't get a good earful of a band playing at the time, but places like the Parlor and the Ten Eleven, with the stage right by the front door, consistently allow me to listen to a performance while still being able to focus on getting my kit together. Ingesting the riffs and analyzing the influences, I heard two bands in DR666's sound: Kreator, and Slayer.

Before you jump on me, please know that I'm well aware that Slayer is a metal-influence cliche, cited by bands who are looking for a more "extreme" name to counteract their obvious Sevendust jackoffery and by "reviewers" who haven't listened to enough metal to know the difference between a riff played by Scott Ian and one played by Andreas Kisser. I seriously hear inspiration from the best moments of "Hell Awaits" and "South of Heaven" in their music, fantastic rhythmic riffing and blistering solos, thick meaty drum beats seasoned with tastefully-placed fills. Come on, watch this video and tell me you don't hear that!

HEXLUST
Thankfully, the guys from Death Rites 666 were also super cool, allowing me to use their drum throne since I neglected to bring my own. Setting up in the Parlor felt just like it did two and a half years ago: HOT. The place isn't that big, so no matter where you are, you're pissin' distance from the ovens. Bottled water was a necessity in our packing today. I'd have to say the funniest part of setting up was when the sound guy/manager asked us where we were from. When we told him Killeen, he revealed that he went to Killeen High and was close friends with our buddy Frank, whom you readers may remember from a long ago post as the drummer for Robots Are Evil. Small world.

The intro song, "Toxic High," and "Hellhammer" went as smooth as to be expected, considering how long we've been playing them. "FBF" made its debut in our usual first-time-live style: stiff and awkward! Also, while it's pretty much a rule in Hexlust that Tony's gonna mess up the lyrics to any song we're playing for the first time, he took it even further this time by brain-farting on the entire second verse and chorus. I saw more than a few heads bobbing during the chorus, though, and full-on headbanging during the fast middle section, so I'd say this premiere was a relative success.

After a clean run-through of "Baphomet Dawn," it was time for the evening's special surprise: Having Jeff A.D. come up and provide vocals for our cover of Sodom's "Agent Orange"! We felt quite honored to be joined by a man who's been a contributing member of the Texas metal scene since the early 90s and has traveled the world playing in or tech'ing for so many awesome bands, and sporting such an awesome Sodom shirt too! We made sure to bring our A game.

That whole "A game" shit lasted til about halfway through the song. If you listen to the video closely, you can hear the precise moment during the big double-bassing part where the pin completely slips out of my kick pedal, a problem that has become commonplace in our rehearsals since August. Usually I remember to take a quick second to push the sucker back into place between songs, but this evening I was too caught up in the moment to remember such a thing. I paid for it with an embarrassingly long silence during that held-chord moment where Jeff comes back in, during which I leaned down to slide the pin back in, slipped and completely fell over backwards, righted myself, and finished fixing the pedal. I counted us in and finished the song, wondering if, under the dim lights, anyone could see how bright red my face was.

After finishing "Tombs of the Blind Dead," we put on our serious faces about starting to pack it in, since we knew the Parlor only stayed open so late and we were pushing the time limit as it was. The audience, particularly Tony, was adamant about hearing one more song though, so after a second of deliberation we threw out "Sodomy and Lust," a tune we've rehearsed about as many times as I've tuned my drums (as in, "on a whim"). So objectively the performance was dodgy at best, but the crowd dug it and that's what matters.

POST-SHOW / CLOSING THOUGHTS
First on our list of thanks and shout-outs for this evening is the birthday girl herself. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANA! Sorry we couldn't get the Possessed songs down in time. Nailing those suckers is harder than it seems. Thanks to Tony and Victor, for putting on this show and being such fervent supporters of all that we do; to the good people at the Parlor, for the free pizza and for patiently allowing us to continue playing past closing ours (sorry about that); Jeff and Erika, for taking time out of their busy schedules to support a band of dorky thrash novices; Michael Barton, for bringing us to the Parlor the first time as a part of Boogdish and coming back to support us as an audience member and impromptu roadie; to Death Rites 666, for the drum throne I may or may not have damaged when I took my tumble; and to everyone in that audience, for cramming themselves into that place to watch us thrash around for 40 minutes. Until next time!

Pain-Pill Soilent

Date: August 28, 2010
Venue: The Lone Star, Temple TX
Bands: Hexlust, In the Beginning, Seed, PainFilled Silent

PRE-SHOW
I don't know of any band that actually likes being an opening act; low attendance, low energy from those who do happen to be there, playing a truncated set list, and then having to wait around for five hours and "support" the other bands so you can get your share of the pay at the end of the night. We in Hexlust don't really mind that dreaded timeslot, though, in that we're high-energy enough to rarely get "coffeehouse applause," and in that we rarely get paying gigs opening up for an entire lineup of shitty/boring bands.

In addition to things we don't mind, one of the things I actually prefer about playing first is getting to load our gear right onto the stage. I like to assemble my drum kit before taking it onstage to save time, and finding space for buildup and storage at a venue can be a pain in the ass, even at bigger places since we're sharing storage space with other bands' equipment. Even if I get to put the kit together before we go on, however, no drum kit ever feels as comfortable at a gig as it does in the practice space. There's just no time to make all the subtle adjustments, so there will always be a crash cymbal that's too close to my head, or the toms end up too far away, or a million other things.

To sum it all up, when I get to load directly onto the stage, take a million years to make all the little tweaks and adjustments needed to ensure maximum playing comfort, get a soundcheck out of the way, and still have time to talk to friends and get some practice-pad work done before we actually start playing, I am one happy camper. Four stressful aspects of live playing are eliminated from my brain and I just have to deal with that pesky stage fright I still get three years into our gigging experience. Our sound check was a little shaky, but we had a supportive audience consisting of family and good friends to help wear away the jitters and keep us smiling before we actually took to the stage.

HEXLUST
Objectively speaking, our performance was almost flawless. Our musicianship was so tight by now that, even when playing a thousand miles an hour, we all started and ended on the same notes. Our set list (Intro / Toxic / Hellhammer / Baphomet / AgentOrange / Tombs) was chock full of sure-fire winners Stage presence was unbeatable, with all three of the "front guys" in a near-constant state of headbanging. We were hydrated, warmed up, and comfortable, truly a show for the ages. So why weren't we having a good time?

Who's a happy boy?!

Well, for one thing, while we had a nice group of about 20 enthusiasts up front, the audience at large just didn't seem to be buying it. We've encountered this before, can't win em all over, right? Some people just stand there, others just go outside. What was new to us with this show, though, was the presence of tables; tables which had people sitting at them, just sitting there and not doing much. Not even looking at us half the time. This is not necessarily a good thing, but by now we had become used to a certain formula: we play fast and headbang a lot, and people respond. Being flat-out ignored hadn't happened in a good while, and it took a particular toll on Tony. He had been expecting us to come back and make a huge bang in his home town, and when it became clear that his Hexcellent antics just weren't making an impact, it started to mess with his self esteem. This directly affected his stage presence, which brought between-song banter down to just "Okay, here's this next song, it's called '[Song],' here we go!" Time-efficient? Undoubtedly. Hexcellent? Nah.

Also, about halfway through "Baphomet Dawn," I started experiencing a sharp, shooting pain in my left wrist, which intensified as the set wore on. By the time we rolled into "Tombs," I was gripping the stick with my whole hand, backing off the snare a little and minimizing fills to avoid dropping the stick entirely. Panic set in; I frequently read articles on drummers overworking their limbs and the crippling results that follow, like the guy from Seether who spent a whole tour with a stick taped to his hand, getting addicted to painkillers and eventually requiring surgery. I am usually very careful about such things.

Earlier that evening, however, having been reunited with JT for the first time since he officially moved to San Antonio at the beginning of the month, we ran through the whole set list at our practice space. Normally I take pre-show run-throughs smoothly and at a more relaxed pace, but this day I was a rim-cracking, headbanging fool. That, combined with all the warming up I did before our set and the high energy of the set itself, probably pushed my poor wrist more into the red zone than it could go. The fact that Tony was by then on a streak of "Okay, here's the next song" left me very little time between tunes to try to stretch my arm or even just rub it a little, and by the time we were finished I was hurting and pissed.

SEED / IN THE BEGINNING
The next two bands were a blur. I paid very little attention, spending time after our set packing my shit away, discussing the set with the bandmates, saying goodbye to JT, Tony, and my parents, and nursing my wrist. I also spent a good deal of time chatting with Tarzan and my good friend Serena, Tony's high school buddy and wife of PainFilled Silent's guitarist, Jason. The only thing that sticks out in my mind about the next two acts is one of them attempting to cover a Slipknot tune and then just stopping halfway through due to a confusing lack of cohesion.

PAINFILLED SILENT
A month ago, PainFilled Silent were the headlining act at the Music Vault show we played, where their 1 a.m. performance following Heavens Declare Wars' aggressive stage lighting left them with a cranky, apathetic audience. Tonight, however, they went on at like 11:45, and had a decidedly bigger, more enthusiastic group of supporters to cheer them on. In this environment, their constantly-shifting, chorus-less songs were easier to digest, with the catchy parts standing out more, and the individual musicianship more apparent to hungry eyes and ears.

Being the big guy he is, Vinnie is almost a comical sight sitting at his small kit with the tiny toms, but the man is all business with the way he uses every drum and piece of metal to lay out the songs' complex rhythms. His brother Phil is a monster on bass, bringing to mind Ryan from Mudvayne with the way he slaps, pops, and just produces fucking weird noises with his strings, I love it. Chris' vocal range is very admirable, going from clean singing to screaming in the same song and even humorously throwing in some pig squeals in one tune. With his blinding picking speed and crunchy, Amon-era-Deicide tone, Jason almost seems like a guitarist more fit for traditional death metal, but his personality and penchant for crazy-time-signature riffing shows that he truly belongs in this very irreverent band. The man is very much a thrash fan though, being one of the most vocal audience members during Hexlust's set. I was very happy to reciprocate the love.

POST-SHOW / CLOSING THOUGHTS
Very special thanks to all the friends and family members who showed up and helped us feel loved while we were being all emo, including (but not limited to, I just forget people a lot) my and JT's ever-supportive parents; high school buddies Branden and Becky; long-time friend, electronics consultant, and engineer of that four-song demo you all love so much, Mr Michael Barton; and those two guys who sang along loudest to "Agent Orange," one of them wore a Deicide shirt, I forget their names and feel like total dick for it.

Thanks also to the Lone Star Bar and Grill for booking us. We had been trying to get booked there for a very long time, but for some reason could never ask in time to get attached to a good bill. We were excited by the very spacious venue, the large stage (with a pie-shaped drum stand in the corner, no rotaries for Dart tonight), the decent crowds we saw whenever we attended a gig, and by the sound woman, used to run sound at Hero's back in the day and always managed to get an awesome sound out of any band that played.

[EDIT FROM THE FUTURE:] As for my bitchy wrist, every practice after that was plagued with problems, as the wrist would flare up if I started to play too hard or even too long. The funny part was it only hurt when I played drums; I could still lift the forty-pound bags of dog food at work, no problemo. The pain was specifically related to the whipping motion my wrist makes when I crack that snare. Thankfully we didn't have another show booked until mid-November, but thems were three dread-filled months spent wearing a wrist brace to practice, trying out new stretching regimens, and ultimately stumbling on a solution at the end of October when I simply lowered my snare drum. Prior to this show, I had started raising the snare based on an article that suggested having it at belly-button level to lessen back pain, another problem I have as a "drummer of height." Now I get to figure out just the right height at which to position the thing so's my back and wrist are happy. Fun on a bun.

MORE PHOTOS

Accelerating Universe

Date: July 30, 2010
Venue: The Pedicab, San Antonio TX
Bands: Aggravator, Bastardwolf, Hexlust, Insinnerator, Vektor

PRE-SHOW
In two years of playing gigs in San Antonio, we had never before heard of this place called the Pedicab. Never seen it on a flier, or heard of other bands playing there, not even a mention in conversations with other headbangers about cool places to play around here, and that made us a little bit nervous. It meant this place was either a hidden gem or total shitsville when it came to hosting live shows.

It turns out the place was a kind of bar and grill establishment which had a stage and PA perfect for live performances... of small, not-metal acts. Like, if the Violent Femmes came through San Antonio, this place would be perfect for them. The stage itself was definitely one of the smallest stages we've played on in our time of live gigging, I think even tinier than the one at Headhunters. The PA included one mic for vocals, a kick mic, and I think even a snare mic, plus a monitor at the back of the stage, which I did appreciate.

So, on to the load-in. We parked across the street, where a free public parking lot was set up in a grassy area. The Pedicab itself is located at the top of a long uphill driveway, with few parking spots (already taken) and some picnic tables set up just outside the place, forming the bar's outdoor dining area. Direct entry to the bar is accessed by either a small staircase or a long handicap ramp, and facilitated through a small door. The stage is located at the far back wall, way on the other side of the restaurant, so once equipment is brought through the front door, it must then be dragged around and even through a group of tables and chairs before finally being set up.

What all this lead up to was us lugging amps, guitars, drums, and stands across the street, up the drive, up the stairs/ramp, and through the tiny door. We weren't the first band so getting it across the room would come later. Of course, we could have just driven our vehicles up the driveway, parked temporarily in front of the place, and loaded in from there. We didn't think of this at the time because we're stupid that way.

This is us. EVERY DAY.

AGGRAVATOR/BASTARDWOLF
Aggravator were playing as we got there, so unfortunately I won't have much of anything to say about them this evening. Bastardwolf took the stage as I was setting up my kit outside the Pedicab, so once again I was to only listen to this great band play their oddly endearing mix of thrash, doom, and sludge. To this day I have no idea what those guys actually look like or how they perform; I have just the music, the megaton rhythms, the occasional duel harmonies, the madman vocals, the singable riffs. One of these days Hexlust and Bastardwolf are going to play a bill and have a band between us so I can finally put an image to the sounds in my head, granting me complete appreciation for these guys.

HEXLUST
From the moment we started playing, I knew this wasn't going to be a solid gold gig. On the surface everything was perfectly fine: all the gear was in place, the tunes started at a and ended at b, and the audience was responsive and mobile. But underneath it all, within ourselves, something was off. Maybe our annoyance from the obstacle-course load-in was taking its toll on our stage mindset; could also be that the time taken to get here and set up gear left very little space in the schedule for warming up; hell, maybe it was just time for an off-night. 2010 had up to this point been an almost flawless year for Hexlust performances, so we were probably just due for an underwhelming set to uphold the balance of the universe or some such mystical shit I don't understand.

Despite the pervasive feeling of mediocrity, as I said before, the songs themselves started and ended on the same note, with very few hiccups, and with positive, active audience response. At one point, however, we ran into an actual crisis that threatened to tear the whole thing down and bring about the much-dreaded event of a band stopping a song due to confusion and unfixable fuckuppery. In the middle of "Baphomet Dawn," during Tarzan's vocal part, he got lost.

From what I can understand, he had been running on auto-pilot, as the rest of us were by this point, and had mysteriously come back to consciousness mid-sentence, with no actual clue what he was supposed to be singing or playing. The vocals and riff meandered, waking the rest of us up and causing one of the guitarists (I forget who) to get off-track as well. I dug in and started counting out loud, knowing that if I went too badly astray then we were done for. Thankfully it all smoothed back out, and with the exception of Tony getting lost in the midst of his own guitar solo just seconds later, we finished the rest of that and the remaining tunes confusion-free.

Something else that must be said. One of the more obvious sources of discontentment was the presence of only one vocal mic, which was connected to the nearby sound booth on a cord that was about four feet long. This put Tony on the far right side of the stage, which would have been fine if we hadn't already set up the amps with his pedals in the middle. Switching channels and effects, not to mention trading off vocal parts, involved an uncomfortable amount of spot-shuffling between him and Tarzan.

Now, I shit you not, here's Tarzan earlier that very day: "Hey Dart, do you think we should bring our own mics and cables, just in case?"

Here's me in response: "Nah, dude, it'll be fine."

INSINNERATOR
We missed Insinnerator when we played in Ft Worth due to an impending storm and a sense of "Man, we still have to drive three hours back to Killeen." I resolved that with this show, I would load back up as quickly as humanly possible and get back inside to catch these very able thrashers in action. Unfortunately, even with our newly-acquired sagacity in parking the vehicles in front of the venue, navigating gear across the restaurant and out the door still took more time than usual, and saying goodbye to Tony took up even more time. That's right, our fearless leader had to take off due to relationship commitments. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if he hadn't badly wanted to stay and watch Insinnerator and Vektor, but I guess that's the cost of devoting oneself to another. (EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: I feel secure in including that thought as that relationship has since ended.)

I made it back inside to catch maybe the last two songs of Insinnerator's set. Very energetic, nonstop speed, and a constantly moshing crowd. Chris Atomic Thrasher is a monster on guitar, has bounds of energy and a huge, perpetual smile on his face, and Juan Speed more than lives up to his name on the drums. He's not a big fill guy, but tempo consistency is the name of the game in drums, and this guy does a fantastic job of keeping a constant thrash pulse going.

VEKTOR
After missing out on the majority of Vektor's set last time we played with them, I was determined to view this highly talented band's performance in its entirety. From my vantage point beside the stage, behind the PA speakers, I was able to appreciate the nuances of the players and still hear every instrument, while not getting moshed into. I envied Blake's splattering of technique across a minimalist drum kit; marveled at David and Erik's guitar wizardy, both individually and as a harmonized team; and got up-close insight into Frank's ability to switch from "traditional" root-note plucking to a more "progressive" third-guitar style.

"Forest of Legend" was the highlight of the main set. It was this tune that had the beautiful clean-guitar part I caught a glimpse of on that very cold night six months ago, and to hear that piece fit in with the rest of the wonderfully structured tune put a big stupid grin on my face that remained for the rest of the evening. The show's second highlight came after Vektor said their first goodnight; the audience wanted more, and the guys professed that the only song they had left to play was "Accelerating Universe," the album's thirteen-minute final track. The crowd was game, and thankfully so was the band, who led us through almost a quarter hour of David's most insane shrieks, a lengthy, psychedelic middle section, and that odd chorus riff that sounds like Woody Woodpecker's distinctive cackle.

POST-SHOW
We spent some time hanging out after the show, talking with audience members and the guys from Vektor, who were just as friendly and easygoing as they were last time. We couldn't dally for too long, however, as JT hadn't moved into his San Antonio digs yet and we still had a long drive home ahead of us. Our next scheduled show is more on our home turf, at the Lone Star in Temple, so I am very much looking forward to getting home at a relatively decent time. Like 2:30, as opposed to 5:00.

Metal for the Masses

Date: July 23, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Bands: Inbreed, Desmortes, Heavens Declare War, PainFilled Silent

PRE-SHOW
Fun show for Hexlust this evening! Not only were we at the Music Vault, where we've become accustomed to reliable sound, spacious stage, and an enthusiastic audience, but for the first time in a long while (if ever) we were booked for a local gig almost completely filled with bands in which we had friends as members! Additionally, along with our usual crowd of family and friends, we had out-of-town fans Jake, Tony, and Victor visiting to watch us play on our home turf.

Since I like the bands on this bill so much, I'm going to spend a little more time than I normally do talking about each group's background. By now we have some readers outside of the Central Texas area, so hopefully this helps gain these great bands a little more exposure.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
At the Vault, our sound is normally serviced by sisters Elizabeth and Dorothy, supervised by their dad whose name escapes me. Elizabeth was on a trip to Washington DC at this time, and Dorothy is still pretty new to the audio-tech game, so the sound this evening was shakier in quality than usual. There were many complaints among band and audience members, but I personally didn't notice too much, so I won't really be addressing it in this post unless I absolutely have to.

INBREED
First band of the evening was Inbreed, a local thrash three-piece who have actually been rocking out in Central Texas bars and clubs since the mid 90s, have independently released five CDs, and even toured Japan and Indonesia in the early 2000s. Their admirable devotion to their day jobs has resulted in their on-again-off-again status, which explains why I had never heard of them until just before this very gig.

My first impression: absolute awe at their drums. Inbreed's skinsman played a seven-or-eight-piece black Tama kit, with four huge rack toms and two floor toms that all sounded like cannonfire when played during their soundcheck. And that's what they sounded like before the mic's picked them up and blasted them over the PA. I was one coveting bastard for a whole minute.

Overall I can't say I was too terribly enthralled by the band, their metal pedigree including the likes of Testament and Pantera. Catchy and headbang-worthy, but I was more content to stay in the backstage area and tinker with my kit. If you readers dig the more mid-tempo, groove-sprinkled kind of thrash though, I would definitely recommend checking this group out, they're simply too devoted to their music to remain as overlooked as they are.

[EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: An interview with Inbreed can be found here]

DESMORTES
I had just seen these guys in June at the Lone Star and was happy to be checking them out again. Rick and Byron of course had excellent guitar interplay, except for one song where Rick broke a string and spent the whole rest of the tune re-stringing and tuning. Hearing Byron play by himself really drove home how bare their overall sound is without a bass player. Hopefully they get the opportunity to rectify that issue soon, although I know as well as anybody how lacking the Central Texas area is in dependable metal bassists.

There was plenty of boom supplied by John, however, rocking Inbreed's thunderous drumkit (Inbreed's drummer is John's stepdad or something) with heavy, steady beats and whalloping, well-placed fills. I really want that kit! Josue was his usual smiling, Dickinson-wailing self, always having a good time at every gig I watch these guys perform.

Although I enjoy their guitar work and drumming, the only gripe I've come to have about this group is that their songs are quite lengthy and rather lacking in variation. Same tempo, same riff style, maybe the same scales but I suck at theory so I'm not sure. I think all the songs were written and arranged by Byron, though, so hopefully as they mature and write more songs they'll be able to mix up the style more.

HEXLUST
By the time we took the stage, a considerable crowd had gathered, our largest and most vocal audience hosted at the Vault since the Battle of the Bands we played here two years ago. I know it had more to do with how many of our friends and family members showed up than any kind of actually "following" being built up around here, but the support is appreciated nonetheless, especially since they were actually enjoying themselves and singing along in all the right places!

Overall, not the tightest set in our history. We were so energized and high off crowd response, we spent almost the entire set going a thousand miles an hour. As a result, vocals were occasionally out of step with the riffs, drum fills went a little overlong or seemed to stop too soon, hell Tarzan got so caught up in the rush that he went into the outro riff of "Toxic High" too early. If you watch the video, he clearly hits his final note while the rest of us are still going, haha! (warning to you seasick folks: the videos of this set are quite shaky)

Minor grievances, though, minor grievances, we were having too much fun to get caught up in them. Audience members were dancing during the verse parts of "Baphomet Dawn," and damn near the whole crowd sang along to the chorus of "Agent Orange." You could tell who had never heard the song before though, they'd still be yelling "AGENT ORANGE!" when they should have been on "the FIRE that doesn't BURN!" Maybe next time they'll have it, haha. "Tombs," of course, was probably our messiest song, we had so much momentum built up that our big finale turned into one huge blur, and mistakes were plenty. We were still smiling five minutes later when the song ended, and were patting ourselves on the back as we unloaded into the backstage area. Yet another stellar feather in the golden cap of shows we've played this year so far.

HEAVENS DECLARE WAR
Heavens Declare War have been around since like 2005, ever-popular but always going on hiatus for one reason or another. They've also had a revolving door of members pretty much since their inception, with the only constants (since I noticed them, anyway) being singer Brendon and guitarists Spanish and Randy. At one time, their bass and drum slots were filled respectively by Russell Smith and Jordan Dixon, former mainstay members of the now-defunct local death metal act I, Misery. Now they feature Shawn on bass, who was in a deathcore band called My Bitter End who apparently had an enormous following in the New York area, and Dominic, who used to play drums for JT and Tarzan's old band Nautilus. Dominic is a hellacious drummer, very Hoglan-esque in his technique and precision, and it was a load of fun watching him rock the hell out of my own kit backstage during Inbreed's soundcheck. (Also fun to note: Shawn was a co-worker of Tony's back when he was employed Acer Computers)

Musically, Heavens Declare War are hard for me to describe, as I don't normally listen to the bands which influenced them or the sub-genres they include in their own description. I guess "math metal with a progressive leaning" sums it up just about right, but I'll post up a video so you guys can draw your own conclusions. What I can say, though, is that this stuff is heavy, with breakdowns aplenty and a sweepy solo in every tune. I was never drawn into their older material but am really digging their newer songs, my favorite being the "The Secularist" with that awesome opening riff and the oh-so-shout-along-able chorus ("YOUR GOD IS DEAD TO ME!")

As good a time as I was having ingesting the tunes, watching HDW play was a bit of a chore thanks to their light show. Brendon is a skilled electrician, and while the light boxes that were set up at the front for the band members to stand on were really cool, the towers of light bulbs set up a little further upstage were annoying. They shone so powerfully in the eyes of the audience that the discomfort level toed the line of "painful," which, when you factor in how late it was, made for a grumpy, grumbling audience. Some straight-up left. Hopefully next time they play they leave at least one of the towers at home, or maybe get some lower-wattage bulbs.

PAINFILLED SILENT
I felt kinda bad for PainFilled. It was like one a.m. when they took the stage, they were facing a cranky, steadily-dwindling audience, and their unconventional song structures were winning them no new fans. I'd seen them a few times by now and thought I could hang, but even I left, conversing with friends outside and wishing they would just cut their set short so we could all collect our money and go home. Fortunately, the band have, over their many years of playing together, developed a very devoted core audience who stuck around til the very end and cheered every song.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said "many years"; though they've only been known as PainFilled Silent since 2007, Chris, Jason, Phil, and Vinnie have been performing together with no lineup changes since 1996, making this a show that was book-ended by groups of metalheads who showcase an extremely admirable devotion to their music and to each other as comrades-in-arms.

POST-SHOW
After PainFilled left the stage and packed their shit away, I met with Phil of PFS and Spanish of HDW in Rich's office to collect our earnings. Inbreed and Desmortes had all split, so the money was going three ways, which I sure wasn't arguing against. The disappointing part was that somebody on the bill had abused the bejesus out of the guest list; it was estimated that nearly fifteen people for one band had gotten in for free. I thought back to shows where I said to myself "only two people per band on the guest list? That is whack!" and now saw why such a policy was in fact totally legit.

Rich also commented that Hexlust, Heavens Declare War, and PainFilled Silent were arguably the best, highest-drawing metal bands in the Central Texas scene and that we should definitely try to arrange more shows like this in the future. Here's to doing this again! It was certainly a fun evening, hopefully next time we can cut down on the flaws and make this a completely enjoyable show for all.

[EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: As of now, early 2011, Heavens Declare War dissolved and reformed as Wake the Colossus, with a little more of an experimental kick in their sound, and are expecting to be playing live again real soon. Desmortes fell apart, and to my knowledge are not reforming anytime soon. I'm not sure what Inbreed are up to, but Hexlust and PainFilled Silent are still going strong.]

Thrashed and Detoured!

Date: July 14, 2010
Venue: The Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
Bands: Aggravator, Culprett Kommand, Bastardwolf, Hexen, Rattlehead

PRE-SHOW
Upon arrival at the Ten Eleven, one of the first people we ran into was Mr Jake Holmes, recently-appointed San Antonio Heavy Metal Examiner and Hexlust fan. By coincidence, I had just a month prior stumbled upon his old blog "La Vida Strangiato," shot him a few Facebook messages, and was looking forward to meeting him in person. Cool dude, very enthusiastic about metal, and loves him some Meat Loaf! We also met the guys from Aggravator for the first time, particularly their front man Derek, instantly noticeable with his imposing height and Dave Mustaine hair color. He was very enthusiastic about seeing Hexlust, and this would be our first time playing with his band. There was an atmosphere of familiarity and fun in the air on this muggy July afternoon, and I was feeling optimistic from the get-go, in spite of the mosquitoes who chose the one day I decide to wear shorts to show up and attack my legs mercilessly.

CULPRETT KOMMAND
First up this evening was Culprett Kommand, a local three-piece who played a rawer, punkier form of thrash that seemed deliberately rough around the edges. The drummer loved him some Darkthrone beats, alternating sixteenth notes between the kick/hi-hat and snare, and occasionally pounded out some high-speed double-bass on his two kick drums. In spite of the rather fast drumming, the overall tempo of the songs never really blasted into balls-out speed, staying just a handful of bpm's ahead of what would be considered "mid-tempo." The guitarist/vocalist played about one solo per song, and it was just unpolished enough to be in-your-face without being sloppy. Overall, not totally to my taste, but a fine band to kick-start the evening, though they received the "opening band" audience treatment so many of us are familiar with, a handful of spectators with scattered applause. Looking at the fliers they have on their MySpace, I get the impression they would feel more at home and be more readily accepted at the more punk-influenced shows, with headliners like Vermefug.

AGGRAVATOR
Our new friends in Aggravator were up next, kicking the speed and technicality aspect up a few notches from Culprett's performance while keeping with the raw power-trio thrash subgenre. Derek makes a naturally engaging frontman, aided by the fact that he towers over his bandmates, and his guitar playing is admirable as well. His picking-hand motion starts from his wrist instead of his elbow (for some reason I find that very impressive in thrash guitarists) and his lead work wasn't half bad, though he didn't solo in every song.

What really hooked me though was the drummer, who was about as fill-happy as I am, and even integrated his toms into a few "tribal"-sounding beats. He also played open-handed, where his ride was on the same side of his kit as his hi-hat, playing it with his left hand instead of crossing over with his right. Come to think of it, that dude loved the hell out of his ride, I don't remember him once playing his hats in a beat context! It's not very often a drummer can exclusively play his ride and not have the music sound redundant. Kudos to him!

BASTARDWOLF
As I set up my drum kit outside the Ten Eleven, I could hear the third act, Bastardwolf, and was caught totally by surprise. Instead of a continuation of the old-school thrash motif set by the preceding acts, this band came out of nowhere with a heavy-centric set that, while occasionally speeding up, leaned more towards a sludgey, Southern-doom style. What was even more surprising: It didn't suck! Bands who try the blending of thrash and sludge typically just sound awkward and forced, but for this quartet it seemed to come as naturally and without forethought as aiming for the urinal cake while pissing. Although I don't know the exact origins of this group, based on their music I could see them coming together to "just jam, see what happens," and just sort of stumbling upon this wicked amalgam. I didn't get to actually see them in action, but I was content enough to bask in the tunes while warming up.

HEXLUST
With every act that played before us, the bar for intensity had been raised. We were the last of the "local talent" before the evening's headliners, and we were prepared to deliver a set that shot the intensity level into the stratosphere and give the more experienced Californian bands something to follow! I had my newly-configured drum kit with 14" floor tom set up under the rotaries; we had our kickass set list with "Agent Orange," the new cover that killed everywhere we played it so far and would be unleashed upon San Antonio for the first time tonight; best of all, we had a super-surge of confidence built up from what has so far been a year of very successful shows. Hexlust were ready to kick some ass and chew some bubble gum!

At first, it seemed we had overestimated ourselves a bit. Crowd reaction was a bit tepid following our opener "Toxic High," and I worried that this would in fact be the first stumble of the year. This already-worried state was not helped at all by a flub at the beginning of the next tune. After almost a solid year of not repeating the past mistake of drinking water after announcing a song, Tony fell off the wagon by heralding "Hellhammer" and then taking a large swig as I was counting off, resulting in no guitar riff intro. I was very much willing to just laugh it off and try again, only when I did, Tony started the riff without first shutting off the noise gate. There was more delayed silence, and I was full-on pissed. I tried to salvage the count-off, but JT and Tarzan came in before me and the whole thing was off. Thankfully, we got it together by the time we went into the second riff, played through the tune perfectly, and the crowd loved it. In fact, it was during this song that the audience started to pick up, with more intense headbanging and even moshing. This dramatic change in spectator response instantly cheered me up, though if you watch the video you'll see that I spent the whole song visibly upset, trying to figure out the right moment to impale Tony's head with my stick.

We continued with our fastest rendition of "Baphomet Dawn" yet, banging out the entire song (stingers and all) in just a little over seven minutes. Just as he did in Ft. Worth, Tony deliberately withheld the title of our new Sodom rendition, although he made the odd mistake of announcing it as a "new song." I could almost sense the disappointment in the audience when he followed that up with "it's a new cover!" The spirits picked back up when they recognized "Agent Orange," and from there it was cheering, headbanging, moshing chaos. We were pretty well worn out, the exhilaration of the evening having caused us (well, me) to forgo that whole "pace yourself" rule and give 110% from the get-go, but had just enough left in us to close out with "Tombs" and make it hands down the fastest song of the evening.

HEXEN
Time spent packing gear, eating pizza, and talking to new friends resulted in me unfortunately missing most of Hexen's set. I had watched the "State of Insurgency" video prior to this show, and was looking forward to their fast-yet-technical songs, their virtuosic lead guitarist, and the drummer who integrated timbales into his kit. It was of course my own fault that I largely missed them, I just kept saying "I'll just skip this one last song and then go in" and finally made it inside at some point towards the end. One of my expectations was met with disappointment: the drummer was sharing a kit with Rattlehead; one tom, no timbales. Weaksauce. The Coroner influence was still there, as were the awesome leads, so hey, "two out of three" and all that.

RATTLEHEAD
I surprised myself by staying for the majority of Rattlehead's set; their mid-tempo Testament-worship was not my preferred flavor of thrash, so I had planned to spend this set socializing with friends. I became hooked on the drummer, though, so while I did stay in the club, I was off to the side, where I got an uninhibited view of everything going on behind the kit. Skin-basher A.J. Stixx was the personification of that horrible cliche "poetry in motion." Whether he was grooving along or pushing the tempo, the man was relaxed and fluid, with every fill, crash, and ride transition coming out smooth, clearly not one for the sporadic, hit-or-miss spontaneity in which I often indulge. The highlight of the whole performance was the track "Bottom Shelf Shuffle," in which A.J. took a short solo and led the band through, what else, a double-bass shuffle beat. I was floored.

Before we took off, I made a point to shake A.J.'s hand and tell him how much I admired his performance. Talented drummers come and go, especially in today's metal scene where fourteen-year-olds on low-end kits can play entire Slipknot songs note for note, and move very quickly into Derek Roddy territory. Even among all this, a "drummer's drummer" will always stick out from the pack, someone who can take all that complexity, all that intensity, and make it sing, make it somehow feel more right than all the other slam-bangers. I'll probably never be a Rattlehead fan but I do hope I get another opportunity to view this man in action.

POST-SHOW
After saying goodbye to everyone and stopping by Whataburger, we set off on the arduous journey home, tonight made a little more trying than usual by flared tempers. We were all tired and very much not looking forward to the drive, and eventually this resulted in one member of the band losing his cool and verbally lashing out at another when it came time to stop for gas. Proper apologies were soon thereafter delivered and everything was cool again, but it did make me worry about how much longer we could do this whole to-and-fro with San Antonio. Thankfully, starting in August, JT will have actually moved to San Antonio, so hopefully his apartment will be able to properly accommodate us and keep our equipment safe overnight.

Night of the Hex-Trio!

Another flier by Tarzan!

"Official" flier

Date: May 1, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing With: American Lab Rat, Untitled We Stand, Killing In Apathy, Dear Cyanide, PainFilled Silent, Periwinkle Massacre

PRE-SHOW
When we arranged to play May 1 at the Music Vault, we did the usual thing of telling all our friends, slapping the flier on MySpace, and of course putting in our requests off at work. It worked out for everyone, except JT. He had scheduled a meet with a counselor at the mortuary school he wanted to attend, which happened to be the week of or after the show, and Starbucks was only letting him have time off for one event: either the gig or the counselor meet. He went with the latter, and Hexlust were, for the first time ever, playing a show as a three-piece.

Some people love the hell out of "power trios," especially in thrash metal, and for the life of me I can not figure out why. Sure, on the recordings everything sounds ok, but that's because the artists can beef up the tones and multi-track guitars. Live, the one guitar usually sounds very thin and naked, and it's awkward come solo time because, unless the bass is beefy enough to be heard well, all the backing rhythm just drops out altogether. Hexlust started off as a trio, and I wanted so bad for so long to find a second guitarist. I wanted a thick rhythm sound, and multiple leads. JT's arrival was an answer to my prayers, and now we were having to do without him. We knew this would end up being weird and awkward, so we actually did the opposite of "good promoting," telling our friends not to show up unless they were willing to watch a half hour of us looking confused.

Considering the prospected result, the set times actually worked to our favor. We were originally slotted for second, but the Periwinkle Massacre didn't show up in time. We were bumped to opening band, allowed to load directly onto the stage, and proceeded with the assurance that our set would be over by the time the crowd started thickening. Now all we had to do was get through the performance itself.

HEXLUST
At first, things didn’t feel too off, with the intro and most of “Toxic High” working well enough with just one guitar. It did feel a bit weird without the thickness happening, but rhythmically everything was as it usually is. I actually started to feel comfortable. Until the solos. Tony of course performed his lead with panache and confidence, a thing of beauty. When it came time to perform JT’s solo, Tony was forced to improvise, relying mostly on scale runs. Turns out the J-Tizzle’s style wasn’t very easy to imitate at all, and Tony was left grasping at straws. Hey, it was better than Chuck Schuldiner playing empty rhythm parts and looking unhappy.

"Hellhammer" ran smoothly, with Tarzan’s distorted bass filling in most of the thickness. We skipped JT’s solo altogether, charging from the end of Tony's middle-section lyrics straight into the Celtic-Frost-influenced breakdown. “Baphomet Dawn” was pulled off by skipping JT’s first solo and shortening the intro riff by four reps. Tony awkwardly performed JT's middle solo, which thankfully is very short, and then was allowed to comfortably play his own. The funny part was that Tarzan got the inspiration to try something Sabbath-y and so some noodley, scale-climbing bass lines under Tony's lead, as opposed to just playing the riff. It just sounded weird and after a while he went back to just playing the riff.

“Agent Orange” never felt truer to Sodom’s performance than it did on this night, haha. Playing the leads turned out to be no problem; Hexlust had been playing "Sodomy and Lust" since before JT joined, with Tony doing the whole solo that went from the verse into the chorus, and let's face it, "Agent" is the same damn thing. Our rip-roaring finale, "Tombs," was surprisingly easy to pull off. JT has two leads during this tune; Tony just didn't play the first one, and for the second "long" one, we just cut that part out altogether. The lack of awkwardness allowed us to finish the set strong, throwing our usual confidence and energy in for one last hurrah to end this weird experiment.

POST-SHOW
Yeah, we totally left after our set, compensation be damned*. Tony's girlfriend had brought friends, and they wanted to go out for some food. Tarzan didn't feel like staying, my ever-supportive parents decided to move on to another bar, and I sure as hell didn't want to be left there by myself. I would have stayed to support PainFilled SIlent, but they were going on much later in the show. I made a mental promise to stay for their set the next time we played together, and absconded for IHOP with Tony's group.

I certainly hope we never have to pull this "power trio" nonsense again. The dynamic may work for other bands, but Hexlust were meant to be a two-guitar ensemble. Even getting away from the whole "sound" issue, the stage presence and balance were thrown off. It's no secret that JT brings a lot to the table in terms of energy and shenanigans, and it just looks right with him and Tarzan windmilling on either side of Tony. Now that I think about it, that would be the upside to this whole show: it gave us a deeper awareness and appreciation for what each of us contributes to this band, something I sure will never take for granted again.

*For those not in the know, bands usually get paid by having at least one member stick around until the show's ever, when all the door money can be divvied up.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE "Can everybody hear me?"

The Vault's sound crew

The Hex-Trio attacks!

Terror at the Alamo!

Date: April 23, 2010
Venue: The Alamo, Ft. Worth TX
Bands: Live By The Sword, Preatcher, Amoricide, Insinnerator

PRE-SHOW
[Spoiler alert] BEST SHOW EVER! Oh my goodness, the exhileration, the pure inebriation that comes from a crowd of people appreciate your art, even if it is a relatively small audience of just about thirty or so! I mean yeah, we'd had great applause and adoration before, but never with this much ardor, and from such a large percentage of the overall assemblage.[/Spoiler] Wooh, ok. This was our first outing to the Dallas/Ft Worth area, so of course the initial challenge came in getting our bearings and finding the place.

Initially, we drove right past the venue, thinking our GPS's had to be fucking with us; all we saw were some shabby-looking buildings and what looked like an abandoned motel. Nothing resembling a music venue, no sign that said "The Alamo" on it. We drove a little further, found nothing approximating the venue, and ended up calling Pete from AltarEvil, the guy who invited us to this shindig. We met up with him, and he took us back to that derelict motel thing. The deal with that was it was indeed once a motel, but, now out of business, serves as kind of an impromptu strip mall. What were once rooms now were small businesses, a pretty clever idea in my opinion. The furthest "room" on the end served as The Alamo.

It was surprisingly spacious inside; either this room was once a "honeymooner" special, or it was the illusion of space caused by the lack of bed and other comfort furniture. The decently-sized stage, with the sound booth right next to it, took up maybe a quarter of the overall room, still plenty of space for a crowd and some booths set up along the side wall. In what was a very unique twist, a white screen was set up on the wall behind the stage, with a projector on the opposite wall, so bands could have moving images playing during their sets if they so chose.

Of course, before we could even think about asking if they had a copy of "Cannibal: The Musical" to project during our performance, we first had to accomplish the feat of getting our gear inside. With virtually no crowd yet, the stage right by the door, and close parking, this should have been a cakewalk. Unfortunately, a gaggle of young children were playing tag in the parking lot, paying little heed whatsoever to any cars trying to get through, while the mother focused her attention on her laptop, in her car. JT and Tarzan had themselves a time trying to back their vehicles into the closest possible spaces without accidentally glancing one of the frolicky little gremlins.

LIVE BY THE SWORD
After loading our stuff in and picking a spot by the stage to leave it, we took up positions (JT and Tony in the audience, Tarzan and I in one of the booths to start warming up) to watch Live By The Sword. What an awesome band to kick off the evening! Hard to put a finger on their exact style, it was like melodic blackened crust punk, if that makes any sense. Two guitarists, playing layered, catchy riffs and some eye-popping, well-thought-out solos, and a drummer whose main influence seems to be Mick Harris. The dude was a madman on the drums, chaotic blast beats and sporadic fills that somehow held it all together. Their lack of bassist was not even that big a deal, until they covered "The Trooper," which sounded hollow without the low end. All that aside, this band was truly a spectacle in action.

In fact, they proved to be too much of a spectacle. I saw a familiar look in Tony's eyes, and when I talked to him I found that he was indeed having a moment of massive insecurity. He felt those two guitarists, technicality-wise, could wipe the floor with him and JT. "How dare we try to follow this act, with our self-taught-isms and cheap equipment, what would the audience think?" I told Tony to relax. "These people all know who we are, they're not going to be surprised by our low-tech speed metal. They aren't here to see Hexlust: expert virtuosos giving a master class of high-end wankery; they're here to see Hexlust: fun-loving metalheads playing some catchy tunes way too damn fast!" Tony relaxed, and I did not hear about or see evidence of any insecurity for the rest of the night.

PREATCHER
In startling contrast to Live By The Sword's lack of low-end, Preatcher's bass was actually too loud in the mix! Granted this gave us all an appreciation for a bassist's role in a thrash band, but there were some slamming riffs and solos coming from this trio that were unfortunately not as audible as I would have liked them to be. No matter, they still had stage presence to spare and pulled out a kickin' version of Megadeth's "Skull Beneath the Skin." Also amusing, though rather uncomfortable with my parents attending this show, was the band's use of the projector to show a hentai film during their set. Thankfully, it was pretty straightforward human sex; I'm not sure how I would go about looking my parents in the eyes with tentacle rape going on within a close proximity.

HEXLUST
We were supposed to headline. Everyone who talked to us was looking forward to us headlining. Hell, we were looking forward to headlining, it had been a good while since we had received such coveted billing! Unfortunately, the Dallas/Ft Worth area was an even farther drive from home than San Antonio, a fact made all the more foreboding by news of a vicious storm headed our way. Nobody liked the idea of a late-night three-and-a-half-hour drive through windshield-obscuring rain on slippery roads, so we opted to take the middle slot and be on the road by midnight.

What a show. Oh my god, what a show! As I said earlier, inarguably the best show we have played up to this point, all thanks to the audience. Every member of the crowd was cheering our name after every song. That's right, not just at the end of the set, but between tunes! What a rush! The best part was they were well-behaved! See, my drum kit took up nearly the whole stage with just enough room left for amps, putting the guys on the floor with the audience not three feet away. This gathering of metalheads, while headbanging and moshing and thrashing like maniacs, exercised fantastic control, never coming too close to Hexlust's front line.

What made this even more impressive was the overall lack of crowd control. In Killeen, if you put on a free metal show, BYOB, with no bouncers, there's a good chance people are gonna get hurt and that venue's getting destroyed. My mom, talking about the Alamo crowd, put it best: "They weren't here to get wasted, act a fool in public or to try to get laid; nobody needed a baby-sitter because everyone in attendance was there for the music." I hadn't heard my mom say anything like that about an audience since our days of playing punk shows with Shfux. What we had here was a pure, honest-to-goodness metal show, and we it owe it all to everyone in attendance.

Guess I should talk a little about us now, haha. Thanks to the high supplied by the audience response, I hardly kept track of any minor mistakes that were made. Tarzan's arm started cramping again, a leftover concern from our last show the week before that was now starting to worry me. Thanks to a monitor positioned right behind me, I was able to clearly hear Tony's vocals for the first time ever. He was in fine form tonight, every lyric full of charisma and energy. He overdid his opening scream to "Tombs," however, resulting in a headrush for him and almost no lyrics at all during the song's two main verses. Thankfully, this did not affect his lead work. Feeding off the audience energy, he and JT turned out some of the most frenzied, scale-blazing, whammy-abusing solos I've heard from them in a while.

Oh, and the audience went apeshit for "Agent Orange," once they recognized it (we decided to be tricky bastards and not reveal the title). Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves another crowd-pleasing cover!

POST-SHOW
It started sprinkling as we were packing the gear back into our vehicles, a sure sign that we needed to get a move on. We said goodbye to Pete and all the new friends we'd made, including the members of Amoricide (AltarEvil's last-minute replacement in the wake of their sudden dissoution) and Insinnerator, whose performances we unfortunately did not get to enjoy, and set off for home. We were maybe an hour into our journey when the rain hit.

For the most part it was actually not so bad, we could at least still see the road. We still had ourselves some adventures though. Passing an eighteen-wheeler that was going this much too slow was scary as hell, those many tires were splashing heavy water onto our windshields whether we were behind it or beside it. I totally screamed. Then we had to deal with Central Texas Expressway. There was construction being done around that time, allowing the storm to turn the narrow road into an obstacle course of traffic barrels, barricades, and splintery kindling that had once been detour signs. Yeah, I was wide awake when I got home.

PHOTOS

Warming up

Scoping out the stage (note the projector screen)

YEAAAAAAAH!

Awesome audience

Befuddled audience, before they recognized "Agent Orange"

Woooooooh!

Back to the Vault!

Flyer by Tarzan!

Date: April 17, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing With: Awake At Dawn, Faint The Fiction, Dear Cyanide (Dead By November scheduled, didn't play)

PRE-SHOW
By the time we finally made it to the Music Vault (we had to stop midway and drive back to my house for Tarzan's pedals) we were surprised to find ourselves loading with a few of the other bands playing his evening. Normally when we take the time to get there extra-early we are the only ones there. No complaints from our end, however. Since there were only three other groups this evening, there was plenty of space for all of us to set up our gear in the Vault's spacious backstage area while Awake at Dawn loaded right onto the stage.

AWAKE AT DAWN
First performance of the evening came from Awake at Dawn, who sounded like Days of the New on a Cynic trip; dark, moody post-grunge with a variety of guitar effects used and even a synthesizer, set up right in front of the lead vocalist. It was a rather low-key way to start the evening, especially for an audience ready for something heavier, so there were only one or two people standing directly in front of the stage. I certainly dug them, the musicianship was advanced yet tasteful, and the tunes were certainly catchy. Best part in my opinion was when the aforementioned synth was brought in to double a lead guitar line, I really get a kick out of trippy stuff like that.

HEXLUST
Our first time playing at the Vault since that last-minute show in November, and we were excited to show people how much we'd improved in the months past, and to gauge their reaction to the new addition to our set list. We'd recently been contacted to play a show in the Ft Worth area, a "pure thrash" gig for which we'll be the headliner, so we decided we'd learn "Agent Orange" by Sodom for the occasion. Tonight would the be test drive for our new cover.

A decent size audience of family, friends, and local support had built up by the time we hit the stage, and a roar of cheers went up as we went into the intro song. The positive, responsive crowd helped Tony feel more confident, resulting in better playing from our anxiety-ridden vocalist and looser, funnier banter between songs. "Toxic," "Hellhammer," and "Baphomet" went off without a hitch, and we had the room singing along to "Agent Orange" by the second chorus. I'm really looking forward to playing that song more in the future! It's less technical and less structurally weird than "Open Casket," so I'm able to relax and basically let the song play itself, a huge relief when we're past the halfway point in our set list. Of course we closed the show with "Tombs," during which JT dropped his pick in the midst of his long solo (oh, did we tease him about that), and left the stage feeling pretty damn good about ourselves. Another successful set in what is shaping up to be a fantastic year for Hexlust!

FAINT THE FICTION
I came back from loading gear in time to catch the last half of Faint the Fiction's set. Not my cup of tea musically. They employ that "alternative metal" sound from the early-to-mid 2000s like Nonpoint and Shadows Fall (the singer even had dreadlocks), but they had talent and energy to spare, and I admired their use of stomp-box lights. The audience certainly dug it, this was not a mosh-happy crowd but folks were nodding their heads and cheering after every tune. I admit I smiled and sang along when they pulled out an energetic cover of Killswitch Engage's "End of Heartache," good memories of senior year come back with that song, and I think they followed that up with a Salt n Pepa cover, although for the life of me I couldn't place the actual tune.

DEAR CYANIDE
This was not Dear Cyanide's night. For one thing, they were very tired. Talking to Mike (lead vocalist) before the show, we found out that the band had just hours ago got back into town from a show they played the night before, some festival out in the middle of nowhere at which they didn't even take the stage til like four in the morning. I'm sorry, may I'm the world's youngest old man, destined to have my band blacklisted for wussing out of a performance, but anytime after two-thirty is bedtime, cousin. Especially if we have a show the next evening.

Another thing pointing to a bad night for DC was the lack of a devoted audience, which in retrospect may have been a blessing considering what was about to go down. Dear Cyanide are one of the most popular bands in the scene right now, helped by the fact that they are mostly or all military (their lineup changes often), and while those in attendance were receptive, this was not the usual crowd of enthusiasts. If you look at their live pictures on their profile or find one of their videos on YouTube, you see a stage deluged with sweaty, shirtless soldiers ready to mosh it up. What they had on this oddly low-key Saturday evening were mostly close friends and family of the bands, and even a few Boozefighters thanks to Remo, former drummer of now-defunt Remo Gotzi, being in DC. (NOTE: Pogi, former Gotzi guitarist, was also in the band but not present this evening) However, even that audience was dwindling by the time the band took the stage at close to one a.m.

After an agonizingly long soundcheck (O-Zone kept running into problems with his bass rig, I think Lucky Sevyn was having amp problems as well), DC launched into their set, and while they played as competently as any well-practiced band, it was obvious they all had other places they would rather be, all involving a bed. After a few songs, the sound problems started up again, leading to confusion as to what to perform next and a few members looking like they were ready to throw down their instruments and walk the hell out. Somehow a cover of Korn's "Blind" got started, and that got a warm reception, then they went into something sounding like a Primus cover with a long intro. They never made it past that intro, though, it sort of meandered and petered out and they just stopped playing. They didn't attempt another song. That was it, they were officially spent.

POST-SHOW/CLOSING THOUGHTS
I felt bad for DC but knew that this was just an off-night for them. Neither their stability nor their reputation were damaged, I was sure that next time they played it would be business as usual, ruling the night with the audience in the palm of their hand. We in Hexlust got paid and got on our merry way, with me thinking about off-nights and when ours might be. Would it be the kind that only the band can sense, with the musicians downtrodden but the audience convinced it was the greatest show ever? Or would it be a really obvious hiccup, where the band can look forward to a) polite avoidance, b) excuses ("that sound guy clearly did not know how to work a monitor!") or c) brutal honesty from the audience ("Yeah, y'all sucked tonight. The hell, bro?") Hopefully next week won't be an off-night, we're all looking forward to bringing the hexcellence to Ft Worth!

PHOTOS

BUDDIES!

Backstage

Onstage

Ripping solo

JT's "Tombs" solo