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.]
