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.
