PROGRESS!

The month of August begins with all drum and bass tracks and half of Tony's rhythm guitar tracks completed for Hexlust's first album. There were a couple casualties along the way, the most obvious being "Sodomy and Lust." Though it was decided beforehand that we would lay down both our Sodom covers as bonus tracks or possible compilation material, I was so focused on rehearsing our originals that I put absolutely zero practice into "S&L". The result was a take so sloppy that we decided to just scrap the song entirely. Interestingly, it wasn't so horrible that Tarzan couldn't lay down a bass track.

Not long after this photo was taken, we also lost "Agent Orange" to accidental deletion. Not that I care too much, it was just an extra cover, nothing worth dragging my whole kit all the way back up to Temple (thank the gods). My only heartache comes from the fact that I put so many takes into "Agent Orange," the most for any song in these sessions, which admittedly is due to my own lack of preparedness for these covers, but still! Just about all of my fourth and final recording session was devoted to laying down both of those covers, and the fact that they're gone for good makes that whole day feel like so much dead effort. Thankfully I still had time to do a re-take of "FBF," as I wasn't satisfied with what I had laid down during my first session.

I was there for the recording of a few of Tarzan's bass tracks: smooth, fluid, and with an awesome tone! Walter set it up to where Tarzan's effects pedal/pre-amp thingy (I don't know things good...) was plugged directly into the computer, and also had a microphone positioned in front of his amp. The pedal result was like miking a bass drum's batter head, with a very "attack-based" sound, more high-end, where you could actually hear his fingers plucking the strings; the amp sound brought out the qualities of miking the resonant head, pure low-end "boom." By combining the two sources into one result, we got a bass sound that was sharp, yet punchy, able to be heard through the guitars while still providing the deep bulk for their frequencies.

Due to work schedules and Tarzan moving to San Antonio, nobody has been able to shoot footage of Tony as he lays down his guitar parts, so I'll try to get in there with him sometime soon to capture some of the action. While I'm at it I'll probably have Walter demonstrate Tarzan's bass sound, with the two parts separated and then together, which hopefully translates to the camera well. Speaking of which, I should have Tony post his footage of Tarzan's sessions to Facebook so I can slap it on this blog.

Hexhibition Bout

Videos from the second day of drum recording, Friday July 8, 2011.



Flubbed take of "They Conjure," one of the more interesting tracks I play. Drumming-wise, it is a fairly straightforward song book-ended by:

• A two-part intro, part one consisting of triplet double-bassing and part two having an odd time signature (0:00 to 0:44)
• An outro featuring some of the busiest, most fill-happy drumming I do in our set. It would have been captured in this video but I didn't make it that far before I messed up.
  

The fact that the latter involves so much "heavy lifting" for me is the main reason I spend most of the tune keeping a steady kick-snare-kick-snare thrash beat, with a few flourishes here and there. Things pick up with the double-bass section after the first chorus, but it never really gets more intense than that. That way I store up enough energy to really slam into the long fills I do at the start of the outro.



Right at the start of the up-tempo middle section of "Baphomet Dawn." This was obviously one of the unrecorded "dry runs" we do to warm up on a tune before actually setting it in stone; otherwise Walter surely wouldn't be playing Chess and would be doing actual engineering. (Right? Right???) As you can see, we had been at this for a while by now and cameraman Tarzan was pretty bored. Not that he's a particularly... "focused" cameraman all the time; he shot most of the videos I've posted so far, and you can see it's pretty hard for him not to make his short attention span evident. We say nothing about it because it almost always produces amusing results.

The Loss and Curse of Hexcellence

Videos from Hexlust's studio work, laying down drum tracks. All three took place on the first session, Wednesday, July 6, 2011.

Studio tour


Recording drum tracks (and everything else) for Hexlust's as-yet-untitled debut full-length took place in a sort of loft office over an old auto garage. Every day we recorded we get to the garage in the afternoon, with temperatures inside peaking at 110 F. The studio room itself was the only place in the joint that had precious air conditioning and a ceiling fan, both of which had to be turned off so as not to have the noise bleeding into the mics. The irony was not lost on us.

Competence


Of the nine songs to be included on this album, eight of them were recorded with Tony laying down a "scratch" guitar track along with my "official" drum tracks. What he would do was plug directly into the computer through an effects processor and have the sound sent out to us through our headphones, so as not to have amp noise bleed into my drum mics. The only tune I recorded with Tarzan playing along was "Meganecropolis," which was written, and therefore easier to follow, on bass. This was a pretty solid run of "Fucked By Fire," interrupted by a pesky stick flying right out of my hand.

Mercyful Banjo


As usual, we in Hexlust offset our devotion to efficiency and diligence with a horrifying penchant for buffoonery. Here, Tony attempts to play the beginning lead part from Mercyful Fate's "Into the Coven" (not "Duelling Banjos") on a four-string banjo (with one string broken) that was among the wall of guitars in the studio room. Fun fact: Tarzan cut the video right after Tony demonstrates the "typical" black metal riff. What you folks miss out on is Tony following that up with Averse Sefira-style dissonant chords, which sound oddly awesome on that instrument.

A Night of Surprises at the Music Vault

Date: Saturday, July 16, 2011
Venue: Music Vault, Killeen TX
Bill: The Final Burial (didnt play), Of Ruins (didnt play), Hexlust

PRE-SHOW/OPENING BAND
Notice something about the band listing up there? Yeah, SURPRISE, two bands dropped out at the last minute. To their credit, Of Ruins let us know that they were having van troubles and wouldn't be able to make it. The Final Burial... well, no one's sure what happened to those guys. I think they were on tour with Of Ruins, so maybe van trouble for one meant van trouble for the other. Anyway, this brings me to a valuable lesson for bands: exchange phone numbers if you get an opportunity!

See, Randy from Of Ruins (and formerly of A Devoured Deception) had sent me a message on Facebook that day asking me if the show was still on for that evening. I told him that as far as I knew, yes it was, that the Music Vault are fantastic about not just quietly canceling gigs out of nowhere. It then dawned on me, for a fleeting second, to give the guy my number and tell him to shoot me a text if any problems came up. Then came the thought "Balderdash, all he needed was reassurance, I'm sure everything will be ok!"

Yeah.

So of course I'm feeling like a jackass come nine o'clock, when it's just Hexlust at the Vault with some other band who I guess were added at the last minute (and whose name, unfortunately, escapes me). I called my roommate and asked her to check my Facebook for me, and sure enough there was the message letting us know of the vehicular issues. To this day I'm kicking myself for having not given the guy my digits, it would have saved us and the Vault staff an hour of confusion.

It was then decided that this other band would go on at ten, and we would follow at eleven. I think the Vault wanted to stretch this gig out for as long as possible, and also to see if more people would show up in the meantime. Compared to the usual crowd we play to, there was hardly anybody there: a couple guys I had never seen before, a few bar regulars, a handful of friends of ours, but that was about it. I felt a little guilty; we didn't have time to promote as strongly as we usually do since we had just been added on to this bill a week before, and at that time we were still in the midst of laying down my drum tracks for our recording and preparing for the Headhunters show two days ago. Also, again owing to the last-minute nature of the gig, our usual group of strong supporters (including my parents and all their friends) already had plans for the evening.

Gotta say, that first band went on like professionals. I don't think I ever once heard them complain about the circumstances of the show, and, watching them from the backstage area as I warmed up, I saw them headbanging, smiling, and having fun. They were a "-core" type group comprised of two guitarists, a bassist, keyboardist, drummer, and a female vocalist. Thankfully, this chick wasn't an annoying Iwrestledabearonce clone; she kept her vocals clean, without being too Amy Lee about it. In fact, they were often very bouncy and whimsical, reminding me of the singer from Morningwood. Kudos to them.

HEXLUST
Once again, we were without the git-box services of Mr JT Bass, since he insists on devoting himself to such trifling fancies as education and employment. On this, our third outing as a trio, we were better than we were at Headhunters, tighter and more energized, without the emotional burdens of equipment issues. What helped immensely was the crowd; though only consisting of like fifteen people (including the opening band), they were actually very responsive and had a lot of fun thrashing along with us! These folks headbanged to every song, sang along to our catchier choruses, busted out some rave-style chem lights, and even played along when Tony implored them to do the "Candlemass stomp" during the slower parts of "Baphomet Dawn."

"Candlemass stomp" at 5:50

Taking advantage of our headlining status (and the fact that it was still very early) we pulled out all the stops in our setlist, bringing back "Hellhammer" and doing a double encore of "Agent Orange" and "Troops of Doom." If JT had been here, I'm sure we would have also thrown in "Toxic High," although "Imminent Retardation" would have stayed off the set as we haven't rehearsed it in a good while. Even as it was, though, tonight has got to be the most songs we've performed at one time since possibly 2008! I didn't even know we had such stamina and was pleasantly surprised.

In spite of the gloriously lengthy set, the lively crowd, and the invigorated playing of my bandmates, I was having a rather embarrassing evening as I could not for the life of me keep a stick in my right hand. I'm almost positive I set a pesonal all-time record, dropping a face-palming total of five. The exact reason eludes me, as I was perfectly warmed up, experienced no tightness or muscle pain throughout our performance, and actually haven't dropped a stick at a show in a while. I guess if I had to blame it on anything, it would be that I set my kit up with everything in a little closer than usual, since on more than one occasion I came out of a fill on the floor tom to unexpectedly smack the underside of the ride cymbal. I play with a pretty relaxed grip so's to avoid horrifying joint problems, so things like that take the stick out of my hand every time.

Set List:
Intro
FBF
Hellhammer
Conjure
Baphomet
Meganecropolis
Tombs
Encore 1: Agent Orange
Encore 2: Troops of Doom

POST-SHOW
Our limited crowd may have been the most fun audience we've played to in a while, but that didn't erase the fact that there was still hardly any of 'em. After tallying up the door money and paying the sound tech, the Music Vault had no money for the bands, and we ourselves sold zero T-shirts. This makes the second show in a row from which we brought in no dough, which wouldn't be as disheartening if not for the fact that we have costly studio time coming up. Hopefully our next gig, which at this point is at the Dirty Dog in Austin, will yield a more substantial (read: any) profit.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Thanks again to the Music Vault, for once again providing us a local venue in which to play fast music and act like dorks under bright likes for forty minutes or more. Particular thanks to B Rich and Pete, for always being fair, professional, and best of all supportive. [Edit from the future] Not long after this show, the Music Vault announced it would be closing down, I guess due to all the not-populated shows lately. Which makes me wonder: were we the gig that broke the camel's back? Anyhow, they have since decided to simply re-model the place as a dance club with live music on Fridays. So far it seems to be very successful, with a full house on their special "theme" nights, so Hexlust may in fact still have a quality place to play in the future! Until next time!

Omelette Table

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2011
Venue: Headhunters, Austin TX
Bill: Trench Wrench, Feral Rex, Hexlust, Humut Tabal

PRE-SHOW
I love surprises. One time while I was at work, my dad took my car using his copy of my key, had some repair done that it needed, filled up the tank, and had the interior cleaned. He also turned down the dial that controls how bright my headlights and display lights are, and deposited the car back in the parking lot, one row back and two spots over. All without even letting me know he was going to take the car in the first place. I had never felt more fucked with. SURPRISE!

So we get to Headhunters and SURPRISE, there's an imminent cluster-fuck going on in the lineup. Apparently one of the opening bands had dropped out due to their drummer breaking his arm, but he ended up saying fuggit and deciding to play the show anyway. In the meantime, a Facebook post went up asking if any band could fill in; according to Humut Tabal members, one band just showed up without confirming, leading to some confusion when it turned out the original band was playing after all. Complicating matters further, later word came that somebody in charge of the show had offered the opening slot to a whole 'nother band, who I think also showed up. I'm not sure if that actually happened, or who went about fixing this mess; all I know is that after a tense, confused hour, the club finally put up a list of bands on their front door:


SOME BAND? / TRENCH WRENCH / FERAL REX
The chalkboard in that picture up there says the band Terror Eyes went on first, but according to the blog post of Humut Tabal's Prokingu, the first act to take the stage was actually Parasitic Reign. I'm not sure who they were, all I know is that they played a Pantera cover. We in Hexlust spent the majority of their and Trench Wrench's sets in either the pizza parlor next door, talking to members of Humut Tabal, or on the outside back patio area chatting it up with Jeff A.D. When I was in the club proper during Trench Wrench's performance, I saw that they had quite a decent-sized crowd even at this early point in the evening. I had never heard of them before this show but apparently Austin metalheads have been shown a good time by this band on prior occasions.

Feral Rex's set was spent running gear into the club from the parking lot across the street, assisted by the ever-supportive Michael B. I had wanted to set up my drumkit stands in the little area by the front door, but the drummer from one of the previous bands had just left his gear there instead of breaking it down (thanks buddy) so I ended up doing that in front of the sound booth, right up against the back of the audience. Thankfully, though the crowd was sizable, they weren't particularly rowdy, so I was able to set things up in peace.

HEXLUST
Well folks, we had to play as a three-piece this evening. After our performance as a trio last year, we've been trying to avoid having to do it again due to how awkward it feels, but JT's academic commitments forced us to become the Hex-Trio once again. The good news is that since JT's been living in San Antonio for almost a year now and therefore not able to make as many practices, we've since gotten more comfortable playing without him in terms of stage presence and song structuring.

Not that this was an evening without its setbacks. Right off the bat as we were setting up, Tony discovered some frustrating amp issues, made all the more aggravating for him by the fact that he had just that week shelled out good money to have his amp head fixed. He was still able to play, but the frustration brought out a side of his personality which rarely emerges but always leaves me with mixed feelings. Sure he was loud, confident, and energized, but he was also cynical and a little derisive toward the audience, at one point openly mocking them after a weak cheer. Thankfully nobody seemed offended and everyone still had a good time. Guess that's the great thing about extreme metal audiences; you have people like George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher telling the crowd he's gonna rip off their heads and shit down their throats, and folks'll just be like "Yeah! SHIT DOWN OUR THROATS!"

Tarzan also admitted to having issues with his own playing, with a few notes missed and some parts just messed up entirely. He offered that he was just having an off night, though, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little more diligent practice. I myself spent our set struggling with my hi-hat stand. For some reason the little bastard kept sliding away from me, often being beyond my reach by the mid-point of a song. After "Baphomet Dawn," I grabbed Tarzan's bass case and braced it against the hat stand. Since the case was empty it didn't do a perfect job, but it at least kept the cymbals within my reach for a whole tune.

Beyond those issues, however, we had ourselves a good set, one which came with a little surprise for the audience. After "Meganecropolis," Tony called Prokingu onto the stage to provide vocals for "Troops of Doom," a song we use as a warm-up at almost every rehearsal but haven't performed live in I can't remember how long. A little bit of awkwardness preceded the song, though, as we had worked out everything about Prokingu's participation except how to announce "Troops." See, when he gets into stage mode, he prefers to keep human interaction to a minimum, barely speaking at all. So he gets onstage and just fucking stands there, and of course we're just standing there, listening to crickets chirp. Finally, Tony grabbed the mic and announced the song, and we ripped into that Sepultura favorite full speed ahead, an absolutely ripping performance that had the audience headbanging and fist-pumping (not like champs!)

We finished up with "Tombs" and called it a night. Or so we thought. The audience weren't ready to let us go yet, and called for one more song. An awkward situation we've experienced before. On one hand, YAY they think we're cool! One the other, we're not the headlining act, there's still a whole 'nother band set to go onstage after us, and the last thing we want to do is be that dick band that eats into everyone else's set time by playing an encore. The sound guy assured us that we had time, though, so we gave the crowd what they wanted: a toxic dose of Agent Orange! The performance almost killed me, I had forgotten to bring water on stage and was going through the whole set with just one swig from Tony's bottle, but it was well worth it to hear those cheers.

Favorite audience interaction
Jeff AD: "Play someone else's songs!"
Tony: "Whoa, sounds like somebody's a fan of the new Morbid Angel album!"

Set List:
Intro
FBF
Conjure
Baphomet
Mega
Troops
Tombs
Encore: Agent Orange

HUMUT TABAL
Through some miracle of metal science, we had all our stuff packed up and squared away in our vehicles in time to catch the majority of Humut Tabal's set. Mystical black metal which I'll take a stab and say is influenced by a mixture of high-concept black metal, such as Emperor and Averse Sefira, and thrashier BM like Absu and early-to-mid Immortal. Drummer Njord is an off-the-wall ball of energy, constantly blasting away on his hats or pulling off some long fill on his many toms. Although I had jammed with Prokingu before in a different musical context, this evening was when I really got to see what an able bassist he is, able to hold a steady under-rhythm at such high speeds while occasionally throwing in a fitting fill. Hravan and vocalist Grimzaar have excellent guitar chemistry, with many harmonized parts. I just wish Hravan would play more solos, I don't know how one could have a guitar that awesome and not rip out some leads.

In the midst of this fantastic performance, a point of awkwardness arose in the form of an enthusiastic audience member. This large, bearded man heckled the Humut Tabal guys between songs, with such utterances as "Play some FUCKING EVIL SHIT, goddammit!" Sure, in retrospect we can all easily say he was doing it affectionately, but at the time nobody was really sure if the dude was seriously getting pissed or not, and I could see it made the band members a little uncomfortable.

By their set's end, it was almost two in the morning, and the Humut Tabal guys were ready to pack it in. The audience, however, had been served a scrumptious helping of metal-thrashing evil and wanted them some dessert, bombarding the band with requests for one more tune. The guys were initially resistant, none more so than Njord, who looked like he didn't feel well. I know from experience that when the drummer doesn't feel up to it, the band should just quit while they're ahead. I also know from experience that that sentiment is utter horseshit, and we should just pick up our sticks and man up, because these fine people want more and deep down we really do want them to go home happy. Oh, and fuck you, drummer, that's why! Sure enough, Humut Tabal turned their amps back on and blasted the audience with "Misanthrope ov the Barren Waste," which the crowd received with many cheers and much headbangery. Joke was on them, however; that song is like two minutes long.

Favorite audience interaction
Audience member: "Play one more song!"
Hravan: "No."

POST-SHOW
After lending a hand in taking Njord's drum kit apart, I joined my bandmates in saying goodbye to our friends and hitting that dusty trail. No T-shirts were sold tonight, but I think at this point people are more excited about the full-length we just started recording (drum tracks finished earlier this week!) than anything else. Tarzan goes in to start plugging his bass tracks this coming week, and until then we have another show at the Music Vault on Saturday with San Antonio friends Of Ruins. Although we'll be a trio again, it'll be great to show off our new tunes for our family and friends, and hopefully sell some shirts to help pay for studio time.

Dehydration

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011
Venue: Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
Bill: Aggravator, Hexlust, Machinage, Death Rites 666, Hod

PRE-SHOW
Originally, this was set to be another small thrash show at the Parlor, with Death Rites 666 headlining this time since we did at Ana's birthday bash, and Aggravator opening. However, the Parlor announced that it was set to close three days before the date of the show (to change locations, not shut down for good) so Tony R. had to scramble to find a new venue. What ended up happening was a venue change to the Ten Eleven and an adding-on of two additional bands, Hod and Brazilian touring act Machinage.

AGGRAVATOR
We've played after Aggravator so many times, their music has almost become my background noise of choice for setting up my drum kit, much like how Absu's self-titled album is my grocery shopping music and Opeth's "Lamentations" DVD is the soundtrack to cleaning my room. I used almost their whole set to piece my kit together, taking my time since this was the first time since February that I was performing with the whole shebang, rotary toms and all. From what I could hear, they were really killing 'em in there, getting the small early crowd ready for some serious face-bashing coming their way from the later acts.

"Sacred Disease" and "Power Surge," with its "Agent Orange"/"In My Darkest Hour"-ish intro, are by far my favorite Aggravator songs.

HEXLUST
After a speedy stage setup and a hiccup-free soundcheck, we tore into our set, hoping that playing on familiar ground would give us enough confidence and focus to deliver a more worthy show than we had been with our last two San Antonio outings. For the most part, I feel we really succeeded this evening! I dropped no sticks and kept it together on the fills; Tony maintained his confidence at a high level; Tarzan's bass playing was on point and he performed his vocal parts to a T; and JT showed that he has been no slug while living apart from the band, his claims to have been practicing daily ringing true in his high picking speed and always-ripping solos.

In fact, we had all been practicing much more lately, in preparation for finally recording our first album. Drum fills and guitar solos have been planned out in advance, and riff cohesion between bass and guitars (and even between the guitars themselves) have been more closely scrutinized. Our reward for our more focused efforts was a set with which we ourselves were satisfied and which audience members told us was by far our fastest, most intense, and overall best set yet, with particular attention paid to our mid-set melding of "They Conjure" into "Baphomet Dawn."

I feel the only area in which we could have improved was onstage water-drinking. I had two bottles in my backpack which I kept with me behind my kit, and I'm sure the others had their own water with them, but I can't vouch for how often they drank or how hydrated they were before our performance. JT reported almost fainting towards the end of the set, and Tony, usually one for being more vigilant in these matters, said he almost threw up at one point while singing. I guess they sweated out more than they could take in!

Taking our gear apart offstage, we were reunited with former Hod bassist Derek, whom we haven't seen in I can't tell you how long. He reported having been responding very well to his cancer treatment lately, which pleased us very much to hear, then he and Tony engaged in discussing Weird Al albums and performances. One of many reminders I get on a regular basis that true "metalheads" are nerds, an observation I swear by proudly.

Set list:
Intro
FBF
Conjure
Baphomet
Mega
Tombs

MACHINAGE/DEATH RITES 666/HOD
You'll have to forgive me; it must really seem like I'm "phoning it in" with this post, the way I'm consolidating categories and all. The truth is, after we packed our gear away, I hardly set foot in the Ten Eleven again, intrigued though I was to see a touring band from Brazil (Machinage) and to watch our friends in DR666 and Hod play again. I chose instead to spend time with friends and bandmates, particularly JT. We got to his apartment earlier that evening with maybe half an hour to spare before we all had to leave for the show, and he had work the next morning at ten a.m., so this was really the only time we had to hang out and catch up with him.


Unfortunately, no footage of Machinage's set was shot or just not uploaded, so for the sake of getting exposure to this awesome band of very nice guys, here is a video of another show recent enough to be representative of how they performed.

MORE MACHINAGE / POST-SHOW
As the show drew to a close, members of Hexlust could be found outside the Ten Eleven, talking with friends and acquaintances old and new. Tony in particular held down a lengthy conversation with the members of Machinage, which focused largely on comparisons between the US and Brazil in matters such as currency value, coffee quality, breakfast preparation, and the popularity and cultural relevance of metal music. According to Tony, they feel Hexlust would be a huge hit down there. Wooh! This made me wish that members of Averse Sefira had been present so they could toss in their own accounts of playing in Brazil.

After wishing our new friends well and catching up with old ones, we headed off to JT's apartment for some rest, finally able to pat ourselves on the back and say that, with the exception of a few dehydration difficulties, we had ourselves a fine show that makes up for our recent hiccups. Hopefully the rest of this year finds us meeting and excelling this new standard!

Divergence

Date: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Venue: Mineshaft Saloon, San Antonio TX
Bill: Hexlust, Exculterate, PLF, Hod

PRE-SHOW
In our previous outing at the Mineshaft Saloon, we arrived at the venue to find a full parking lot and a still-populated attached restaurant. The former wasn't too bad, we just had to pull up to the front, drop gear off, and then park much further away then we're entirely comfortable with our vehicles being. The latter, however, pushed the show's start time back drastically, cutting into everyone's set times and resulting in The Oath only playing like four songs. When we were asked to play at the Mineshaft again, we were understandably apprehensive, as rushing onstage to play a reduced set at an unpredictable time (for no pay) is nobody's idea of self-shitting fun. However, we're always down to play with Hod, and we were all excited to see P.L.F., so we agreed.

Steeling our nerves, we pulled into the Mineshaft parking lot to find it... empty. We parked right up front, just across from the entrance, and took a look around. Nobody who was actually a part of the show seemed to have arrived yet, and the restaurant itself was sparsely populated. Guess it was a slow Saturday night. Fantastic! One of the guys from Exulcerate arrived soon after, who I guess was providing the sound equipment for this evening, so we were given the green light to load onto the stage.

Frustration from the get-go on Tony's behalf; the positioning of his amp put him out of range of any kind of electrical plug-in, potentially setting us to shuffling the whole stage setup around just so he could get some power. Or we have him just act as a stand-alone vocalist while JT handles all the guitar parts, which I would find amusing but didn't want to put past him at the time. Thankfully, an extender was found that Tony could plug into, but even that was kind of stretched, so Jake was asked to take up a post by the plug to make sure no stray moshers knocked it out.

HEXLUST
Remember how, one sentence ago, I hinted at the possibility that some overly zealous moshers might cause problems for us? Well, I may have been overestimating the audience situation quite a bit. The reality was that we had a rather small and subdued group of attendees this evening, even with our regular supporters of Tony R, Victor, Hellpreacher Johnny, Derek from Aggravator, and Jake. This could really just be chalked up to the fact that we were the very first act of the evening, and this show would have still been a winner if everything else had gone well.

Unfortunately, there was frustration coming from two sources: Tarzan's vocals and my drumming. Tarzan's vocalizing itself was just fine, but his mic was low, or cutting off altogether. We went through both his verses in "They Conjure" and his middle verse in "Baphomet Dawn" barely able to hear him at all. We were premiering "Meganecropolis" this evening (bringing us to a set list comprised of 50% new material) and Tarzan not only wrote that tune, but has yet another stand-alone verse, so having his vocals in the mix was imperative for the big debut. Unfortunately, the sound guy's diagnosis was that the mic may be non-functioning altogether. Severely frustrated, we went into "Meganecropolis" anyway, and thankfully the issue was all fixed by Tarzan's verse, his vocals cutting through very well.

Now, when I cite my drums as a source of frustration, I'm not actually admitting to having a problem. Our performance this evening is hotly contested amongst the members of Hexlust in that everyone else insists that my playing was quite under par, whereas I feel I put in a solid performance. Not a single one of the hornets' nest of issues I was having at our last show popped up; I dropped no sticks, had absolutely no pedal issues, my drums stayed upright, and my hands remained splinter-free. Additionally, I had put in some practice in the month since to ensure that I could more comfortably perform my fills on a once-again-downsized drum kit.

Talking to the other guys, however, one gets the impression that I abandoned all sense of rhythm and cohesion as, I dunno, some kind of sick joke, trying to lead them through some of our most technical and dynamic material with monkey-screaming fuckery. It's all very vague, though, no one can seem to give me any specifics beyond my having "played a fill for half a beat too long in one song."

It was all very headache-inducing, and the worst part was trying to figure out who to believe. I know myself and my abilities better than anybody, but I also have complete trust in my bandmates in terms of assessing my work. If all three of them found my performance lacking while I insist it was solid, where does the truth really lie? Could I have been blinding myself and overestimating my abilities, or were they venting their frustrations with the subdued audience and technical difficulties onto me? There was no video footage shot for the show, and audience members, while admitting that this wasn't our tightest outing, provided no headway in the direction of solving our argument. As I write this a week later, all I can say for sure is that we have agreed this gig is a non-winner, shall continue to practice and improve, and look forward to our next chance to prove ourselves, to our audience and to each other.

Set List:
Intro
FBF
Conjure
Baphomet
Mega
Tombs

EXULCERATE
Exulcerate are the very models of airtight musicianship in technical death metal, with their Immolation-inspired riffs and melodies, off-the-wall drumming, and their bassist/vocalist who growls out the lyrics while alternating between traditional finger-picking and percussive slap-popping. Unfortunately, their brand of death metal doesn't hold my attention for very long. While I did spend a few songs admiring the drummer, I eventually found myself in a conversation with Hod's Trans Am (that's his name, he's the bassist) about his enviable participation in the early 90s Florida death metal scene.

PLF
Back in the spring of 08 or so, Tony and I attended a death/grind show at Emo's in Austin. Among the evening's successes (headliners Kill the Client) and letdowns (some opening act whose guitarists soundchecked with amazing sweep-picking and whammy dives and then did absolutely none of that in their actual set) were a high-energy duo from Houston called PLF (Pretty Little Flower). This is the band that stuck with me long after that show, my interest piqued by their oddly catchy tunes, unrestrained sense of humor, and crushingly thick sound achieved with just one guitar and a drummer.

Fast-forward three years, and here we were opening for the act that came out of nowhere and showed me that yes, I did have it in me to genuinely appreciate a grind act. I would have liked to have stood and watched them, but my right knee had started to hurt, so I opted to guard the merch table while Tony and Tarzan went to watch the performance. Of course, since PLF had to be up on stage, I actually ended up watching over two tables. Good thing nobody bought anything, I had no idea how much anything cost and didn't even want to mess with their change box. The band itself was just as high-energy as the first time Tony and I saw them, and still had their unbelievably thick sound. The audience certainly dug them, throwing out plenty of loud cheers and slamming into the evening's first mosh pits.

HOD / CLOSING THOUGHTS
Hod took the stage as the all-obliterating final act of the evening, amazing me with not only their consistently high-quality black/death ass-kickery, but also their ability to fit all their equipment and all the members (except Beer) onto the Mineshaft Saloon's tiny stage. Their performance was on par with the last time we saw them, complete with Lord Necron's awesome whammy solos that make me want to punch the nearest waitress! (Out of sheer happiness, mind you.)

The only disheartening aspect of Hod's set had nothing to do with the band itself, but with the size of the audience. Although they were headbanging, moshing, and cheering enthusiastically, there was no denying that even this late into the evening the attendance had only picked up to maybe double what it was when we played. A far cry from the packed house at our last Mineshaft gig, or even any typical Hod gig. There was, however, a pretty big show at Zombie's the night before featuring Wings of Abbadon, and another much-publicized show going on this very night in Austin for Evil United.

With that in mind, it's safe to say that this evening's attendance owed more to attrition and competition than the drawing power of the show itself, which, considering it was also free, I thought would have folks crushed up against the walls. Oh well, such is the seemingly random nature of live gigging, and ya know, those who did show seemed to have a good time, which is all that really matters in the end. Personally, as an audience member, I love attending less-populated gigs. The Triptykon show from last year is a perfect example; from a performer's perspective, the attendance at Emo's was a let-down, but for me, since I was solely there to watch, it was heaven. I got an up-close look at Mr Tom G Warrior himself (and the vision that is Vanja Slajh) and didnt have to worry about getting kicked in the head or crushed between sweaty drunks.