Bay Area Metal Scene » Check These Guys Out
The Burial Tide – video from Womansion 12.18.2010
The Burial Tide playing live at Womansion – (another Going Postal show) 12.18.2010 the audience … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Live Music, Main, New Music, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Dreaming Dead (live) — 2 videos from Red Hat (+1 from Exhausted Prayer)
Dreaming Dead Here are two videos of Dreaming Dead (metal from Los Angeles) playing at Red Hat in Concord. You might recognize Elizabeth Schall, the singer/guitarist, who used to be in the band Manslaughter. Her new band is Dreaming Dead, which was touring along with with Exhausted Prayer. Dreaming Dead is Elizabeth Schall: Vocals/Guitars, Juan Ramirez: Bass, Michael Caffell: Drums/Vocals/Samples. Bonus 12.31.2010 adding one from Exhausted Prayer, who played just before Dreaming Dead at same show … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Live Music, Main, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Metal Meltdown in Berkeley: Repulsive Infestation & Deadly Remains (videos)
Metal Meltdown in Berkeley (at Blakes undergroound) 9.17.2010 with Cold Grave, Deadly Remains, Repulsive Infestation, and Elk. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long enough for Cold Grave. Also, Elk recently lost a couple of members, so they are now down to 3 members instead of 5. Videos of the remaining two below, Repulsive Infestation (Oakland) and Deadly Remains (Santa Rosa). Repulsive Infestation: Deadly Remains: Haha, check out the crab-dance about 1:40 into the Deadly Remains clip … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Live Music, News, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Lungs of a Blast Furnace (video) playing at Craneway Pavilion 8.13.2010
Friday the 13th Metal Massacre, some metal bands playing at Craneway Pavilion: Lungs of a Blast Furnace, The Venting Machine, St Vernon, Serpent & Seraph, plus one or two more. I was only able to catch The Venting Machine and Lungs of a Blast Furnace. This place is CAVERNOUS. Ford used to make tanks here during World War 2. I guess this place has a long history of metal Here is Lungs of a Blast … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Live Music, Main, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
New Thrash Bands Have a Role Model in Vektor
This nu-thrash trend that had taken metal by storm recently, has it’s prominent fellows that don’t really change much. Let’s face it, bands like Warbringer write some really fun thrash tunes, and (supposedly) have a great live show to boot, but they do not by any means rewrite the thrash metal book. One band that has done just that, is Phoenix’s Vektor. Their 2009 release, Black Future, is an astonishingly fresh piece of metal. It … Read entire article »
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New Material By The Antioch Synopsis Posted
Sacramento technical/hardcore/experimental metal band The Antioch Synopsis has just posted 4 new tracks to their myspace page, or if you’re one of those fancy technical types you can download the torrent of their new tracks. You may not recall, but I wrote a brief description (dare I say – “synopsis”?) of the band a few months ago, outlining some up-and-coming “tech-death” bands. TAS’s sound is kind of a combination of Job For a Cowboy meets Converge … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, News
Hellbeard Envy.
Oakland-based sludge metal band, Hellbeard (I guess “Sweetbeard” was already taken). If you’re looking for a show to go to tonight, or looking for some new bands, then you’ll want to go checkout Hellbeard. Shoegaze / sludge rock is something I just kind of got into the past year or so, so pardon me if this post sounds semi-retarded, but I dig the way these guys really layer on the sludge. The vocals are probably the … Read entire article »
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Vomblast? …Sounds Swedish
Another one our favorite local east bay Swedish bands is Vomblast. They have that deep, dark east bay Swedish sound of doom many of us crave when we’re waiting for the world to end. They don’t yet have a profile page that I know of, perhaps they don’t yet have social networking in the east bay Sweden. Vomblast was playing the first time I ever went to Burnt Ramen…maybe that’s why I keep going back there. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Ashkira Push Modern Metalcore Boundaries
Metalcore hasn’t really ever been my thing. I’ve found a majority of it to be stale and repetitive, but I found something different in San Rafael band Ashkira. Their catchy and melodic tunes are enough to make any Lamb of God fan faint, and their heaviness could make any Parkway Drive fan weak in the knees. Even if you don’t identify yourself as a fan of Lamb of God or Parkway Drive, Ashkira are definitely … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Featured, Reviews
A New Force to be Reckoned With – Vastum (Video)
I used to work as an usher at Bill Graham concerts for over two and a half decades. I worked at the Warfield, the Kabuki, The Fillmore, Wolfgang’s, the Old Waldorf, the Greek Theater and many other venues. I got to see almost every major touring band you could think of: The Stones, The Who, The Dead, Metallica, U2, Tom Petty, Santana, and countless others over the years. One of my favorite privileges was getting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Featured, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Neurotoxicity (video) – some live metal from the east bay
I’d like to welcome the newest contributor to Bay Area Metal Scene, a person who we’ll simply call Roseman. I befriended Roseman through myspace some time back (yes, some people actually like myspace), and it didn’t take long to notice that he had what seemed to be just about every underground metal/rock band from the Bay Area on video – good video (all things considered for a bootleg, that is)! Luckily for me, Roseman said … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Live Music, Sounds of the Underground, Videos
Spice Meshuggirls
Local music wiz and Meshuggah fan Max Karon has made what is quite possibly the best quality Meshuggah-inspired mash-up I’ve ever heard. What is it about Meshuggah that makes people want to do these remix / mash-ups? After listening to the Spice Girls cover, check out the rest of his tunes in the player. Guy’s got skills! Okay, so it’s not exactly Meshuggah, but take the heavitude of 7-string guitars, use some polyrhythmic beats and add the vocal tracks of the Spice Girls’ song, Wannabe, and you get the idea. Yes, there have been quite a few Meshuggah-inspired remixes, but none of them ever recorded with original material. Bravo Max, Bravo. Get the full Maxperience at maxkaron.com … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Friday Funnies
7 New Tech-Death Bands to Look Out For in 2010
Progressive Death, Hardcore, Tech-Death, Death Metal, call the following bands any of those genres. What ever makes you think of really fast and technical death metal with flavors of Progressive Metal. Some of these bands are signed, some are not. Many of them are from the Sacramento valley, which surprisingly have quite a few (young) death metal bands. Definitely look for some bands from the Sacramento area to be making head-way this year. Here they are, … Read entire article »
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Obscura’s New Album A Breath of Fresh Metal
I can’t remember the last time I was stoked about a new metal band coming out of Germany. Usually I’ll get an email from a German band saying, “Hey, check us out! We’re German (insert metal genre here)!” Of course, I’ll usually listen to their music because I’m a sucker, but my first impression is always the same: they sound like the villains from the Big Lebowski decided to start a mediocre metal band. Obscura obviously … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, Reviews
Another Group of Young Bucks That Play Better Than You
Kids these days. When they’re not playing their xboxes and their facebooks and their skateboarding, they’re forming shredding metal bands like The Wrath of Vesuvius. The band, just signed to Abal Records, hails from the Sacramento area and has been playing shows up and down the valley and will continue with more shows in February and March. Their sound is a kind of blend of modern death metal and deathcore, although judging by their picture … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Chico’s Armed for Apocalypse Opening for Sepultura
Sludge / Hardcore metal band Armed for Apocalypse, from Chico, California are opening up for Sepultura and Crowbar this April. Check it out: A4A came through the Bay in December on tour, but their upcoming tour with Sepultura appears to be a Europe-only deal. You can read an awesome review of their show here. The band is signed to Metal Blade records and has tunes from their album Defeat up on their myspage page. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, News, Tours
Hatchet Thrash
The final band in this week’s Thrash dedication toured the U.S. last year in support of their album, Awaiting Evil. Signed to Metal Blade records, Hatchet is the only band in this week’s list of Thrashers signed to a major record label. I caught their show at the end of the ‘09 tour, when they toured with Havok and opened for Warbringer (check out the show review). The bands, the venue and the people all … Read entire article »
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Zombie Holocaust Thrash!
Today’s Thrash band in this week’s Thrash dedication week is Zombie Holocaust. Signed to indie label EBM records (same label as Hirax and other thrash bands), the Zombies have managed to thrash the Bay Area with their punked-laced metal for a a few years now, finally releasing their debut CD, Strike Force in 2009. These guys definitely have a party vibe going on at their shows, so anyone not paying attention better watch out! Any album … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Fog of War Thrash
Day 3 of Thrash week! Today’s Thrash band is Fog of War from Benicia. Fans of old Flotsam and Jetsam or King Diamond will appreciate Fog’s thrashing vocals and bass-forward sound in the mix. This is perhaps the only band so far this week with a vocalist that could pull-off the high-pitch screams and falsetto. There are also plenty of shredding guitar solos and harmonies to accompany said thrashing. Fog of War are not currently … Read entire article »
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Laceration Thrash
The second band in this week’s Thrash dedication is the Bay Area-based band Laceration. Formed in 2006, Laceration have been playing shows throughout the Bay Area and released an E.P. in 2008 titled Consuming Reality. The band lists Death Metal as an influence, and you can hear the darkness come through in their songwriting. The production on the E.P. is pretty “vintage”, but what do you expect when you’re on a metal budget!? Although the … Read entire article »
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Invection Thrash
The first band in honor of this week’s Thrash dedication is Oakland-based Invection. Formed in 2007, Invection have played various shows throughout California and released an E.P. last November titled Demented Perception. The E.P. features lots of double-bass and epic Thrash riffing, and the production quality is pretty good, which gives it a modern Thrash sound. As a relatively young unsigned band, they have managed to work hard and make a name for themselves, opening … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Thrash Week!
One of the best parts about living in the Bay Area is the primo selection of old-school and new-school Thrash bands. You obviously have the big guns like Exodus, Testament and Metallica, but there are also a bunch of young-guns that travel each week from dive to dive, Thrashing like it was 1985. So, we’re kicking-off February by taking a look at a few Thrash bands that the Bay Area has to offer. A dedication … Read entire article »
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Slaughterbox: Embrace your “inner squeal”.
As if the artwork didn’t give it away, Northern California Death Metal band, Slaughterbox, have embraced their inner pig-squeal with a furious assault of Death Metal blast-beats and squealing vocals. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve heard drumbeats this fast anywhere. Is that even human? The band is currently in writing mode and will be recording next month. Until then, check out their tunes on their myspace page. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Future Prog
The Bay Area has a new progressive metal band (well, new to me), and they have a few heavy hitters laying down some powerful progressive tunes. Future’s End, which features familiar names like Steve DiGiorgio (bass) and Jon Allen (drums), released their album Memoirs of a Broken Man last year and it recently was voted the #1 progressive metal album in 2009 by USA Progressive Music Magazine. It goes without saying then, that fans of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Slaughter Of the Bluegrass Bring Some Death to the Banjo Scene
Slaughter of the Bluegrass is a Swedish bluegrass band that takes Death Metal songs and “bluegrass-ifies” them. This kind of thing has been done before, but what can I say – I’m easily amused. I just listened to bluegrass versions of songs by Amon Amarth, At the Gates and Dark Tranquility. If anything, this band may be a good “gateway” band to luring in others from outside the metal world… Slaughter of the Bluegrass is a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Animals As Leaders, Whoa.
Why haven’t I heard of these guys sooner? I usually make a habit of listening to all of the bands that roll through the Bay Area. In the previous post you’ll notice that Animals is Leaders are coming through town on a Sumerian Records sponsored tour. Sumerian Records sign a lot of technical death metal bands, like The Faceless, so I didn’t really give all of the bands on this tour much of a listen because, well, they all sound kind of similar. Good, but similar. Animals though, they seem to be a whole ‘nother deal. They’re like Cynic on steroids, with a touch of Meshuggah, no vocals and a bitchin’ Jazz vibe. The Washington D.C. based band released their self-titled album last year on Prosthetic Records, and you can hear some … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Devolved. Fastest Metallica Cover Ever.
Los Angeles death metal band Devolved have their new album Calculated coming out in a few days. They recorded a cover of Battery by Metallica and quite honestly, it’s the most unique and definitely the fastest Metallica cover I’ve ever heard. Hear it on their myspace page. I think this drummer might give Dave Lombardo a run for his money! Oh, the blast beats! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Another Awesome Greek Thrash Metal Band
I swear, this is like the 4th awesome Thrash band in a row from Greece I’ve heard over the past month. Check out Suicidal Angels, who are now signed to Nuclear Blast records. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Early Graves Releasing Album in 2010
It’s been two years since San Francisco metal/hardcore/noise rock band Early Graves released their debut album, We: The Guillotine. According to a bulletin on their myspace page, they have a new album, Goner, coming out in early 2010: San Francisco’s Early Graves will be heading into Louder Studios (Melvins, Hank III, Saviours, WITTR, etc) with Engineer/Producer Tim Green (The Fucking Champs, Nation of Ulysses) on October 28th to record their new album, aptly titled “Goner”. This … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out, News
All Hail the White Wizzard
If you ever thought to yourself, “I wish there was a band that sounded like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden AND Dio all rolled into one!” then you’re in luck. Los Angeles metal band White Wizzard is rolling through San Francisco in January and they’re bringing their fire-laden guitar-harmonies and metal falsetto with them. The band has gone through a major line-up change over the past year or two, but it hasn’t stopped them from tearing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
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