I entered The Whisky in a daze, having already seen four bands down the road, knowing that I was about to enter the heavy curtain of technical death metal. But there’s something about seamlessly going from one show to the other that’s exhilarating.
Fleshgod Apocalypse are onstage. They are Italian, as I am informed by mia ragazza, so I start speaking my rusty Italian as I take in the fact that they are wearing cardigans and ties and corpse paint! Oh Italians, always such fashionistas. It took my ears a bit to adjust to this after the show I came from, but they did sound pretty good. There are some symphonic elements in their music that are reminiscent of Septicflesh.
Between sets, my friend and I relocated to the front. This was when we were interrupted by the lighting guy, who asked us if we’d like to come sit in the booth upstairs and watch from there. OK….let me break this down for you:
1) This is only something that would happen to my friend and I
2) What, does it not look like we can tough out this crowd?
3) Seriously? That pick up line is going in the bucket with the time I got, “don’t I know you from my AA meetings?”
It had been a long time since I’d seen Decrepit Birth, who are from Santa Cruz, which is about as un-death metal as most of Italy. Despite the fact that the vocalist could pass for an emaciated hippie, this is one of the heavier death metal bands I’ve seen. It’s literally taxing on all of your senses…it sounds like dying, and sometimes the beats are so strong and fast that it makes you feel like dying. They are one of those bands that makes me think, “WTF am I doing here? How did I get into this kind of music?” Decrepit Birth…not on my iPod, but always interesting to watch live.
Decapitated is one of my friend’s favorite bands, so I agreed to enter the pit/rail area with her as long as I could wedge myself by the speaker for support….because I knew it would get rough up there. There seemed to be some technical difficulties in the set up, but once it began they quickly lived up to their Polish death metal brothers that I’m more familiar with, Behemoth and Vader. We were pushed practically underneath Vogg’s guitar, so while I couldn’t hear it very well from where I was, I could see every detail. The vocalist was very in your face…I did not expect this after the stoic qualities I’ve experienced with most other death metal bands. The pit was quite strong, as expected. Part of the fun of this set for me was seeing how excited my friend was. Unfortunately I felt like just as I was really getting into the set, it ended. Vogg gave us guitar picks as parting gifts.
Monday night- museum, then seven bands in two venues…and it was barely midnight! Having survived on a protein bar and sugar free energy drink for the night, I went home and collapsed into a night full of crazy dreams.
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