Onslaught and Warlord in Lincoln: April 4

Last night I went to my hometown to see U.K. veteran thrashers Onslaught in concert.  Lately I have been going to any metal concerts around, just because they have been so rare lately.  Last year I only made it to one concert.  So, that means seeing bands that maybe aren't groups I would normally jump at.  The best example is the Savage Master show I saw a month ago.  Now, I do enjoy Onslaught quite a bit, but they are not a band I have listened to a ton.  That might change after this show.

The venue this time around was The Bourbon Theatre.  It is kind of a dive that used to be a movie theater.  It's not a venue I go to frequently, I think this might have been my fourth time there, but they do seem to be getting more and more good acts lately.

I missed the first band, a local group called Fahr, due to having dinner with my wife's family before the show.  So, the first band I saw was a group called Haunter out of California.  Haunter's sound is a mix between black metal and punk and reminded me of Devil Master.  They put on a decent show, and their drummer in particular was really damn good.  I might be interested in checking something out by them, but they have yet to release a full-length, just a few EPs and a split.

Warlord was next to the stage and I did a little digging into their history, which is sort of all over the place.  Warlord has broken up and re-formed half a dozen times or so over the years, almost always with a new singer.  The music was hard-driving 80's metal with killer hooks and catchy choruses.  Their show was a bit longer than one would expect for a support act, especially one with a spotty discography and not much of a following.  They were pretty impressive, and I may have to check some of their stuff out.

Onslaught is another band with kind of an odd history.  They started out as a punk band, then altered their sound to a much more black/thrash metal sound.  They remain criminally underrated and overlooked considering how great their early stuff was, particularly The Force and Power from Hell.  Then they went in a progressive direction with Grim Reaper howler Steve Grimmett before breaking up.  Guitarist Nige Rockett and Power vocalist Sy Keeler brought the band back and released some more killer records since 2004.  

The show last night primarily focused on the early records, along with some songs since the reformation of the band, but was all pummeling thrash metal.  It was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.  I am definitely going to dive into this band a bit more.  I have those early records and, as much as I love them, I haven't listened to them too much.  That will have to change.  It was a hell of a show. 

Catching Up: 2020 Pt. 10

METAL CHURCH: FROM THE VAULT

My first memory of Metal Church is seeing their albums really close to Metallica's in stores.  I always noted they were also on Elektra Records, so their albums looked very similar.  Yet, I never checked them out, something I wish I would have taken a chance on early on.  Metal Church's sound is much closer to US power metal than thrash metal though, so any similarity to Metallica is superficial.  This release is a compilation of rarities, live songs, covers and other randomness.  It is by no means an essential listen, but there are some pretty strong tracks on it.  Most of the covers and live stuff is skippable, but the first half of unreleased stuff is well worth it for fans of the band.  Metal Church is a massively underrated band, and their abilities are on full display with this release.  It's not a necessary release, but that doesn't mean it is not worth at least checking out. 

VEXING HEX: HAUNT

It is inevitable that when a band strikes it big that there will be copycats.  A lot of bands have looked at the success that Ghost has had and attempted to replicate some part of that.  There's a lot of really shitty bands that have tried the mask and anonymous members approach (looking at you Sleep Token), but I have not heard too many bands try to replicate the sound.  Vexing Hex is one.  While their sound is not exactly metal, they sound like they have tried to capture the same 70's hard rock-isms that Ghost used particularly in their earlier albums.  It is much closer to Blue Oyster Cult than Black Sabbath, not that that is a bad thing.  There are some damn catchy songs here, particularly closing track "Rise From Your Grave".  

COUNTLESS SKIES: GLOW

I am a little bit out of the loop on the trends in metal of late.  I know generally the bands that Liquid Metal is in love with and some of the mainstream crap, but finding the underground stuff has been more difficult over the last few years.  I do still come across stuff.  This is kind of a weird way to get to the fact that it seems to me like melodic death metal of the type that was popular in the mid 2000's (Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Soilwork and the like) seems to be not as common.  And I am speaking more of what those bands sounded like in the mid 2000's, not the Gothenburg sound popularized by Slaughter of the Soul.  This is probably somewhat natural, there are always trends.  So I was kind of surprised when I heard Countless Skies.  This is the second release from the band, and their last one to date.  This one went a little too far in the direction of the aforementioned sound, and I don't like it as much as their previous album New Dawn, but it is still a decent enough release, particularly for anyone who loved that particular mid 2000's melodeath sound, which I really did.

BATUSHKA: CARJU NIEBIESNYJ

Batushka made some pretty big waves with their 2015 debut, which was a rather stunning album where everything went right and sounded like a black metal mass.  And the band had an impressive visual aesthetic, looking like an Orthodox mass gone very very wrong.  But that's where the good times ended as the band splintered with two members forming bands with the same name and claiming they had rights to the name.  I can't remember which iteration created this release, but unfortunately this release comes across as more of a pale imitation of the original band, despite featuring some of the elements that made that band stand out.  It just does not feel as authentic.  The music is decent enough, but it is not as memorable.  It's a shame what has happened with this group, their first release was one of the best black metal albums of the last 20 years. 

VADER: SOLITUDE IN MADNESS

I feel like I have been too negative in this post, so it's time to end things out on a steamroller.  The long-running Polish death/thrash mavens in Vader released their 15th album in 2020.  This thing clocks in at less than half an hour in length and is just a bludgeoning, pummeling experience of the best sort.  With no song exceeding the four-minute mark, there is very little time to waste here, making this one of Vader's tightest and punchiest albums, just a short, sharp shock to the system.  The band is at the top of their game despite their long career.