I almost missed this concert. I had a hearing in the afternoon that ended up taking four hours, which is a damn long time, even moreso when I had plans to be somewhere. I particularly wanted to go because another concert I planned to attend, Hypocrisy with Hulder, was cancelled, and then another was cancelled as well, though I am having a hard time remembering who that one was (Exhorder maybe?). Anyway, I saw Revocation and Defeated Sanity at The Waiting Room in Omaha, a pretty reliable venue. I missed the two opening bands and don't remember who those were due to that damn hearing.
When I arrived, Defeated Sanity had just taken the stage. Or rather, most of the band did. Vocalist Josh Welshman (not actually a Welsh man) was standing in the pit growling and screeching his lungs out. It was pretty damn cool. He managed to avoid being hit by any of the dickhead hardcore kids flailing their arms around. Defeated Sanity is a pretty fun band because they tend to reach out beyond their standard brutal death sound at times to incorporate some jazz influences of all things. Not that those particular songs were on display at the show, they mostly stuck to the really heavy shit. Anyway, they put on a blistering set. Defeated Sanity was the primary band I was there to see, so I am damn glad I made it.
Revocation is one of the better bands that emerged during the retro thrash metal wave of the mid 2000's. In fact, they were celebrating their 20th anniversary with this year's tour. I have not actually heard much from them in about ten years or so, but I always really enjoyed their stuff. They have a lot of technical elements to their sound and they border on death metal at times, which made them stand out some from the groups that were carbon copies of legendary thrash metal bands. Revocation always had their own unique voice. And that was clear at this show as they rampaged through a set that covered all of their releases. "Fracked" is a fucking monster song performed live. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
