Artist: Destruction Venue: Highline Ballroom (New York, NY) Opener: Heathen, Warbeast Date: 5/11/2011 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
New York City are you prepared for the “North American Reckoning” Tour that will once again bring a headlining Destruction to our shores and find them doing this with Heathen and Warbeast as support? If not, then you are surely welcome to stay home with regrets but the rest of us will be thrashing like never before with indulgence. The show was originally scheduled to take place at B.B. King Blues Club up in Times Square but it was moved down to the Highline Ballroom a few months ago. In a sense this was a little better because the open floor area is a little more conducive to “crowd interaction” than we find being the case as their sister venue. Anyway, this tour featured two other monster bands of Thrash and I wanted to see what they were all about as well so I managed to arrive just as Warbeast was hitting the stage. The early start hinted that tonight might be an early night for me but I was totally wrong about that. Continue reading Destruction @ Highline Ballroom (5/11/2011)→
Most of the Metal Community knows that singer Rob Duke’s is the deadly vocal force behind the band Exodus, but did you also know that he is a writer and has his own comic book? Yep, he is the main creative force behind the Horror themed comic called “I Am Become God” which is available from the folks at Terminal Press. You might remember the company as the one who did a Dimmu Borgir comic about a year or so ago but that never was released beyond previews based on all of the band member changes shortly before it went to press. Talk about a bummer. Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, my overview of “I Am Become God”. It’s based on a story by Rob Dukes script and letters by Keith McCleary art by Garrett Adderley colors by Adam Street.
The book focuses on the daily activities of an unnamed serial killer who we meet on the first page where he defines himself as being a truly crazy and disturbed individual. I was convinced by the artwork on the cover which shows the protagonist pouring blood into a puddle on the ground out of a disembodied skull. If the reader is not believing this, the killer proudly shows off the skeleton of a kitten that he had killed as a small boy as he introduces himself to us. The rest is horrific history for lack of a better term as the killer gives us his “origin story”. The killer is not really breaking the “fourth wall” of comics and talking to the reader in as much as he seems to be talking to the next victim on his list, but one does not realize this until the final pages of the story. My guess is that he plans on returning to this scenario with other tales of his bloodstained 9 to 5. Continue reading Reading Rob Dukes’ “I Am Become God” by Terminal Press→
Artist: Exodus Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Malevolent Creation, Holy Grail, Bonded By Blood Date: 8/28/2010 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
In my opinion there is nothing quite like a kick ass Metal show on a Saturday night and what better band to headline a gig like this than the one and only Exodus. Truly they are one of the Thrash Metal founders and even though the years have found a number of lineup changes taking place, the man with the axe has remained Gary Holt. Together with Lee Altus, Tom Hunting, Jack Gibson and Rob Dukes the band has been revitalizing the Thrash Metal scene with a brass knuckled punch in the jaw. They would return to the headlining spot for the tour and bring along their label mates Malevolent Creation and a rising star band called Holy Grail. The show would be opened by both Korotory and Bonded By Blood. Sadly I would miss Long Island’s own Korotory in full and arrive just as Bonded By Blood was doing their thing. Having limited background on them besides knowing that there was a “Thrash Metal” outfit that used an Exodus song as their name. They didn’t sound bad but I really was not getting to absorb their material as best as I would have liked. The opening bands generally only get about 25-30 minutes when they play this early so missing half, you might as well miss the whole thing. I would pick up my event documenting with Holy Grail who came up almost immediately after BBB had gotten their gear offstage. Continue reading Exodus @ Gramercy Theatre (8/28/2010)→
Welcome back, we are glad that you decided to join us for the continuation of the tale that we began just the other day. So where were we? Oh yes, we were at the Jacob Javits Center enjoying the 5th Annual NY Comic Con & Anime Festival that was taking place over the course of three days. The event was nothing less than massive in scope and resultant of all the observations found me not only sub-dividing the coverage into day by day but even splitting those up to be sure to get it all out to you in the best fashion. With that being said, let the adventuring continue.
Artist: Arch Enemy Venue: Nokia Theatre Times Square (New York, NY) Opener: Exodus, Arsis, Mutiny Within Date: 1/22/2010 Label: Century Media Records
It was great to find Arch Enemy doing a headlining tour again because the last time that we found them visiting us in NYC they were doing a “co-headlining” run called “The Black Tyranny Tour”. This excellent event paired them with Roadrunner Records’ own Machinehead and while they lined it out as co-headlining gigs, Arch had always seemed to be the direct support for Machinehead and I am not sure there were too many swapped shows. Of course, I don’t think many of the Metal legions actually minded about this back when those shows had happened because Machinehead was on the rise again and dishing out the tunes for those who enjoyed the incredible sounds on their album of the time “The Blackening”. Tonight’s gig would be an interesting one as it found Exodus hitting the stage as the bands direct support and give us the long awaited return of Arsis while also treating us to some relative newcomers to the scene with Mutiny Within. Continue reading Arch Enemy & Exodus @ Nokia Theatre Times Square (1/22/2010)→
