The last time I attended a show at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA was about a year ago. For some people that may not be a long period of time, however, as someone who used to review concerts at the venue quite frequently, it seemed like an eternity. Lucky for me my return was greeted with an epic metal show featuring five brilliant head crushing bands.
Act of Defiance, Trecelence, Hellbender, Trial by Combat and Secure was a line-up that brought out the die hard headbangers and once again proved why Sonoma County is a strong metal and hardcore scene that continues to gain more recognition. When I attended school at Sonoma State I was fortunate enough to get to know a decent amount of the local acts. Trecelence for example is one band that I interviewed during my radio show and became good friends with over the years. This show I felt meant a lot to the local musicians as it was an opportunity to share the stage with a well respected national touring act like Act of Defiance, and to showcase their extreme music making talents.
Upon arriving at the historic music venue I noticed the metal fanatics were already waiting outside with great anticipation. After going around and seeing some old friends, I found myself gazing at that all familiar main stage where the first band was starting to get ready. Taking the stage first was, Secura, a new local act I would be seeing for the first time. I could tell playing this show meant a lot to them and for a young band they handled themselves fairly well. Their brand of thrash is rather unique and I would like to hear them push that progressive quality a bit more. The two guitar players seemed to work well together, so utilizing the dual guitar attack will hopefully yield more wicked sounding tracks in the future.
Secura
The next band was honestly the band I was most eager to see, especially since the last time I saw Trecelence live was at their album release show. I have watched Trecelence over the years evolve and become one of Sonoma County’s most accomplished up and coming metal acts. Their hard work and dedication has produced phenomenal songs and given them the chance to open up for some iconic metal bands like Possessed and Death Angel. This show with Act of Defiance was yet another piece in the continuing legacy of the band and would mark the first show without bassist and vocalist Zane Covington. Guitarist Chris Olney Burnett would be taking over on bass and vocals leaving just Donnie Small to handle the guitar duties. I was interested in seeing how Trecelence would sound without their twin guitar act that made them such a force too be reckoned with musically.
Trecelence (Also in photo Elias Small of Scythe)
As a trio I thought the band did an outstanding job and each member played with an amazing amount of enthusiasm and raw energy. Drummer Ilan Cabrera unleashed a merciless assault from behind his drum kit while Chris and Donnie shredded together in exquisite style. Chris especially stepped up to the plate by slapping his fretless bass with authority and singing with a certain profound confidence. During the first song Chris shouted into the microphone, “We are Trecelence and we’re not fucking going anywhere,” giving people a reassuring statement that the band had no plans stopping anytime soon. I personally felt like this was one of their best performances, mainly due to the three members playing with such ferocity and passion. Looking to the future I am really excited to see what they can create after watching them put on a stellar performance.
The night’s third act, Trial By Combat, is a veteran band from Sonoma County that have seen live a few times live. They delivered a deafening blow to the audience of bombastic thrash metal music. Singer Dashiel McKenzie is a solid frontman and his brutal vocal style offers up some monstrous vocal parts to compliment the vicious instrumental compositions. Overall I have always enjoyed Trial by Combat’s sound and think that their presence in the scene is very important. Here is an act that has a strong sound and gets the job done when performing live. I hope to see them maybe channel that same aggressive live energy into a killer full-length album one day.
Trial by Combat
Taking the stage next was, Hellbender, yet another veteran metal act from the scene that I have had the opportunity of seeing live before. Their style is very straight forward hard hitting heavy metal where the riffs are simple yet provide a punch right to the gut. The singer seemed to be thrilled opening for Act of Defiance along with the other members who were all in good spirits throughout their performance. I also really liked during one of their songs when the bass player turned on a bass effect to make his bass tone vividly standout. Sometimes guitarists steal show with all their fancy effects pedals, so it was great to hear the bassist taking control.
Hellbender
When the show’s headliner, Act of Defiance, finally took the stage I was not surprised to hear such a loud response from the crowd for this out of town band. Even after four bands and plenty of headbanging, the audience was full engaged and ready for some more rancorous metal music. Act of Defiance guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover both used to play together in Megadeth, while bassist Matt Bachard is known for his work with Shadows Fall. Singer Henry Derek is an accomplished vocalist who used to sing in Scar the Martyr and I thought sounded really good live. All four of these musicians are extremely talented and I think make a solid sounding overall band. Chris Broderick is without question a extremely talented guitarist who plays with precision and can construct some fluid lead parts. The band’s aggressive thrashing sound allowed for a fair amount of mosh pits to form along with some stage diving. I thought the band during their set played with a certain professional quality to where the audience was not losing interest and constantly banging their heads.
Act of Defiance
At the end of the night one could feel the positive vibes from the entire show and Act of Defiance even showed how they were a class act by sticking around and meeting with the fans. I was reminded why the Phoenix Theater is such an important venue and a sanctuary for metal music. Getting to see young up and coming talent mixed with veteran bands and a national touring act like Act of Defiance is a testament to the power of heavy metal. The scene continues to thrive thanks to these bands keeping the metal spirit alive. And remember metal never dies... because it is not FUCKING GOING ANYWHERE!
A rising force in the death metal community, Skeletal Remains is a band focused on bringing destructive and apocalyptic sounding music to the ravenous extreme metal fans around the world. Their new album, “Devouring Mortality,” is yet another example as to why these guys really do know how to create some vicious old school death metal.
The Southern California based band first came to my attention with the release of their 2015 album, “Condemned to Misery,” which is their second full-length album. After listening to that album I then decided to check out their 2012 debut album, “Beyond the Flesh.” I respect the band’s passion for old school death metal and you can hear on, “Condemned to Misery,” a band that works unbelievably hard to come up with very solid extreme sounding tunes.
For the their third full-length album, “Devouring Mortality,” the band continues to fire on all cylinders with eleven brutal cuts of corpse splitting death metal. The opening track, “Ripperology,” is a true behemoth of old school death metal and contains some sinister sounding riffs. I thought the lead guitar playing was also exceptionally executed throughout the song. There are leads that reminded me of classic material from bands such as Death and Pestilence. Another area that stood out was the drumming and I thought the mixing of the drums was very well done on this entire album.
Track number two, “Seismic Abyss,” is a crushing piece of music sending seismic shocks throughout the body making you want to feverishly bang your head to the malevolent sounds. The song’s ferocious tone and the band's tight overall sound is what I believe allows Skeletal Remains to really standout when pertaining to their style of old school death metal. Songs like “Catastrophic Retribution” and, “Torture Labyrinth,” are extremely well recorded and demonstrate a group of musicians who know how to hammer out some monstrous sounding compositions.
Other songs I want to mention are, “Parasitic Horrors,” “Mortal Decimation,” and “Reanimating Pathogen.” Once again the riffs convey such a bellicose and aggressive sound that captures your attention right away. I felt like the guitar playing, the drumming, the bass playing and the vocal delivery, work together in such perfect synchronicity. The entire album flows with an extreme synergy and the songwriting is without question some of the best new death metal you will find around.
In the end, Skeletal Remains did not disappoint and in my opinion created their strongest release to date. In the extreme metal world some bands just don’t seem to get the sound right and the songs seem to fall flat, however, that is not the case with Skeletal Remains. Plus it helps when you have the legendary Dan Swanö doing the mixing and mastering. He did a great job capturing Skeletal Remains utterly vicious and brutal sound, so I hope the band continues to work with him and future releases. If you want solid old school death metal I highly recommend this album, because this is the type of death metal you want in your life. Unlike those death metal bands that are really metalcore, but the band members are all huffing paint thinner so they think they're a death metal band. Don’t huff paint thinner kids! Listen to Skeletal Remains instead!
Conjured in some remote location by a musician shrouded in mystery, Old Tower's, “Stellary Wisdom,” is a soundtrack into a shadowy realm where ancient castle ruins stand tall amongst hidden landscapes lost in time and space.
The mastermind behind Old Tower known as, “The Specter,” is an artist who has become well regarded in the old-school dungeon synth community. I still remember when I first heard Old Tower’s, “Ruination, the New Dawn Cometh.” The track was an emotional sounding odyssey of captivating dungeon synth with a magnificent overall atmosphere.
“Stellary Wisdom,” once again demonstrates Old Tower’s distinct and mysterious dungeon synth talents. I feel like what the iconic dungeon synth artist Mortiis established with the landmark album, “Født Till a Herske,” Old Tower continues by crafting even more mesmerizing sounding compositions. Also, the music on, “Stellary Wisdom,” is extremely well recorded and the album’s overall production is flawless in my opinion.
The album features two brilliant compositions that both happen to last around fifteen minutes. “Deep Within My Somber Castle Halls,” is the album’s opening track which begins with a powerful presence of synth and establishes a very melancholy atmosphere. You feel as though you are traveling through an isolated mountain fortress far away from the modern world. I find the music to be very therapeutic and helps clear my mind. If you enjoy classic dungeon synth music with a strong ambience you will truly enjoy this track.
The second track which is the title track off the album, slowly builds up with a more ambient celestial sounding style. For me the recording conjured up mental pictures of an endless black sky leading toward an abyss beyond Earth and into another dimension. The Specter seems to be a master of recording and his ability to convey such vivid emotional sounds throughout the composition is rather impressive. I also liked the dynamics of this piece and felt like there were some moments of unpredictability that kept me paying full attention to every sound coming through my speakers.
I believe, “Stellary Wisdom, “ is not just the strongest dungeon synth album to come out in the past few years, but the album is also one of the strongest and most well produced albums to come out this year so far. For fans of early Mortiis and dark ambient dungeon synth, I think Old Tower is a power rising from the darkness that you need to check out. I highly recommend going back and checking out the band’s previous releases as well as this new one. Sometimes when you need a break from the chaotic modern world, the sounds of dungeon synth can be a great escape and Old Tower provides a great sanctuary for those looking to escape.
Preview the entire album below. Also subscribe to The Dungeon Synth Archives on Youtube. The person who runs that channel has some great bands to check out:
