On May 31st, 2025 darkness descended upon the Bay Area, specifically the city of Belmont, CA where an unholy gathering took place featuring five utterly malevolent bands. Empty Chalice, Cardinal, Bezaliel, Varulf and Nøkken, looked to unleash some cranial shattering riffs and unapologetically blasphemous songs for the fiendish audience in attendance to savor.
The show took place at Chris' New Harbor Bar located in Belmont, CA which for all of those unfamiliar with the Bay Area, is a city just south of San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula. So unlike going to a show in San Francisco, you don’t have to worry about stepping in human feces and there aren’t hipsters on bikes riding right in front of your goddamn car. Anyway, I have to say that the venue was a perfect place for this type of underground black metal show and I thought the intimate atmosphere inside ended up being a huge benefit during each band’s set.
Opening the show was, Nøkken, from the shadowy woods of Boulder Creek, CA. I thought that they did a tremendous job starting the show off by getting the audience to bang their heads to the monstrous riffs. Right from the beginning, the band’s guitarist was utterly possessed as he hammered away at his guitar and he played with such ferocity throughout their set. The drummer also provided some ear shattering rhythms from behind the kit and definitely kept the music fearsomely moving without missing a beat. Plus, the band’s singer really captured the early 90’s black metal aesthetic both in terms of his vocal style as well as his overall image. Seeing him screaming into the mic with the corpse paint on looking like a tortured soul from beyond, just perfectly complimented the band’s misanthropic lyrical content. For my first time seeing them live, I thought the sounded solid and would definitely be down to see them again.
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| Nøkken |
The second band, Cardinal, was a band that I had heard of before after watching a video of them playing at an ice cream shop in San Jose. Yes, there was a black metal show at an ice cream shop, probably because the Vietnamese coffee shop in San Jose was hosting an illegal gambling party that night. Now, I think what makes this band standout compared to a lot of other up and coming raw black metal bands is that they have an actual keyboard player coming up with some haunting keyboard arrangements during their songs. I have to say that all four members sounded extremely tight and know how to play their instruments. Also, the malevolent sounds of the keyboard contrasting with the savage guitar riffs sounded great live. Their sound reminded me a bit of what you can hear on Nokturnal Mortum’s “Lunar Poetry,” where the keyboards lull you into this false sense of security and eventually you become overwhelmed by the insanely intense raw compositions flowing at you with this pure evil synergy. Cardinal is a band that I really hope gets around to making a full-length album, because with their creative mindset and sinister passion for black metal, I bet that they could craft some profoundly diabolical tracks.
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| Cardinal |
After Cardinal finished their set, the third band, Varulf, from San Jose started setting up for their pulverizing black metal onslaught. At first the ear piercing sounds of feedback and technical challenges delayed them from launching into their first song, however, once they got everything going there was no stopping this band’s demonically brutal energy. Right away, the dual vocals provided by the band’s singer and the band's bassist/singer amplified the music as they each growled mercilessly over the chaotic arrangements. Both guitarists played with tremendously ravenous passion as they hammered out evil sounding chord progressions. Varulf did not let off the pedal once as they continuously dealt out cataclysmic song after song. I feel Varulf is a band highly worth checking out live, because they know how to put on a non-stop adrenaline pumping performance.
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| Varulf |
The fourth band on the bill was, Bezaliel, an evil act trio from the Bay Area that played their set with candles, incense burning and red siren lights flashing to establish a very ritualistic atmosphere, which I do believe visually looked great. Also, the bassist was all decked out in chains and spikes, but I must admit unlike some black metal musicians who have the look down yet cannot play their instruments to save their lives, this guy could play like a maniac. There were a couple songs where the bass player laid down some wicked sounding bass parts to inject a juggernaut sized boost of low-end brutality. Also, Bezaliel conjured up some punishing riffs that started getting people moshing around, so I thought that even after three previous bands the crowd was still going strong if they were running around pumping into each other.
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| Bezaliel |
The final band of the evening, Empty Chalice, traveled all the way down from Victoria B.C., Canada and this black metal horde is so insanely malevolent and down right badass that they gave Justin Trudeau such terrible nightmares that some say it was why Trudeau decided to resign. If you have been following this blog I have reviewed some of Empty Chalice’s demos in the past, so for me I was very excited to finally see them live, especially after the release of their new demo Violated Oaths. As the members launched into the first song I could tell that they were ready to raise some hell. The two guitar attack provided by the band’s two guitarists provided some deafening riffs as the band’s bassist would also follow along sadistically strike his bass. At one point the drummer from Empty Chalice was playing so fast that one of his drum sticks flew out of his hand and went right by my head, but he pulled out another one and kept feverishly drumming away. During their set the band’s singer did a great job interacting with the crowd between songs trying to get people to headbanging and even took off his noose which was around his neck and then put it on someone who was not banging their head. The band did a killer cover of Marduk’s “Baptism by Fire,” as that is off of one of my favorite Marduk albums, so it was cool that they incorporated into their set. Overall, Empty Chalice sounded brutal and gave the audience a wicked set, so hope that they can comeback to the Bay Area in the future.
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| Empty Chalice |
In the end, I thought all the bands sounded extremely solid and the crowd always seemed to be engaged. Unlike some shows where people only go to see their friends play and then just leave, I thought the people in attendance who were passionate fans of extreme underground music stuck around to appreciate what these bands had to offer. I definitely look forward to seeing what these bands have in the works and would recommend checking them out. The Bay Area like a lot places across the US has definitely seen a decline in the availability of venues for extreme metal music, so shoutout to the people who put on this show and Chris' New Harbor Bar for hosting this event. Also, anytime there is a Bay Area metal show and I don't have to drive into SF is a huge win, because when a city has an app that tracks the areas where people poop on the street, that is a place that I like to avoid.
Empty Chalice Bandcamp:
https://emptychalicebm.bandcamp.com/
Cardinal Bandcamp:
https://c666.bandcamp.com/music
Bezaliel Bandcamp:
https://bezaliel.bandcamp.com/
Nøkken Bandcamp:
https://nokkensemperviren.bandcamp.com/album/demo-1
