Hatebreed, Black Dahlia Murder, Napalm Death, Exodus, First Blood & Despised Icon
House of Blues, Sunset Strip

Got there a little bit late and missed the opener, Despised Icon. I've seen them a few times and they a pretty decent brand of what could be called deathcore. They tend to have some pretty good grinding death metal parts mixed with a lot of heavy breakdowns and two vocalists and I'm sure they put it all on display last night. Not really my bag, but judging by the amount of Despised Icon t-shirts kids were into them.

Next up was the Bay Area's First Blood, pretty standard, generic ho hum moshcore. Their demo was great, but their new album leaves me underwhelmed as did their performance last night. Some boring fast riffing followed by heavy and brutal breakdowns that have been done to death.

Next and also from the Bay, the legendary Exodus!! Looking a little old and sounding a tiny bit past their prime, Exodus stormed the stage and shredded through some classics like Bonded by Blood and tore through some newer material off of Shovel Headed Kill Machine. Lots of guitar solos, flying spit and middle fingers... thrash!

In preparation for what was to be the highlight of the night, I found myself a somewhat uncrowded area to the left of the stage and bunkered down for the onslaught of Napalm Death! All that really needs to be said is this, Napalm Death kills! Barney has a bark like no other and it was refreshing to hear him have a little more to say between songs other than the standard calls to "wake the fuck up", "fuck shit up" mosh calls etc. They played a fairly even mix of old and new stuff even with their relatively short set time and they ended things with their killer cover of the Dead Kennedy's Nazi Punks Fuck Off. I'm glad some bands remember that their is more to music than just how heavy the mosh can be.

and now back to the regularly scheduled program, ahh the Black Dahlia Murder. Why do so many kids love this band? They play a pretty decent mix of the same ol' Death Metal, Thrash with some breakdowns... nothing really stands out. At times they seem kind of gimmicky to me and it rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'm off base. I don't know. Overall they leave me underwhelmed.

And for tonight's headliner's, from Connecticut, Hatebreed. Let me start by saying that I've seen these guys play the smallest shitholes in CT and the one thing that has always remainded the same with Hatebreed is that they give their all every friggin night! And last night was no different. What was different was the monsterous backdrop, the crazy lights, the painted guitar cabs, ringworm's frank 3 gun on guitar and the sold out HOB. The place was going absolutely apeshit. I stuck around for about 5 songs before I needed to head out. If the rest of their set went the way it was heading I'm not sure how many people would be left standing. Kids were killing eachother. And having fun doing it!

All in all thanks to Naplam and Exodus it was worth the hefty ticket price. Napalm will be back through in December (at the Whisky unfortunately), hope to see you there!