Saint Vitus-The Glass House,Pomona CA- 10/13/12

Heads up Doom Metal heads! If you read my crappy blogs, you know I'm not a fan of doom/sludge metal. So I wont be saying much about Saint Vitus. I'm sure you'll find a blog somewhere with a an actual good review of them. I ain't gonna lie either homies, I mainly went to see The Casualties (cause I still wanna be 14 years old) and tech death metal legends, Atheist,who I missed at Glasshouse as well during the Scion Fest. So there ya go.

The first band happened to be Black Sheep Wall. They recently located form San Francisco to Los Angeles I believe, and they down slow temp heavy music influence by sludge/drone/doom/and post metal. And serious shit, I actually dug 'em. I usually can't stand music like that at all but this was pretty interesting. the lead singer looked and dressed like a rapper or something so you wouldn't expect his voice to be all loud and brutal like that. It had a little black metal vibe in my opinion.

While the crowd reaction (full of teenage street punx and thrashers) didn't like 'em and neither did my friends I actually quite enjoyed 'em. They released an album out this year called "No Matter Where It Ends" that you should check out. Hopefully I like it as much as I like 'em live.

Black Sheep Wall

 
The second band was a band from Philly called A Life Once Lost and they played Metalcore.

Yes,with a name like that and how Metalcore is a risky genre to call yourselves with out looking like a hot topic teenage girl band your bound to have some critics. Metalcore can either be good(Deadguy,Hatebreed,Earth Crisis's) or really, really really shitty (As I Lay Dying, Trivium, All That Remains). Luckily even with that name, A Life Once Lost played pretty solid Metalcore with Groove Metal influences. They remind me a lot of Lamb of God (if that helps). The vocalist dude kept hitting his head while the lame crowd just stared at them with stupid looks on their faces.  It's hatrd to find good Metalcore these days so I give theses guys a thumbs up. New album "Ecastic Trance" came out this year. Check it out but please don't hardcore dance. ( and haha! at the Bon Jovi shirt)

A Life Once Lost

 
All the Thrasher and Death Metal kids got all upfront for tech death metal legends from Florida, Atheist. Like I said earlier I missed 'em last year at Scion Fest (last time they came here too) so this was my first chance since.I honestly did not expect too much since my friends said they were "meh" last year mainly cause all their material (besides the first album,which I love) is very prog/jazz death metal. Psssh! I hate that more than I hate sludge.

Anyways.

Atheist proved me wrong and blew me away. The pit got super huge filled with metal heads and even punks. The new stuff (not so new, last album came out in 2010) was actually ok. Of course when they played the old stuff I was more satisfied and into it. They ended with "Piece of Time" like I hoped and hair was shakin'  everywhere as you can imagine. Me being the prog hater I am can only recommend you to listen to their debut album, 1989's "Piece Of Time" which is a true Death Metal classic and their best album. That I'm sure everyone can agree with.

Atheist

After like 50% of thrashers left, all the kids with spiky hair and obvious painted leather jackets got up front. This is the second time seeing NYC's spiky haired street punx The Casualties this year and I wasn't as excited as my inner 14 year old mainly cause their new album "Resistance" was released a week before this event and it was stale, mediocre,and it just sounded like leftovers from their last couple of albums. I went anyways since it was free and all. Songs started and well, I got into it. They played stuff from all over their catalog ("Tomorrow Belongs To Us," "Punk Rock Love," "Made In NYC",etc). It wasn't as nuts as last time but they played around the same set except adding 2 new songs that were "Meh." I cant say anything else other than they are a fun live band to see and to get their 1st album "For The Punx". I'm pretty sure you can go to a middle skool and borrow it from some snotty- nosed kid there. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate 'em. I still dig 'em a lot. I'm not one of those people who "grew up" The Casualties, but man that new album was disappointing.

Up The Punx!

The Casualties

Well headliners were the legendary Doom band Saint Vitus. All the punks and metal heads left and a bunch of old dudes and bikers stood there to watch 'em. I was surprised how empty it got since they are on tour and it was free. I usually give bands a song or two chance and if I don't like 'em I sit outside. But since St.Vitus is such a huge deal I stayed half the set. It was just too slow for me (I'm SORRY!) There were 2 songs I enjoyed that they said was from their first album so maybe I'll check that out later. Oh and that Black Flag cover was interesting. Besides that, I apologize deeply, I couldn't get into 'em. Atheist/Casualties were my highlight.

Saint Vitus