EMBRACE THE
HATE

Sanguis Imperem

We arrive at the Black Castle about 3 hours after the show started - - so we missed Gravehill, Nuclear Desecration, and some other band I don't know which. Australia's Sanguis Imperem (pictured above) was playing when we arrived. You know how it is when you arrive fresh on the scene - - its hard to pay attention or fully appreciate the band that happens to be playing. For this reason its hard to recall just how good Sanguis Imperem were - - I'm going to go ahead and say I arrived too late in their set to properly review them; so it wasn't necessarily that they weren't up to snuff w/the remaining bands to follow, even though they didn't leave much of an impression with me.



Cemetery Urn

On the other hand, the next band up not only blew us away, but ended up, in the long run, to become the undisputed kings of sheer relentless brutality: Cemetery Urn from Australia sound exactly like what Richard Ramirez must've been hearing in his head when he ripped his victims apart, according to one of my very satisfied friends. Cemetery Urn are incredibly tight, deep, resonant, bass and guitars interlocked in an absolutely crushing embrace that never stops, and the singer channels the lowest and deepest profundo gargoyle roar I've ever heard - - totally inhuman. Here's what their album looks like:

If you're looking for the heaviest, sickest, and most relentlessly brutal band on earth, look no further than this bad boy right here. I didn't buy their CD right then cuz instead I made a wiser purchases of Ares Kingdom and Order From Chaos vinyl records, which I got signed by the various members of each band. I'm going to burn me a copy of "Urn Of Blood" from my die-hard pals who rushed to the merch booth for their copy until such time comes that I can buy my own.



The Black Castle crowd (w/Cemetery Urn)

Here's a shot of what the Black Castle looks like inside - we're all extremely grateful to Chris Hatewar for fixing the AC in this place - the last show I went to, the heat was oppresive, and the only relief from it was when the metal kids ran around in a ring: it actually generates a nice breeze you can feel if you stand just outside of it. The air conditioning being fixed was a godsend.



Alex of Ares Kingdom

Finally Ares Kingdom set up and began their awesome, exuberant set of serious and complex deathmetal. I was dying to hear what they sound like, and was extremely pleased with their neo-classicist finesse and yes, brutal execution. There is just no other adjective to better describe the spirit of intent which the best of deathmetal always strives for: sheer brutality. Ares Kingdom not only have that in spades, but in my personal assessment, exceed the rest of the pack by virtue of having written some extremely proficient melodies and interlocking rhythm/lead guitar work. Their bassist and lead singer Alex is a particularly impressive frontman.



Ares Kingdom - Alex and Chuck

But its Chuck Keller and Mike Miller (on the drums) hailing from the now legendary Order From Chaos that really flesh out Ares Kingdom into a major force in deathmetal to be reckoned with. I ended up walking away not only with their full length LP "Return To Dust", but also their T-shirt. Of all the T-shirts at this fest, it was the most "classical" by design. There's an old engraving from the Franco-Prussian war on the front with the Ares Kingdom legend above it in old classic script; on the back there's a black&white pic of the band in full action with some lyrics from "Firestorm Redemption" under it. Much classier than the other typical blackmetal shirts with their vomitous depravities depicted.



Alex and chuck again

I stood before Chuck Keller for the better duration of the second half of their set, just amazed at his technical proficiency and sheer guts virtuosity. He had a sick Bathory goat head sticker on his guitar that I tried to get a pic of, but never quite managed. I knew by the end of Ares Kingdom's set that they were probably going to end up being my favorite of the night. Turns out I was right.



Order From Chaos: proof positive this ain't just another Angelcorpse pic!

Now the fog machine started cranking out as the announcer said something about "and now folks, we've got something very special for y'all tonight, welcome Order From Chaos!" and people started getting palpably excited. Because of the fog, all the OFC pics came out lookin' blurry like this one, but if you look closely enough, you'll see that that is actually Pete Helmkamp on the left and obviously Chuck Keller on the right. Although their set was waaaaaay too short (only 2 songs, one of which was the crowd favorite, the awesome "Webs Of Perdition" off Stillbirth Machine, their first album), it was so damned awesome as to appear generous by contrast to the fact that OFC hasn't played in over 15 years. A legendary appearance from one of the underground deathmetal scene's most legendary bands.



Pete Helmkamp fronting Order From Chaos -- believe me!

Here's a shot of Pete fronting OFC. That shirt he's wearing is a band from UK called SPEARHEAD, and from what my friend Tony told me - -they are even heavier than even Angelcorpse. That's saying something, since Angelcorpse headlined this most brutal of metalfests.



Chuck Keller rippin it up w/Order From Chaos
*that dude's hand gesture says it all*

By this point in the show I had tossed back a few beers and was feelin' pretty damned good, I gotta say. There's a back area behind the stage everyone goes out to in order to smoke. Back in that room the partying and smoking was in constant furor. As the evening progressed I would find myself heading back there to smoke one and hang out with metalheads from all over. Met this one guy named Jeremy from a band called Lightning Swords Of Death. He was a really cool guy and said they'd be passing through Salt Lake in a month or so, playin "The Broken Record". We told him yeah we knew that place - - having played in it many times, and that it was a dirty old dive, nothing to get excited about. He responded by saying "then I guess we'll have to destroy that place!" I couldn't agree w/him more. He was this big guy with long ass hair, tattooed arms, with horned rimmed glasses and a beard. Just a way cool dude.



Gospel Of The Horns

Next up: Australia's contingency steps back up on stage w/their headliner, Gospel Of The Horns. I really like how all their pics came out red-tinged; it really adds to the Satanic Effect they work hard to cultivate. The singer there is this really cool bloke named Cozzy - you can barely make out the goathead tat on his stomach -- and he sang in this high-pitched screech that really conveyed an allegiance to Lucifer and all the minions of hell. Killer band and yes these guys were straight up blackmetal, really the first of the night now that I think about it. That's one thing the lineup could've improved by: more true blackmetal and less "brutal deathmetal". In that respect, Gospel Of The Horns owned the night. If ou're more of a BM than a DM person, these guys were the highlight.



thought he was dead

Halfway through Gospel Of The Horns' set, this one metalhead got up on stage (its about, I don't know, 3 feet high maybe) and after a brief moment showing off, was about to make a stage dive (incredibly stupid as there were insufficient peeps in that immediate vicinity to catch him, really) but it went all wrong when one of the roadies made his way across the stage (the band kept playin without missing a beat) and shoved this guy - - just as he was making his leap -- right off the stage. The consequences were that he fell directly on his face to the concrete below, everyone sidestepping of course. Swear to god I thought the guy died instantly from the impact the front of his skull made on the concrete. I watched as a crew of guys dragged him across to the front of the venue. Then I turned my camera on and quickly followed. I had to find out if he was dead. They all backed away from him as he lay stone cold still on the pavement, and I impulsively snapped this pic, wondering if I was taking a picture of a corpse. I did it so quickly and nervously that I missed the guys face - - but somehow the pic ended up looking pretty cool, what with the stains on his shirt and on the concrete - - this could make a nice deathmetal album cover, by implication. Moments later the guy opened his eyes, and his friends helped him up. He stumbled away back in to the crowd with a big grin plastered on his face. Although knocked out cold for a few moments, the guy was obviously unphased. Meanwhile Gospel Of The Horns continued their rollicking, satanic set.



my friends tony, ricky, alex (w/his hair covering his face), and heidi
(the baldie w/the jean jacket is some stranger)

After Gospel Of The Horns finished, I headed over to my friends Anthony and Ricky. I had a smoke rolled up tucked behind my ear, and I asked em if they were ready for it. They both waved me off saying they just left the smoking area, and were pretty buzzed already thank you. So I looked over and saw Sean "Psyko", lead vokills for Nokturne - - truly LA's most notorious and sickest USBM band of all. He's one of the most reknowned USBM frontmen in that area, and I've partied w/him a few times before when he and his crew arrived in SLC for some metal devastation. As soon as I mentioned burning one he put his arm around me and said "HELL YEAH LET'S DO THIS" so we headed to the back and sparked that puppy right up. There was a circle of die hards already slamming back plastic waterbottles full of whiskey and talking all at once, smoking cigarrettes and generally having a raucous time of it. I asked one tough Mexican looking guy if he wanted to trade -- he saw the handrolled cigarrette and passed me his plastic waterbottle of whiskey (there were still about 4 shots in the thing) and said "drink the rest of it man I'm wasted", to which I gladly obliged. I tossed back the remaining whiskey like it was koolaid and someone else passed me a beer, and the party back there went into full swing. Meanwhile, we could hear them announcing the next band, "Holocaust Wolves Of The Apocalypse~!", so after chugging a cold one down, I headed back out to the front.



Holocaust Wolves Of The Apocalypse

These guys were comprised of members from Sanguis Imperem and Cemetery Urn. They experienced some technical difficulties at first, but soon had it up and swingin'. They were good, but nothing extremely special - - more black than death, but paling in comparison to Cemetery Urn. I will say they were definitely way more true and brutal to the genre than, say, for instance, Wolves Of The Throneroom. I am not about to disparage that band, because I've heard good things about em, but I will say this: the crowd there would all sneer at Wolves Of The Throneroom for being "emo dicks" in comparison to the "real sickness" of all the bands lined up that evening. Me, personally -?-- I'm way more open to musical diversity than most of these metalheads, so I'm of the mind that I may actually like Wolves Of The Throneroom. Not so, my metalhorde pals. They will ridicule that band as "fake metal hippies", lol.




Angelcorpse

Finally, the headlining moment had arrived. Angelcorpse set up and began their relentless set almost immediately - - man, by that time most of us were brutalized sonically to the point of feeling like we had all had our asses beaten into the dirt. I admit Angelcorpse was a devastating onslaught of technical proficiency - - and maybe I had pretty much "had enuff" by that point -- because although yes they were just awesome, I'm not as into their particular type of sound as I was Ares Kingdom and Order From Chaos, for instance. And I think I even liked Gospel Of The Horns more, for their purity of satanic expression. But it was killer just to be there and experience Angelcorpse live in my face.

After their set, I wandered over to the Gravehill merch booth and approached Rhett Davis, their drummer. As some of you may know - he was formerly in Morgion, one of the most awesome doom bands to come out of the US. I had to tell him we missed Gravehill because we showed up too late, and also, to say "Hi" to him from my friend Gareth, who knows Rhett. He was happy to hear from Gareth and also to find out I knew who Morgion was, so he tossed me a couple of Gravehill demos, one for me and one for Gareth. I haven't listened to it yet, so I still don't know what they sound like, but am looking forward to finding out.

I purchased the following albums on vinyl:



Ares Kingdom Return To Dust their first full length LP, 2006
*signed by Alex, Doug, Chuck, and Mike*



Order From Chaos Stillbirth Machine Reissue
*signed by Pete, Chuck, and Mike* ;D



The T-shirt I bought has this image on the front,
and a pic of the band live in action on the back.
It's rather wicked.




Me on the drive back home



Cow