Two giants of Thrash Metal collided on a night that I wont soon forget. The technical skill of the Bay Area Thrash Scene joined forces with the sheer brutality of the Teutonic Thrash Scene on stage in front of a crowd made up of pure thrash fans from the old school to the new wave.
First up was San Francisco’s Death Angel representing Bay Area Thrash. Hitting the stage and opening with “Left for Dead” and “Son of the Morning” from their new album “The Dream Calls For Blood” which itself is a kick ass old school thrash metal album. They then tore into the classic “Evil Priest” with frontman Mark Osegueda sipping from a bottle of gin between songs. The bass player Damien Sisson pretty much stole the show, he had so much charisma on stage and his bass playing technique was super impressive. Its always fantastic to watch a metal bassist use their fingers and not a pick. Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilars’s guitar playing was on point and they played off each other on stage so well while drummer Will Carroll cut an awesome pace.
The only thing that stood out in a negative way was the Osegeuda’s vocals were burried in the mix and we not even audible at points. When you could hear them his vocals were clean and extremely strong he does have a superb range but for some reason his was really down in the live mix. Halfway through the show the crowd yelled out “Turn the mic up” and Osegeuda himself addressed it asking for the sound guy to turn him up but it was still not where it should have been, But that aside they were extremely powerfully on stage and you could tell that this current line up of the band were almost made to play together they were so tight and they all commanded the stage with Sisson standing out a little more than the rest.
Other highlights of the set was the classics “Mistress Of Pain” and “Seemingly Endless Time”, The title track of the new album “The Dream Calls For Blood”, “Sonic Beatdown” before closing with The Intro the “The Ultra-Violence” into “Thrown To The Wolves” and I managed to catch 2 of Ted Aguilar’s guitar picks (the 2nd one by accident as it hit me in the head).
With the exception of the mentioned mixing issues these guys were magic on stage together and as I have been waiting to see these guys live for a long time it was definitely worth the wait. Hopefully they return down under very soon
Up next representing the big four of Teutonic Thrash Metal was Germany’s Kreator. The stage was opened up drenched in smoke and red light as Kreator enter the stage and slammed into the title track from their latest album “Phantom Antichrist” and “From Flood Into Fire”. Mille Petrozza voice is so vicious as he screamed his way through those tracks. Commanding the crowd to perform a wall of death and keep the circle pits going. He had the crowd eating out of his hand as he warned them to be prepared to “have their faces ripped off”
When introducing tracks like “Riot of Violence”, “Enemy Of God”, “Violent Revolution” and “Flag of Hate” Petrozza denounced the evils of politics and religion for causing conflict and speaking of the power of music to bring us all together and even waving an actual flag of hate on stage.
Guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö showed of his skill as a virtuoso and even got to play a small acoustic section. Bassist Speesy Giesler charge around the stage and bang his head like a mad man while drummer Ventor Reil powered through the songs and even sang lead vocals on “Riot of Violence”
Highlights of the set were the classics tracks “Endless Pain”, “Pleasure to Kill”, “People Of The Lie” and closing with “Tormentor” leaving the crowd exhausted and completely drenched in sweat yet still wanting more.
Old school thrash will never die and this shows crowd response on top of selling out proved it. Kreator are still at the height of their game and are truly the kings of the Teutonic Thrash scene. I do consider myself extremely lucky to have finally seen them live.
