New York City is surely one of the hubs of metal in the world. We have many great venues that host metal shows, several great metal bars, and a lineage of local area metal bands. Of course, you don’t get to see them perform together every day either! Lucky for us this is what happened when the already amazing Overkill and Death Angel tour had the added bonus of Life of Agony for this one special night! It was madness trying to get into the venue as a result of all the hype (a snafu with understaffed security and ticket window staff) and we missed seeing the good dudes in tour openers Mothership! By all accounts from those who made it in early, they tore shit up!
Death Angel was the first band we saw on this night and they opened up a can of whoop ass on the filling up sold-out crowd. On the strength of their killer new album (yet to be released at the time fo the show) Humanicide (Nuclear Blast), the band talked little, rocked out furiously and played an energetic set of hits and a few new songs. They would be an impossible band for most other acts to follow. We look forward to their eventual return to NYC to hear more of the new album played live on a future headline tour.
LOA was a treat! They are always amazing live, but the last few years since their comeback album A Place Where There’s no More Pain (Napalm Records) the band has been on fire! The hardcore heads in the crowd were feeling the hometown love while the band played hits, deep cuts, and a brand new song! The band’s show on this night and one other is a brief respite from the studio where they have been working on their new album, The Sound of Scars, the follow up to their debut album and all0time classic River Runs Red. If this new song is an early indicator of quality, The Sound of Scars is going to be huge!
Finally, it was time for metal masters Overkill. Their new album (I sense a theme here) The Wings of War (Nuclear Blast) is truly unrelenting, just like Overkill have been with 19 albums in 35 years of thrash metal history. With the new addition of drummer Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall, Flotsam and Jetsam) the band rampaged through a long, tight set of thrash classics and several new songs too. It was a great night of metal!
WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES
PHOTOS BY OMAR CORDY