As a starting point I have to admit my participation in this show was completely random and all in all quite lucky too. The idea of going had actually only been discussed a few days prior and at the time knowing that I would be working it seemed unlikely that I'd be able to attend. However a call to my manager and a surprising thumbs up the following evening when checking my schedule meant I'd be able to see death metal legends, Autopsy. Unfortunately this was the onset of both unluckiness and luckiness as I was able to secure one of the last few tickets available Friday morning, while do to a mishap my friend wasn't able to go, which sucked since the plan was to go together, me and her, but things happen sometimes...
In any case I ended up driving down to Chicago by myself, which isn't really my cup of tea, but fortunately I had a group of friends waiting down there for me and it was cool talking about random stupid stuff together before the show.
So, flash forward a few hours and Reign Inferno has just hit the stage. I'm not sure what the story around this band is, but I'm guessing they are relatively new and unsigned. Things didn't seem very promising from the get go since the singer was a typical shaved bald tough looking dude with a goatee style facial hair, which usually means really awful things. Well, I wont say that Reign Inferno was awful completely, I mean it seemed like they new what they were doing, but the bands grindy death metal just didn't do it for me and from what I could tell not many members of the audience either. Meh, I'll pass on these guys.
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About thirty minutes later local Chicago metalers (well all bands were from Chicago, except Autopsy) Cardiac Arrest hit the stage with massive power. Going into this one I didn't really know what to expect, but before the gig started I had three people saying, "What? You don't know Cardiac Arrest?! ...get ready for a real treat!" And so CA delivered fairly straight forward no bullshit death metal. Nothing flashy or overly technical just plain old enjoyable death metal somewhat in a Cannibal Corpse-ish vein, I guess, if that helps to paint a picture of their typical sound. Nevertheless, CA do death metal quite decently and the fact that the crowd was embracing their local metal brethren made it a bit more enjoyable too. At this point the crowd was still fairly small and it wasn't a sight of insanity that I'd soon become within Reggie's.
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After Cardiac had cleared the stage a friend of mine and I had found nice cozy spots up front or so we thought as Bones set up their gear for their set. Bones is Joe, Jon and Chris who are all former members of the now defunct Usurper. Bones style to my ears is something like proto 80's death metal with some minor thrash metal and crust characteristics, which resulted in much head banging and generally just awesome times for everyone in the audience and especially my pals and I. It was about mid-way through their set that suddenly the most pits became increasingly violent and although several people were being overly violent one person in particular was throwing punches, kicking, elbowing and some how fucking bit my friend on his bicep! As you can imagine this person, this fucking animal, a fucking girl no less, was dealt with accordingly at that moment, but she'd make her return soon enough.
In any case, despite this incident Bones absolutely killed and I simply had to get my hands on their debut self titled album, which I've enjoyed a lot already.
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After Bones was done killing it was time for ultra heavy death/doomsters, Cianide. Another band that was completely unknown to me, which is weird since they've been making music since the last 80's. Cianide's were generally quite slow and ominous with much heaviness and the low guttural roars of bassist, Mike, leading the way. I guess it was about 3 or 4 songs into Cianide's set when the psychopathic bitch began her assault on the audience members again. I have to point out that this chick was clearly fucked beyond rational thinking, but this was far beyond simple drunkary, this was like, smoking crack and losing your mind and going insane behavior. So, standing up front trying to enjoy Cianide I suddenly received a punch to the back of my head. Pissed and fully realizing who it was when turning around I shoved the girl back. Little did I know that with my back then turned to her, she'd retaliate by clasping her hands around my neck and fiercely pulling my hair. I guess meth or crack is a powerful drug, because this chick crossed the line and she was dealt with in the only way I could think of and that happened to be by delivering 4 to 5 powerful elbow thrusts into her stomach/chest region before she finally let me go and security detained her and tossed her out of the show.
After going to the bathroom and splashing my face with some water I went outside for some fresh air and to put some purchased CDs in my car. Well, what ya know, but soon as I turned the corner by the venue psycho chick was waiting for me. Immediately she began complaining about her head hurting and how I was a bad person for hitting a "lady." A few quick remarks back and fourth and having said what needed to be said I made for my car. In the end though you pull the bulls tail, you get the fucking horns. I couldn't care less if you're a "lady" or a man, you attack me, I fucking attack back!
Regrettably this incident meant that I'd missed most of Cianide's set as well, which sucks since I was really diggin' what they were doing onstage.
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Well, I'm the sort of person where a single incident be it big or small one can really just ruin my whole day/evening and in the case of what happened earlier I can say that my evening was rightly fucking ruined. Nevertheless, it was time for what everyone came for, AUTOPSY! The band played a good selection of material, mostly from their early catalog, but played a few from their recent comeback album, 'Macabre Eternal' and even, 'All Tomorrow's Funerals,' which is a compilation of EP's, rare stuff and a few new songs. The classic '89 debut, 'Severed Survival' was probably represented the most and with much love from the crowd too, but '91's, 'Mental Funeral' had many cuts played on this night too. From what I recall just one song from, 'Acts of the Unspeakable' was played and probably only one or two from, 'Shitfun' too.
Its a shame that psychopaths are allowed into gigs and just the simple fact that some metalheads live up to the stereotypes society has placed on us entirely too well. Oh well, stuff happens, chalk it down as bad luck I guess. So, needless to say I just wasn't feeling it and that sucks because I'm sure under different conditions I would have been having a blast watching Autopsy play. On the other hand, my pal who had been bitten early did still catch the vibe and get into it, which is good since nothing seems to ever really dampen that lads metal spirit.
cool review man, but i cant believe youve never heard cianide! especially living in the chicago area lol, i take it death metal isnt quite your thing?
ReplyDeleteWell, I had heard the name thrown around here and there, and one of my pals is a big fan, but I just never went ahead and checked any of their albums out. I bought one at the gig though, so I'm catching up now. And, actually I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is close enough to Chicago, but still a few hours away. Anyway, thanks for reading the review.
ReplyDeletewhat a great god damn show though, the lineup is just godly
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