At 1720 On The Outskirts Of Downtown On March 1st

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All Photos By Diego Gonzalez

It certainly has been a while since I’ve been able to share with you on KNAC.COM another amazing concert experience. In all sincerity, despite whatever it is we individually and/or together went through the last couple of years, you should have a new found respect and appreciation for live music. While some bands are finally honoring their dates that were constantly postponed, there are bands who have been eagerly looking to hit the road to tour for an album that was on hold for release or that had already been released during that time. This year has already given us some highly anticipated albums and IMMOLATION was one of those bands that followed through to deliver an outstandingly great album.

Upon the release of Acts OF God, they headed out on the road for a nationwide tour along with IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT and MORTIFERUM and on March 1st the nite landed on a Tuesday in Los Angeles at the unique venue known as “1720” located on the outskirts of Downtown L.A. This skidrow adjacent venue is actually quite a decent size with a nice appearance inside.

Despite WAY over priced beers, many of the great Metal tours that we’re fortunate to get here have been at this location. Their waist-high stage is more than adequate enough for all the great bands that have come through with plenty of room on the nice open floor for pits. I would reckon getting your pregame on in the surrounding area (BUT PICK UP YOUR TRASH). It’s a better idea so you can have some funds available to purchase merch from the bands. Live, IMMOLATION does not disappoint and I’m glad that neither did the L.A. Death Metal scene who although not packed to that max at first, was still a great and enthusiastic turnout for New York Death Metal’s finest.

The opening band was a great surprise. Dan Dismal, the legend behind Church Of The 8th Day (one of the main promoters for 1720 Metal Events) and his local old school band CREMATORIUM started things off. The history of this band goes back to El Sereno and Lincoln Heights collectively aka NELA (North East L.A.) since the mid 90’s. Seeing him on stage again was a great treat and I’m stoked we got to see him and the new lineup perform a great opening set.

Onto the touring bill with MORTIFERUM from Washington who upon listening, you can easily hear how fitting they were for this tour package. MORTIFERUM are new to the scene with their first 2 albums having been released within the past 3 years. So they absolutely crushed it bringing that deep, dark and doomy sound to fill the space in the room. Drummer to drummer, Alex Mody was really throwing it down for this great band, they really shined here. The Profound Lore (records) band is already showing a lot of promise as they are running a touring circuit for their current album Preserved In Torment just released in back in November (2021).

Following them and providing a variety for the evening was an interesting band that had a gimmick going as they took ominously stepped on stage. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT was a masked and cloaked (and yet to-be determined) “power” trio from New York. Only 10 years ago did they release their debut album Abominamentvm which got a 100% rating on the Encyclopedia Metallum site, Metal-Archives.com. An avant-garde mesh of jazz induced Metal and hap-hazardous rhythms that bring Miles Davis and Frank Zappa to mind. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’s last album Alphaville was released in 2020 through Century Media (records) so undoubtly they’ve been anxious to tour for its release, and it shows in this great display of not just musicianship but showmanship.

What I’d describe as a pack of elephants thrashing around and breaking through stone walls, IMMOLATION’s neck breaking bangers are intensely grooving and pummeling. Their set list consisted of about 6 songs in total off the new record and the rest was just on onslaught of songs through their epic discography. "Father - You’re Not My Father", "Unholy Cult", "Into Everlasting Fire" and many great tunes made it such an awesome setlist that I had to do a few laps around in the pit for good measure. As appreciated by vocalist/bassist Ross Dolan who exclaimed, “WOW, L.A. on a Tuesday nite, you guys are on fire!” as were simply feeding off the energy that he, Rob, Alex and Steve (who I recently interviewed. Check it out on KNAC.COM HERE) gave to the crowd. No doubt IMMOLATION felt the welcome back on this tour and here in L.A. The last time I caught them is when they came around nearly 5 years ago upon the release of their full-length Atonement. The rage and enthusiasm to do it again after quite a long period of time was obvious by the New York Death Metal quartet who not only came to push their great new record but came to crush it as well, and crush it they did!

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Diego Gonzalez