All Photos By Shane Lee/@VulgarDisplayOfGaming_
Almost an average Sunday in Los Angeles, the LA Dodgers on the verge of clinching the pennant (and as I write this, the news of the passing of "El Toro" Fernando Valenzuela still fresh in our minds and hearts), ROCKtober was in full effect with another great show to hit our town. THE (re-envisioned) THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER along with DYING FETUS, plus ANGELMAKER and VOMIT FORTH were looking to hit it out of the park with the 'Beg To Serve' tour. Here you had a nice small bill of bands, half new and 1 quarter of today's modern best and 1 quarter diehard veterans who still bring the brutality.
ANGELMAKER was a band I wasn't familiar with. Teetering on what I call "bro-core", this band from Canada has 2 vocalists, a rarity nowadays. They definitely SLAM, pig-squeals and all but the non-core riffs were something that really stands out and shows that they aren't just about breakdowns and "chug-chug" chugging open chords. Melodic interludes and catchy riffs, a blend of brutal-thrash-Deathcore that has some great energy to fit the common style of the whole night's line-up. New co-vocalist, former RINGS OF SATURN Frontman Ian Bearer was having a real good showing, complimenting the band's sound.
VOMIT FORTH, another group I wasn't familiar with, comes from Connecticut and is signed to Century Media with a recent record out titled Terrified Of God. More slamming deathcore action giving off CRYPTOPSY vibes too. Not much energy coming from the band but they're the type that just let the music speak for itself. People were into it. Singer Kane Galaznik was really trying to pump up the crowd who was receptive to his calls.
DYING FETUS is a prime example of the "F*CK YOUR GIMMICKS!" mentality. These guys for decades have brought their own unique style of brutality that has some of the sickest grooves, riffs that break your neck and lyrics that are violently creative. Here you have THREE guys that stand up there and don't have the need to jump around, dance around stage, no ego-risers, no outfits. They bring you purity with their amazing music. The fans just get it and are relentless in the pit. For their setlist, they went way back with a majority of songs from their 2012 release Reign Supreme starting off their set with "From Womb To Waste" and later, a few from their latest from last year's Make Them Beg For Death, with the last few from Wrong One to Fuck With, Grotesque Impalement and Killing on Adrenaline. Their slamming breakdowns kept the floor going all night. Every single time I catch DYING FETUS, they never disappoint. They always sound tight and the crowd always goes off.
And as I sit here watching old footage of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER from 2019, with Trevor Strnad and Brian Eschbach (now singer) on guitar, it's evident of the different "vibe" that Trevor held and left behind with the band. We the fans loved him and his awkward charisma he had on stage and also off the stage. It needs to be said that he gave as much as he got, if not more. His love and support for Metal was one of his many gravitating characteristics. Now with Brian stepping in as lead vocalist, it goes without saying that he as well as this incarnation of TBDM have some great shoes to fill. They need to maintain that same energy to sustain their new found mainstream popularity a little while longer. Understandably so, their set this night and tour consisted of new material, promoting their new album Servitude but unfortunately ONLY ONE (WTF?!) from Strnad's last, Verminous (sad face) for which they hardly toured in support off aside from the 'Up From The Sewer' tour in 2021.
This is clearly a different TBDM. As Brian is still getting his bearings straight in his new role as frontman, guitarist Brandon Ellis is busy being a "rockstar", heavily spotlighted during his solos as the rest of the band stepped back. It's no doubt that he's great at what he does, and so is Ryan Knight who didn't feel the need to steal the spotlight and who's solo's have always fit the band's style, whereas Ellis' has felt random - albeit great but more "flex" than feel.
We'll miss the fist-in-the-air-pounding, "heartburn" tattooed, lovable ape that Trevor was. We prefer the dim lit stages and everyone standing together in the front. They don't need to prove anything and clearly want to move on but still feels too soon and no doubt people would have enjoyed hearing more material off Trevor's exit, Verminous which was one of the best albums of 2020, whereas Servitude (for me) fell short. While much of the energy was there from the crowd, they still came out in support of this new, and no doubt scary, era for THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER.
Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Shane Lee/@VulgarDisplayOfGaming_
