Band:Death Angel Album:Killing Season Record Company:Nuclear Blast America Writer: Bradzilla MySpace Link: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

February 29th, 2008 San Francisco, CA at Slim\'s

Band:Forbidden Album:Forbidden Evil Record Company:Relativity/Combat Records Writer: Bradzilla MySpace Link: MySpace Click Album Cover To Buy Now

February 29th, 2008 San Francisco, CA at Slim\'s

With hundreds of hometown thrashers in attendance, a new album from fan favorites Death Angel, and the reunion of the legendary Forbidden, there could be no doubt that these shows would be absolutely insane. And we were not disappointed. The massive line of excited concertgoers extended close to the end of the block in both directions (with-ticket and will-call lines), and every conversation I overheard part of was about either the bands playing or about thrash and metal in general. I had honestly hoped that we would see legends from all the great Bay Area bands like Exodus, Vio-lence and Heathen, but only saw Testament’s Chuck Billy and Exodus’ Jack Gibson. I’m sure there were others I didn’t see or were hanging around backstage. No matter though, because the sold-out crowd was filled with old headbangers and younger kids alike, all raised on Bay Area Thrash. There were people there from other states, like we were, and some from other countries as far away as Japan and Holland. The Dutchman was making that week his vacation, with Exodus playing their hometown end-of-tour show the previous Sunday, and then both Forbidden/Death Angel shows.

A large movie screen hung in front of the stage with a wintery scene playing alongside a random assortment of tunes from Metallica, At the Gates, Slayer and others. Then the screen darkened, the music stopped, and we were treated to a selection from the documentary Get Thrashed which featured Forbidden. The crowd went nuts every time they showed such hometown thrash royalty as Sean Killian of Vio-lence or Steve “Zetro” Souza formerly of Exodus/Legacy, and it was a perfect build-up to the show.

The screen raised up and after a choral intro Forbidden broke into the opening riffs of “March Into Fire”, and almost immediately a mosh pit opened up and the crowd started going crazy. The band was humbled by the ovation they were given, and obviously ecstatic to be back. They were a little rusty at times, particularly vocalist Russ Anderson who sung the wrong lines a handful of times and only hit the high notes a couple times, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. They tore through material almost entirely taken from debut Forbidden Evil and follow-up Twisted Into Form, throwing in one each from Distortion (“Hypnotized”)and Green (“Phat”) in the middle which went over well but not as much as the more thrashy earlier material. It was classic after classic, with “Through Eyes of Glass”, “Step By Step”, “Feel No Pain”, Twisted Into Form”, “One Foot In Hell” (which Anderson humorously introduced as a New Kids On the Block song), “Out of Body (Out of Mind)”, “Off the Edge”, “Infinite” and “Chalice of Blood” closing out the set.

The screen had come back down while the stage was changed over for Death Angel, and once they were ready, a segment from Get Thrashed about Death Angel played. After the screen raised the energy level in the crowd, which was very high during Forbidden’s set, went through the roof as Death Angel took the stage. Their entire catalog was covered, including several tracks from the brand new Killing Season release. Ravenous fans were treated to older gems like “Kill As One”, “Mistress of Pain”, “Devil’s Metal”, “Seemingly Endless Time”, “Bored” and “Voracious Souls” which fit perfectly alongside newer tracks “Lord of Hate”, “Thrown To the Wolves”, “Thicker Than Blood” and “Soulless”. Death Angel is still an outstanding live band, maintaining a high level of energy throughout their nearly two hour set, and pausing between songs several times to thank everyone for supporting the band through all the years, vocalist Mark Osegueda in particularly looking very overwhelmed by the crowd’s ecstatic reactions and looked genuinely humbled by it all. At the end, both band and fans seemed completely satisfied.

The next night just as many people, many of the same ones, came back to do it all again. It was mostly a night of more-of-the-same, which in this case is certainly not a bad thing. There were technical difficulties with the projector so instead of the Get Thrashed segments we saw the previous night we only got the audio portion, although there was a segment on the Bay Area scene as a whole that was included this time. The energy level was just as high, Forbidden tearing through the same songs with a slightly different order in the middle but still arriving at a more-than-satisfying conclusion, and Death Angel adding in a couple extra classics like “3rd Floor” and “Thrashers” which featured bassist Dennis Pepa on lead vocals. After the second show everyone walked away just as pleased as they had been the first night. This was an event for the old school bangers, by the old school bangers, and in the end I think everyone knew they had been a part of something special.

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