The Black Dahlia Murder / 3 Inches Of Blood / Hate Eternal / Decrepit Birth
By Taylor Green
Monday. Feb 25, 2:59 PM
live at Slim's (San Francisco, CA) Feb. 2nd, 2008.

In the spring of 2005, the Ozzfest forums buzzed with talks about bands that the community would like to see on the nation's biggest metal tour. While the obvious bands circulated the lists, one band in particular caught me completely off guard: The Black Dahlia Murder. Though familiar with their music, I had no idea such a groundswell of their fanbase existed, and quite frankly the reaction of said fans shocked me because I had never thought of them as an elite metal act. But more than anything, my experience with The Black Dahlia Murder is proof that first impressions are not always lasting and certainly not always correct. Since attending that Ozzfest, The Black Dahlia Murder have evolved into one of the biggest and baddest acts the world has seen. Album after album and tour after tour, the band continue to push the envelope as far as they can imagine. And after opening for Cannibal Corpse in support of their third album Nocturnal, the band are back headlining and they're as good as ever.

Tonight’s show featured four unique and different bands, giving the audience a little bit of everything for their money. Santa Cruz-based tech death act Decrepit Birth opened the bill: while they were pretty strong openers for the show on paper, I was surprised to see how many people actually showed up just for them. While most metal shows usually take a few sets to get fully raucous, largely due to energy levels being drained exceedingly fast, the pits were swirling and the crowd was moving almost as soon as the first chord hit. Though Decrepit Birth's 30-minute set impressed a vast majority, I found myself on the other end of the spectrum, unable to clearly make out any of their material. Whether that's the fault of bad mixing, poor performance, or just sloppy songwriting is kind of unclear, since Decrepit Birth are hard enough to follow on studio recordings. But my personal bias aside, the masses dug the hell out of the band's non-stop assault of swirling guitars and double bass pedals, and anyone who actually showed for the band clearly left satisfied.

The second act, akin to Decrepit Birth in many ways, was death metal juggernaut Hate Eternal. This being my third time seeing them live since the release of I, Monarch, nothing really surprised me other than the fact that the only remaining member from the last time I saw them (with Chimaira and Arch Enemy in Portland) was frontman and founding member Erik Rutan. As usual, Rutan amazed with his flawless guitar work, shredding through seven songs, including the monster single "I, Monarch," which actually elicited a chant from the crowd halfway through the set. The only downside to the near 40-minute set was the lack of new material from the upcoming album Fury & Flames, as only the final song of the set was drawn from it.

Most of the Decrepit Birth fans stayed around for Hate Eternal's set, but the mood really shifted once the latter left the stage and the audience went from big, beefy long haired dudes who look like Chris Barnes clones into lanky young metal heads clearly in attendance for the two headliners. That's not meant to be an insult either way, but rather an observation I've tended to notice more and more at shows like this (am I really a metal old-timer at 22?). But a show like this exemplifies that, while the fans may remain in their own special niches, the bands are out trying to harmonize and unify the metal world. Tours like this now seem the norm instead of the exception, and while part of me is sort of upset with it (do I really have to sit through another lame emocore band to watch In Flames play?), the other part of me is pretty pleased with the response the evolved metal scene is getting from fans everywhere. Case in point, this show marked another sell out at the 300+ capacity Slim's, which just a year ago couldn't sell out a Children Of Bodom or Arch Enemy show.

That being said, when 3 Inches Of Blood began setting up, most of the crowd truly came to life and the headliner vibe began to filter through the thick air. Once the band took position and began "Night Marauders," the crowd began to swirl and push in typical metal fashion. This being the third time I've seen 3 Inches Of Blood in support of Fire Up the Blades, the band pleasantly surprised me by adding a few classics from Advance and Vanquish, including one of my personal favorites, "Fear on the Bridge." Of course, they also stuck to the typical crowd pleasers like "Forest King," the upcoming single "Trial of Champions," and the two songs that have now become synonymous with their live act: "Deadly Sinners" and "Goatrider's Horde." All in all, 3 Inches Of Blood played another memorable set, and the additional time they’ve gotten in a post-Ozzfest world definitely proves that the band can hang with the big boys. The live quality of their work is second to none, and Cam Pipes’ voice is nearly as good live as it is in studio, which is saying something since the vast majority of live power metal acts often fall way short of expectation during live shows.

Almost instantly as 3 Inches Of Blood left the stage, chants for The Black Dahlia Murder broke out among the thick crowd of San Francisco metalheads. And while the chants subdued moments later, they just as quickly picked back up at least three or four more times. This jam-packed crowd was dead set on seeing this band more than any crowd I've been in. And once the dudes took the stage, they showed why. Few bands have such a profound live presence as The Black Dahlia Murder. Their music has the perfect blend of progressive musicianship and visceral bite that's nearly impossible for the listener to deny. The live show just exponentially multiplies this factor as the volume is cranked, the visceral intensity amplified and the musicianship sounds as good, if not better, than the album. While many live metal acts will lose some of their sound in translation from an album mix to a live show, The Black Dahlia Murder's set sounded near perfection, with literally every note of every song audibly clear. For the duration of their near hour long set, the crowd stood captive and strident in the palm of the band's collective hand.

Much like the metalcore surge of the early 2000s, metal seems to be rearing its ugly head in the mainstream and taking on water like you wouldn't believe. While Lamb Of God may stand at the apex of the mountain, bands like 3 Inches Of Blood and The Black Dahlia Murder – and to a lesser extent Hate Eternal and even Decrepit Birth – are showing that, even with all the passing trends and ups and downs of the music industry, the voice of the metal community is always growing and always loud. And maybe with the state of the industry right now (see: poor), bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and 3 Inches Of Blood will bring the genre to the masses akin to the surge of metal in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. And a tour like this is proof that such a return is well within reach.
www.3inchesofblood.com
www.hateeternal.com
www.decrepitbirth.com

Taylor Green

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.