The Basement. Trap Them, Toxic Holocaust, Skeleton Witch, and The Black Dahlia Murder. I’d be stating the obvious if I told you our evening was awesome, so let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Trap Them offered a bit more than the expected entertainment with their stage antics, which included a self-sustained injury that gave me a great idea for a new series on FOX entitled “When Whipping Around Microphones Goes Wrong”. Interesting to note: spraying gratuitous amounts of fake blood on concert-goers is totally badass, but steadily dripping real blood from a self-inflicted forehead wound is not so much. What these boys may have lacked in hand-eye coordination and blood coagulation that night, they made up for in hardcore blunt force. They were out to fire up the crowd, they were fully engaged, their sound was pretty tight, and they were a great fit for this line-up.

"Bombdy bombdy bombdy..."

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Toxic Holocaust after seeing frontman Joel Grind take the stage in all his ’80s-hair-headband-denim-and-leather glory, but they were a tasty, thrashy surprise, and the perfect sound to transition from Trap Them to Skeletonwitch. This was my first time experiencing “Toxicologist” (a loving nickname for them I came up with after mishearing their name the first time…and a little doobage). I’ve gotta say my favorite song from their set was “Nuke the Cross”, which I interpreted as being about the Trashcan Man from The Stand hoarding Cold War nukes and unleashing them all at once at…God. Awesome.

We’re gonna skip Skeletonwitch for a moment and go straight to the main event. The monster that is Black Dahlia naturally thrives in any live venue, and this was my first time seeing them in a space as intimate as The Basement. There’s something about getting lost in the assault and barely being able to see the band through throngs of crowd surfers and moshers that reminds me what this genre is really about. As always, I was in awe of the explosive, positive energy of Trevor Strnad, waving his arms around, conducting the mosh pit like the maestro of some kind of symphony of destruction. The way he feeds on the crowd’s energy (and vice-versa) is a testament to his obvious love for metal. The place went nuts.

I saved Skeletonwitch for last in my review, because, honestly, I was more blown away by their set than any live metal performance I’ve seen in a while. What can I say about them besides DON’T EVER MISS A CHANCE TO SEE THEM LIVE. EVER. In what can only be described as a trademark display of soul thrashing black sorcery, this Athens group put on a show so fucking righteous, they damn near outperformed headliners BDM. This music picks the bone clean of flesh. If you put the kid from Omen in a microwave, the sounds he would make wouldn’t be as gnarly as the supreme riffage spewing forth from their mighty stacks adorned with glowing-eyed bison skulls. If they aren’t the unsung heroes of live metal, they’re certainly the not-sung-abouted-enough heroes of live metal. Between Garnette’s growling calls to “Smoke weed, Columbus…and eat some fuckin’ pussy!” I could tell from looking at some faces in the crowd that they did not see this band coming.

So we got fired up with a side of physical comedy, segued from a pleasant thrashy surprise from a glam-haired Portlander to a headline-upsetting onslaught of terror, and then into the inevitable soul-recharging excitement of a group whose love for metal is reflected in the smiles of the brutally beaten kids in the pit. It just doesn’t get as fun as this. Life is good.

Knuckles First: I saw you guys are headlining The Bonecrusher Fest with 3 Inches of Blood in the UK?
Ryan Knight: All of Europe, the UK is in there too.

KF: Is this your first time in the UK?
RK: This is my second time with them going to the UK. But they’ve been over there a lot of time since 2003, 2004.

KF: Do you like it?
RK: Oh Yeah, I like the UK.

KF: Crowds Different than here?
RK: Uh, you know what, the UK is a lot like the US. The UK is kind of like the US, the take everything that they think is in the US, and just glorify it. The rest of Europe is, uh they still have their own lines. But not too different.

KF: Have you been acquainted with the illadelph gift?
RK:Oh the Bong! The black bong. Yeah yeah. We don’t bring it on tour. But uh, yeah I’ve definitely seen it. I can’t say that I’ve smoked out of it yet.

KF: So obviously, Deflorate was the beginning of your interaction with the band.  After the CD release, tour, Mayhem Fest…How do you feel like your role has changed or grown?
RK: I don’t feel weird being in the band. I’ve played well over 100 shows with them so far — It’s been a pretty rigorous tour. I don’t know, I just feel like with the album out now, I definitely feel more apart of the band.

KF: What’s your position in the band? Is it similar to the shoes that you had in Arsis?
RK: In Arsis, we split the leads. Because you know James did leads. I guess in BD I’m the lead player. Just help contribution the writing. Brian is really cool. I think John didn’t contribute too much. I know they said towards the end John wasn’t even writing solos.

KF: As a band how do you guys feel being in the Billboard top 200 for 3 weeks?
RK: We are pretty stoked. I mean we’re out here doing the thing. Luckily it’s going pretty well. But yeah, good times.

KF: Black Dahlia Murder seeing amazing growth and success, do you get to play a lot of smaller shows like here at the Basement?
RK: We still do the major market shows, and, normally when we do a tour like this, we make a bunch of stops at smaller venues. I think we will always play plenty of smaller venues. The band came from playing in VFW halls, and places like that…I personally like playing the smaller venues, when it gets packed out. It’s a big part of the bands fan base.

KF: I saw a video on YouTube with you teaching how to play an Arsis song. Are you going to more stuff like that in the future?
RK: Yeah, Probably, in the future. I like doing stuff that, ya know. I mean, people seem to appreciate it. I don’t know when, but I’ll get around to it.

(photo credit: supercharger5150)

This was my second time visting The Basement, and like last time, I had a blast. And I was slightly deaf after it was all said and done. This venue by far, is great for metal! You are literally a foot away from them. I don’t know how that is for the actual artists, but I think it’s awesome.

Hit the jump for me complete run down on each band.

First up was Starring Janet Leigh, they were the most unique act of the show. I really didn’t get into the music a lot. They are pretty technical, but a little too grindcore for my taste. The vocals on the other hand, epic. He hit ever possible octave that you could think. Amazing.

Next on the ballet was Woe of Tyrants. The home town heros (in my book). Pretty awesome dudes I might say. I got to hang out with them after their set for awhile and bullshit with them. But back to why I’m really posting this. They, were my second favorite band of the evening. Awesome lick, riffs, breakdown, you name it they nailed it. Vocals = awesome/scary. Every scream, grunt, yell made him look like he was going to pass out. His eyes would go in the back of his head, I got kinda worried their for a few minuets. They really set the pace for the energy level for the crowd.

Now on to For The Fallen Dreams. This was the breakdown-core of the evening. I missed half of their set, so I wouldn’t take my word on anything I say on this one. Wait, yes take my word. Awesome performance, but mainly breakdowns. I was hoping that it would be somewhat technical, it wasn’t. They put on a good show though, lots ‘o energy.

And now for Unearth. We had a little fun during their sound check. The sound dude has only 2 words in his vocabulary, “YEAH” and “CHECK”. His main word of the night was “YEEEAH” (we turned it into a James Hetfield YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH), everyone in the crowd was getting into it as well. Okay, I’m done with that rant. Unearth was utterly amazing. I’ve never really gave them a listen to, but now, that’s all I’m listening to. Very talented musicians. Guitars were unbelievable, Unearth totally rejuvenated breakdowns for me. Unearth has now been added to my top 5 bands I want to see again, and I will drive great distances for that.

Starring Janet Leigh: Myspace

Woe of Tyrants: Myspace

For The Fallen Dreams: Myspace

Unearth: Myspace