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Live Reviews : Kreator and Death Angel @ Manning Bar, Sydney 18/04/2014

By on April 21, 2014

Images: Sandra Welch
Words: Prarthana Venunathan

While many people in Sydney were celebrating Easter Friday with hot cross buns and in churches, I made my way to the city for a night of thrash metal. It was pretty early when I got there, and the 5.30 start was definitely a bit awkward given that there was a 10pm curfew, but nonetheless I walked into a sea of black shirts and long hair, fans gathered early, that’s just how us metalheads roll. The turnout was quite frankly alarming, because I’ve never seen that many people at the Manning Bar but that’s what happens when you bring two of the biggest names in thrash down to our shores and pack their combined madness into one night.

Before I go on with how awesome the night was, I have to reiterate again on how the crowd was pretty friggin intimidating. Everywhere I turned there were dreadlocks, beers in my face or vest-wearers which served as heavy metal encyclopedias. I’ve said this several times, and I’ll say it again, I absolutely love the Manning. It’s my favourite venue in Sydney for a number of reasons. The structure and layout, the bar, and especially the sound, any gig I’ve been to there, there haven’t been any sound issues whatsoever. In general, it’s just the perfect place for pure metal goodness and there couldn’t have been a better spot for the night’s line-up. But in all my times there, I haven’t ever seen a crowd as the one present last night. Not to mention people of all ages. I spotted this relatively older couple to my left having the time of their lives. And really, that’s what metal is all about!

There was a huge crowd already for the supports Metreya, and having heard a couple of their songs before, I was pretty keen to catch these guys live. From the moment they got on stage, this five piece outfit from Wollongong delivered a fast-paced, energetic set and I was beyond impressed. With an undeniably heavy and old school thrash feel to their music, they bludgeoned out some high-speed energetic riffing and lots of groove. ‘Machines Of War’ was a killer song, the raging, throaty vocals of Michael Demov instigating a few headbangers and windmilling, guitarists Adam Grozdanic, Dieter Jabs and Sean Veale on bass shredding their respective guitars at ridiculous speeds and Sean Clifford beasting away on the drums. They did justice to the spot of being the opening band and got the crowd pumped, psyched and ready for Death Angel.

By the time Metreya were off stage, the Manning was, as the saying goes, filled to the bloody brim. You needed to shove and kick your way through the crowd just to get a drink! A quick 15 minute changeover and the sound guy being ace, jamming some Rammstein, it was time for Death Angel. In all honesty, I’ve not heard a lot of these guys, nor have I seen them live before last night but holy mother of god, I am now possibly one of their biggest fans. The thrash metallers from Bay Area California had the crowd at their mercy right from the start, people going stark-raving mad just seeing the band come alive on stage, but the madness was justified with the set they played. Covering songs from pretty much their entire discography, Death Angel performed tracks like ‘Evil Priest’, ‘Claws In So Deep’ and ‘Sonic Beatdown’ with a relentless force of thrash-induced power. They made good use of every little inch on the stage, pacing up and down, each member in a different spot from when they started a track, you just could not help but pay your respects to the band and their music by raising the customary metal horns and whipping up a headbanging frenzy. I’m pretty sure I heard my neck crack half-way through, but no two shits were given. Every single person in that room were completely awe-struck by the band, myself included.  Mark Osegueda is such a star! With a fierce yet friendly presence, he doesn’t stop to catch a breath and keeps up the pace like a tyrannical force. I’m not even kidding when I say that it was hard to watch him because he was constantly on the move, along with the rest of his band mates, participating in a few cheeky, sudden jumps on stage every now and then. Drummer Will Carroll casually slayed the drums, proving to be the backbone of Kreator’s deathly sound while the dual guitar assault of Cavestany on leads and Aguilar left my ear drums doing their own little jig. There were people crowd-surfing, some daredevil stage divers and a mosh pit that was the epitome of suicide, Death Angel made one thing clear: No matter how long they’ve been around, (and they have dominated the thrash scene for eons), they perform with just the same aggressive power, and have an absolute blast doing it.

Towards the end of their set, and this was one of my favourite moments, Mark who’s quite the chatty one, took it upon himself to introduce everyone in the band, saying that there were no “cracks in our foundation’” and that the band were as solid as ever. First timers in Australia were drummer Will Carroll and bassist Damien Sisson who had a few antics and big smiles for the affectionate crowd as did Ted Aguilar after which Mark pointed out to the ingenious lead guitarist, Rob Cavestany to say “ He’s the reason there’s a Death Angel today, and we’ve been through hell and back and hell and back and to hell again and then f***ing back.” Before they forged ahead with the epic ‘The Dream Calls for Blood’, Mark passionately spoke to the crowd about following their dreams and not living for anyone else. Not only was it inspiring but it was so heart-felt and it certainly made for a moment of warm and fuzzy love, a change from all the brutality. It’s one thing to go to a gig and watch a band, but it’s COMPLETELY different when the band you watch involves you so much not only with their music but on a more personal level too.“Sydney, I don’t wanna see you move, I wanna feel you move”, Mark screamed and the command was duly obeyed. Ending their set with the ripper ‘Succubus’ and ‘Thrown To The Wolves’, I’m not just saying this, you had to be there to witness the delightfully evil persona and crushing sound that define the Bay Area thrashers. Death Angel, obliterated every single wall and the ceiling and were hands down the highlight of my night. I would’ve been content just seeing them and leaving, but it certainly wasn’t the end, there was much more thrash fury ahead.

There was a good 20-25 minute wait before it was time for the teutonic thrashers to grace the excited Sydney crowd and normally people would down a few more drinks and engage in friendly banter. But not that night. Of all the most random and hilarious things to happen at a thrash metal gig in Australia, a screen descended on stage only to switch on a tennis match. While I was laughing my arse off, my friend was completely weirded out by the occurrence as were most people, the looks on some faces were priceless.It was a total WTF moment, but once the crowd spotted Rafael Nadal, there were loud cheers and shouts.  As the screen bid farewell, revealing again, the gory, daunting backdrop from Phantom Antichrist , the atmosphere was a perfect description of the phrase ‘calm before the storm’. With the intro of ‘Mars Mantra’ building up the intensity, members of the band from Essen, Germany appeared on stage one by one and instantly made their presence felt to the roaring crowd, people going absolutely ballistic. I do not exaggerate here when I say that less than five minutes into the set and what was a crowd of individuals standing and watching a game of tennis immediately became a giant group of flailing limbs, entangled locks of hair and bodies threatening mosh-pit victory bruises and wounds, and as I was told later, there were matted clumps of hair and drops of blood all over the floor. This one of the biggest nights in metal that the Manning Bar has ever seen and it truly was massive.

Erupting into the title track of their latest album ‘Phantom Antichrist’, Kreator’s set was like a multi-cuisine buffet covering tracks from the length of their career of thrash including some classic favourites, ‘People Of The Lie’, ‘Pleasure to kill’ ‘Hordes Of Chaos’, among many others although I have to say I was a little disappointed that there was nothing from ‘Extreme Aggression’ which was my first ever Kreator album. While Christian ‘Speesy’ Giesler was the ‘silent killer’ of the group on quietly shredding on bass, drummer Jurgen ‘Ventor’ Reil played at blistering speeds. He didn’t seem to need oxygen at all! What’s more is that not only does this man pound out blast beats by the second, he also shares vocal duties on a few songs, ‘Riot Of Violence’ for instance being the cause of an out break of moshpits.More crowd-surfing, moshing led to the inevitable splitting up of the audience , as Mille counted to three in German, before the two sides charged full speed ahead at each other. It was a sight to behold! I got dizzy just watching people smash their craniums and bodies with no worries and actually survive it. Mille was quite pleased with the response from the Sydney fans and it was clear that the band thrives on this kind of insane violent energy. Special attention was given to their 2013 release, the band performing tracks like ‘Civilization Collapse’ and ‘From Flood To Fire’ with perfect Kreator-style fury. There was a beautiful solo acoustic segment from Sami Yli-Sirnio before the Germans burst into another P.A track, ‘United In Hate’. Spotlight was thrown on Mille as well as the frontman indulged in a riveting guitar solo, surrounded by smoke and brilliant lights, emphasizing his strong, majestic figure.

Mille is a first-class beast of a man, his raspy, aggressive vocals echoing throughout the place and is someone who really gets into the music. Before ‘Enemy Of God’ he basically told everyone to show the finger to religion and politics which is what’s ripping people apart today, a statement which was met with a maddening cheer of appreciation. Courtesy of Mille, who encouraged incessant moshing and circle pits throughout, there was not a moment when Kreator were on stage that the Sydney crowd were losing their shit, I’m pretty sure I even saw a shoe being thrown up into the air in sheer elation. It was a madhouse! A supersonic pause, was followed by the brilliant frontman, bringing out the ‘Flag Of Hate’, that really got everyone psyched all over again. It was a magnificent way to bring the night to a close and the band humbly thanked the crowd for coming out to see them.  What else could I possibly write except that I’m still sitting here with my neck literally hanging by a thread ( or a muscle), and honestly all I can say is that last night was one of sheer brutality. Metreya were amazing, Death Angel have gained my undying loyalty and respect and both them and Kreator proved to Australia why they own the thrash metal scene. If you missed out on this one, you missed out big time mate!

About

Prarthana is a vegan, Indo-Aussie, heavy music addict, fluent in sarcasm and metal. Traveling is an obsession as she enjoys taking in the history of various countries and following her favorite bands. She's either eating, teaching grammar or learning an instrument, when not occupied with windmilling in the faces of other humans.