Hot and Heavy: Cattle Decapitation Destroys At First Ave
A snow-laiden Minneapolis is a most lovely sight during the holiday season. The twinkling lights. The familiar sounds of shovels picking fruitlessly against the compacted snow banks holding their car for ransom. The red and white aggressive ‘Snow Emergency’ running on every LED sign inserting a new panic into your parking woes. Ah, December.
No matter. Been there, done that. Time for a show! The mid-week search for parking was a breeze, actually. Popped by Modist Brewing for an affordable pint. Wednesdays they do happy hour from 4 to 6. My $4 Teal Label IPA was extra tasty at that price. I’d say it may be the best deal for a craft beer I’ve seen lately. So many “deals” at breweries are a measly buck off your beer. Hats off to Modist.
Tribal Gaze was in charge of opening up the show, and they most certainly did with vigor. A few Texas boys on the tour including these fellows. A pretty newly formed band, setting sail in the year of chaos, 2020 and now riding the waves of a new album release back in October (titled Inveighing Brilliance). The old school death metal vibes from this band inspired the crowd for some early circle pits. After a handful of songs, they parted ways. Would definitely enjoy a longer set from these guys!
Our other Texas brethren, Frozen Soul was up next. Another pretty new band, formed in 2018. Especially with two of the four bands on the bill having more years on the road than most, great to pair those up with some newer blood. The fans responded so well. Metalheads can be fickle, but when presented with good talent, doesn’t matter how brief they have “heard about them.” It’s not a cool kids club with this audience from what I could tell. Notoriously inclusive is the phrase I would emblazon on a rules of engagement when it comes to heavy metal music. Frozen Soul definitely has a theme and stay on point. Groove laden death metal with songs appropriately titled “Encased in Ice”, “Crypt of Ice”, and “Arsenal of War”, Frozen Soul is brutal and to the point. As front-man Chad Green himself said on stage, he loves himself a good caveman riff.
First non-American band on the bill, Aborted hailing from Waregem, Belgium was up. These guys have made the rounds before since beginning in 1995, so have some heavy chops to throw around. And they most certainly didn't leave anyone disappointed. If you thought the music was going to lighten up any, you were wrong. This was another brutal and thick performance. Not leaving much time for break or silence, lead singer Sven de Caluwé is a most intense front-man. Also the only founding and consistent member of the band throughout its 30 year run so far. Despite the many lineup changes, Aborted always finds the right people with the chops to play at the speed and intensity Aborted does.
Lots of movement in their stage lights kept up with the fast pace of songs. They also had displayed a couple of skewered corpse torsos on either side of the stage. They drew heavily from their last album Vault of Horrors for their set including opener “Dreadbringer” and “Insect Politics”. There was also some wall of death action during the set. A metal show classic. After Aborted played their final song they decided to send themselves off playing by Sandstorm as their walk off song. Was a lot of fun seeing what appeared to be a veteran metal crowd jump into dance mode as we were given a couple minutes of relief from a show that was only going to get heavier when the headliner took the stage.
Back to the Americans to finish off this sick ass lineup, some of San Diego’s finest, Cattle Decapitation. Travis Ryan’s vocals are insane. Rough and loud when needed, piecrcing and direct. The sound and tone was also on point. One of my favorite band frames captured this year is of the singer bathed in acid green light, love when acts deviate from the more typical red and black and go with some spunky fun colors. It was well advertised that Cattle Decap was playing their 2019 album Death Atlas in full. The band cruised through the album and sounded fantastic. Really enjoyed “Bring Back the Plague” and “Time’s Cruel Curtain”. I am all about when bands play albums live. It is such a cool experience to be able to hear and digest an entire album live, especially if an album resonates with you. Hopefully this is a trend for the future.
Towards the latter part of their set, a slight hiccup with the venue production happened where the sound partially cut out for a hot second. A rare event at shows these days it seems, but the band didn’t flinch and played like nothing happened. After Death Atlas was complete, they offered a few more songs off their last record Terrasite, which then completed the show.
Now it was back out into the wintery abyss. Much to my disappointment, the duration of intensity within First Ave did not melt the snow outside.
