asianxcore

Riley Gale, Singer of Power Trip (TX), has passed away. He was only 34

Love this band. Was fortunate to see them twice live. Riley was an incredible frontman.

RIP

https://pitchfork.com/news/power-tri...gale-has-died/

“It is with the greatest of sadness we must announce that our lead singer and brother Riley Gale passed away last night,” the band wrote. “Riley was a friend, a brother, a son. Riley was both a larger than life rock star and a humble and giving friend. He touched so many lives through his lyrics and through his huge heart. He treated everyone he met as a friend and he always took care of his friends. We will celebrate Riley’s life and never forget the great works of music, charity, and love that he left behind. You, the fans, meant so much to him, please know how special you are. If you have a memory of Riley please share it, no matter how small, as we remember him.”

asianxcore

Enrique Maseda (aka Wreak Havoc) of NJ Bloodline has passed away

While I was not fortunate to see him perform with NJ Bloodline, I got to see a show where he fronted my friend's band, Hoods (Sacramento, CA).

Great frontman, who was really nice in the short time I was able to speak to him after his set. A few of my friends were very close to him.

RIP

beavis69

Woke up to this news and I’m stunned and speechless. I too saw Power Trip live twice and Riley’s energy was amazing to watch. They were really on the verge f blowing up big. Too fucking young man. This sucks.

asianxcore

I remember the first time I saw them in 2013 at Gilman St. in Berkeley, CA, when their set started, Riley threw a ton of lit firecrackers into the pit. So fun

It might be the circles that I'm in but I've always considered them a very popular within multiple scenes. They packed the venues they headlined, played large festivals and curated their own music festival in their hometown of Dallas, TX. The second year of the festival was supposed to happen this year and was to feature Carcass, Vio-Lence, Razor, Deafheaven, Prurient and many others.

Also landing that 2015 opening spot on the Lamb of God/Anthrax tour was huge for them.

I can't imagine with all the hype behind this band, that they never got additional label offers. Might have stayed on Southern Lord for a reason.

beavis69

That 2015 tour was actually my first time seeing them. The bill was Power Trip/Deafheaven/Anthrax/Lamb of God at the Hollywood Palladium. Every band was amazing but Power Trip just had something about them. When my non-metalhead friends asked for recommendations, Power Trip was always at the top of that list. Like you said, they were popular within many circles. It was pretty clear to me that they were going to have a career like Lamb of God, where they remain popular in the underground, but draw in folks who don't typically listen to a lot of metal. I feel horrible for not only his family, but his bandmates and Southern Lord.

I really really hope they recorded some of their live material. If not check out Hate5Six's footage of them from TIHC fest. Just looks like the band and crowd are having so much fun. Man I am truly gutted about this.

asianxcore

Hate5Six/Sunny always does great work. Power Trip shows were always fun.

The Metal/Hardcore/Punk scenes lost two great people & frontmen yesterday

asianxcore

My friend's band Ceremony, posted about Riley Gale this morning on their various Social Media platforms, as everyone in Ceremony & Power Trip were extremely close

We met Riley Gale before both Power Trip or Ceremony ever existed, in 2005, when he hipped us to a hotel pool we could sneak into after a show in San Antonio. Anthony accidentally left his backpack behind, Riley went and retrieved it, mailed it back to California, and we’ve been close friends ever since.

Riley booked some of our earliest shows in Texas, and we played some of Power Trip’s earliest shows. Our bands remained connected, transcending the aesthetic, throughout. He gave us the very first copy of the ‘Nightmare Logic’ LP, and he got our first copy of the ‘Spirit World’ LP. Power Trip were the first band we ever booked on a Home Sick, and they returned the favor the very next year at the first Evil Beat. We had so much more to do together, and the thought of continuing on without him is almost too much to bear.

It is vanishingly rare to encounter a spirit so kindred, and even more so one that remains a constant among the ephemeral for a decade and a half. Riley was, of course, magnetic, righteous, deeply kind, and incredibly funny, but most of all, he was relentlessly generous. And the thing about Riley was this — he made everyone feel the same way. His capacity for warmth and supportiveness, seemed at once to both somehow defy nature, and be entirely effortless. If there is a reason that his name echoes across the entire planet, that is it.

The world feels increasingly dark, and the light Riley contained seemed exempt from certain physical laws. Our hearts are broken. Rest easy, friend.

cultshock

Got my ticket for Behemoth's upcoming live stream show, I'm doing my best to support my favorites during these rough times. I'm going to watch this live on my big screen, bust open a bottle of whisky (my first booze in months!) and tell the family to leave me the hell alone for a few hours.

beavis69

I usually try to keep it positive when talking about metal, but man there is something that rubs me the wrong way about Nergal. Behemoths music is decent enough and their live concert was ok, but Nergal seems like such a try hard. Stuff liking making up getting kicked out of a gym for wearing a black metal tshirt or something and the blatantly racist Instagram post he made about the World Cup. He just seems like the type of dude that always needs to let people know "he's evil" and it comes off very middle schoolish.

I wish I could watch the Down live show this weekend for Nola, but I'm currently in east Africa and I have duty the next day, so staying up that late probably isn't the best idea.

Edit to add I now realize its hypocritical to talk down on Nergal while not also calling out Phil's questionable history as well.

cultshock

That's right!

But yeah, I agree that Nergal is a bit of an attention whore and a diva, but he also strikes me as one of few frontmen in the metal world today that exudes somewhat of a "rock star" aura, so I guess it comes with the territory. Still, I find him quite intelligent and charismatic, and I guess that after being a KISS fan for over 40 years, I've learned to accept that the artists that I really admire might not be the greatest people in the world, personality wise, especially in the metal world, tons of weird characters there, but that's part of it's charm for me.

asianxcore

They're both dorks that definitely try too hard.

Have you read his explanation to why he lied about being kicked out of the gym? It's pretty juvenile and eye-roll inducing. It's literal nonsense.

https://loudwire.com/behemoth-nergal...gious-beliefs/

Same with Phil Anselmo's explanation of why he thought it was a great idea to Sieg Heil and yell "White Power" during a set in Los Angeles, CA.

beavis69

God that excuse was such bullshit. “We were drinking white wine in the back”. Yea Phil, we really believe you enjoyed a little too much Zinfandel and just happened to throw a salute in honor of it.

On another topic the new Necrot is pretty damn good. I thought I had bought their debut but I guess I hadn’t. They were really good on the Decibel tour last year and I thought blew Blood Incantation out of the water, which is odd since I enjoy the BI’s albums more then Necrots.

cultshock

That story still confuses me (probably because there are untruths woven in). I thought he was wearing a vintage Darkthrone shirt, so what's this about him wearing a "Black Metal against Antifa" shirt? Is there even such a shirt?

Anyway, Nergal is on a long list of performers that I really enjoy and admire, but sometimes they are as annoying as fuck.

I just watched a review of the new Necrot on Banger TV and it sounds pretty good.

asianxcore

His story & the story reported has consistently changed. Can't believe anything that guy says.

Yup. There are quite a few versions of the shirt you mention.

With admiration comes accountability as well. I mentioned this constantly on my old Heavy Metal Radio Show that I had for a few years, that the Heavy Metal Community, compared to many other communities of music (namely Hardcore & Punk), rarely hold individuals accountable for their actions, which is why you get many more issues than said communities.

For instance, how many years did the entire Heavy Metal Community give Craig Pillard a free pass because of how much they loved his work with Incantation or Disma?

When he re-pressed (on vinyl) music from his racist solo project, Stormfuhrer, the entire Heavy Metal Community thought nothing of it, even though he was hand-signing all copies ordered. This was after he was adamant that those days were over and he was no longer associated with that ideology (which he echoed VERY loudly in past interviews). His bandmates in Disma also defended him, saying he wasn't like that anymore.

He had SS Bolts still tattooed on his arm, that he never cared to have covered up as well.

This went on for YEARS, with the community voicing hate for any festival who, in reaction to all of the things discovered, would pull Disma from their line-up.

It only took Pillard being advertised as playing as Stormfuhrer at a well known Italian Fascist Music Festival for his bandmates to finally kick him out of the band in 2019.

Necrot is so good. Since they are locals, I've been able to see them live a whole lot, opening up for a lot of acts in or around Oakland & San Francisco before they broke out.

Everyone in that band is made up of talented people, featuring members of Acephalix, Vastum, Mortuous & Saviors. Literally some of the best Metal the Bay Area has to offer.

Probably going to pick-up a Digital Copy of the new LP later today.

Josh-da-man

Nergal's "Fuck Antifa" shirt:


(And I believe that the symbol at the bottom of the back of the shirt is the Nazi rune for death.)

beavis69

I really love the II album from Uprising released this year. It keeps going back and forth on whether this, Cryptic Shift, or VoidCermony are my favorites from this year. No Clean Singing I think was the site that turned me onto these guys. Would love to buy their album but with shipping its a little over $20 and I guess they aren't currently shipping to America (due to Covid)
https://uprisingblackmetal.bandcamp.com/album/ii

Randomly saw an advertisement for a metal festival in Atlanta getting pushed to 2021. Mass Destruction IV, which I didn't even know Atl had a metal festival, will now be held in November of next year so I'll be able to go to it. The lineup so far is pretty good. Not sure if the wife will be down for me going out of town for two 3 day festivals (this and MDF) but I might try and swing it. This looks like this is the first year that it will be 3 days.
Lineup | Mass Destruction

asianxcore

Outside a few small technical hiccups, the Livestream has been enjoyable so far. The band sounds good.

This is the first Livestream that I've paid for since COVID-19 hit the States. Might have to look into more when available. I know Mutants of the Monster Festival is finishing up their Livestream later today and will be archiving it on YouTube.

Most of the Livestream shows I've attended up to this point have been free.

beavis69

Good to hear. I think there is a viable market for this stuff, even with no crowd. A livestream seems to work better in a smaller venue just because the sound is easier to capture. Since it's live too a Q&A after or in this case just discussing some stories from the making of the album would be cool.

Somehow I missed this release back in January. Will from Artificial Brain and Buckshot Facelift has another band called Afterbirth, and they released a damn good brutal death metal album called Four Dimensional Flesh. I'm a massive fan of Artificial Brain and Will's singing style. He also has a fantastic podcast called The Heavy Hole. Dude is an encyclopedia of death metal (and metal in general) knowledge and has some great artist call in.
https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp...ensional-flesh

asianxcore

Down is rebroadcasting their Livestream for a short time if you are interested. Only until tomorrow night unfortunately.

cultshock

Yeah, this is a real issue and does seem to be specific to the metal community. I just read a thread on a metal forum where some people were bending over backwards trying to justify the lyrics of a band that is clearly racist with comments like "But the riffs are good, so I ignore the lyrics". I'm sorry, but I draw the line at any band that promotes racism and Nazism, there's no real defense for supporting such bands.


If that's the actual shirt Nergal wore to the gym (I don't know if it is, I can't trust anything on the internet these days ) then he is an idiot if he didn't expect any sort of repercussion.

asianxcore

Mutants of the Monster Festival, organized by Rwake Vocalist C.T., have posted both days of their virtual festival online.

I haven't gotten through the entirety of both days but there are great bands from the region such as Deadbird, Redbait as well as great out-of-state bands like (16), The Body, Hull, Heavy Temple and a solo set from Dorthia Cottrell from Windhand.

I'm only about halfway through Day 1. Hope to finish both days by this weekend.

beavis69

Thanks for posting, watching now. The Body is an acquired taste, and to be honest I enjoy their collabs more than their individual albums, but excited to check them out.

Baroness announced a virtual concert of Gold and Grey in full and Lamb of God announced a virtual concert of their new album in full on the 18th and Ashes of the Wake on the 25th with openers for both.

asianxcore

I heard about the Baroness Livestream a few days ago. Definitely thinking about buying tickets to that one next.

Darkest Hour is doing a Livestream at the end of the month in lieu of their 25th Anniversary Tour and giving all proceeds to the Black Cat in DC. I believe tickets are $10.

asianxcore

That statement comes up so often in the Metal Community it's a little embarrassing. There's an ideology behind the person writing the lyrics, so are we ignoring that as well?

I also question with the sheer amount of bands across all Genres out there right now, does it really ruin someone's life to stop supporting a few bands because of said ideology? There is a part of me that feels that members of the community who use the statement above subconsciously enjoy the perceived edginess or danger that comes with listening to a band like that.

Before the start of one my old radio show hours, I remember telling my boss that Arghoslent had written some of the best riffs in the Genre, yet they hate people who look like me and that was a huge problem.

beavis69

We really could go into a 1000 page dissertation on the lyrical content of metal and where the boundary line is (and that line is obviously different for folks). Arghoslent is my go to band when I talk about this with folks because, like you said, the riffing is unreal. Just fucking amazing song structure and, if you don't listen to the lyrics (which is how many folks justify some of these bands), the lead singer's growls are really damn good as well. But the rub between a band like Slayer who talks about Nazis and Arghoslent who talks about slavery is Slayer is telling a story through song and doesn't believe in those ideas while Arghosent is pushing an ideology they do believe in. In other words, for Slayer its "spooky songs" but for Arghoslent its a way of their life. I just can't and won't support that band even though they sound amazing. However, to folks outside metal it is difficult to see that position.

Switching gears from racism to sexism, Brad Zorgdrager of BangerTV wrote an article called "How Brutal Death Metal is Confronting its Misogyny Problem" which of course drew a lot of interesting comments. Basically bands like Devourment, Thy Art is Murder, and Abnormality discuss death metals obsession with killing women. It is especially interesting reading Devourment reassess their early lyrics and contemplate how metal contributes to violence against women. Obviously death metal bands create songs that are basically short horror stories, but the assessment was that if these violent acts are actually happening on a regular basis in real life, are they really just short horror stories?