September 6th, 2004
@ La Hacienda Real, Los Angeles
So we arrive an hour late ( to make "an entrance") only to find the doors stll havent opened. Late start means late finish and shorter set times...too good to be true indeed. Out the 20 plus local bands that played I'd say only a handful sucked and about 5 totally blew me away. All the rest were decent but didnt exactly stick out enough to be memorable. Tchildres got some extra points for having the most hyper active drummer of the whole festival and I would have given The Funeral Pyre a better rank for their polished black metal sound if their set wasnt totally overpowered by the sound of keyboards!
Intestinal Strangulation played a blisting set with insane amounts of energy but were plagued with sound problems. The first band to make me say "wow" was Cerberus. These guys totally stood apart from every other band at the fest. Their melodic death/ thrash sound was a breathe of fresh air after listening to constant blast beats and growls all day. Not that there is anything wrong with brutal death metal...it just has to be done right. Case in point, local band Anemosity. They walked on and suddenly it looked like the main stage had been swallowed by a mass of black denium and long hair, basically death metal to the core. They laid waste to La Hacienda Real with their punishing old school death sound.
Local grind veterans The Fetus Eaters played the second stage and in my opinion stole the show. Turns out the guitar player for Watch Me Burn (read the Vital Remains concert review for more info) is the vocalist for The Fetus Eaters and he is even more demented in said band. He not only screamed his head off but added a saxophone, flute and what looked like a dog chew toy to their sonic assault.Their set was short, just like their songs but they held everyone in the plam of their hands and even took requests. All Shall Perish followed right after on the main stage and proved to be the most violent band of the day. Think Suffocation style tech death meets the most heavy mosh riffs and breakdowns of hardcore imaginable. Needless to say I was hooked and had to get their CD from their merch table.
Like I said before, the show was running behind schedule from the beginning. By the time Vehemence took the stage I was all but dead. Good thing their set was awesome. They sound just as tight in a live setting as they do on record. They played songs mostly from their last record, Helping the World to See but did close things off with "Christ I Fucking Hate You" off God Was Created. Too bad their set was cut so short to due to time restraints. After Vehemence, I sat and watched as Phobia and Crematorium did their thing. Not that they werent good, its just that I was VERY exhausted at this point. Spending nearly 9 hours in the dank hole that is La Hacienda Real with a constant barrage of elbows being thrown toward your face will do that to you.
Misery Index finally took the stage more than an hour later than scheduled to a near empty house. The weekend was technically over and everyone had work/school the next day so it wasnt surprising that not many people choos to stay late, even if it meant missing the healiners. I dont really think it mattered if they played for 50 or 500 people, Misery Index destroyed with the most intense performance of the day. For being a three piece (with a new drummer!) the bands sound was huge and they executed every note of their brutal death/grind songs to perfection. They ended their set with my favorite song, "Angst Isst Die Seele Auf" aka "Fear Eats the Soul".
It saddens me to say that I didnt get to see Cephalic Carnage play. When the clock struck 1:00am and the band hadnt even started setting up yet, I knew I couldnt stay any longer. Even though I didnt get to see the headliner, tons of the bands had a muffled sound and the choice of venue was less than stellar, I still had a grest time at the Metal Massacre fest. The bands did stand out were all amazing and I recomend you check them out any chance you get. Heres hoping next year's fest runs a little smoother.