Written by:	Susan
Published:	August 18, 2016
Event:	The Summer Slaughter Tour 2016
Location:	The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, USA
Galleries:	Summer Slaughter US Tour 2016 - The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA 10th August 2016 by 8bitglitch (148)

Another year, another Summer Slaughter! Always a highlight for me. Summer Slaughter promises brutal music, fun performances, and new discoveries, while the events themselves never disappoint for tattoo watching and band shirt spotting. This was the 10th Anniversary so of course it was going to be amazing. Right? Well... it was not the best year ever but still a successful night.


Enterprise Earth

The first band of the tour, after the local openers, were deathcore newcomers Enterprise Earth. They formed in 2014 and the guys looked on the younger side, but they had a more professional and enjoyable set than many of the acts to follow. The energy level was high, and not just from the vocalist, as if often the case. Indeed, vocalist Dan Watson was explosive, but each musician worked their space and performed well, especially bassist Gordon McPherson and 8-string guitarist Yusef Johnson, both of whom seemed to anchor the show. There were a few highly effective moments of coordinated headbanging and other deliberate moves, but overall the guys just oozed confidence and seemed to enjoy themselves in a very natural way. Visually, the musicians each had a variety of looks and styles, which matched their music's diversity: engaging tempo changes, a broad range of moods, and several differing vocal styles complemented the aural assault of their interesting music. (Side note: the guys were all wearing t-shirts with the same awesomely creepy symbol, which I'm guessing is related to their band concept of Illuminati prophecies and conspiracies.) This was an excellent start to the evening, and I'm quite certain we'll see Enterprise Earth rising soon.

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Ingested

After Enterprise Earth's intense and musical approach to deathcore, Manchester's Ingested burst onto the stage with an almost punk vibe to their performance. Theirs is a fast, straightforward, and harsh take on the genre. Frontman Jay Evans is quite lively, violently bouncing around stage, and is responsible for much of the show. There was less arc to their performance and to their music, but if you came to enjoy the circle pit, Ingested provided a fine soundtrack. Playing at 3:40pm, it was still relatively early on a weekday afternoon. Despite the still-growing crowd, Evans' commands for a circle pit were answered, though more with enthusiasm than with numbers. Good effort, guys.

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Slaughter To Prevail

I left Ingested a bit early [url= http://metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=741]to interview Revocation[/url], and re-entered the theatre afterward to see Russian deathcore band Slaughter To Prevail had taken the stage. It was not a great first impression as vocalist Alex Terrible was pacing/stomping aimlessly around the stage during the song wearing a crazy mask and no shirt. It really didn't fit with the rest of the band members or the music, and it cut him off from us greatly as we couldn't connect with him. Thankfully he soon removed the mask, stopped plodding around, and was able to interact nicely with the audience. Their set became quite fun; it was like night and day, though his newfound energy translated little to the other players. More calls for circle pits and a wall of death, which quickly became a theme of the evening. Also, Alex Terrible has quite an impressive tattoo covering his entire torso, neck, and both arms. Check it out if you're a fan of ink.

(Sorry, no gallery for Slaughter To Prevail; the photo pit closed while we were doing the Revocation interview.)

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Krisiun

Three Brazilian brothers formed Krisiun over 25 years ago and have been a death metal staple ever since. It's easy to see why they've endured, and their show flows like clockwork. Even with some technical difficulties on the drums, they stayed in great humor, joking with the audience and then reigning over our ears with their flying Vs. Krisiun has earned the ability to simply play and we listen. They've cultivated such an easy stage presence and nice playlist of options that they do not need to move. "Say yeah!" Yeah! "Say fuck yeah!" Fuck yeah! "Say hell yeah!" Hell yeah! Krisiun were larger than life. They started just before 5pm and the crowd grew exponentially with them onstage. Any business women and men who left work early to attend Summer Slaughter were satisfied with Krisiun's presentation.

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Revocation

I discovered Revocation at 2013's Summer Slaughter with their crazy performance and addictive music. This year I'm happy to see them return, and very happy to see them move up in the set order as the band grows, deservedly so, in popularity. First, let's talk about founding member, guitarist, and lead vocalist Dave Davidson. He seems to love performing and can easily alternate between a more menacing stance, challenging the audience, to a playful, whimsical smile as he steps forward to solo (and all the guitarist fanboys in the audience cheer, joyously raise their hands to air-solo along with him). So many musicians have great playing faces, and Dave is no exception: while playing and singing, he adopts these crazy, wide eyes which are nearly as capricious as his soloing face. See photos. Please. It's priceless. So, as awesome as Dave is, he's just one piece of the puzzle. Bassist Brett Bramberger has quite a bit to do, and despite his amazing wall-of-hair possibilities, he doesn't hide behind the fabulous mane to simply play his 5-string. He interacts with his buddies on stage, and with his tremendous energy acts as both an frequent focal point and as an instigator for the band. I seem to remember him most from my initial Revocation experience a few years ago, and tonight he reminded me why. He's a formidable presence; it's just not something you can teach. Like Dave and Brett, guitarist Dan Gargiulo and new-recruit drummer Ash Pearson balance the heavy, dark, and very serious music, with having a damn good time. Dan's hair flies as he works the stage, and if you read [url= http://metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=741]my interview with the band,[/url] I can assure you he did not fall tonight on stage. Sadly, we may have been one of the "okayest" audiences of the tour, rarely rising above the fact that it was a Wednesday night in a venue at 2/3 capacity, rarely going further than nodding contentedly to the music. Many of tonight's bands returned this tiredness to us, but Revocation woke us up as much as was possible by being their crazy selves, playing their crazy music. The new songs worked well live, and this set was a major highlight for many of us.

I just want to take a second and talk about guitar strings. Djent and prog get lots of credit for 5+ string basses and 7- and 8-string guitars but I saw an enormous number extra-string chordophones tonight, which was acknowledged in the musicianship of bands like Revocation and others. Tonight we were treated to such a dense sound from these bands, but one that was also textured and at times, beautiful.

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Carnifex

So, when Carnifex shook the entire building with their soundcheck alone, I knew we were in for something spectacular. They had the stage set up with a touch of theatricality: medium-height Carnifex banners stood on each side of the drum set, and two podiums with candles adorned the front of the stage. Their music started and vocalist Scott Ian Lewis, with subtle painting around his eyes that looked delightfully creepy, took the stage in dramatic fashion and to thunderous applause. The eye painting, candles, and very, very minimal use of costumes was highly effective and never cheesy; it matched the ominous nature of their music. The third song of their set was "Drown Me In Blood," from their new album Slow Death. Lewis taught us the words to the chorus section and we had a great time singing along. He was a natural at working the audience and while many other bands of the night had asked for a circle pit for lack of anything else to say, he demanded one - and his minions obeyed with vigor. It was quite a sight to watch this cyclone evolve. Carnifex continued developing their relationship to the audience and while playing some older tunes the crowd sang along some more, once even chanting lyrics before the song began. This was another highlight of the night.

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Suffocation

Suffocation are legends of death metal. While Carnifex had that touch of theatricality to their show and ominous beauty to their music, Suffocation was the opposite end of the spectrum. The music is more raw and the show is classically straightforward. Some people may have been sad that vocalist Frank Mullen isn't currently doing tours, but live vocalist Ricky Myers did an incredible job both as a musician and performer. He's fun to watch, sounds amazing, and has some killer tattoos. Now, not only does guitarist Terrance Hobbs have one hell of an epic skullet, he can really shred. His hands were a blur. As were bassist Derek Boyer's, who was just as exciting to watch as Hobbs, working very low to the ground, even seeming to prop his bass on the floor and play in a slightly upright fashion. Some bands get up there and try to look mean; Suffocation just had fun and seemed wonderfully genuine with their raw and scruffy vibe. They were also the first band who didn't call for a circle pit a million times, which was a nice respite from the samey banter of the evening. Oh, and a great one formed anyway. Nice set.

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After The Burial

I'm not familiar with After The Burial so I can't say for sure how popular they are or how they're received, but I was surprised to see them so late on the program after legends like Suffocation and Krisiun. After The Burial seemed surprised as well. Their show was not bad but after seeing these 4 amazingly professional bands right before them, they seemed much more flat. They had a small platform set up on either side of the stage, which allowed the bassist and guitarist to create more interesting visuals with these levels. And it was needed. They tried, but seemed to mostly stand there playing their instruments with dazed eyes. Vocalist Anthony Notarmaso tried so, so hard to rescue the performance, more calls for circle pits, what a surprise. This really was just bad programming from the tour; if this band had played earlier I could imagine them receiving a much warmer welcome. Perhaps it was playing right between Suffocation and Nile, or perhaps people just don't like After The Burial, but there were some loud hecklers in the crowd (whom Notarmaso addressed quite directly), and just a tepid crowd overall. He earned my respect hugely, though, by saying about midway through the set: "I don't care if you don't love us, I don't care if you don't like us, just LET LOOSE. I want to see this place move!" It was remarkably effective. As if all the cool kids in the audience didn't want their friends to see them rocking out to this band but nonetheless, wanted to rock out anyway; now they had permission.

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Epilogue

Circumstances prevented me from staying for Nile and Cannibal Corpse, but I've seen them before and can assure they were solid as always (like Krisiun, Cannibal Corpse has earned the right to kinda just stand there, play, and headbang). Photo galleries below for both. Metal Storm's Apothecary caught up with Karl from Nile for an awesome interview at the first tour stop in Florida; [url= http://metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=740]read that here[/url].

Summer Slaughter has always been a great time for me, and I love discovering new bands each year. Tonight my favorite new-to-me bands were Enterprise Earth and Carnifex, who put on excellent shows while playing damn fine music. Overall, with regards to programming, variety, and band performance, this was the most underwhelming Summer Slaughter I've attended. Not great for their 10th Anniversary; I usually leave the theatre electrified, while tonight I just left... mildly amused. I'm sure the dead weekday crowd is partly to blame, but I've also seen lesser bands pull far more crowd enthusiasm out of a Monday-night-in-winter audience. Now, the tour set the bar very high in previous years, and let's face facts: some years will just be better than others. Thankfully, I'm still pumped as hell for next year. Bring it!