Review by ÆRæder
Venue
Zhora Darling – 509 1st Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413
Another excellent experience at Zhora. Having the full bar in the restaurant side with the partial in the show room is always nice. They were running a “beer & bump” special with a fairly wide range of shot options for only $10! The patio is open, so even more space to chill between sets. End of night always has a cool mix of people. An improvement on prior shows was the placement of band gear in one of the back corners. This drastically improved show floor space and influenced the crowd to stay up front with no awkward space in front of the stage at any point.
Sound
Again, the sound was a highlight. We went with some friends who are not metal heads, but they were able to describe the stylistic differences between the bands. An outsider being able to pick up on that is a reflection of how clear and balanced the sound was, considering how heavy, fast, and aggressive all the bands were.
Crowd
There was a full crowd throughout the entire show. Some groups came and went with each band. I heard a 200-250 capacity, maybe? I’m guessing 100-150 overall. It would be great if bands and venues posted stats on attendance and beer sales! The pit was alive to varying extents for most of the night. A good number of people stuck around until the show was absolutely over.
Band Mix and Performance Flow
This bill displayed some excellent takes on more advanced death. Reaping Asmodeia was returning home from a fairly extensive down, over, and back swing to the west coast. This was apparent in their performance; well polished and on point! The bands complemented each other well. I felt a central theme of deathcore across the lineup, with varying interpretations and levels of complexity. All of the bands played fairly technical rhythms and utilized heavy breakdowns. Caustic Abyss kicked things off with a high level of brutal death metal focus. Den of Thieves added a heavy groove element. Dead Hands Rising kept the heaviness, but also cleaned things up and added more space and dynamic to the sound. All of this smoothly built the show up to allow Reaping Asmodeia to showcase everything that the deathcore spectrum has. Insane beats and heavy breaks were demonstrated with perfection. Toward the end, Asmodeia thought the show was wrapped up, but the crowd was not done, so the band added an extended encore that ended the show in spectacular fashion.
- Caustic Abyss – https://causticabyss.bandcamp.com/album/eternal-winter-crypt
- Minneapolis
- 5 Piece (Vox, guitar, guitar, bass, drums)
- Bandcamp tags: blackened death metal, metal, brutal death metal, heavy, thrash metal, Minneapolis
- Den of Thieves – https://denofthievesmn.bandcamp.com/album/natus-ex-dolore
- Minneapolis
- 5 Piece (Vox, guitar, guitar, bass, drums)
- Bandcamp tags: groove metal, metal, heavy metal, Minneapolis
- With Dead Hands Rising – https://www.facebook.com/WithDeadHandsRising/ / LINKS
- 5 Piece (Vox, guitar, guitar, bass, drums)
- No bandcamp? I couldn’t really find solid self-ID tags. I would say they are very similar to Den of Thieves, with a touch less groove, and a bit more harmonic/metalcore.
- Reaping Asmodeia – https://reapingasmodeia.bandcamp.com/track/shattered-leviathan
- Minneapolis
- 4 Piece (Vox, guitar, bass, drums)
- Bandcamp tags: deathcore, death metal, metal, progressive deathcore, technical deathcore, Minneapolis
Highlights & Shade
Sometimes it gets old when very similar sounding bands share a stage. In the moment, I had no issues with this. However, breaking down and processing the show afterward, I had some challenges trying to remember the differences in style and feel between Den and Dead Hands. Both were great, but I had to refer quite a bit back to videos I shot and their albums to differentiate and remember. It took a little longer to put my thoughts together, but in the end it was rewarding to come away with a respect for the show flow in the end. A side gripe; I got wings that were just undercooked enough in some thick drummies that I didn’t want to finish them. We didn’t have enough time to be fussy before music start time, so I didn’t bother to say anything. The rub flavor was good, and I will check them again next time to see if it was just a fluke.
Summary
There was a lot of heavy, technical rhythms, and some pretty solid guitar flourishes that kept things interesting. Coming off a couple shows including some North Dakota death bands, I noticed the contrast between their slightly more OSDM vibe and the sharper, more mathematical approach to death that I have associated with a number of Twin Cities bands. Not sure I have a preference in listening to one over the other. I’d like to see a head to head over some of the top Dakota-inspired Midwest Death bands and some of the Twin cities deathcore spectrum bands.