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NorCal Underground Metal Report – January 2002

By Mario Perotti, Contributor
Friday, January 4, 2002 @ 1:13 PM


A Round Up Of Northern Califor

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No question about it, December flew by and did not even leave a mark. With the holiday season come and gone in a flurry and the music scene continuing to glow red hot during the cold winter months, there is plenty to talk about in this edition of the NorCal Underground Metal Report. The past thirty days brought plenty of news to the wire with more bands signing to labels, discs released, bigger shows happening and the usual amount of band member movement occurring across the board. So sit yourself down next to a crackling Duraflame, grab a cup o’ joe and let us roll through this report.

Right off the top, some of the bigger news to steam roll from the underground came from the Sacramento-based electronic meets heavy band Luxt. The band announced that they had indeed signed a production deal with the Los Angeles-based Knight Records, which involved several different events that will transpire over the next six to eight months. First off, the band will release their currently available full-length disc Chromasex Monkeydrive across the great ocean in European stores in early 2002. On top of that, the band will enter a studio this month to begin tracking their next full-length release with a tentative release date of Summer 2002. Luxt has been grinding in the underground for many years and have performed in just about every possible region across Northern California to sizable crowds. Now the band hopes to open their sound up to an even larger audience in the next year.

Keeping with the capitol city, Last Day King has put together and released their latest recorded effort entitled Unrestricted. Look for the band to hit the scene in support of that disc in the coming months. In other recording/disc news, more details about the impending full-length disc from the death/black/gothic super group Psypheria have been released. The band (which, for those paying attention, features keyboardist Lyle Livingston who can also be heard on the recently released Dragonlord disc Rapture) signed with Heretic Sound Records not too long ago and hit the studio in mid-December to begin work on the disc, which will be titled Embrace The Mutation. Look for this release in March 2002.

In Sacramento band member notes, Logicseed waved goodbye to their bassist “b” last month and followed that up quickly with the formal announcement that ex-Down Sindrome bassist Loompa had joined the Logicseed ranks as their new low end man. Keeping with the movement news, Get Livid made the formal announcement that ex-The Council drummer Ed Young has jumped into the Get Livid camp as the new skin beater. Look for both of these bands live at the nearest venue.

Finally, in Sacramento, former Mahalah vocalist Kainan Becker has come forward with a brand new musical project. Entitled Path of Pain, the band is starting to take shape, forming songs and talking of laying down some recorded tracks. Should not be too much longer before the bald headed menace is back on stage for this new project.

Jumping over to the Central Valley region, several bands jumped into the ring with news. Right off the top, the hardcore meets metalcore sound of Mynalter has announced both a new member and a brand spanking new recording. The new disc, entitled Taking The World By Chaos, features seven tracks and will basically act as an interlude until the band puts together a full-length disc in 2002. Also, Mynalter has welcomed ex-Davidian guitarist Kenny McGill into the band after McGill made his departure from Davidian complete. History buffs will remember McGill’s flirtation with joining Mynalter back in early 2001 before he made the seemingly final decision to return to Davidian. Now, McGill looks to help Mynalter continue their extremely heavy sound and lay down the new disc in 2002.

Keeping with the Central Valley, Rubber Finger made some band moves and also have some up coming releases. The band recently welcomed sampler Tony Freeman to their line-up and have also just completed work on their newest recorded effort, Fingers Up, slated to hit the streets in the near future. Keep an eye out for that new one from Rubber Finger. Also, Lythic has formally announced the addition of drummer Tim Deroboam to the line-up with expectations to hit Celestial Sound Studio in March 2002 to lay down tracks for a brand new recording.

Finally, some sad and tragic news struck the band the Meat Shits. Their founding member Robert Deathrage passed away in mid-December. Not many details were available at the time of this writing, but he will be missed in the metal community.

Moving over to the San Francisco/Peninsula region, the pure death metal act Severed Savior started making some noise once again. After recently adding “do-it-all” guitarist Rob Lumbre and releasing their brand new disc Forced to Bleed, the band announced that they have signed an agreement with the Central Coast based Unique Leader Records with the band slated to record a brand new disc for the label in 2002. Look for their brutal sound to work its way through the underground very soon. Also, former Tramontane vocalist Norman Skinner is about to pop up with a brand new project entitled Machine Called Man. After Tramontane’s despise in late 2001/early 2002, Skinner wasted no time pulling together a brand new project. Look for these guys very soon.

Sliding over to the East Bay scene, plenty of events and news bits hit the wires. First off, the death metal act Sons of Chaos have announced that the band has formally signed with Bloodsoaked Records and will head to Trident Studios to begin tracking their new recording, entitled Redwork, due for a February 2002 release. Continuing with the death driven East Bay scene, Vile finally jumped in with some updates as to their progress on the long awaited follow up effort to 1999’s Stench of the Deceased. The band is now preparing to record this new disc, which is hopefully slated for a Springtime 2002 release. Vile also welcomed new drummer Tyson Jupin (formerly of San Diego-based Obelisk) into the fold and will make a splash in the scene in 2002.

Finally in the death scene, former Impaled guitarist/vocalist Leon Del Muerte has started moving forward with a brand new project entitled Murder Construct. While at the time of this writing Del Muerte was still organizing the members and readying the band’s music, this new brutal act should see the light of day in the near future. Definitely want to keep an eye out for this new leeon in sick music.

Also in the East Bay, the young act Lift recently saw the end of the line as the band formally broke up with the members moving off in different directions. During their two year run as a band, Lift recorded one full-length effort entitled Ruckus. After recently releasing Blast Shield Down, Greenhouse Effect is headed back to the studio this month to lay down tracks for their newest sludged/stoned metal opus. Look for this new release in April 2002 with a tour to follow in Summer 2002. Finally, the pop-punk Barbee Killed Kenn formerly announced the release of guitarist Ruba after personal and creative differences. Ruba’s time with the band spanned many shows and several recordings. At this time, no replacement had been named.

Skipping over to the Santa Rosa/Napa scene briefly, the metalcore meets death edged sound of PCP formally announced the departure of guitarist Dan Nicholson who will move on to concentrate on his solo project, aptly titled The Daniel J. Nicholson Project. Look for PCP to put together some new material in the near future with Nicholson jumping into the scene with his solo project.

Finally, down in the always interesting South Bay, several bands made some sizable news. First off, after his band Funebre met the end of the line last month, bassist Alex Santana has jumped into the death core act Maelstrom as their new low end guy. Current bassist Cesar Hernandez has now moved over to the second guitarist position. The band is currently performing live on the club circuit in support of their newest recording Dust to Dust. In recording news, Movement has now finished the recording work on their forthcoming disc entitled Lucas. The band hopes to have it see the light of day in February 2002.

And with that last bit, I will wrap up this months NorCal Underground Metal Report and leave you until the next meeting. As always, drop into Powerslave.com for the latest and greatest from the liveliest scene in the world including articles, show reviews, disc reviews, MP3 downloads and much more.

And remember, metal is not just music, it is a way of life.



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