Venom in Hollywood
By
DJ WILL,
KNAC.COM Personality
Saturday, August 26, 2006 @ 2:56 AM
| At the House of Blues
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Black Metal legends end the 20 year wait!
Going to try to keep this short and sweet....After 20 years since the last appearance (on the west coast) minus 2 original members..
Tonight OWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 2-3 "false starts" over the years they FINALLY made it to the US and I couldn't have been more excited. Arizona was the 1st date on this short promo tour and tonight is the second. The band Devildriver were originally on this bill so instead "High on Fire" and "Goatwhore" were the openers who I didn catch much of.
Back to VENOM....
Cronos was in fine form and looked like his 'ol self: Red boots, spikes, demonic glare,etc the whole deal... a time warp thats for sure. For me and quite a few others I talked to tonight it was 1986 @ The Santa Monica Civic show since they last performed in these parts, but since then I've held onto a ton of bootlegs and live footage from Europe.
Rounding out the line up is Mykus on guitar and Antton (Cronos' brother) on drums who were solid if not better than their replacements. Mind you there have been so many line-up changes with Venom even I forget!
The Show:
Lots and lots of serious pit action from the get go...skins, punks even a few "mallcore" kids mixing it up, etc ( cant imagine they lasted past the 3rd song!)
The backdrop was the "metal black"/"black metal" pentagram devil which believe it or not set the tone for the evening once the spotlight was on it before the first song. This show was a near sellout and left the crowd wanting more after about (suprisingly) an hour set.
SET LIST:
- They OPENED with Black Metal \m/
- Welcome To Hell - a slowed down arrangement...still heavy
- Bloodlust old Neat Records single comes to life \m/
- In Nomine Satanas - This early B-side blended in from "Bloodlust"
- Antechrist - New track that went over well
- 7 Gates Of Hell - Keeping it smart with more old selections
- At War With Satan - Savage rumbling bass intro...yesssssssssssss
- Countess Bathory - This ruled to hear it live again
- Burn In Hell - Solid new track that I play all the time on "The Vault".
- Warhead - CRUSHED! I lost my voice by this point...Antton POUNDING!!!
- Metal Black - MAJOR pit!!!
- Witching Hour - last song...ultra violent pit...tons of people falling down on each other and one big 6'5 300 lb dude broke his ankle so I helped him to the side to take the pressure off hope he's ok and stayed and watched the rest.
All in all well worth the wait and hopefully doing a interview soon with the band and I'll be certain to ask: what took so goddamn long?? Well I kinda know why but always better to talk to the direct source and hear their side.
Next up San Francisco on Sunday.
VENOM LEGIONS...FOREVER!
live like an angels die like a devils!
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