Band's 30th Anniversary Tour Stops At The Wiltern

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All Photos By Thomas Delgado/@forthehordeprod

On the corner of Wilshire and Western in Koreatown lies a great venue cleverly known as The Wiltern. Although a highly busy area with lots of traffic, even by Los Angeles standards, it's a great venue with high ceilings and interesting architecture, and nice sound acoustics for a Rock and Metal show. This particular show landed on a Tuesday and was HATEBREED's 30th Anniversary tour along with Death Metal Legends CARCASS, HARMS WAY and Brazil's fast up-and-comers CRYPTA who started off the night.

I'm telling you straight up, I came for CRYPTA. The 4 Femme Fatale's stronghold is taking the Metal world by storm, so much so that even Nu-Metal band KITTIE's new look and music has been influenced by them. From the ashes of the pandemic, this phoenix in the form of CRYPTA has been relentless and touring the world off the success of 2 great albums. Kicking off the show was Jessica and Taina's flamenco-style guitars and Luana's sizzling hi-hats and paradiddle snare roll that led us into the night with "The Other Side Of Anger". These agents of chaos have lifted the blindfold of Metal fans who have been blinded by gimmicky, modern bands. These girls pull no punches while putting on an amazing show. Cohesive looks and synchronized headbanging and windmills, from the start they demonstrate they are the real f'kn deal. In just a half hour set, they had Los Angeles eating out their hands. They closed out their amazing set with "From The Ashes" and naturally left the fans with feelings of starvation for their return.

With a real tough act to follow that had left the energy up as high as the roof in The Wiltern, Chicago's HARMS WAY now had the duty to keep the momentum going. Matching the hardcore style of the headliners and the way the night was billed, Jamey Jasta knew exactly what he was doing. The band has had only 5 albums since their 2009 full-length debut, ultimately landing them with Metal Blade records for the recent last 2 releases Posthuman and Common Suffering. Their hardcore sound had a real heavy edge to them that really draws you in. Not the usual "chug-chug" core type of sound but more depth to their songs. A bit reminiscent of CONVERGE and early NEUROSIS. What they lacked in stage presence, though the guitarist and singer were definitely moving, they made up for it in their music. An added treat was bringing up CRYPTA singer Fernanda for a rendition of SEPULTURA's (yes, that one Brazilian band coincidentally) "Propaganda". Real good heavy set from these guys and I'd be interested to see these guys get on a bill with the aforementioned bands but regardless, these guys would make any bill pop-off with the right crowd.

The oldest band on the bill put on as direct support in that of CARCASS comes to us from England. One of the early Death Metal bands that have come back and survived (barely) through almost 3 decades. Singer/bassist Jeff Walker and guitarist Bill Steer are the only original members and much respect to them for keeping the CARCASS name going. Active for 10 years, hiatus for 10 years and since their return in 2007, have only released 2 albums. Leading off their set was the opening track from what I feel was their most successful record, 1993's Heartwork (Earcache) with the song "Buried Dreams". From there, drummer Daniel Wilding brought us in with "Kelly's Meat Emporium", a cut from their last album, 2021's Torn Arteries. Next, they hit us with a track from 1991's Necroticism and "Incarnated Solvent Abuse" before jumping right into another from Heartwork (of which they'd play 4 songs off of) with "No Love Lost". So far, a pretty solid start from the Liverpool Legends. Guitarist Bill Steer, sounding solid, as did the whole band, provided most of the animated stage presence while exchanging solos with Nippy Blackford. Quite a solid performance though the crowd wasn't that over the top as I expected. Line-ups with varied styles tend to literally have a mixed crowd of responses and emotion. Hearing classic tracks though like "Exhume to Consume" from 89's Symphonies Of Sickness was a real treat. These guys still got it.

Now I'm not saying ANTHRAX were the first to do this, but they were the first I saw do this thing where before the band started, a large screen above the stage showed clips from a multitude of personalities from TV and Movies, Metal and Rock speak about the band in tow. It just so happens that HATEBREED was also on that same bill, so again, Jamey is a smart guy, so in this case, face after face singing nothing but praise and saying nothing but nice things about HATEBREED and their 30 years of their supreme perseverance.

Twenty-one songs, 8 albums and 30 years of history in their hour long set (only an hour??), they piledrived through song after song of high energy modern hardcore goodness. Starting off the set with "Tear It Down" from The Rise Of Brutality (2003) then into "To The Threshold" (Supremacy, 2006). Jamey Jasta, sporting a jersey of cornerback Charles Woodson of the Oakland Raiders (now "Las Vegas" and partially owned by Tom Brady, **SMDH* *SHAKES FIST IN THE AIR*), is a dominant and commanding frontman, and one of the best there is out there right now. You want to talk "ambassador", he has really stepped up to represent Metal and Rock. From hosting Headbanger's Ball to bringing back one of the best AMERICAN Metal festivals, the Milwaukee MetalFest - live and on record, he and HATEBREED have produced some of the most positive and uplifting energy in Metal today, something highly needed.

Back to the show, 5 songs in and Bassist Chris Beattie rumbles in with one of my favorites "Destroy Everything" that took the crowd up to the next level, who I expected more intensity from, as it never really popped off like I've seen in the past (shit was intense at the aforementioned ANTHRAX show 2 years ago). As the night went on and deeper into their set, fans were definitely letting loose more and more. Though a much smaller pit area than the Palladium in Hollywood, there wasn't enough room for that "karate"-core dancing BS, nope, not in L.A. Here, we circle-pit. With a majority of their set stemming of songs from their '97 debut Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire, there were no songs from their last album (FOUR years ago!), Weight Of The False Self. Considering they were celebrating 30 years, it was understandable they'd dig back into the archives, even busting out their sick cover of SLAYER's "Ghosts Of War". Closing out their set, they unleashed a literal BALL-OF-DEATH into the crowd, a huge black ball that got tossed around and nearly reached the bar in the back of the GA floor, then ending the night with crowd favorite "I Will Be Heard", and HATEBREED has done exactly that, heard loud and clear for 30 years. So much positive energy this night, and for me, surrounded by friends, grabbin a photo with the CRYPTA girls and coming away with some merch - on a night that JUDAS PRIEST also played down the street, this is what Metal in Los Angeles is all about.

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Thomas Delgado/@forthehordeprod