At The Belasco On November 28th

All Photos By Shane Lee/@_vulgardisplayofgaming

I may have missed the era of DEATH while the Godfather of Death Metal, Chuck Shuldiner was still alive but thankfully some great artists out there are still honoring his work, keeping his legacy alive in some way, shape and form. For instance there is the recent documentary INTO THE VOID done by the minds behind the great series DARK SIDE OF THE RING, where one episode goes deep into the difficult years Chuck was having towards the end of his life as he battled cancer due to an inoperable brain tumor. Now this modern homage to DEATH has been made possible by The Atomic Clock, Gene Hoglan and his partner in crime, Steve DiGiorgio along with Bobby Koelble and Max Phelps and this night in Los Angeles, they brought the latest installment of the DEATH TO ALL concert series.

This package of the SYMBOLIC HEALING tour also included PHOBOPHILIC, Death Metal from North Dakota and Canadian Legends GORGUTS. A great, small package keeping the night short and to the point. Starting out with PHOBOPHILIC, who to date have only released 1 full length album with “Enveloping Absurdity” through Prosthetic Records in 2022, as well as an EP in 2019. Impressive debut, that Old School Death Metal sound that ironically never gets old. In vain of bands like INCANTATION and IMMOLATION, PHOBOPHILIC stirred up enough energy to get the crowd going in the pit and pumped for the rest of the night. They’ve been on a tear lately with lots of touring on their plate so although new, they’re quickly getting their hands dirty when just last year they were on 2 good North American tours as well as an appearance at the Austin Death Fest. Good example of new Death Metal bands to check out.

One band I can officially cross off my bucket list is GORGUTS. They garnered a lot of attention since their return in 2008 with lots of anticipation for more music. While that’s only been soothed with an album, 2013’s “Colored Sands” featuring sick drummer John Longstregth (ORIGIN) and an EP “Pleiades’ Dust” (2016). They did however gift us 2 new songs on this tour along with 2 from the 1991 debut, “Considered Dead” and a couple from 1998’s “Obsura”. The other 2 songs filling their 45 minute set were cuts from “The Erosion Of Sanity” and the previously mentioned comeback album. Lead singer and guitarist, the silver-maned Luc Lemay is accompanied by bassist Colin Marsten who doubles as keyboardist adding more emotion to their sound, and guitarist Kevin Hufnagel, both who’ve only been a part of the return since 2009, and now joined by drummer Michel Belanger – laced with melody and groove as well as pummeling blast-beats of brutality, GORGUTS delivers as the energy intensified.

Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe what Gene and company have been doing, honoring Chuck’s legacy for over a decade. For many of us who never got actually see Chuck perform in person, long time fans and new, this re-incarnation is the closest we’ll come and DEATH TO ALL brings that emotion with these re-telling of stories through the music, with every tour carrying the theme to cover the albums in their entirety, with this one focusing on the anniversaries of “Spiritual Healing” (35 years) and “Symbolic” 30 years).

Steve, with fingers flying across the bass and who had been with Chuck the longest through 3 albums, including “Individual Thought Patterns” and “Symbolic”, both that also included Gene who with double-rides on his left and right side, playing the albums they helped make famous, Max Phelps who is also known for his role in CYNIC, has done an outstanding job of bringing to life the presence of Chuck’s voice and playing, right down to playing a BC RICH Stealth-like guitar, the “Metal X” from Ormsby and Bobby dealing out amazing shreds he help create on “Symbolic” and those that came from the legend James Murphy on “Spiritual Healing”, Paul Masvidal (also of CYNIC, played on “Human” along with Steve), the album they’d start out with “Spiritual Healing”, mixing in a couple of cuts from “Human” and “Scream Bloody Gore” and “Individual Thought Patterns”. The second half then went into “Symbolic” played from beginning to end.

The amount of talent that shared space with Chuck Shuldiner at one time or another reads like the who’s who of Death Metal, those who helped create a genre are still highly respected to this day and thankfully DEATH TO ALL helps us either re-live or live for the first time, DEATH.

PHOBOPHILIC

GORGUTS

DEATH TO ALL