Opening up this show on a Tuesday Nov.11, at Old Curtis Tavern in Denver, Co was Depths of Tartarus. I would describe their music as fast form of black metal mixed with some thrash influences. Drums were very fast and brutal with a lot of blast beats, while the bass playing had a lot of rhythm mixed with a lot of fast riffs. Guitars were very professional sounding with a lot of brutal black metal riffs that combined both modern and old school influences with some melodic guitar solos. I would describe their vocals as traditional black metal screams with some occasional death metal grows. As far as the stage presence there was the metal spikes and corpse paint and the band closed the show with a cover of Inquisition's " Crush The Jewish Prophet", In my opinion their version did not seem as powerful as the original and the vocals kind of reminded me of a younger David Vincent doing the vocals, other than that they put on a real good show and were the most brutal band of the night.
Next up on the stage were Washington State's Ceremonial Castings and they played a very dark and melodic form of symphonic black metal. Drums were fast with some blast beats and they would slow down at times to capture the melodic feel of the music. Keyboards were very dark and depressing sounding and captured the ambience of the music perfectly. There was no bass guitar present so the guitar player had to cover both the rhythms and leads of the music and he combined a lot of fast black metal riffs with some slow and doomy parts, while the solos were very melodic and epic. Vocals were black metal screams mixed with some occasional clean singing. As with the opening band Ceremonial Castings also had a very good stage presence.
Next up were Denver legends Satan's Host. This was their first show with their new line up and I would describe their music as a Satanic form of black/death with a lot of melody. Drums were very professional and tight sounding with a lot of blast beats, some slow parts mixed with a lot of variety and the drummer sounded like he really prepared for his first show with Satan's Host. As for the bass playing it was the strongest I have ever heard from this band and they combined a lot of fast and melodic riffs that mixed both Old School and Modern metal. Guitars were very dark and evil sounding and you could hear 4 decades of metal in the rhythm's and the solos could blow away any of the musicians in Colorado with its dark and sinister sound. Vocals were black metal screams mixed with some death metal influences and at times they sounded ritualistic. While the band didn't have the corpse paint and spikes like the opening bands they still had a dark image and the singer wore his cloak on stage and at times looked like he was trying to conjure a demon.
Headlining the show was Denver's own Orgy for Satan. Despite the name their music was not that dark and was it was mostly grindcore with a couple of black metal songs. Drums were very fast and basic with a lot of blast beats and they were the highlight of music while the bass guitars seemed to follow the guitars and drums and it seemed like there was a few technical problems. Guitars were all rhythms with no guitar solos and the riffs were fast, simplistic and other than when the band switched from black metal there was not a lot of variety. Vocals were mostly death/ grind growls with some occasional black metal screams and when they played their last song Creepy Chris came up and did quest vocals and in my opinion he had some better growls than there regular singer and he seemed more crazy and into the music than the rest of the guys. While Orgy For Satan were not a bad band they seemed weak in comparison with the rest of the bands that played that night and there was no stage presence and they have not seemed to add any newer influence's since their last show and album in 2001.
I would say this show was a really good show and I hope we get more shows like this in Colorado.
Erik
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