2-17-05 at The Meow Meow in Portland, OR
Walls of Jericho, Bury Your Dead, Full Blown Chaos & Premonitions of War
By Marc Halverson
With a line-up of consisting of these four heavyweight bands, I knew the Meow Meow was in for some serious metal/hardcore. Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I only was able to see Premonitions of War, Full Blown Chaos, and the beginning of Bury Your Dead’s set. However, I spoke with some friends who attended the show and they told me Bury Your Dead and Walls of Jericho absolutely tore it up.
Premonitions of War took the stage and wasted no time tearing into their blast beat drumming and heavy break downs. The vocals are down right brutal and the bass is deep which adds to the destruction and mayhem this band creates. They furiously ripped through material from their latest album, “Left in Kowloon”. Their set list was very short but they ignited the place and the crowd responded well plenty of hardcore dancing and circle pits. Next, Full Blown Chaos is a big band and they bring it! Front man, Ray Mazzola, makes references to being “bald and fat” but Full Blown Chaos exemplifies that statement through the pure raw energy they deliver, compounded by earth shattering break downs like a ten ton hammer. They opened their set with ‘Apocalypse’, which is from their new album, “Wake The Demons”. The crowd immediately responded with a huge pit and the crowd released some demons of their own. However, after the beginning of their third song a huge brawl emerged in the pit and the band stopped playing. Ray told the parties involved to, “Take the fight outside…We are here to release positive aggression with crowd participation…We would hate to have a show cancelled due to fighting.” Despite the short fight, Full Blown Chaos tore right back into their set and played crowd favorites like ‘Red Tide’ and ‘Wake the Demons’ as well as a track they dedicate to our men and women serving overseas. Their set was brutal and the crowd was insane.
Bury Your Dead took the stage and opened with their infamous album closing track with the crowd chanting “Bury your f***ing dead”. Immediately, they went into ‘Top Gun’, the first song on their new album, “Cover Your Tracks”. It is no secret but every track off their new album is named after a Tom Cruise film. However, none of the songs have anything to do with those films. Shortly after that song, I had to leave. My friends in attendance told me they played crowd favorites off both of their albums and closed with ‘Magnolia’, one of the best tracks on their new album. Walls of Jericho headlined and from what I was told, they absolutely tore it up. They played a solid set from all of their albums and the crowd remained intense and chaotic throughout the whole show.
It was a solid show with some strong bands on the bill and they all delivered. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch Bury Your Dead and Walls of Jericho, but from what I watched; it was intense and all the bands leveled the Meow Meow with pure hardcore and metal.
