Death Fest 2005 Featuring Cannibal Corpse, Sadus and Incantation 4/3/05 Fenix Underground – Seattle, WA
By Erwin Karl
“This is a metal show; you mother fuckers are gonna mosh,” bassist Damien Boynton of Desolation barked at the crowd in front of the sepulchral downstairs stage at the Fenix Underground. Given that it was a little past noon, everyone had been robbed of an hour’s sleep by the spring ahead to Daylight Savings Time, and the Seattle rain brought down gray light and damp air, a lukewarm response would not have been surprising. This wasn’t just any crowd but the death metal faithful out early on a Sunday for the loud sacrament, and as the band busted out with “Rotting Corpse,” the crowd got into the pit with plenty of enthusiasm.
The early morning mosh pit in the Fenix dungeon and the brutal mastery of Desolation were good harbingers of things to come, as the crowd of metal heads, punks, Goths, and others who usually shun daylight showed up early and stayed late to return the crushing energy pumped out by bands on two stages for fourteen hours. Despite the long hours, the energy surged rather than faded by the time headliners and death metal dervishes Cannibal Corpse took the stage that night. This was the second time Frank Hetzel of Howitzer Productions has thrown this black celebration and top-notch bands and a well-run event were the order of the day.
The fest was well-timed, as chance would have it, happening at the tail end of a week in which death was front and center in the headlines with the passing of Terry Schiavo and the Pope. The bands steered clear of the subject however, sticking to more stock-in-trade images of morbidity and deviance. In the past, members of Cannibal Corpse have commented on real-life topics such as funeral home fraud and serial killers, and pointed out that there is clearly a difference between the fictitious references to blood, gore and death in their songs and real-life heinous crimes, which are a different matter altogether. They have also faced controversy head-on, dealing with censorship of their songs in several countries and falling within the sights of everyone from Tipper Gore to the German government. Although the irreverence and desire to freak out the squeamish ran through Corpse’s diabolical set, band members refrained from commenting directly on the news of the week, however.
The fact that Cannibal Corpse assailed fans with a bone-crunching, mind-numbing set and poured on a powerful performance aimed to satisfy the crowd is not news, but the fact that guitarist Rob Barrett rejoined Corpse for Death Fest 2005 was. The axman, who appeared on the “Vile” and “The Bleeding” albums, played with the band from 1993 to 1997 and his contribution to the lineup made for a full sound. The double-barreled assault of Barrett and Pat O’Brien punched up the power while George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher regaled the crowd with growls, screeches and his signature swirling tendrils. While the aggression and volume keep sweaty fans moshing, the older folks upstairs in the bar area bobbed heads and marveled at the musical chops that gained Cannibal Corpse the only slot in the Billboard Top 200 chart ever occupied by a death metal band so far.
Despite being a mainstay in the thrash metal scene since the 1980s, San Francisco’s Sadus was making its first appearance in Seattle. The power trio showed a bit more range than your typical metal band and the versatility in their set included sounds borrowed from their influences. In addition to the expected such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, band members also cite unexpected influences such as Rush, Ravi Shankar, and the fusion jazz band Spiro Gyra. While lead singer Darren Travis ripped chords on his Flying V and engaged in the vocal gymnastics that might remind listeners of Ted Nugent or David Lee Roth, Steve DiGiorgio on the 5-string fretless bass and Jon Allen held down a staggeringly fast rhythm and at times played a sort of metallic jazz. While some songs had the raw 70s raunch of a Motorhead, others injected a punchy industrial sound akin to Powerman 5000 or Monster Magnet.
Rounding out the headliner slots was Incantation, another long-time fixture in the metal scene established in 1989 and hailing not far from Cannibal Corpse’s hometown of Buffalo in western Pennsylvania. The band was fresh off a gig at the Louder, Harder, Faster fest in their home region where they shared a bill with Obituary and Testament. The trio cranked out speedy metal accented by deviant minor key crescendos and off-kilter drum signatures that occasionally thumped like a fucked heart in a raver’s chest. Drummer Kyle Severn, perhaps sharing the hard-working ethic of his neighbors from Cannibal Corpse, had broken a cymbal by the second song. If they commented on the passing of the Pope, I didn’t catch it, but it would have seemed an obvious segue into songs they unleashed at Death Fest such as “Decimate Christendom” and “Dying Divinity.”
Although the headliners did bring the caliber of performance to a higher level, the two dozen bands that shared the bill at Death Fest all showed tight musicianship and an obvious appreciation for sonic pugilism. With the exception of Cannibal Corpse and Incantation, all the bands hailed from some part of the west Coast ranging from southern California to British Columbia. Many bands hit it right down the middle with a speedy metal instrumentation, machine gun beats on double bass drums, and throaty vocals that we’re used to hearing from the bands on Victory Records. Changing up the mix the most was Full Frontal Assault with a punky metal broadside and vocals that dared to go an octave higher than the basso profundo throat grumblings of many other lead singers.
Hetzel, who has promoted 75 shows in the Seattle area in the last three years praised the local scene, “There is a thriving scene here; I hand-picked 24 of the best unsigned bands on the west coast.” The Seattle bands showed off their chops to the hometown crowd. Representing for Sea-town were Blackgoat, Ceremonial Castings, Fallen Angels, Funeral Age, Inquinok, Non-Existennce, and Sevenpercent. In addition to getting to see more than two dozen heavies onstage in one venue, fans also got a 2-disc compilation including most of the bands on the bill and had chances to win a DVD player, an X-Box and a guitar autographed by members of headlining bands.
Like the mythical bird it is named for, the Fenix Underground arose from the ashes, or more accurately, the rubble, after the Nisqually earthquake destroyed its former digs a few years back. At its new location, the club has since hosted a variety or acts ranging from the heaviest metal to BDSM parties and was a suitably decadent setting for Death Fest. Although the bands and black-clad fans all shared a fascination with dark themes and stretching the limits of mainstream respectability in a manner that would raise the hairs on the necks of the holy rollers dictating morality in this country, Death Fest was ultimately a celebration of good music and good times.
