Date: Thursday, February 19th, 2004
Location: Slims in San Francisco, California
Opening Bands:

Vile was the first band and took the stage at 8 pm.  A local band from Concord California, they fit perfectly into the line-up due to it's death metal sound.  The place was not quite packed but those that saw Vile perform were given a good show.  Juan Orteaga's vocal assault and Colin Davis's guitar work created the death metal atmosphere to get everyone ready for more to come.  On stage for approximately 40 minutes the crowd responded well to them and recognized that good  Death Metal exists in the bay area.

Exhumed...let's just say Carcass!  For those that like Carcass, especially their early work, then this was the band to listen to.  However for those of us that recognized that this band was 'very' influenced by another, even chord-for-chord at times, it made listening to them boring.  Majority of the crowd may not agree with what we are saying as they did indulge themselves with the songs that the band played.  Probably on for 40 minutes and that was enough!

Hypocrisy changed the atmosphere a little by adding their Swedish ingredient to the mix.  For those of us that recognize the European Death Metal sound this was a treat.  More melodic but definitely brutal enough, especially with songs from their early days such as Necronomicon off their Osculum Obscenum album, Hypocrisy made sure that nobody was about to loose interest in the nights events.  Peter Tagtgren knew how to deliver with his penetrating vocals and guitar work.  This was the first time seeing and hearing this band and after 45 minutes they showed to us that they were good enough to be touring with Cannibal Corpse.

Cannibal Corpse took over the stage just after 11 pm and right from the start they delivered.  They played songs from their new CD (The Wretched Spawn) and of course many songs that they have embedded into to our memories over the 14 years that they have been together.  They came with no letup in sight and for those of us that had the privilege to see them, we were not disappointed!  George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher made sure that know one was about to stop indulging themselves whether it was in the pit or the fight to get as close as possible to the stage.  Although people were not familiar with the new album, they soon saw that this Cannibal Corpse album is a continuation of what the band has done for years and that they have not abandoned what works for them.  For 75 minutes the onslaught rained down upon us, but throughout the entire time the crowd was never disappointed and made sure that the band knew that.  The closing song of course was "Hammer Smashed Face" and unfortunately is was the last song.

So we go away from this show knowing that although veterans of Death Metal, Cannibal Corpse is still on top with many bands looking up to them.  Hypocrisy added a European flavour that was accepted by most.  Exhumed was not to our liking but seemed to do well.  Vile was unfairly given the opening act but did very well.

Written by:  Steven Ansell and Patrick O'Connor