Date: Thursday, April 28th, 2005
Location: Pound in San Francisco, California
Opening Bands:

BRUTALITY BY THE BAY

Well this was the show of all shows for Death Metal fans in the San Francisco bay area.  Called 'Brutality By The Bay'.  It consisted of 5 fantastic bands, all from the bay area, and the cost was only $8 ($10 at the door).  If you missed this show you are obviously not a true Death Metal fan!!!

Here are links to a couple of flyers:  (FLYER-1)    (FLYER-2)

Dead Syndicate took the stage about 7:45 pm.  They hail from San Jose and this was our first time seeing this band and we were not disappointed at all.  Interesting thing about this band is that they have two vocalist, but it works very well.  I guess you can consider Dead Syndicate Death/Grind.  We met Andre (one of the vocalist) at the Lord Gore show in Aptos and after listening to a song from a CD he gave us we knew that Dead Syndicate would fit into this line-up and they did.  Maybe not death metal as much as the other bands, but let's just say they were the best opening act for this type of show.  Plenty of fans of Dead Syndicate were on-hand and with just over 100 people the pit was going and it was brutal.  Dead Syndicate played for about 30 minutes and this was just the start of the night, wow what a start.

Carnivorous took the stage next.  This band hails from San Francisco and with only a few songs currently completed (about 5), they played for close to 30 minutes.  For a new band they did very well on stage.  They have a demo and a split CD out for now.  Do they have what it takes to be a death metal band, you bet!  Do they need to get signed by a label soon, YES!  At this time there were about 150 people at the show and all of them were thoroughly abused by this band.  The pit was larger and more brutal than earlier.  No place for me...lol, but I was up front of course.

Odious Mortem followed Carnivorous.  Another great death metal band from San Francisco.  After releasing 'Devouring The Prophecy' earlier this year, this was a great show for them to perform material from it.  I like the CD very much.  However, although the band played well and had a great stage presence, what made it not a great performance was the sound (not their fault).  The person controlling the sound board had way too much bass applied that it did ruin the songs.  But again we know how this band plays and maybe due to their technical approach to Death Metal that is where the sound person had it wrong (this is not the first time that this has happened at the Pound).  So with that said, we were not disappointed with the band at all.  About the same amount of people were in listening to them play and the pit was about the same size but more brutal than before.  I stayed up front at first then drifted to the back of the place due to the sound quality issue (it sounded even worse up front).

Decrepit Birth hailing from Santa Cruz on stage next.  You may think that after 3 great bands it wouldn't get better, but it did!  Again another technical death metal band but this time the sound was perfect.  Bill (vocals) had noticed the sound during the Odious Mortem set was bad and made sure that it did not happen when Decrepit Birth played.  This band just obliterated everything in it's path.  The crowd was in a frenzy and yes I was up front again and yes the pit was going, and believe it or not it was more brutal than ever, amazing!  They played for over 40 minutes.  We missed them at the Lord Gore show in Aptos but this show made up for it.

Severed Savior, the final death metal band hailing from South San Francisco finally attacked the crowd when they took the stage after midnight.  By now there were probably 200 people still at the show (not bad for a Thursday night).  This, like all of the other bands, was my first time seeing them.  I have listened to Severed Savior for a few years now and was blown away by their music.  So seeing them live was just icing on the cake for me.  I was again up front this time getting really bashed about by the pit because it was more brutal than ever before.  Severed Savior has a great presence on stage and do not let up with their constant delivery of death metal.  Even though tired a little, I still had enough energy to make sure that the band knew that I was one to recognize their talent.

To sum up the night, it was the greatest death metal night ever!  5 fantastic bands and all from the bay area.  Like I said at the beginning of this review, if you missed it then you are not a true death metal fan and so you suck!  For those of us that did attend, we were treated to great music and fantastic performances by all of the bands.  So a BIG thank you goes out to the bands and the fans for making this night so great.  See you all again soon.

Written by:  Steven Ansell