Date: Thursday, February 3rd, 2005
Location: Pound in San Francisco, California
Opening Bands:

Old Grandad took the stage just after 7 pm.  We have seen this band before at the 3 Days Of Darkness in San Francisco (which is where they are from).  We didn't care for them then and so we didn't care for them this time.  Vocals are not good and 3 of them trying their best at it.  Main vocalist was the drummer and it was terrible.  Is the band good you ask, the answer for us is NO.

Cattle Decapitation next after a long wait.  Of course Cattle Decapitation delivered like always.  We have seen this band twice before and it never fails to amaze us how much energy this band can produce and how quickly they can get the crowd going insanely mad.  Of course theirs a pit, and of course brutal as ever.  This band is the perfect band to have in any line-up and after the opening band tonight we needed it.  Travis Ryan (vocals) can really let it out with deep and high tones that just are amazing, and he does it throughout the set.  This band you have too see if you ever get the chance.

Behemoth finally started playing after an hour at least between sets.  I do not know what the problem is but it affected Behemoth's set as they did not get a chance to do many songs, I counted 5 songs in all.  Never the less Behemoth supplied us with Black Metal with some Death Metal mixed in.  Being a true Black Metal band at heart, they wore corpse paint and bashed religion (specifically Christianity) and spread the word of Satan.  Just what I like!  Although it was a short set they provided the crowd with fantastic sound and lyrics.  Since it had been an hour since Cattle Decapitation was on, the crowd had become restless and now Behemoth allowed them to release any anger and it showed in the pit.  Behemoth is from Poland and this tour in North America is to promote their new album 'Demigod'.

Suffocation took the stage just after 10 pm.  This time their was not much time between the end of Behemoth's set and the start of Suffocation's set, which was good.  This band has been around since 1990 and have not changed, they still are brutal, if not more brutal than before.  Punishing everyone with Death Metal, they played songs from earlier albums and the latest album 'Souls To Deny'.  They were on the stage for over an hour and yet the crowd never let-up in acknowledging how great this band is.  The band also acknowledged that they love coming to California as it is like a second home for them.  This is the first time I have seen Suffocation and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

To sum up the night it was great.  Fantastic bands like Cattle Decapitation, Behemoth and Suffocation entertained me thoroughly even though I had a cold and really felt like shit.  But I hung in there.  The only downside of the night was the delays between sets, especially between Cattle Decapitation and Behemoth.  I really wish Behemoth played longer.

Written by:  Steven Ansell