Words & Photos by James Alvarez
The Chaos Raids USA tour rolled through Los Angeles this past weekend. Featuring the black metal hellions in 1349 alongside tech-death luminaries Origin, the skull crushers in Abysmal Dawn and blackened misanthropes Wolvhammer, all sharing the stage at an intimate, metal friendly bar. A stacked tour with big names in a small venue… you better believe the energy level was off the charts inside.
Unfortunately, the fates decided that we would miss Wolvhammer’s set. Bummer. The home town heroes in Abysmal Dawn were already pummeling the crowd inside Complex when we arrived, hammering out longtime staples like “In Service of Time” alongside new tracks like “Inanimate” and “By My Demons” from their latest album, Obsolescence.
The hyper speed maniacs known as Origin followed immediately after and brought an air of silliness and jaw dropping technicality to the stage. The band still rips through mind-bending shred jams like “The Aftermath” with startling ease, but it’s the addition of newer, crowd friendly material like “Redistribution of Filth” and their ringleader Jason Keyser that pushed the insanity quotient of their set into the stratosphere. There was crowd surfing, pillow fighting [yes you read that correctly] and a death metal vs black metal wall of death. Watching world class musicians like Origin perform is always exciting, but Origin circa 2015 is flat out ridiculous.
Finally, 1349 ended the long night of metal with their patented brand of Aural Hellfire. They played a slew new material off their latest album, Massive Cauldron of Chaos, alongside classic tunes like “Sculptor of Flesh” and “I Am Abomination.” The heavy thrash influence on new songs like “Slaves” and “Postmortem” got the frenzied crowd even more riled up. Hair was flying and bodies were swarming in the pit until the very end. Even the thick layer of smoke onstage couldn’t mask Ravn’s tortured vocals and imposing stage presence. Also, Jon “Charn” Rice [ex-Job For a Cowboy] did a masterful job filling in for Frost on the drums as he’s done for the band numerous times throughout the past few years. Besides, I don’t think Frost and Origin’s John Longstreth are allowed to play drums in the same building, lest everyone’s heads explode.
1349
ORIGIN
Remaining Chaos Raids USA Tour Dates:
02/17 Salt Lake City, UT – Area 51
02/18 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre
02/19 Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
02/20 Joliet, IL – Mojoes
02/21 Cleveland, OH – ROC Bar
02/22 Trenton, NJ – Championship Bar
02/23 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre
02/24 Springfield, VA – Empire
02/25 Spartanburg, SC – Ground Zero
02/26 Savannah, GA – The Jinx
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