Wednesday night, a.k.a. a school night, can be a tough night for a show, but judging from the Facebook “Attending” numbers I was hopeful there would be a good turnout at the Dollhouse for the “Fuck The Neighbors Mini Metal Fest” this past week. Unfortunately, of the nearly 200 people who claimed to coming out, considerably less than that showed. Fortunately that didn’t stop me from seeing the best set I’ve seen this year out of the 60 or so shows I’ve seen.
The mini festival featured locals Void/Icon (doom metal),Shadow of Creation (black/death metal,) Death of Kings (death/thrash metal) out of Atlanta, Lich King (thrash metal) out of Massachusetts, and finally, Exmortus (thrash metal) from California.
I enjoyed each of the first four sets, but after a long day at work (and four sets of fairly extreme metal), I was beat, and as it approached 1 a.m. I thought about heading home. I couldn’t bring myself to leave without seeing one song from the headliners, Exmortus.
Boy, am I glad I stayed. As soon as I heard/saw Exmortus’ first song, I knew I was in for the duration. The four Californians played their hearts out for about 25 metal fans who stuck it out. I hope my pictures begin to express the energy they put out on stage, but I know the images can’t convey how technically gifted the players were. INSANE. I had a smile on my face the entire set. This isn’t even a type of metal that I would profess to really enjoy, but it was jawdroppingly amazing. At one point they played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata Movement 3 (really) and the twin lead guitars transformed it into something else entirely. GREAT. GREAT. GREAT. Set of the year for me, so far. I wish you were there. Those musicians deserve a crowd every night. I got to bed at 2:30. Totally worth it.
A bunch more pics after the jump, heavy on the Exmortus.
Did I mention that I LOVED Exmortus’ set? Because I did.