After Converge brought the house down on night one of Decibel Metal & Beer Fest in Los Angeles, metalheads were ready for another evening of brutality. The day two lineup was even more stacked than day one, with Ghoul, Gatecreeper, a Deadguy reunion and a full performance of Cave In’s debut album Until Your Heart Stops. Less-known bands like Spiritworld, Crypt Sermon and the curiously titled ACxDC opened up the night.

Ghoul is a bit like a lower-budget GWAR, and yes, they most certainly had a “splash zone,” leaving front row spectators dripping with blood-like liquid (though it was tinted a bit orange). The band members wear elaborate costumes that disguise their faces, and their brand of metal is a fairly straightforward take on the genre. Throughout the set, enemies would attack the band only to be brutally “chopped” by the guitarist. Call it a schtick, but it was a ton of fun, and the tunes held up. They played tracks like “Inner Sanctum,” “Dungeon Bastards,” “Splatterthrash,” “Spill Your Guts” and “Nazi Smasher.”

Next up was Gatecreeper, the Arizona band that’s making some waves inside and outside the metal scene and quickly becoming the death metal band du jour for hipsters. While getting reviewed on Pitchfork isn’t exactly the most metal thing in the world, Gatecreeper deserves the recognition because they’ve been pushing the scene forward by forging different elements of death metal’s past into something that’s fresh yet familiar. They started the set with “Puncture Wounds” and “Ruthless” from their newest album, Deserted. Then they dialed it back to 2016 with the opening track from Sonoran Depravation, “Craving Flesh.” The band ran through a dozen songs over the course of their set, concluding with a classic from their debut LP, “Flamethrower.”

Despite only releasing one album, Deadguy were pioneers of the metalcore scene and a major influence for many of the bands that would follow in their wake. Unfortunately for them, they were about 10 years too early, as bands that would mimic sounds heard on Fixation on a Co-Worker would end up signing major label deals in the ‘00s. The band would essentially play the majority of their discography during the set, starting with a full run-through of Fixation on a Co-Worker, followed by the Work Ethic EP in full. The band’s appropriately named frontman Tim Singer explained that Decibel was the driving force behind the reunion, and it wouldn’t have happened without them. The songs seethed with anger and vitriol, the guitars dissonant and in-your-face. The band sounded tight, and for a minute there, we were all transported back to the mid-‘90s and a look at the birth of metalcore.

Finally, Cave In took the stage to perform their raging debut album in full. Those that know the semi-cursed history of this brilliant band know that after releasing Until Your Heart Stops, they took their sounds in a completely different direction with what is now considered a classic experimental rock album, Jupiter. They were signed to RCA and put out Antenna: the metal scene turned its nose up at the space rock record, and mainstream audiences met its release with a collective “meh.” After they went back to their roots a bit for Perfect Pitch Black, the band went on hiatus.

Luckily that hiatus ended a few years ago, and they returned with the Planets of Old EP and White Silence, both records more along the lines of Perfect Pitch Black and Until Your Heart Stops. Tragically, the band’s bassist Caleb Scofield was killed in a car accident in New Hampshire in 2018, which seemed to put an abrupt end to the band. They released what appeared to be their final album, Final Transmission, in 2019, though they signed to Relapse this year and seem to be working on a new record.

Much like Converge didn’t totally fit in with the more traditional metal bands that opened the first night of the festival, Cave In is more of an experimental hardcore band–though they have riffs and elements that are a bit more “metallic.” Like Jane Doe, Until Your Heart Stops made an instant impact on the hardcore scene, pushing the boundaries of metalcore beyond the tough-guy posturing of bands like Hatebreed. The arrangements are thoughtful, the riffs heavy and intricate, the vocals gruff and aggressive.

Those that are familiar with Two Minutes to Late Night will know that despite the headiness of his bands, Stephen Brodsky is a fun-loving showman. Standing at center stage with his co-guitarist Adam McGrath to his right, Brodsky used every inch of the stage and engaged with the audience. The first two songs of the night, “Moral Eclipse” and “Terminal Deity,” were straight rippers, and the two songs were over within just about five minutes. After “Juggernaut,” Brodsky asked the audience if they were ready for the title track, saying, “that is a motherfucker.” Indeed it is just that at over eight minutes in length, truly an epic in the genre. The three segues offered a bit of a respite between songs, as the band finished out with a song that’s even longer than the title track, “Controlled Mayhem Then Erupts.”

Following the completion of Until Your Heart Stops, the band treated the audience to a three-song encore. First came the Jupiter stand-out “Big Riff,” followed by “Trepanning” from Perfect Pitch Black and concluding the entire festival with “Sing My Loves” from White Silence. After two nights of metal, hundreds of riff-heavy songs, and surely thousands of ounces of craft beer consumed, Decibel Metal & Beer Festival was a success.

Cave In Set list:

Moral Eclipse
Terminal Deity
Juggernaut
The End of Our Rope Is a Noose
Segue 1
Until Your Heart Stops
Segue 2
Halo of Flies
Bottom Feeder
Segue 3
Ebola
Controlled Mayhem Then Erupts

Encore:

Big Riff
Trepanning
Sing My Loves

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat