Tag: thrash metal
Dark Angel Brings Us To Our Primal Basics at Majestic Ventura Theater
Rob Shepyer
September 19, 2025
Dark Angel at the Majestic Ventura Theater on September 6, 2025 might have been just another stop on a long national tour for the many iconic bands appearing on this monster show—from Sacred Reich to Hirax—but for the locals of California’s Central Coast, it was much more than that. For Ventura’s own hardcore and stoner metal scenes, it was a night to raise the speed, volume, and intensity of their jams alongside some of Los Angeles’s finest. It was an event that felt like a genuine summit of the underground, a night where the past and present of extreme music converged. If you’re a fan of extreme sounds—whether punk, death metal, hardcore, or black metal—you owe it to yourself to attend thrash metal shows from time to time. They act as a palate cleanser, a way to reset your taste and senses back to the primal basics. Thrash metal, at its core, is one of the most fundamental heavy metal art forms, a template that inspired so many of us to follow a path deeper into the underground. For every genre that has splintered off since, thrash remains the raw power source, the musical bedrock that feeds the rest. related:
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Midnight And Ghoul at The Poor Kids Mansion
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 22, 2025
If you’ve never been to a sanctioned or unsanctioned show or event at The Poor Kids Mansion in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of L.A., can you even consider yourself a part of the punk and metal scenes of Los Angeles? Of course you can. But if music scenes were like levels on a video game, this would be one of the challenges along the way to some abstract street cred needed to complete the level. On top of a dead end, hilltop street just off Broadway, is an address that has been made public over the years but I still hesitate to mention. In a somewhat dilapidated 120 year old, 4 story estate whose windows have one of the best views of downtown in the city, is a residence and clubhouse called the Poor Kids Mansion. In the backyard you can see punk rock, thrash and sometimes, backyard wrestling- complete with a pro wrestling ring. There is also a ring inside the house- three of them, in fact. And the ring master of this circus is Russ. He and his brother Dougie are the Poor Kids. There are more Poor Kids but if you say that name, Russ and Dougie
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Sound and Fury Fest 2023: The Stage Dive Will Never Die
Danny Ryan
August 30, 2023
Sound and Fury is easily my favorite music festival, and consistently takes the spot as the best weekend of the year for me without fail. Returning again to Exposition Park for the second year in a row, the controversial choice to move the festival outdoors has proven again to succeed as a hardcore experience exclusive to Sound and Fury. The overwhelming heat and dust clouds were absolutely brutal this year compared to 2022, but passionate fans were not going to let anything stop them from hardcore dancing all weekend long. This was also the second year with involvement from art collective and fashion brand Brain Dead, and their influence could be seen everywhere from the stage backdrops to exclusive merch designs. Sound and Fury is absolutely unmatched when it comes to finding the best collaborators and vendors to help with making their vision come alive, something that more music festivals should take note of in the goal of creating an unforgettable experience that everybody in attendance feels a need to come back to. related: Risks Make Better Memories than Nostalgia – Sound and Fury 2022 One of the biggest draws to Sound and Fury’s 2023 lineup for me was the
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L.A. Thrashes Harder Than Ever Before: Sacred Reich and Vio-Lence at the Regent
Rob Shepyer
June 8, 2019
Too quickly, this show sold out and had every metalhead that was too late for the party wishing they didn’t drink the night before so they could wake up in time to spend their hard earned money on a ticket to see two thrash legends on one stage. It was a stacked bill. Sacred Reich doesn’t come around too often and Excel puts on a great enough show that they should always be selling out any venue. Sworn Enemy isn’t a band we get to see often in Los Angeles and Yidhra, though hometown underground doom heroes are staples at Church of the 8th Day shows they’re a pleasure for any riff-lover to see. All these great bands weren’t the real reasons this mother sold out though. Bay area thrash legends, Vio-Lence had just reunited and this was their first and only Los Angeles show in over a decade. related content: The 1720th Circle Of Hell: Deicide At 1720 This was basically a touring festival the likes of Show Your Scars or Strike Fest and like everyone else in attendance, I expected more stage dives and mosh madness than your average metal gig. This was going to be one for
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