Concert Review: Death Angel, 3 Inches of Blood, Battlecross, Revocation, Diamond Plate

It’s been a very long time since I had the opportunity to catch Death Angel in the splendor of a live setting.  If my memory serves me, it was August 19, 1990. Seven of us piled into some type of small white hatchback never meant for seven people and made our way an hour down the road to Boston, MA to this little dive called The Channel.  I am not sure if this place it still exists and there was nothing particularly exciting about the joint other than Death Angel was playing there.  They were in support of their Act III album and in tow were Forbidden along with two local bands called Cardinal Sin and Candy Striper Death Orgy…the latter was as entertaining as their name, I promise you that.  I believe this may have been the place where I got my first taste of the pit…because, well there wasn’t anywhere else to go; the entire place was a pit.  I also bought my favorite concert tee from that show and had that thing until it fell apart 10 years later.  The only things that remain from that evening are fond memories and a ticket stub which was hand-written from a local music store called Strawberries Records and Tapes.  Yeah, they are out of business now.  All in all, it was highly memorable for many reasons.  So, to see them again after more than two decades was highly anticipated to say the least.  To make the evening even better were some quality opening acts; 3 Inches of Blood, Battlecross, Revocation, Diamond Plate, and local band Artemesis.  Here is my story.

Song of the Week – Confession

I haven’t listened to Dirge Within much since I bought their 2009 album, Force Fed Lies, on a whim.  At the time I was hungry for new music and found this album in the recommendation section of the vast iTunes library.  I bought it as an experiment mainly because it was like $6.00 and I figured I had nothing to lose.  It turned out to be a pretty good album and became one of the first reviews for an album I did when this blog started. You can check that out here if you like.

Confession was their first single off the album (I think) and just happened to be the first song I heard today to kick off my hump day.  I hope you have a great rest of the week.

iTunes Metal Experiment

As I was browsing the archives of iTunes, I decided I was going to take them up on the “recommendations for you” section of the store.  I often look at this area and usually see several albums I already own, question why they are recommending trash to me, and then ponder purchasing some other bands I never heard of.  So this time I decided before I looked at this list, that I would buy something no matter what.  Some of the recommendations were Dream Theater, Slipknot, Katatonia, and Nightwish.  iTunes should have known better because I have all those.  Some other suggestions were Rise Against, Blind Guardian, Down, and Shawdows Fall. I passed on all those.  The one that caught my eye was Dirge Within. 

This is the band’s first effort.  I listened to all iTunes clips of each song and I have to say I was impressed.  76 iTunes voters voted overall at 4 1/2 stars.  The $5.99 price tag for the album was also low enough to take a chance without really regretting it, so I downloaded it.  At this point, I have given it about 3 solid listens and I am going to take a moment to actually review and rate it.

Force Fed Lies was released in September 2009 so it’s not that new, just new to me.  I find its melodies make Dirge Within an easy listen with some hard cutting sounds and good guitar work.   Guitar work holds well with me and Shaun Glass (Broken Hope and SOIL) does a great job.  Some stand out songs if you are interested in checking them out are:

Self Medicate

Confessions

As I Walk

Last Goodbye

Force Fed Lies isn’t particularly long (about 46 minutes).  There are some guest appearances on three songs (sorry I only know one of them) with one of them featuring Corey Beaulieu from Trivium.  Either way, if you have $5.99 to spare, this album might be just right for you.  If I were to compare this band to any other, I would say…a little bit like (not wholeheartedly) Five Finger Death Punch, All That Remains, and Fear Factory.

I rate Dirge Within’s Force Fed Lies with 3 1/2 of 5 Devil Horns.

It’s a good solid effort, worth buying, and will not disappoint.  If they were an opening act for a more popular metal band, I would make it a point to arrive in time to see Dirge Within.