Live Review: Bay Area Thrash Legends, Vio-lence, Decimated Reggie’s And Play Debut Album In It Entirety

Apr 17, 2024 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

Bay Area thrash legends Vio-lence decimated Reggie’s on Saturday with their Eternal Nightmare retrospective. Playing their 1988 debut album front to back, vocalist Sean Killian led the current lineup through a short but sweet set that proved the band’s current incarnation has a lot of gas in the tank.

The only continuous member of the band as of this spring when founding guitarist Phil Demmel announced his departure, Killian’s voice still had the signature snarl on cuts like “Serial Killer,” “Officer Nice,” and set-closer “World in a World” from 1990’s Oppressing the Masses. Surely one of the best thrash tracks of all-time, “World” exemplified—then and now—Vio-lence’s brutal song structure, each one a roller-coaster of riffs and tempo shifts that saw one of the biggest pits in recent Reggie’s memory take over the main floor.

Killian was in appreciation mode all night, constantly moving and interacting with the crowd, and while the rhythm section was tight as hell—bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Adrian Aguilar—it was hot-shot new guitarist Mario Salcedo who stole the show, taking on all the guitar parts from what used to be two lead players. A cover of the Dead Kennedy’s “California Uber Alles” with Exhorder vocalist/guitarist Kyle Thomas was another highlight, bridging the gap between Vio-lence’s thrash roots and Killian’s love of punk rock.

New Orleans-based thrash outfit Exhorder delivered a monster set that tackled something from each of their albums dating back to 1985, and Thomas gave a nod to punk as well, noting that Exhorder had to fight to earn their place in the early ‘80s metal scene. They continued to prove that work ethic through their 45-minute set that included new tune “Year of the Goat” and titular singalong, “Exhorder.”