As we entered, we noticed that there were not that many people there- probably 120-150 at the high water mark total I'd estimate. For a Saturday night, not a great turnout, but I think Deceased played in the area not too long ago (September).
There were several vendors selling variously priced CDs and bootleg DVDs on the side of the Deceased and Morbius merch tables. Deceased had one shirt, patches ($5), stickers, and some CDs. Morbius had a CD and a shirt ($20). It was odd seeing more random vendors than band merch.
Inhumation (I think, these guys are from Frederick, MD) were on when we got there, and they had some sort of death metal sound going on. I think a couple songs were toe tappin', but the rest was not very distinctive to me. They had a decent groove starting on several songs, but it didn't seem to speak with me. An alright start (although 2 other bands were supposed to have played already) to the rockin' evening.
This show also reunited the death metal band Morbius (not to be confused with the Living Vampire, Michael Morbius), who I believe are from around Springfield, VA (where Empire is located). I don't know how popular or underground they are, but I did notice the "reunited for one night only" billing (they mentioned their last show was 14 years ago). They had a loud and heavy almost monotone sound at times. The crowd ate it up, but I wasn't very interested as to me the first several songs sounded very similar to each other, and I lost interest. Morbius's members seemed very appreciative of the crowd reaction and I believe they announced they'd be back.
Deceased (also from Virginia) came on suddenly pretty late to little fanfare, but a ton of energy. There were a ton of pits for the thrashy death metal frenzy that King Fowley and co brewed up! I only recognized a few songs, and unfortunately the sound was pretty muddy in the back. The crowd definitely dug it, but the sound quality made it pretty rough for me. I thought they were way better when I saw them in 2013 (a double bill with October 31, basically the same band members), soundwise and performance wise, but this evening they were not really off, it was more the sound system. The energy from these thrash maniacs was too much to be contained by a bad speaker or 2!
Deceased frontman King Fowley was in rare form with his banter- mentioning the support of the Satanic Hispanics and a big FUCK YOU to Jay Nedry (former owner of Jaxx, which is what Empire used to be - they had a disagreement and I believe Deceased was banned from playing Jaxx for who knows how many years). I can't say these guys didn't give it their all, they reminded me of Anvil- playing and giving all they had. It didn't seem like they played long (about an hour), and their set sped by.
Overall, it was a decent show, not great, definitely not horrible. If you are a Deceased fan you'd have loved it, but for a casual fan it was alright. I liked the laid back feeling in the back and top, contrasting with the pits on the floor. I think the lineup could have been stronger, but it was still fine.
Next show: back to Empire for ULI JON ROTH
Setlists
Inhumation
- ?
Morbius (10:22-11:02)
- ?
- ?
- Dreadful Night
- Beneath the Crust
- Underground Civilization
- ?
- ?
- Mortal Realms
- Tapping the Vein
Deceased (updated thanks setlist.fm)(11:15-12:27)
- Elly's Dementia (intro)
- Night of the Deceased
- A Witness to Suspiria
- Fading Survival
- Psychadelic Warriors
- The Triangle
- Fright
- The Silent Creature
- The Mausoleum
- Haunted Cerebellum
- Robotic Village
- Shrieks From the Hearse
- The Premonition
- Fearless Undead Machines
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