I love it when a plan comes together. After seeing Machine Head slam down Palladium Times Square and laid up by John 5 shredding the Gramercy Theatre, I scored a heavy metal hattrick of the highest order for Metal Insider to cover another brutal four-band bill featuring the Richmond party animals known as Municipal Waste, bringing a toxified rager of a staked bill with Ghoul, Necrot, and Dead Heat in all of its animated, liverish, and blood stained glory presented by Tankcrimes to party down at the Brooklyn Monarch for noche número tres of the Brainsqueeze Tour as part of the Waste’s first US headline circuit in a long while.
My Saturday started like any other anytime I’m scheduled to work brunch service, and there is a post-work gig. It seemed like time was short, but I came in clutch at work, clocked out, and swiftly traveled to the venue while the frosty February winds blew across my back. As it appeared to be taking forever for the doors to open, they eventually did as the winter sun was setting around six, and those who braved the elements entered the venue to pre-game and thaw with some spirits.
The first main band to tie up the evening was the California crossover thrashing hardcore expounders in Dead Heat. Sure enough, they got the gradually expanding pit going with their high-energy performance. With a limited set time, Dead Heat brought the aggression and pulverized the early attendees. I will gladly say to check them out if you’re into absurdly brutal thrash metal akin to Enforced and Power Trip.
The show stayed alit with a ferocious set from the Necrot. From the second Necrot began their set with Cut the Chord, this Bay Area death metal trio delivered a skull-smashing six-song set of pummeling death metal. The band rumbled the Brooklyn Monarch, and it was gnarly. The pit began to widen as Necrot played on. Despite their set length, Necrot sent out a cross-grained, loud message a handful of other bands know how to do. Necrot set the bar high for Ghoul and Municipal Waste to up the ante. It was great as a deluge of Motorhead hits and deep cuts blared over the P.A. system as Necrot was setting up. From the Ramones to Overkill to Midnight to Necrot, Motorhead is a band that inspired and still influences generations of rockers, metal-heads, thrashers, and punks – no matter the decade.
The gig coincidentally took place a short walk from the Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC), the curator of Municipal Waste’s Electrified Brain IPA. As the beer connoisseurs held up the bar to sample the collaboration, everyone else took some time to recover from getting belted by Necrot, only to get sloshed by the monster mashin’ terror thrash quartet from Creepsylvania, Ghoul. Ghoul is known for being a thrashing machine, but how was Ghoul going to keep up with the equally intense Municipal Waste? That said, Ghoul delivered a twelve-song set of bone-sawing thrash heavy metal they are best known for to dig up the pit even wider. As you know by their stage dynamic, Digestor, Cremator, Fermentor, Dissector, and all the extra characters showed and told a story on stage that played out as a blood opera set in the eighties. There was hardly a moment you saw something gushing or squirting out of a nipple or a prop machine gun as the various types of liquid arched over those who embraced hanging in the splatter zone of the first few rows. Their set was bloody disgusting vaudeville, and Ghoul got Brooklyn stoked to taste the high-speed steel of the Waste.
The final highlight was Municipal Waste. You can say you want about them being the hellspawn of Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, but when it comes to performing fast, loud, and rude crossover thrash metal, they don’t screw around. As soon as they started their set with Sweet Attack, one of the many highlights to honor twenty-one years of Municipal Waste’s debut album Waste ‘Em All, they chopped the bar in half that the previous three groups began to demolish a few hours earlier, grabbed everyone by the throat, and had the Brooklyn Monarch instantly hooked for an hour and then some. Brooklyn brought it. From that point on, their setlist consisted of more Waste ‘Em All deep cuts like Toxic Revolution, the namesake track, as well as many thrashers such as Beer Pressure, The Thrashing of the Christ, Sadistic Magician, Under the Waste Command, Breathe Grease and more. My favorite moments were anytime Tony Foresta spoke with a punk-like attitude that got the crowd riled up. I always find his banter amusing, rampaging on stage, running around like Sam Kinison during an iconic bit only to get crazier with the hardcore-infused thrash metal behind him blasting throughout the venue. Municipal Waste brought a party and raged like they were playing an eighties summertime backyard barbecue.
They turned in a headlining set of high-energy, kegger-made thrash to increase the flow of mosh pits, crowd surfing, and stage diving. The frenzy from the moshketeers was non-stop. The toxic-waltzing never slowed down and increased in crucial velocity as the audience shouted, “MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP! MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP! MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP!” in between every song. The final few minutes finally arrived for Municipal Waste to fuck up Brooklyn a few more times, closing with Born to Party and Demoralizer, and Brooklyn broke down the Brooklyn Monarch throughout an overarching great night of metal mania. All four bands were great. The entire evening was a test of endurance. After the show, I headed back home to enjoy a late-night banger of a sandwich | corned beef, pastrami, salami, with cheddar, and Swiss cheese on hero bread, chilled out, and went back to reality feeling prideful that I got to review three amazing gigs to amp up another adrenalized year of concerts.
