The question of how many bands make for the perfect heavy metal event or tour is highly debatable these days for multiple reasons. The current tour, Devastation On The Nation, made its way to Los Angeles, CA, at the Belasco on Tuesday evening, November 26th, and featured six death metal, black metal, or extreme metal bands. Headliners I Am Morbid ended the show at 11:30 pm while openers Knoll started the event at 6 pm. The rest of the supporting acts included Suffocation, Uada, Mortiferum, and the only European band on this USA tour was Italian originated band Fulci. Before moving on to the most interesting band of this experience, it must be said that it sprinkled in Los Angeles before the show, so getting somewhere by 6 pm was difficult for some. As if it wasn’t enough for it to be rush hour, everyone loses their mind and can’t drive when the ground has a little water on it here. As a New Yorker by birth, the only real solution to this is to just laugh it off that these people don’t know what to do in “weather.” Needless to say, I was not yet in attendance for Tennessee based, death metal, noise band Knoll, but they apparently played with only a few lamps for lightning as part of their esthetic.
Knoll
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Then, Fulci, the only non-American band on this line-up, tore up the stage with their horror death metal themes. Having first seen them at an all death metal and grind core festival a few years back, they stood out even then. On this evening in 2024, they were again exceptionally strong despite only being on stage for approximately 20 minutes. Of course, these guys are humbled and just happy to be touring the US, but I felt like they could have absolutely stolen the show if they had a later spot with at least 45 minutes to brutalize our minds with some gore-driven death metal.
Fulci
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Sadly, Fulci’s set ended too soon, and the next band, Mortiferum, was primed at a much slower doom metal pace for the majority of their set. This band, originating from Washington in 2016, is definitely a unique combo platter of classic death metal, brutal death metal, and doom metal. Personally, the doom after Fulci’s high-energy set was a bit of a downer. If these two bands had switched spots on the line up it could have made both sets more memorable. The only barrier there is that Mortiferum might have only played one song since it is widely known that doom songs take their time to complete. The audience was engaged during their performance, and it can be said from all three bands witnessed thus far that there are some recently formed bands that completely kick ass just as hard as some of the older guys in the scene.
Mortiferum
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Next up, it was fast and furious Portland-based, Uada that came into the spotlight. Their speedy black metal, and black hooded faces are yet another band that fits into the “originating within the last ten years and kicking ass” group. People who are familiar with the Polish band MGLA, originating in 2000, like to claim plagiarism since the look and tunes are quite similar in execution. Regardless of truth vs. lie debates that could go on forever, the important emotional state of being in is pure darkened bliss while watching them. In comparison to the Tortoise pace of Mortiferum, Uada was performing at the pace of the Hare. The lesson here is that while slow and steady wins the race, there is nothing boring about the hare’s journey. A nice clash of musical structure and style occurred during the transition into Uada, and they had the perfect slot for their set length. They fulfilled the black metal quota for this night and still weren’t a far cry from the death metal-based bands surrounding them.
Uada
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
On to New York technical and brutal death metal old schoolers Suffocation, they really drew in the crowd with their sheer death metal energy. Despite the fact that original vocalist Frank Mullen no longer fronted the band, current vocalist Ricky Myers was a dynamite fit. They still carry that die-hard east coast sound, which can quite possibly outbattle any west coast death metal bands in the same way that hard-core punk can from back in the day. It just seems to come from a darker and more angst place than the land of sunshine and palm trees. There is a similar discrepancy between Norwegian and Finnish black metal. One is not better than the other; it’s just a culturally different vibe. That’s one of the beautiful aspects of human differences. Different landscapes and regions of growth can become a beautiful culturally music-driven achievement. Suffocation recently put out an album in 2023 titled “Hymns from the Apocrypha,” which they focused their set on. It was not disappointing in the least, even though true fans love the old-school stuff too. They still threw a couple of those in for good measure, and as satisfying of a good set as one could witness, this was of the highest caliber.
As a notable sidebar, between sets, there is much talk of past heavy metal memories, including previous shows from the bands on stage and just memorable festivals in general. On this evening, after Suffocation, there was a great conversation about cats, which, of course, led to including metal cat outfits. The quirks of metalheads are not just their loyalty to their vast heavy metal cultural knowledge, but they also are very peaceful people who love animals in general. Sharing cat photos after a good mosh is just a common practice in the daily life of a metalhead.
Suffocation
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Finally, the band I Am Morbid, which is one-half of the older band Morbid Angel, reached its moment of glory shortly after 9 pm. Current members of this band are early Morbid Angel vocalist/bassist David Vincent, Bill Hudson and Richie Brown on guitars, along with former Morbid Angel drummer Pete Sandoval. Their classic Florida death metal still stands out even though they were in the running at one time with Obituary and Death for best old-school death metal sound. It’s just one of those past remnants of death metal that fans are still excited to get a piece of. On this Tuesday evening in DTLA, I am Morbid played some fun Morbid Angel tracks such as “Rapture,” “Maze Of Torment,” “Desolate,” and they included a cover from Terrorizer titled “Dead Shall Rise.” The set was about an hour and 15 min long, and even though it was totally enjoyable all the way through, after 4 or 5 other bands playing previously, patience and focus can wear a bit thin. I am Morbid also threw in a cool dueling guitar solo moment where, apparently, the theme was of the shirtless variety, as both guitarists were topless for the entirety of it. Overall, the whole show was a blast, but 6 bands starting so early on a weekday is never easy these days. To end the “how many bands are ideal for a show debate,” my vote is 3, but this evening gave an opportunity to twice as many bands. If they were all happy at the end with their short or long-stage exposure, then no harm was done. In the case of bands from overseas, like Fulci, who don’t come over often, they would benefit from a more worthy and lengthy set time. However, Devastation On The Nation Tour is still proving be a success, so to the next one, and always remember to stay metal and pet cats!
I Am Morbid
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
