If you have attended a New York gig, you know that the thrash shows amplify moshing and crowd surfing, possibly because NYC has this rugged slam dance with some style attitude. But four bands somehow managed to get only the best fans to alight the atmosphere from one side to the other, burning up the Brooklyn Monarch through it all.
I had some time to mess around with for a pre-show dinner at Mother’s in Williamsburg. I indulged in the house-made avocado BLT and cheddar burger. Both were equally satisfying. After dinner, I sailed towards the venue, soaking in some less humid summer breeze. With a venue curfew looming, Hammerhedd, I Am, Toxic Holocaust, and Havok had wasted no time to keep Brooklyn in a figure-four leg lock.
The opening band for this tour was a band out of Kansas City called Hammerhedd. Abe, Eli, and Henry had great energy and showed off their groovy, chunky style of proggy thrash metal. Gojira, Metallica, Meshuggah, and Pantera fans, check out Hammerhedd!
I Am was the second band on. The thrashing Texas death metal machine is known for the debris they leave behind. That is when the moshing picked up. They showcased skull-smacking intensity, with some overwhelming chaos from Tejas.
The atomic winds of metal remained blustering when co-headliners Toxic Holocaust played for about an hour of their heaviest hitters. I always look forward to seeing the punk-injected blacked thrash metal stalwarts. Joel Grind and his live band were tight and packed in enough electricity to support Joel, a ball of energy who commanded people to stage dive like Steve Souza did in the early days of Exodus while blazing through Silence, Acid Fuzz, and Nuke the Cross.
Fully turning the heat up and bringing the Brooklyn Monarch to a boil was the main event, Havok to do what they do best at taking no moshketeers with one firestorm banger after another as more crowd surfing and moshing ensued. Like the previous times I saw them, Havok dominated. They equaled Toxic Holocaust in style and swagger that night while sounding awesome when playing tracks like Covering Fire and Phantom Force. As usual, vocalist David Sanchez is in a league of his own. His nasty growl and snarl give the band as much character as Tony Foresta brings to Municipal Waste.
Racing against the curfew, Havok ended their set with Give Me Liberty…or Give Me Death and Time is Up. In short, it was a top-notch performance from one of the top-tier bands of the new wave of thrash metal. Besides getting thirsty towards the end, it was a fun show. All four bands were great. After the hot night concluded, some kept it going while I cooled off with ice-cold drinks, ice cream and returned to reality.
