Pierce's Dirty 30th at Fulton 55

I figured it's time to shed some post-show perspective on not only this show, but also the behind-the-scenes goings on in The Underworld leading up to it.

It would be untruthful of me to say that the preparation for this show was the typical walk in the park. It's a whole different ball game when it's you yourself booking and setting up a show. Not that's it's an impossible feat by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly requires a lot more than simply showing up and playing. Being that I was turning thirty this year (and Alfred twenty-one), I wanted to do something special to commemorate our milestone birthdays. If I recall correctly, the thought to even book such a show didn't even cross my mind until right after an Azazel practice a couple months prior; and knowing how I am, once I get an idea in my head, I absolutely HAVE to do it somehow.

So fast forward past getting the venue and date secured as well as the lineup, and we're now going through our routine of practicing and composing new material. Another factor on our minds was what to do about our bass situation, as Travis had informed us prior to  that that due to his current work situation and schedule, he may or may not be able to participate. About a month away from the big day, we still hadn't seen nor heard from him about what's going on, so we decided to start taking matters into our own hands.

When I attended a Memorial Day BBQ with a few friends and band colleagues, one of them in attendance (Junior from Cousin Fister/Thrawtle) told me about a buddy of his that plays bass and loves metal. He got us in contact, and we hit it off right away over our mutual love for Decapitated. He dropped by to meet Pete and I during one of our one on one practices and was sold on the music and everything we're doing. He later told us about his past band My Sorrow, at which point I became starstruck, as both Rich and Tricky from Azazel have told me many great things about that band, and that he was the bassist and vocalist. At that point, I knew we had a seasoned veteran on our hands and he would definitely be the perfect fit for the band. We immediately began putting him to work and getting him up to speed with the songs. He picked it all up quick and is now rockin' them like a beast!

Come the day of the show, Alfred and I do our last run through of the songs with Dave to iron out any last minute questions before we hit the stage that night. Anyone that knows me knows that my mind is always racing a million miles an hour when I'm in show mode, trying to maintain that perfect balance of saying hi to everybody and also ensuring that everything runs smoothly. 

We minus Buddah report to the venue first to load in and soundcheck, and after hearing everything come through the monitors and front of house, we knew it was going to sound massive and couldn't wait to take the stage!

With our soundcheck and load-in complete, Hymns To The Stone gets their stuff underway, and I meet up with the guys in Azazel for a last supper of sorts just a stone's throw away at Fajita Fiesta. All the grubbing and laughs out of the way, we head back to the venue, wherein Incisus are arriving to load in and get situated as well.

The show kicks off with Hymns To The Stone bringing the hammer of doom upon us, getting things nice and heavy and setting the tone for the night. Azazel takes the stage in full thrashin' fashion, lots of circle putting going on and keeping the crowd pumped. Incisus follows, delivering a lethal dose of melodic brutality (I'm really happy I got these guys on the show, as I explained to their bassist and main man Hector that they're the ones who inspired us to update our logo and all that, so this was our way of returning the favor... Not to mention they're hella cool dudes! We're looking forward to tearing it up with them again next month at The Workshop)!

Finally, it was our turn to take the stage. We decided to do an epic boxer's intro sort of thing with music going over the P.A., I mean for an occasion like this, why not? The intro we chose is "Oden's Ride Over Nordland", which is the intro piece that's on Bathory's Blood Fire Death album. I've always had a huge fascination for not just that piece, but also for when bands do those kind of intros, just as Metallica does with Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold". Even Pete's mom had a lot of great things to say about our use of the intro, that it was a really great entrance and really built up the anticipation for something big.

With the Quorthonian intro of epic proportions concluding, we take the stage and begin our militaristic war drums and blackened doomy riffing with The Summoning before launching full speed into our set with Icon. We'd rest in between songs for a minute with Buddah's random comedy outbursts, contrasting it with our brand of brutality, and we had an awesome night!

I think it's safe to say that all parties involved had an awesome time, and we continued the afterparty at Zamore mobile pizzeria in front of Strummer's.

An incredible bookend to my twenties, no doubt about it. There's no other group of people I'd rather be doing this with! As an added bonus, we even got the soundboard recording of the whole show, so you might be getting to hear a live track in the future... Keep your eyes and ears peeled, my beloved Amentheans!

July 13th, we're playing at Strummer's 1-year anniversary party, so don't forget to come out and get your Sunday Funday on with us!

Initiation ov Al-shred at Spinnaker Lounge 5/17/14

Our apologies in advance for the major delay in posting about all the gory details surrounding our first show with Alfred.

Getting to the point now, we prepared and toiled in tireless anticipation for the show. Not wanting to make our return to Modesto with the same set from last time, we made it a point to bring in two brand new songs into our repertoire, Transmigration and Thine Enemies Vanquished.

Transmigration started off as a riff idea that I had in mind when Alex was still in the band, but unfortunately did not see the light until after the fact. With it, I was eager to incorporate the juxtaposition of crushing and fast death metal riffing with the blackened flourishes and put some hills and valleys with tempo and mood changes in there as well. The latter is what resulted in the trade-off solo section working really well, something that we've only done previously with Moments. It might rear it's head again on future songs, but we'll have to wait and see...

Thine Enemies Vanquished was another one of those ideas that started off as a spontaneous bout of inspiration in the form of a random riff/melody you hum in your head. Luckily, it came to me not only as I was on my way home from work, but only a mere couple hours before band practice, so I was able to show it to the guys while it was still relatively fresh in my mind. From there, we played around with other riffs that flowed with the first one and structured it accordingly. Originally we wanted to do another trade-off solo thing, but that didn't seem to work right. When we did that lead guitar melody a couple bars then harmonized it, we knew it would work a lot better, and we're quite pleased with results. Sometimes you have to adapt to the song, and not the other way around. The song title idea was originally inspired by a quote in Conan the Barbarian when he is asked what is good in life. The same also inspired an Amenthes t-shirt that's currently in the works. When I pitched the idea to the guys, Buddah suggested we reword it somehow, since Crush Your Enemies was already in use by Chimaira, unbeknownst to me. Nevertheless, my imagination kicked in once I started looking closer at the artwork that's going to be used for the shirts, and realized that a caption in the past tense would be more appropriate, and everyone approved. Yay!

So moving on from the behind-the-scenes of the songwriting, we also were eager to make subtle improvements to the overall presentation of our show, thus we invested in a new customized drum head for Pete with our logo all nice and beveled. The way I see it, it's a lot easier than having a team of people deal with putting up a giant backdrop or banner with our name on it, not that we're opposed to that in the future should the need arise.

All the practicing and preparations lead up to the day of reckoning. Travis was not able to participate due to prior work commitments, so we had to soldier on without our bottom end. We arrived at the venue and took in the atmosphere of the gig. Alfred and I went to the taquería next door for a little pre-show grub, then we all took turns watching and supporting the other bands and babysitting our gear. On a side note, the latter is probably one of the most useful tidbits of band-related advice I've ever received from anyone: watch your gear like a hawk at shows, especially out of town. To say we stuck out like a sore thumb on the lineup is a major understatement. The rest of the bands played punk and rock in varying degrees, so we were a little skeptical of the response we would receive from the crowd. We already gave ourselves the clichéd football team pep talk of going in and playing our asses off no matter who or how many stuck around to watch us, after all we were to play last.

The moment of truth arises and much to our amazement, we didn't scare everyone away! By everyone, I refer mainly to the members of the other bands that passed along the good band karma and stuck it out through the night to watch our set. It was obvious once we blazed through Icon that we were not the type of band they were expecting to hear. We continued through our set, and afterwards chatted it up with the promoter and people from the other bands (Broken Note Undertone, Dying Image, and Broken Trojan... Gotta love that name!), and we were truly amazed and touched to receive such a great response from everyone that was there to get crazy with us. We felt extremely proud and accomplished with Alfred on our team and we can't wait to head back up to the 209 in August to see our friends there for our first appearance at the Workshop in Ceres.

Prior to that, though, we will be playing at Fulton 55 on June 28th with Azazel, Incisus (Manteca, CA) and Hymns To The Stone for my 30th birthday. It's going to be a brutal one for sure, so we hope to see you all out there!

Stay Brutal \m/

-Pierce

The New Blood ov AMENTHES

It's been a long time coming, but we decided to break the news last night on the identity of the "new guy" that we had been mentioning in posts for the past few months, who is none other than Alfred Lopez (a.k.a. Al-Shred, Jared Leto, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Davy, etc.), effectively completing the two-axe attack that AMENTHES is intended to be!

You may remember him from other local bands such as Atomic Violence, Desecrator, and Dead Castle, where he also lent his talents and creativity in making awesome extreme metal. We are without a doubt excited and proud to have him aboard, and look forward to raising the brutality everywhere possible with him in our ranks. He will be making his live debut with us at Spinnaker Lounge in Modesto on May 17, and locally on June 28th at Fulton 55. We hope you all can come out to meet him and see him tear it up with us on stage!

Reflections on Soulfly and our 1 year anniversary

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Gearing up for Soulfly at Strummer's

In some ways, it seems like this week has been dragging on; in others, I feel like I haven't had a moment to catch my breath. I suppose the emotions are a mix of excitement and nervousness, a lot like the countdown for any show, no matter the venue or lineup.

If you ask Buddah, the guys from Azazel or myself how significant this show is for us, prepare to get your ears talked off! To simply say that the work Max Cavalera did with Sepultura was very influential on thrash and death metal would be a gross understatement. That era of Sepultura is easily up there in our top 5 bands and greatest influences as musicians.

I still remember hearing my older brothers listen to and seeing the album covers for Chaos A.D. and Arise when I was around ten years old, although it wasn't until I was seventeen/eighteen that my curiosity really drove me to see what they were all about. At the time, I was taking guitar lessons and was really all about Randy Rhoads, and I remember reading an interview with Andreas Kisser in Guitar World saying how his favorite albums are Master of Puppets and Diary of a Madman. I figured, if he's a fan of Randy, he's probably pretty good. If I recall correctly, it was a school night, and I was killing some time before I had to go to bed and took a look at the Arise CD. It looked horrific, surreal, and dangerous, and even in their band pictures inside the sleeve they looked like a legitimately rough bunch of dudes that would smash your face in if you so much as looked at them weird. Even reading prior to that that they're from Brazil, and all came up from poverty. These guys didn't need to pretend to be hard, they were the real deal. That alone was enough to draw me in, since it was the very antithesis of the then current trend of nü metal, which I personally never got into. Once the music started playing, the thunderous sound byte making ominous sounds like the very mouth of Hell was opening wide to devour you and everything in it's path. Then suddenly, out from the speakers bursts Arise, kicking ass and taking names in such a dark and nihilistic way... Sold! From there I started checking out the other albums, championing the span of Beneath The Remains to Chaos A.D. Although I was bummed to find out Max had quit the band and formed Soulfly, my inner metalhead was definitely more than satiated with my discovery of Sepultura when it seemed like the goings-on in Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera at the time were anything but great.

Fast forward twelve years, I almost couldn't believe it when Buddah told me that Soulfly was coming to Fresno, and to Strummer's of all places, as they had come a year ago to the Rainbow Ballroom with Five Finger Death Punch. I'm still pinching myself over the fact that I get to open for them with both of my bands (I hope I have enough energy to do double duty)! It's a trip and a half to be kicking off 2014 opening for big national bands, and there is nothing about it I would change. Even if I wasn't playing, just to see the show itself would've been awesome! 

Two days left, and I still have more preparations to go as far as promo materials and practice with Azazel. Stay tuned, Amentheans!

On behalf of AMENTHES,

Pierce

All Four One Purpose!

After much anticipation on our part, we finally descended upon Visalia with one purpose: evangelize it's denizens with the everlasting gospel of hatred and vitriol... Ok, so that, and overcoming the obstacles that threaten to derail us on the night of the show.

We made it to the venue without too much trouble (Pete, following behind Travis and I, missed the turn off and almost got lost, haha) and had plenty of time to load in and soundcheck. At this point, I'm enamored with the stage setup, as I had never played at a venue like that one previously. The stage was fairly large and clean (pretty much the antithesis of dive bars), kudos to Cafe 210 for running a tight ship with that!

In the midst of everyone setting up, Pete tells me that he forgot one of his cymbal stands, most likely that it accidentally got left outside at Gristle HQ. So he does a last minute cymbal repositioning to compensate for his lack of a ride cymbal. Micah and Alex of Catharsus were also kind enough to let me use their guitar cabs for the show, since there was limited space in Travis's car for both his and my gear, so I had a lot of fun getting to play in stereo, haha.

We're all set up and ready to go. The lights dim, Buddah greets the crowd, and Pete kicks off our intro with the toms. While I allow my guitar to feed back for a couple bars to buy us all a couple extra moments to get pumped up, we all quickly glance at each other, realizing that we're each as nervous as the next guy. It is in that very moment, inside the lion's den, that we muster up our courage and might and join Pete in our instrumental intro, marching into war.

With the intro concluded, we kick things into high gear the best way we know how: Destroyer of the Icon. We follow it up with Dead Lights, following which Pete's double kick pedal broke on him. Luckily, Jeremy from Catharsus saved the day and spotted him his double kick for the rest of our set. With the technical difficulties ironed out, we continued on with Codex Gigas. At this point in the set, I can tell Buddah's trying his hardest not to swear in between songs, and we all knew it was going to be interesting to see how he would announce the next song, Barbed Wire Fist Fuck. We continued on with Unrealistic Moments, and finally concluded our set with World Unknown. We made it through the set alive and in one piece, and we had a killer time and response from the crowd!

We clear out and make way for Catharsus. They take the stage and rip it up like always! Unfortunately, they had to stop in the middle of a song when someone in the audience started having a seizure. A scary situation to be in at any show, let alone the one you're playing. Once the paramedics arrived and the situation calmed down a little bit, Catharsus resumed the rest of their set and killed it!

Next up was the night's headliner, Fallujah. It was surreal getting to share the stage with them after recently seeing them at Strummer's a couple months back on tour with Skeletonwitch and Black Dahlia Murder. They were just as amazing this time as the last time I saw them. An experience like this is something I never would've imagined in a million years, let alone getting to open for Soulfly nearly a week later!

In conclusion, we had a great time out in Visalia and made a lot of friends, and even ran into a couple of Travis' old friends at the after party. In spite of being completely out of our element with the setbacks of malfunctioning gear and being one guitarist short on top of the completely new venue and town for us, the four of us really came together and made it work, and we proved to ourselves that we are indeed capable of carrying on if needs be as the four horsemen to bring about the apocalypse at a venue near you! Much love and cheers to our buddies in Catharsus for going above and beyond the call of duty, we can't thank them enough for all the help they gave us; and hails to all the Amentheans new and old that came out to support. We hope to see you all soon!

On that same note, we will be opening for Soulfly at Strummer's on Sunday the 26th with HateFX and Azazel. This show is one you should definitely not miss!!!

On behalf of AMENTHES,

Pierce

Welcome!

Welcome, Amentheans, to our official (for the time being) website, and one-stop shopping place for all things AMENTHES!

The timing for this couldn't have been better as to coincide with our show tonight at Cafe 210 in Visalia with Catharsus and S.F. Bay Area heavyweights Fallujah. Tonight is a special night for several reasons: one, it's our first show in 2014, and I couldn't think of a better way or lineup to do it with. It's almost a surreal feeling being asked to open for Fallujah, as they had just played here in Fresno a couple months back with Skeletonwitch and Black Dahlia Murder. I will admit that prior to seeing them, I wasn't familiar with their music, but I'm glad that I did. When Alex Perez from Catharsus contacted us to play this show, how could we say no? This is AMENTHES' first time opening for a national touring band, and the best part about it is that it's not a pay to play show where we would've had to fork over a king's ransom just to play; we were simply asked to based on our merits as a band and most importantly as people. Hails to Catharsus!

Second: it's obviously our first (and hopefully of many!) time playing in Visalia, as well as Cafe 210. My understanding is that the venue is run by a Presbyterian church, but all around everything about it is a new experience for us. I just hope they're cool with death metal and the subject matter we sing about, haha.

Third: touching back to what was said previously about it being the first show of 2014, it is also the first show without Alex Belmontez, effectively making us a four-piece band for now. It's bittersweet in the sense that we were asked to play this show literally the morning after Alex notified us that he was choosing to resign from the band last month. The thought was daunting, but after we all finally reconvened to rehearse the songs, and we made it work. While we prepare our prospective new second guitarist and fifth member, the four horsemen will be riding into Visalia to bring about the apocalypse and raise the brutality to another fuckin' level!

So there you have it for the first post from our official blog and website. Stay tuned for more!

On behalf of AMENTHES,

Pierce