PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY: COREY ALLGOOD
When the Nekrogolikon tour got announced, I’d just finished buying a bunch of other concert tickets, and submitting PTO requests at work, so I figured I’d skip the show. Then imagine my surprise when Wastewalker reached out for me to come and photograph the show. So, of course I jumped at the chance to hit up another show, and ended up taking a half day at work to get down there earlier.
Arriving at the Ace of Spades, I met up with the guys to get my pass and help out with some video of soundcheck for them, plus I took a few soundcheck photos as well. With soundcheck done, it was time to leave the venue, so my wife and I hung out with Joel from Wastewalker and local metal mascot Sireric at Mas Tacos across the street from the venue, before hitting the line for admittance.
Doors opened at 7, and we all started filing in. To our surprise, Neverbloom were already playing, so we were only able to catch the back end of their set. They were definitely giving it their all, and we ended up feeling bad for them that the venue had them start playing as doors were opening. I was able to retroactively go back and check some of their material out after the fact. They have a cool Tesseract vibe going on, and if that’s your thing I do recommend checking them out.
Next up were Thrown into Exile, all the way up from LA. Maybe it’s my age starting to show, but these dudes really scratched a specific 2004 itch for me! The blend of early thrash and early metalcore was a ton of fun, and the band executed the performance of the music live flawlessly. The energy on their stage was both infectious and palpable. I’m really grateful they made that 7 hour trek up to play for us that night.
After Thrown into Exile, Lost to the Void hit the stage. I’d actually met their vocalist, Casey, before the show, and he was really one of the nicest guys. You’d never be able to tell from his stage performance. From the moment they took the stage, this band embodied anger, mixing their slamming riffs with the breakbeats and blastbeats from the drums. All of that rage was the perfect platform for Casey to stand on with his bear-like false cord to slam you in the face. This is some sick deathcore, and I even went and grabbed a shirt from their merch booth (though, they may have sold me by selling a shirt that says “Kill a rapist, murder a pedophile. They fucking asked for it.”)
Wastewalker as the penultimate act absolutely blew the fucking doors off. Riding off of their new EP, “Trapped Between the Realms of Suffering,” they took the stage determined to take ownership of the crowd — a goal that took only seconds to accomplish. Kicking off the set with “Parasitic Coil” from the aforementioned new EP, we got a super atmospheric intro before the song launched into a full assault. Next up, they played “Vengeance of the Lowborn,” off of 2020’s “Lowborn” album, which definitely suited the energy the band and crowd were showing. Even from the photo pit, I could see how wild the pit was going, and even had a few crowd surfers almost take me out. Between the chaotic blastbeats from Justin, the sick leadwork shared between Joel and John, and the fat low end from the bass department, this was just fun old school death metal through and through.
Up next, they played the insanely suitable “War Never Changes,” riding on the release of the Fallout TV series (and Cam wearing a Fallout shirt to seal the deal), complete with sample from the Fallout game series in the song. With it’s driving riffs, and slower tempo in the first half than the former two songs, you’d think the energy would have let up, but the opposite was true. All of the musicians on stage commanded the crowd expertly. Rounding out the set with Singularity, The Moth, and Pentinence, these guys absolutely ruled, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again at my earliest convenience.
After Wastewalker finished up, it was time for Nekrogoblikon to take the stage. I’ve seen Nekrogoblikon videos circulating since “No One Survives” came out in 2012, but somehow had missed seeing them live in all of that time. Catching them live finally, I’m kicking myself for not catching them sooner. This was one of the most hilarious and fun shows I’ve ever seen. Making excellent work of recent addition Dickie Allen, who shouldn’t need an introduction as the vocalist of Infant Annihalator, Nekrogoblikon came out hard with Powercore. During a break, John Goblikon made sure to thank all of the bands who played before, like Wastewalker, and Thrown into Exile, and Lost to the Void, and Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, etc. while a befuddled Dickie tried to make sense of why so many bands that didn’t play tonight were being mentioned. The banter between John and Dickie was hilarity all night, from the aforementioned “bands that played before” joke, to a bit between songs where Dickie and John Goblikon argued over who got to take a break from performing to go and take a shit. What the band gave in terms of comedy, they gave double with energy through their whole set. With John constantly kicking off circle pit after circle pit, and the entire band performing their hearts out. Nekrogoblikon are pure entertainment on stage.
