Rustbelt Rock Review

By: Z.M. Delgado

Rustbeltrockreview.com

Volume #157: Hatebreed, Carcass, Harms Way, Crypta, Purgatory

October 2nd, 2024

Agora Theater 5000 Euclid Ave #101, Cleveland, OH 44103

Well, well, well. What do we have here? It appears as if yet another installment of Rustbelt Rock Review has emerged. That is lucky for you, because this week I have a banger of a show to talk about. It all went down this past Wednesday, at my old haunt the Agora Theater. The event of the evening was Hatebreed’s 30th anniversary tour and they were certainly doing their part to make sure we had reason to celebrate. With them they brought a stacked lineup of talented bands from varying genres. In with the tour came Carcass, Harms Way and Crypta. Filling out the line up was local talent Purgatory, fronted by none other than Cleveland Metal legend Jeff Hatrix. With a bill with this much talent on it, I was understandably ecstatic as I paced around my house waiting for my ride. Right on schedule Joha and Chen Killingsworth arrived. They scooped me up and soon enough we were headed west with the stereo cranked. Battling the tail end of rush hour we fought our way to the Agora, where we parked and hiked over to the door with all speed. We still had plenty of time before the show started, but we were in a hurry none the less. You see, Hatebreed has the habit of printing small quantities of show specific t-shirts for each stop on a tour. Long story short, we wanted those shirts! So we made a rapid entrance to the club, and ducking behind a black curtain, took a shortcut to the merch area. I won’t bore you with further details, just know that in the end we made it through there long line in time and we are now the proud owners of these most coveted of t-shirts. With our quarry safely stowed, we hung around the club until it was time for the music to start. Then headed down to the floor for the first dose of our evening’s entertainment.

Kicking things off was Purgatory. Awaiting them, the floor was already heavily populated with eager fans. Obviously having a local opener on the bill did a lot to boost early attendance. This is a lesson that clubs and promoters should learn: Always include local talent! Anyway, with a solid crowd looking on, Purgatory took to the stage. This Cleveland act is made up of four members: Vocals, Guitar, Bass and Drums. Their frontman, Jeff Hatrix, came out with his hood up and his face painted like a skull. They opened up loud and very Thrashy. Attacking with a fast and driving tempo I was immediately impressed with the music. They had a great drum sound and their Guitarist delivered excellent solos. Meanwhile their singer held it down with his instantly recognizable and utterly unique vocal presence. On the song “Nightcrawler” I really dug the cool start and stop pattern and was again wowed by the Guitar work. Following that they rolled on to a galloping cadence that reminded me vaguely of Overkill. More sick riffs continued to pour out over the crowd as Purgatory doused us with their sound. They Thrashed their hearts out, sent the crowd into fits of headbanging and had the fans screaming for more. To end the set, Hatrix abruptly walked off the stage without a word to the crowd. The song ended, the crowd cheered and sent Purgatory off with a lot of love. I have to say the fans seemed to eat them up and were calling for more even as the band began to tear down their gear. The lights came up and the crowd dispersed to the four corners of the club. We made our way to the smoking patio where we roasted a couple of doobies before heading back inside.

Now stoned to the bone, we were prepared for our second dose of Heavy Metal that evening. In from Brazil, our next performers were Crypta. I knew next to nothing about this band, except a little Joha had told me on the ride out. Now you know, I like going into a set with no preconceptions, which was certainly the case here. So when Crypta hit the stage I was a blank slate, not even knowing what genre of Metal I would be listening to. Well, here’s some things I found out. 1) Crypta is forged from four women: Bass/Vocals, Two Guitars and Drums. 2) They play a style that I would categorize as Death Metal or perhaps even Blackened Death Metal. 3) They are fucking bad ass! They came out like fire and absolutely scorched all of us who stood looking. They had bone crushingly heavy songs, with searing solos. Their singers voice was a mixture of vile snarls and merciless growls. In addition to their exceptional sound they also had impressive stage presence. The two Guitarists headbanged and Rocked out hard, while delivering back breaking riffs. Their Bassist wore a demonic smile, contorting her face into wicked expressions as she sang. My notes consist of several pages of praise for Crypta. It reads things like: “Wicked Solo,” “Thunderous Drums,” “Killer music,” and “Powerful and heavy as fuck!” More important than my thoughts however was what was happening all around me. The crowd seemed to love them, sinking their teeth into every juicy cut and swallowing them raw. Everywhere I looked people were losing their minds to Crypta, particularly the women in the room. It seemed that my Metal sisters were truly impressed with what this Brazilian quartet had to offer. And I can dig that. After all, Metal is often a boys club, and whether we want to admit it or not, women are underrepresented on our stages. So when a band with the obvious chops of Crypta shows up, the girls have plenty of reason to celebrate! And why not? I was celebrating too. Shit, we all were! Crypta was just that good. They had it all: A good sound, stage presence, strong song writing, and sick solos. I believe they played a total of 6 songs before they had exhausted their time. (If I would have had it my way, they would have played a lot longer.) The crowd lost it’s shit when the set concluded. The whole room was screamed for more. It was amazing. Crypta said goodnight and the Cleveland faithful sent them off with a monstrous ovation. The lights came up and the boys and I made our way back to the smoke pit for another doobie.

Eric Stevenson: The Official Tattoo Artist of the Rustbelt Rock Review. @ericstevensonart

Back to the floor we strapped in for our third performers of the evening, Chicago’s Harms Way. This is a five man, Beat Down Hardcore band merged from Vocals, two Guitar/Backing Vocals, Bass and Drums. The band took the stage and fired up some heavy ass shit to start. Only after the riffs had played out for a bit, did the singer first emerge into view. With an Eyehategod shirt stretched across a terrifyingly muscular frame, the front man of Harms Way is an imposing specimen. His stage presence matched his size, as he was a constant source of activity. Almost immediately a mosh pit opened up. The moshing gave way to the two step as the crowd fed off the power of the music. It wasn’t long before the fists and kicks started flying indiscriminately. Harms Way was pure energy and aggression. They pumped the crowd up to a frenzy and set them loose upon one another. In time the singer called for a circle pit and one formed immediately. Kids ran wild for the majority of the song, until the circle degraded into a moshpit of furious violence. On the song “My Name” Harms Way had the crowd with their fists in the air, chanting “Ay! Ay! Ay!” The whole set culminated on their closing number. Here the entire fury of the performance erupted. A circle pit broke out again, followed by two stepping. That went on until the breakdown came which caused the dancing to collapse into a crowd killing display of moshpit karate. After this we saw a return to the two step as the crowd rode out the remainder of the song dancing. I believe Harms Way played a total of eight songs before they called it a night. The crowd roared and sent them off like conquering heroes. It had been a significantly intense and violent set. One of passion and power, that the fans in Cleveland clearly loved. After they finished up, can you guess what we did? That’s right! We went outside and smoked another joint, because after all, that is what we do.

The time between sets flew by and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves back in the pit. There we waited for the fourth band of the evening: Carcass. This British Death Metal band is sewn together from Bass/Vocals, two Guitars and Drums. Once again, the band began to play, only to have the Vocalist enter the stage last. They opened up very heavy and had the crowd headbanging from their first notes. They stood before a backdrop with a huge rib cage on it. Beneath this there were four small screens that showed a variety of old medical sketches. I immediately noted that their singer had an excellent growl. On their second song some light moshing started up and continued more or less throughout out the set in with fluctuating intensity. Carcass delivered hard charging rhythms and riffs as well as shredding Guitar solos. The band had the crowd chanting “Ay! Ay! Ay!” with their fists in the air. I saw a guy go down in the pit and fuck up his leg, he had to be helped from the floor to the rear of the club. While his night was likely over, Carcass carried on up on the stage with a hard, fast, audio assault. The intensity seemed to grow with each passing song. The light moshing increased to moderate, edging toward heavy. By their fifth song the pit had grown wild and powerful, and the floor became a calamitous and savage place to reside. One organ rupturing song after another was brought to life by Carcass and the fans ran wild. I believe they played a total of eight tracks before they called it a night. The fans screamed in approval as they said farewell and exited the stage. On their way out Carcass took their pound of flesh from the Cleveland Metal Scene and then some. The crowd dispersed and we headed outside for one last smoke session before the main event. On this last sortie to the smoke pit I ran into my good buddy Tom from Bessemer Saints. We shot the shit but it wasn’t long before I felt the itch to get down to the floor. I said farewell to Tom and returned to the Theater.

With our ritual complete, we weaved our way down to a packed floor and found a spot. While the stage and sound crew did their thing, a slideshow played over the stage showing photos of Hatebreed over the years. This played out for a while until the lights dropped. Then a video was shown, featuring various Rock Stars and celebrities wishing Hatebreed a “happy 30th anniversary.” This included Ice-T, Randy Blythe, Scott Ian, Kirk Windstein and many, many more. The video ran and then, in a bewildering second the band was on the stage and they were exploding into action. Opening with “Tear it Down” Hatebreed came to life and took control of the room. Instantly a moshpit erupted and began to grow. Mutating into a circle pit, the violence carried forward through “A Call for Blood” and into “This is Now.” In this ever churning pit, there was a lot punishment being doled out. I saw one dude, we’ll call him Tim, being a real dick. Tim was cheap shotting people left and right. He was hitting people in the backs and then retreating. Tim even took a shot at Chen, who wasn’t even in the pit at the time. Suffice to say Tim was an asshole. But enough about that guy, we’ll talk more about him later. For now, let’s get back to Hatebreed! Led by their energetic frontman, Jaime Jasta, Hatebreed was focused, determined and intense. Their stage presence was off the charts as it seemed the band never stopped moving. Yet things were just getting started and Hatebreed was about to kick things into high gear. As the tell tale notes of the Bass began to resonate, “Destroy Everything” arrived in the set. The pit ignited and actual violence erupted. A fight broke out in front of me between a man in a flannel shirt and guess who… that’s right Tim. This was broken up quickly but this conflict resurrected itself during the very next song: “Burial for the Living.” It was here when a flannel man who shall not be named, and Tim collided again. Only this time, Tim got caught. Not more cheap shots in the back. No more ducking back into the crowd. Flannel man got a hold of Tim and took him to the floor, where he rained knuckles down upon him for what seemed like a very long time. By the time people separated the two of them, Tim’s face looked like a bowl of Spaghettios. Flannel man went back to watching the show, while Tim left the floor and… went and got security. That’s right after instigating fights all evening, this guy finally got his ass kicked and he runs for the law as soon as it happens. Typical.

But anyway… Next Hatebreed broke out “To The Threshold” followed by “Driven by Suffering.” On “Live Through This” the crowd was screaming along word for word, with the crowd emphasizing the words “This! This!” amazingly. Next came “Smash you Enemies,” “Everyone Bleeds Now” and then “Hollowed Ground.” Smoke jets blasted from the stage and the circle pit rolled on, as the fans raged thoroughly. “Empty Promises” was playing when I noticed the first of the crowd surfers had taken flight. Next came “Last Breath” then “Before Dishonor” both songs had the crowd pumping their fists in the air. The fans chanted “Ay! Ay! Ay!” to the rhythm of “Proven” but things were only just getting interesting. Here Hatebreed unleashed the “Ball of Death!” This was an enormous ball with the Hatebreed logo and the words “ball of death” printed on it. They launched this into the crowd before breaking into “Looking Down the Barrel of Today.” The ball ricochet around the theater for the duration of the song before it made it’s way back to the stage and disappeared. “Under the Knife” was followed up by “Seven Enemies.” Moshing continued below and above more daring crowd surfers flew past. Things only got more heated as Hatebreed broke into “Perseverance.” The pit ran wild, the crowd surfing increased and horns were in the air in all directions. Next we got a real treat, as Hatebreed busted out a cover of Slayer’s “Ghosts of War.” They tore through the cover masterfully before it was time to close out the set. With one final punishing blow, Hatebreed hit us with “I Will Be Heard.” The fans tore themselves and each other to pieces one final time. It was an absolutely brutal finish. The lights came up and the fans gathered around the stage to take a picture with the band. Once the photo op was over… so was the show. Just like that it was out the door and off to the car.

And so we drove home, fully satisfied and utterly exhausted. It had been one amazing evening of metal. Purgatory really opened up the show the right way and did a good job warming up the crowd. Crypta was the big surprise of the evening. They blew me away and reminded me why it is so important to always show up early to see the opening acts. Harms Way was really intense. They brought down the house with their Beatdown sound. Carcass unleashed some truly wicked music in the way that only they can. Finally Hatebreed did what Hatebreed does. That is to say, they absolutely killed it. With power and passion Hatebreed is one of my favorite bands and with good reason: They lift me up and they have never let me down. On that note I will bring this rambling drivel to a close. Bang your heads, hoist your horns and wear your earplugs.

Until next time, Rock on, Rustbelt,

-Z.M. Delgado

Rustbelt Rock Review

Rustbeltrockreview.com

10/5-10/6/2024

Links:

Hatebreed

https://www.hatebreed.com/

Carcass

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCarcass/

Harms Way

https://www.harmsway13.com/