Concert Review

3 Inches of Blood, Toxic Holocaust, Early Man, and Asema
The Wild Buffalo Bellingham, WA

I have never been to a show at The Wild Buffalo before, but I was pretty happy with the venue. Unlike other clubs in Bellingham, the crowd was actually able to mosh around and have fun at a metal show. The night started off with a new local band, Asema. This was a talented young band that definitely showed some promise, mostly in the vocal abilities of the lead singer. She was able to spew forth some very amazing guttural growls and screams that blew me away. However, she did not put very much variety in her vocals. Each lyric of each song seemed to bounce back and forth between growls and screams at the same pace making each song tend to blend together. There was one song in which she did try out some clean singing, which was pretty decent but she should stick to what she does best, which are the screams that made the songs. Nothing too great but they definitely seem to show a lot of promise.

Early Man was up next. They are a thrash band with some definite punk aspects. For the live setting, they slayed the audience. There was an energy behind them that does not come across on record. They are too talented to only be heard on their album because there was a raw energy that they disgorge upon the crowd. Most of the people did not seem to be too familiar with this band and were not up front when they began their set. However, once the metal fury was unleashed upon these metal maniacs, they learned exactly what the band was all about.

Toxic Holocaust took to the stage next. They are a brilliant combination of thrash and black metal. The band is the masterpiece of mastermind Joel Grind and they come off with an intensity that would literally kick you in the face if it had the physical ability to. I was able to be in the front row for their entire set which gave me a perfect vantage point to witness the unrelenting barrage of thrash that laid waste to the audience. I became a very big fan of this band as a result of this show and will be trying to catch them every time they come through this area.

Finally the main event was up, 3 Inches of Blood came to the stage. This was the one band that everyone seemed to be there to see. They started of their set with Deadly Sinners, probably the first song of theirs that everyone there heard. Even though I had heard it so many times, I still loved hearing it live. They whipped through many of their beast songs including Swordmaster, Wykydtron, Crazy Nights, Goatrider's Horder, Night Merauders and Trial of Champions. The crowd was worked up into a frenzy that lasted the entire set. The crowd was singing along, moshing, crowd surfing, and just having a great time. Overall, I was very glad I made the trip up to Bellingham for the night. All the bands played well and I look forward to seeing them all again.