A View From The Pit: Municipal Waste and 3 Inches of Blood

With new albums from crossover giants Municipal Waste and power metallers 3 Inches of Blood recently being released, this is a tour that was meant to grab you by the short hairs. Both of these beasts are known for their live shows so it was guaranteed to be an excellent night of wailing vocals, wailing guitars, and more stage diving than the Obese Child’s Choir of Milwaukee on bacon grease night at the local VFW hall. And when you bring along underground sludgsters Black Tusk, it is going to be a booze-soaked fun filled evening!

When Tacoma, WA based death metal band took the stage the venue wasn’t exactly filled but the excitement for the night’s coming activities was definitely building. There was a solid audience for this intrepid group of soldiers that braved the roads from way down south. When the first riffs were played, I began to think, “Oh great, another deathcore band with cheesy breakdowns to come very soon.” But you know what? That breakdown never came! The band played some great melodic tech-death that horrible trend hoppers are always trying to steal riffs from. In addition, the lead singer has some serious chops and charisma that forced the crowd to mosh and circle pit until exhaustion creeped into their morbid souls. Rarely do we see the local openers illicit such a rabid response from the crowd, which can only mean there is something to this band. Hopefully we feature them more in the future!

 Do you like your music dirty? Like some guy who hasn’t left his basement in weeks while doing nothing but shredding, sweating, then bathing in said sweat while shredding some more? Then let me introduce you to Black Tusk! This southern sludge trio came on stage to thunderous applause and the sheer heaviness of their three pronged sound attack audio banged everyone’s ears over and over. Bassist, guitarist, and drummer all contributed vocals and made the attack even more visceral. As amazing as these guys are on record, they prove why the live setting is THE way to experience music. It was a performance that was all hair, beard, tattoos, sweat, and metal; exactly what I look for in my music of choice! 

Every single one of us has a few bands that we will always see when they come through town. One of those bands for me is Vancouver, BC natives 3 Inches of Blood. One can argue that they can be held responsible for the big wave of traditional metal bands that have cropped up in the last 2 years as they were doing it when metalcore was in its heyday a few years back. Regardless of all that information, the band was meant for the live arena. With Cam Pipes’s (greatest singer’s name ever!) killer vocals leading the barrage, 3IoB scream from all angles willing the crowd to sing along, flail their fingers along to the guitar solos, and incite pits of pure elation. It is hard to leave a 3 Inches of Blood show without a smile on your face, and this die hard was grinning from ear to ear.

“Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up!” So sayeth the Waste, and they make good on that promise. After such an enjoyable experience so far, did the crowd have any energy left for these crossover gods? The answer was a resounding “Yes!” Circle pits, crowd surfing, epic stage diving; the Waste fans went full boar for the band and the band in turn did the same for us. Not ones for crazy stage shows and histrionics, they simply open up the stage to any surfer, play some ripping thrash metal, and coerce even the shyest wood nymph into acting like a coked up ADD kid. Playing such classics as “Headbanger Face Rip”, “Mind Eraser”, and “Sadistic Magician” as well as new tracks like “Repossession”, MW tore up everyone’s ear drums and assholes. While in the front row I was subject to extreme riffage and multiple kicks to the face, but they could not have been more enjoyable. The high energy and flawless playing made for one hell of a show and a memorable night. Municipal Waste indeed did fuck me up that night.