Haunter, Trencher, Armamento Fatal
- Bleeding Priest
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
April 3, 2025
Eli’s Mile High Club
Oakland, CA
Thursday night at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland. A meager turnout was at hand for Haunter, Trencher and Armamento Fatal. I don’t get out to Eli’s enough. It’s a cool spot that’s a perfect sized room for lower level touring bands/packages and local showcases. It has a total neighborhood vibe as well. It feels very Oakland if that makes any sense. I dig it. Due to a complaining neighbor the very large outside deck/patio is closed indefinitely which completely SUCKS! I loved shooting pool back there. It’s a shame.
Before I get into the show I have to say that the dj/sound guy was killer, Night of the Blade. He was doing all vinyl and was spinning some rad shit. How often do you hear Mortal Sin, early Vicious Rumors and Detroit’s Halloween all in one sitting? It was the highlight of the night for me actually.
OK! The show ... .first band up was Armamento Fatal (@armamentofatal). These guys had a rough night. The set was fraught with technical difficulty. The guitarist in particular was having a tough time. He spent a lot of the set kneeling down, maybe figuring out what the issue was. Between songs there was faint music or a radio broadcast playing and at first I was convinced the bar music was still playing. Something that happens more times than you’d believe.
Then I thought someone’s amp was picking up the radio. Again, something that happens more times than you’d believe. In fact, it happened to Ted Aguilar quite often back in the day. We even recorded a demo with Ted’s amp having that problem throughout. Brood’s second demo MECHANIZED. We ended up using the radio broadcast between songs. I think it’s a Barbara Streisand song. Anyhoo, back to the show. Eventually the vocalist told the sound guy to turn it up. So I guess it was a sample? I don’t know but it made for some long awkward moments between songs.
Musically they were complete hardcore punk/power violence and maybe a little dash of grind and noise rock thrown in for good measure. It was a harsh sound but not bad at all. Funny thing, my first band was called Armament and weren’t that far off musically. Kudos to the rhythm section for holding things together.
Next up we have Trencher (@trencherspeedmetal) from Santa Rosa/Oakland. I really like these dudes. For the most part they are in the vein of early Sodom/Destruction with a somewhat Punk Rock ethos. One song in their set was COMPLETE Celtic Frost worship. It was like hearing all of Morbid Tales in 4 minutes.
They did a couple of covers as well. Running Wild’s Soldiers Of Hell which dare I say was better than the original. I dared! I’m sure some kult, mom’s basement dwelling Metalhead’s noggin’ is exploding right now. As much as I love early Running Wild, I've never been a fan of Rolf Pastarek’s vocals. Marcus from Trencher has a killer sandpaper voice with very good tonality. The second cover was Slayer’s Evil Has No Boundary. Good set overall. Quick footnote, Trencher’s drummer (pictured above) totally looks like Motley Crue’s mascot Allistor Fiend. I told him that once and he didn’t know what I was talking about.
Lastly we had Haunter (@haunterofthenight). Not the progressive Black Metal one from Texas…the one I was expecting. But the Punk Rock Black Metal one from SoCal. I would describe them as d-Beat Black Metal. They were pretty cool. The guitars were drenched in chorus and effects which was pretty interesting for the first batch of songs but got a little old after a while. If they used it more sparingly it would have more impact. They definitely had a unique sound which I always respect. I love a band that strives for their own musical identity from the get go. I enjoyed their set.
–Bleeding Priest
