February 15, 2025
DNA Lounge, San Francisco
Four bands performed very solid sets but I’m going to focus on the two bands that really made an impression on me this mid February eve.
The night’s opener was one of the two. Hailing from LA, Siglos were FANTASTIC! I knew absolutely nothing about these guys prior to their set but they had my full attention from the second they started. Their sound was rooted in Death Metal vocally but musically there was much more going on then just your brutal DM fare. In fact they weren’t really brutal at all. These cats are much more about a dark, heavy vibe than blast beats and full on guttural assault. The majority of their music was mid tempo with extremely tight drumming. The whole band played very well with a great overall sound provided by The DNA’s in-house sound person.
Visually Siglos were just as interesting. They wore corpse paint that represented their Mexican heritage more than paying homage to the church burners up north. The lead singer especially had a shaman vibe going on, blowing sage into the audience throughout the show. Like I said I didn’t know shit about this band and by the end I was a full on fan. Unfortunately they had no vinyl for sale. AND I spaced on taking photos of the most visual band of the night, FAIL!
I was outside for most of Stormruler’s set but from what I saw and heard they were melodic Black Metal played very well. The crowd seemed to dig them very much.
The second band that blew me away was Vltimas. I knew this was David Vincent’s new band but I hadn’t checked them out prior to the show. I’m not entirely sure why that is. Perhaps because his post Morbid Angel musical output hasn’t exactly been my cup of tea, including his return to Morbid with 2011's Illud Divinum Insanus. An album that occasionally brought the listener to some of MA’s former glories but also lowered the bar to an all time low. So needless to say I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. In addition to Vincent on vox we also have Rune Ericksen from Mayhem on guitar and Paul of Vader fame on drums.
Actually the drummer on the Vltimas albums is Flo from Cryptopsy. I was expecting to see him up there behind the kit but the guy they have now handled the drum duties brilliantly. It was a trip seeing David Vincent on stage being a full on vocalist/frontman without handling bass duties. But after half a song I didn’t even give it another thought. He did a great job fronting the band and his DM voice has held up very well over the years. Musically they pretty much represented all the respective bands each member hails from. From whirlwind paced songs ala Mayhem or early Morbid Angel to mid tempo headbangers reminiscent of Morbid’s mid era albums.
Rune Erickson from Mayhem has one of the fastest picking hands I’ve ever seen. Something I don’t normally look for and would never have noticed if it weren’t for Robb Flynn pointing it out to me. Their set was a mixed bag of nuts and pretty much everything they threw at the crowd stuck. With musicianship at the highest level these guys were fucking awesome!
Septic Flesh put on a solid crowd pleasing show as they always do.
–Bleeding Priest
