Chameleon Room's Most Brutal Night Ever Kicks Off With Broken Flesh

Oklahoma Death Metalheads just had a neckbreaker of a night at the Chameleon Room last weekend. My neck still hurts from all the headbanging. Somehow I ended up in the pit for about 20 seconds. That worked out about as well as the time I thought I was still young enough to ride a skateboard at the skatepark in Colombia, MO. Still hurting a little from that. Anyway, it was a grind death gore thrash metal fest, and the lineup for the show from headliner to opener was Suffocation, Exhumed, Jungle Rot, Rings of Saturn, local bands Enfuneration, Dark Arsenal and, one of our favorites here on Righteous Metal, Broken Flesh!

The guys from B.F. had some new music to expose us to, and got started immediately after soundcheck with brutal blast beats, growling vocals and a low string assault that flung the crowd into a head banging frenzy. The new songs stood out among the others in the setlist. The vocalist, Jacob Mathes, was full throttle, high energy and drummer, Brandon Lopez, just kept the beats insane all set. Guitarist Kevin Tubby's riffs on the new songs have some cool squeal elements and higher string runs that give some good contrast to the low chugs. They have a real solid bass player in Josh Mathes, who also does some vocals, as does Kevin. I was able to get a few videos, one of the opening song, and then another of a new song. Sorry I can't remember what its name was. So to watch the videos just click the pic!

I really liked the way Broken Flesh delivered their message, being the only Christ-inspired band of the evening. The singer just said that the band would not want to push anything at you, or shove anything down your throat. They just wanted the crowd to know that Jesus loves them, and that the band would be open to talk about that, or anything else, with anyone that would like to talk to them. I think it was handled well, and the crowd itself never met them with a negative response; and, for the most part, the other bands didn't react in a condescending or offended way either.

Well, the show rocked and I hardly had time to take more pics or video. The new B.F. album might be out around June or July, so be on the lookout! Many many more shows coming up, so I hope to grab some more video for all the metalheads out there to see.

Righteous Bands That Must Not Be Missed Or Forgotten, The 80's!

Today I have been thinking about how music has evolved, especially metal, and some of the finer points in Christian Rock/Metal history. I know I am going to miss some great stuff here in this post, but please humor me for a bit while I recap the first bands in my life that gave me the music that I enjoyed listening to from the Christian Rock genre.

1981-2

My knowledge of Christian rock music began in 1982, with the Resurrection Band. I had left the public school in my hometown, and started at a private school. I remember some kids on the bus talking about how heavy the Rez Band was. So I got a copy of DMZ on cassette from my friend who's dad worked at a Christian bookstore. I took it home and ended up playing the whole tape over and over for almost the entire weekend.

Resurrection Band - Military Man
The album 'DMZ' was released in 1982, and the Rez Band was already known to be a rockin' Christian band. But with this album, and songs like 'Military Man' and 'Babylon', the Rez had definitely shown the ability to match the output of secular radio rock bands of that time period.

Another band that stepped even further into 'heavy' territory around this time was Jerusalem. The third album by this Swedish group has some of the heaviest, and most definitely longest, jam out rock the Christian music world had seen. Their epic song "Sodom" lasts over 12 minutes, and includes an opening piano serenade. On the title track for the album, Warrior, the wah-wah pedal is full tilt on the intro...

1983

I was fortunate to get to see this band, Solid Rock, perform in an auditorium somewhere, I don't remember. But I had their album, at least one of them, and really liked their jam-rock style. This song is from the album 'Interdesign'. Click the pic to watch the video

1984

Although Stryper set a post in Christian rock history in 1984 with their EP release, The Yellow And Black Attack, the album that year that had even more influence on metal as a whole was the debut album by Trouble. I think many would say this is one of the heaviest albums released to date, and possibly kept afloat the 'doom' metal sound that has continued and revived in this millennium. They were able to turn a Bible scripture, Psalms 9, into a metal head banging fest without losing the feeling of the scripture.

1988

Christian metal was on the rise. Other bands like Saint and Whitecross were showing that Christian musicians were willing and able to attract fans from all walks of life. Rex Carroll offers up some shredding solos on the intro, "Eruption" style! Because Of Jesus!

 1989

Christian metal was still rocking hard, but the crossover had begun. Metal and thrash had merged, and the speed of punk rock had influenced some huge bands in the metal scene. Christian music was expanding too, giving us bands such as... The Crucified.

Well, I'll try to tackle some more of the timeline in another post. Hope everyone has enjoyed the flashback!

New Release from Lawton, Oklahoma's 'In Honor' Finding Ears in the Inner City.

Lawton is in no way estranged from the listeners in central and northern Oklahoma! This small town that holds a military base and several college education options also is responsible for pouring out some of the finest local bands seen in the club circuits here in Oklahoma City. In Honor has brought about a new EP which is circulating at shows and in fans ears.

The 5 song output from this Lawton quintet has a great hard and heavy sound. The vocals are gutsy, hardcore type vocals that stay in the range of bands like Obey The Brave or Onward To Olympus. There are some incredible additional vocals by featured guest singers; Jose Rodriguez from the Lawton band 'Valleys', Ethan Blasdale of Enid, OK's 'Thought Crime' and  Josiah Lyle of Texas band 'Mouth of the South'.
Guitars are full, powerful and chunk out some really pounding riffage, a great sound balance between guitarist Richard Bowen and bassist Caleb Cephas. The drummer, Zaq Thomas, is rock solid in delivery, and does not succumb to double-bass overkill. Their overall sound is solid, intense and not overly simplistic or technical.

You can listen to the new EP on their facebook page, or go to their bandcamp if you would like to download it. Otherwise, grab a physical copy from them at The Conservatory on May 6, 2013 when they open up for Creations, Deserters and a few other really good bands.

Preview song from Broken Flesh spreads quickly, leaves many anxious.

Oklahoma City Christian Death Metal favorites 'Broken Flesh' released a new song, a sneak peak of their upcoming album. Shortly after its release it was floating around on several facebook circuits and pages. The youtube preview video has recieved over 1500 views already and countless comments, including a pretty enthusiastic endorsement from A HIll To Die Upon.

'Warbound' will be the bands third release. Their second release, 'Stripped Stabbed Crucified', came out early last year, and had Ricky Puckett on vocals. This one has Jacob Mathes doing vocals, and the vocals on the new song are very gutteral/pig squeal stuff, very brutal. I like the drumming on this new one better, it sounds more musical to me. The guitar riffs and interludes are already cooler than the last release. Not only am I expecting that this new album will be better than the last. If the rest of the album is anything like this new song, word of mouth promotion for this release will continue to be strong, and I expect that the Broken Flesh fan base will grow exponentially, locally and nationally.

Locals here in Oklahoma City will be lucky enough to hear a few more songs from this new album when they play at the Chameleon Room on April 21st, opening for a large bill of bands. I've never seen them live, so I'm really looking forward to the show and maybe sharing a few snapshots with the blog-o-sphere!

Click the new album cover to watch the video on YouTube!

Un-black Metal To Invade Oklahoma City! A Hill To Die Upon - New Single!

The amazingly wonderful music venue known as The Conservatory will be hosting A Hill To Die Upon at the end of April (tickets). Not being too familiar with their music, this type of un-blackened ultra-thrash death metal is one I couldn't possibly pass up live! They will be joined by a nice variety of local Okie metal, one thing which we DO have here in Oklahoma. More on that shortly!

The AHTDU facebook page has pictures that show the makeup and scary demeanor they bring to the stage. It also stays pretty active sharing releases from other bands of interest. The last output from this band was in the form of a single recently released called "Manden Med Leen". It has some really interesting keyboard and acoustic guitar work.

Even though they do draw similarities to Immortal, I think their guitar riffs are not as complex, but are actually a little bit cleaner and easier to follow. The vocals are also quite understandable for anyone that is used to the 'strong' vocals used in some metal. Although I have been to plenty of righteous metal shows in my time, I expect this one to be quite a bit different. I haven't seen any bands of the genre wearing makeup, bloody looking garb and putting on such a show for the crowd! Can't wait!

Romero is getting back together, but changing their name

About a month ago, Romero announced that they would make a comeback, after calling the band defunct about 3-4 months ago. They released an EP that gained favor in the local and national 'Christcore' circles, and they landed an opening spot for Impending Doom, which granted them many more ears to hear their music. It now looks like the only remaining members are the drummer Dylan and the guitarist Dakota. They have decided that they would get new members and change the name of the band, but keep the same facebook page, which is here. (bloggers note: actually they are going to change the page, and I will insert the link here)

The band is based out of Shawnee, OK which, for non-Okies, is not too small of a town to hope for a like minded musician to pop up. If they only need a guitarist and vocalist, then it shouldn't be too long before these guys are at it again. Keep up with their facebook, and until the new lineup hits, jam on this...