ANCIIENTS, DECAPITATED, & LAMB OF GOD ROCK THE GROVE OF ANAHEIM
Photo Credit, Dirt Junior
Vancouver’s Anciients began the night at 7.45 with a thirty minute performance of their groove/ doom inspired flavor of Canadian metal. The one third capacity-full crowd got into it as they finished the set off with a track off their 7 inch EP Snakebeard. “Let’s hear it for Decapitated, they’re going to rip your f%#king head off,” one of the vocalists told us, and he was right. At 8.35 when Decapitated took the stage it was on.
Hailing from Poland, the band features only one original and founding member, guitarist and songwriter Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka . Formed in 1996, the band brings a technical element to their brutal brand of death metal which translated full force on stage at the Grove of Anaheim. Playing a good forty minute set with over half its songs derived from the band’s last offering, Carnival is Forever, the band put on a solid performance for the crowd which was growing more frenzied and filling up by the second. After it was all said and done, with the lights up and road crew moving the gear to prepare for the evening’s headline act, members of the band came back out to the edge of the stage to shake hands with fans for few moments to show them their appreciation for coming down to spend the night with them, further building the crowd’s excitement.
By the time Lamb of God took the stage, the place was at a fever pitch. At 9.25, chanting broke out in the audience, “Lamb of God, Lamb of God” they cried as only the drum techs tinkered about on stage. At 9.30 it grew and the chants became louder, more intense. This crowd was ready. A Slayer song came over the PA systems, a sing along commenced, and abruptly stopped at the end breaking back out into “LAMB OF GOD, LAMB OF GOD.” At 9.45 darkness descended upon The Grove and the entire place erupted with screams. The band’s signature screens full of imagery of buildings collapsing, little girls and all the rest began, as the sirens rung out and all of a sudden there were the band launching into their track “Desolation” and it was on.
Playing a set a full thirteen songs long to a sold out crowd who reveled, ecstatic, frenetic to every single second of it, lead vocalist Randy Blythe stalked the stage, asking the fans to take care of each other, and dedicating the song “Eleventh Hour” to Jeff Hanneman of Slayer, “f$%king one of the legends who have left us.” In classic Lamb of God style, the band finished with their epic “Redneck” and fans were left spilling into the streets of Anaheim, satisfied to have spent their evening with three bands from three very different parts of the universe.
PPLA’s Pandie Suicide was able to chat with John Campbell of Lamb of God backstage before the show to chat about their current tour! Watch here!
