Not only have I lost my mind, but I have also lost my hearing…call it deafness caused by over exposure to giant riffs. If you don’t know, now you know: POWER OF THE RIFF laid siege to Los Angeles this past weekend & I must say it was fucking off the chain. So many rad bands, for the first six hours I could not even stop to eat. All I wanted to do was to go from killer set to radical set. I was so hyped all day, I was cyco non-stop fucking head banging. POWER OF THE RIFF straight wrecked shop with this year’s lineup, but what really makes this festival so special is that it is put on by people from the scene, so you never felt a corporate puppet master pulling your strings! Yeah I know this event is famous for many reasons, but everyone should know that this festival should be known for respect for humanity – what I’m trying to say is that there are fucking truckloads of positive vibes at this festival. It’s extra cool to see the bands just kicking it all day with the fans, it seemed like we all just checked our egos at the door. Due to the varied genres of music on the bill, you had metal heads, doom dealers, crusty punks, hardcore kids & everyone in between, and they all just chilled in oneness. I can’t even describe how cool it was to be able to bro down with bands that I have been into for a while & be able to have some epic conversation. I did the best I could do – I couldn’t catch every set, but here is a list of the bands I did see: 7 sisters of Sleep, Skin Like Iron, Masakari, Acephalix, Alpinist, Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die & EYEHATEGOD. I took mad flicks of some electrifiying performances, so in order to get down to nitty gritty, I’m going to pick one of my favorite shots from each band & write a small review of their set. It gets better – we will also have a huge POWER OF THE RIFF photo gallery (over a 100 photos) after the jump with even more off the chain photos!
The EYEHATEGOD crew all together before they put the whole festival under their Dirty Spell!!!
SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP
The band that I got to check out first was SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP, and what a way to start the day. These dudes started moving the walls with their mayhem sludge punk. They have that black magic voodoo swagger to their sound that just kept me grooving the whole set. What I really dig about this flick is that it captures the heart & conviction that their vocalist puts into his delivery. As a creative unit, you could feel the ghost of doom swirling around SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP the whole time they performed, which was epic!
ACEPHALIX
What the fuck!! ACEPHALIX brought some next level shit to their performance. Dan, their vocalist, was on a mission to let the crowd know they better wake the fuck up. The whole set he kept leaping into the crowd & totally connecting with the fans, which was mad cool. The band was on point 100%, they made sure that pure fucking Apocalyptic rage was coming out of the speakers the whole time they were on stage. Everything about ACEPHALIX is original & when you see them live it is only magnified! Now this flick of Dan says it all to me, their whole set was fucking blackened tornado…
SKIN LIKE IRON
SKIN LIKE IRON did their thing with pure passion, & I was really impressed with the singer’s delivery, he had my attention throughout their set. It was epic to see how the crowd was totally geeking out on them. Their music also translated well in the room & sounded fucking rad. I like this photo of the SKIN LIKE IRON singer because it draws you into the depth of what he was saying.
ALL PIGS MUST DIE
Unholy hell, by the time ALL PIGS MUST DIE hit the stage, pure mayhem broke loose. I just dig their new album so much that I couldn’t wait to see them live, & I must say they did not disappoint at all. Their vocalist fucking killed shit, stalking the stage like a bonafide madman. As a band, ALL PIGS MUST DIE had great chemistry together, which just added to their already explosive sound. It was funny as fuck head banging & stopping every once in a while to take some rad flicks. Why did I choose this out of all of the other gnarly flicks that I have of ALL PIGS MUST DIE? One word – POWER!
MASAKARI
Checking out the MASAKARI set meant something special to me because their music is just fucking right on! WOW WOW WOW…these dudes ripped huge holes in the stage with their blackened onslaught of metallic crust. Watching MASAKARI live, you will see five humans onstage, but you feel this unified force that creates a sick sonic storm of rightous noize! It’s a trip watching them perform, because you can see the music actually moving through their bodies. Their set was off the fucking hook, keep it real, I’m sure from the photos you will be able to see that MASAKARI is not a band to fucked with. I had to pick two flicks – one rad one of Tony & the other of the MASAKARI three axemen!
MASAKARI
TRAP THEM
Have you been living under a rock? Everyone knows that TRAP THEM created a classic album with Darker Handcraft. So now it was time to see if they could show & prove with their live performance. Well I’m here to tell you they did bring the noise in spades – there was not one moment during their set when I was not under their spell. Unholy shit, TRAP THEM’s lead singer is a beast – word to the wise, do not try to feed him, he bite you. This band caused an epic pit for all of weirdos to enjoy. What I love about this photo is that it captures the intensity of their frontman.
ALPINIST
Germany’s ALPINIST brought the wreck shop factor to their show. Man oh man, these dudes were tight as hell & kept the music crushing every moment they were on stage. I’m super happy that I got to see them live, because I really dig the epic split they just put out with MASAKARI. One thing is for sure, this band really puts their heart & soul into what they do, which smacks you in the face when you see them live.
BLACK BREATH
Now for Seattle’s finest death dealers – BLACK BREATH. It was my third time seeing them & they just keep getting more lethal. Now this is another band that you can tell loves what fuck they are doing. The whole band has great showmanship to go along with the supernatural tunes. When I looked out into the crowd during their set, all you could were heads going back in forth in unison. Without BLACK BREATH performing, the festival would have been rad, but with them rocking shit it was way beyond rad, it was super epic awesome radical. Come on, look at this flick, can’t you just see that BLACK BREATH came to conquer!
EYEHATEGOD
Now it’s on, this is the band that I saved my weed for: the almighty EYEHATEGOD. I have been waiting for years to see them & it was worth the wait! Damn, this band ripped the whole universe a new one with their punk-infested blues. As a band and as humans, EYEHATEGOD is the real fucking deal. While watching them I couldn’t help but keep thinking it’s super cool seeing 5 punk kids from the 80s grow up to play the music they love. This band has no other choice but to make the kind of music that they love, & we all should be thankful that they will never change. As long as I can keep smoking my EYEHATEGOD, I will stay off the hard stuff. You figure out why I dig this photo so much?
Kuz
August 20, 2011 at 10:01 am
I’m so jealous, what a line-up! Some of my favourite bands right there: Acephalix, Black Breath and All Pigs Must Die along with others I’m just getting into like Masakari. I can tell from your review you had an awesome time, thanks for the write-up and all the great photos.