Not being a big fan of Death Metal, I still decided to get the train from Sydney for ‘Death in the Swamp II’ and am I grateful I did. The five band bill was tight and together and the stage sets extended out into the audience. However, the really peak was the theatrics of one band, but I’ll get to that later.

     The stage set of mutilated corpses, scarecrows and blood splattered columns extended from the stage into the audience. They had certainly gone to great lengths to convert The Bar on the Hill into a set.

     The Black Dahlia Murder’s  Brian Eschbach once said that as much as they were influence by the brutality of Norwegian Bands, life in Los Angeles was simply to good to be that dark all the time and I got the impression Sagacity weren’t taking themselves to seriously either but they did take the music seriously. They launched into a blistering set after little chat and opened the show in a spectacular style.

     The lead guitarist in Cerebral Contortion really stood out. His sound was an interesting cross between early American Hard Core with Metal. They had a great DRI type sound and should look into crossing over into other gigs, like the modern Hard Core scene, to get out to wider audience.

     Deathmaask were next grinding along at an incredible pace ripping through their set. They were followed by The Seer, who were very good but not very exciting to watch. They played a dexterous and well rehearsed set but they didn’t really grab me as a live band.

     Celephai closed show and this was the act that made it theatrical. Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne would have been proud of these guys. The drummer was covered in black and red paint while the other musicians wore ripped, grey work suits with bloodied latex bones prodding out of the tears in the fabric. The singer was painted red in-between his numerous tribal tattoos with cloven hoofed, goat fleece one piece pants, red latex gloves with long black finger nails and claws between each knuckle and was capped with prosthetic goat horns. In short, he looked like a tattooed version of Tim Curry’s Devil in the ‘Legend’ movie.

     Unable to head bang, least his horns fly into the crowd, he stalked the stage with a sinister goblin walk during the lead breaks while the band powered through their set. The price of admission, a paltry fifteen dollars, three dollars a band, was worth it just to see Celephai.

     With small festivals slowly taking over the scene, it’s good to see some young bands thinking on their feet and competing as best they can. I also noticed the show was being filmed with two static and one roving camera. Hopefully, the five bands will pool resources and put together a DVD of the entire show.

     I was also very pleased to, for the first time in years, not have the longest hair in the room.