Influential Death Metal Bands Bring Co-Headlining Tour To Regency

By Dave Pehling

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Two of the most important American death metal bands in the genre's history join forces as Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse share the stage when the Decibel Magazine Tour lands at the Regency Ballroom Saturday.

Alongside fellow Florida pioneers Death, Morbid Angel helped shape a new. more extreme style of metal after first coming together in 1983 around founding guitarist and sole constant Trey Azagthoth. After going through a number of line-up changes and an abortive attempt at recording their debut album in 1986 that the band was unsatisfied with (the recording entitled Abominations of Desolation would eventually be released in 1991), Azagthoth and bassist/singer David Vincent, second guitarist Richard Brunelle and ex-Terrorizer drummer Pete Sandoval released their landmark debut, Altars of Madness, in 1989 on Combat/Earache.

Though preceded by Bay Area extreme thrashers Possessed's album Seven Churches and Death's Scream Bloody Gore, Morbid Angel's first effort arguably did more to codify the sound of death metal with Vincent's guttural "Cookie Monster" vocals, Sandoval's ferocious blast beat drums and the complex time changes and hectic intensity anchored by Azagthoth's guitar. The album established Morbid Angel as a leading light of death metal and exerted an enormous influence on the emerging black metal scene of Norway.

The band would only rise in popularity in the next decade with it's follow-up recordings Blessed are the Sick in 1991 and Covenant two years later, the group's first for Warner Bros. subsidiary Giant. After having videos for "Rapture" and "God of Emptiness" receive heavy MTV rotation on both Headbanger's Ball and Bevis and Butt-head, the album's sales exploded, earning the band unheard of numbers for an extreme metal outfit and a spot touring with Black Sabbath and Motorhead.

While Morbid Angel would never achieve the same commercial success, the band has remained one of the most important death metal groups on the planet. Even after the departure of Vincent following the release of the iconic effort Domination in 1995, Azagthoth would continue to push the band into aggressive new territory with replacement bassist/singer Steve Tucker for the next few albums. Vincent would return in 2004 for a stint that lasted a decade, but Tucker again rejoined the fold in 2015. Fans can expect a career-spanning set of tunes from the group at the Regency Ballroom with a focus on their most recent recording Kingdoms Disdained, an album praised as the group's strongest since Damnation over two decades earlier.

Though both Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse have been cornerstones of the American death metal scene since the '90s, the Decibel Tour will mark the first time the two groups have toured together. Anchored by the founding rhythm section of bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz starting in 1988, Buffalo-based death metal giants Cannibal Corpse drew influence from thrash greats like Slayer and German bands Sodom and Kreation, the more extreme sounds of Morbid Angel and Death as well as an obsession with graphic horror films. The band's first demo quickly led to a deal with Metal Blade Records, who released the group's 1990 debut effort Eaten Back To Live.

While the band would go through a number of line-up changes over the years, it's ferocious live show and consistently brutal recordings built Cannibal Corpse a significant underground following. The group's gruesome album art and transgressive, violent lyrics also made them a target of critics during the '90s, with government officials citing Cannibal Corpse along with hip-hop acts 2 Live Crew and the Geto Boys for undermining the moral fiber of America's youth. Australia and Germany actually went as far as banning the group's recordings from sale completely for a period of time.

Despite the resolutely underground audience the band has cultivated with albums like Gallery of Suicide, Gore Obsessed and The Wretched Spawn, Cannibal Corpse has become part of the pop culture landscape, having made a brief appearance in the 1994 Jim Carey comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. More recently, longtime singer George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher was cited as the main inspiration for Nathan Explosion, the lead singer to animated death metal band Dethklok featured in the popular Adult Swim show Metalocalypse. The band returns to San Francisco to play classic songs and tunes from its most recent album Red Before Black for loyal Bay Area fans.

Also on the bill is rising Oakland metal trio Necrot. The band started in seven years ago in Oakland by talented Bay Area death metal players Luca Indrio (the band's bassist who also plays in Acephalix and Vastum) and Chad Gailey (who also plays drums in noted local outfits Mortuous and Atrament), with Saviours guitarist Sonny Reinhardt joining the following year.

The trio recorded several demo tapes and built up a loyal Bay Area fan base with its raw, blackened songs and the blast furnace intensity of its live shows, eventually getting signed to Oakland-based punk/metal imprint. Tankcrimes would compile the tunes from the band's demos for the 2016 release The Labyrinth.

Last year, Necrot released it's proper debut album Blood Offering on the label, garnering widespread critical praise for the corrosive collection of punk-tinged death metal. Since then, Necrot has only raised it's profile with appearances at major festivals like the Northwest Terror Fest and Psycho Las Vegas as well as a five-week tour of Europe that finished last fall. Rising Denver-based death metal crew Blood Incantation also appears, playing their experimental, almost psychedelic take on the extreme style.

The Decibel Magazine Tour with Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse
Saturday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. $30-$33
Regency Ballroom