This weekend at the historic Nile Theater in Mesa, Arizona, I captured an amazing lineup of old and new thrash metal. After driving six hours, I came to this beautiful, renovated part of Mesa with restaurants, bars, and microbreweries. The Nile Theater has been a cultural center since 1924, now a shell of its original grandeur, but still entertaining the public as a music venue and coffee shop. I can see why Dark Angel selected this location to be one of their first stops outside of California to host their “Extinction Level Event North American 2025 Tour,” their first U.S. tour in 30 years. Touring with them were three killer bands that fit right in for an amazing night of metal: VOID, Hirax, and Sacred Reich.
VOID, a thrash band from Louisiana, has only been performing together since 2019. They have hit the thrash scene with new life to an old style that has really gained momentum in the metal industry. When you see them on stage, they look like a vintage hair band with their long hair, boots, and flowing outfits, but their sound is hardcore thrash with unparalleled energy.
They have two albums out currently, Forbidden Morals and Horrors of Reality. With song titles like “Forbidden Morals,” “Judas Cradle,” and “First In, Last Out,” they are already making a big stir in the metal community. With Jackson Davenport, vocalist, Gabe LeJeune, lead guitar, Blake Adams, bassist, Chris Braune, lead guitar, and Aaron Landry, drummer, they all blend to make a great sound, and each performer complements each other musically. They started the night off with “Forbidden Morals,” then “Gateways of Stone,” followed up with “First In, Last Out,” giving the crowd a good mix of their two albums, all rich with great guitar riffs and a solid bass beat.
If you want to know more, I would track them down on Spotify and YouTube. You can also check out these links as well to follow the band.
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
Hirax is a thrash band that has made a name for themselves since their days in Cypress, California, back in 1984. The charismatic vocalist Katon W. De Pena, the only original member of the band, is high energy, moving across the stage and communicating with the crowd throughout the performance. He even rated the crowd-surfers one by one as they crossed over everyone’s head onto the stage.
Hirax band members are a combination of artists that re-organized themselves while Katon vowed to preserve the Hirax way of life in 2003. After going through various artists, they have settled into the current members in 2024: Katon W. De Pena, vocalist, Jose Gonzalez, bassist, Allan Chan, guitarist, and Mathew Morales, drummer. They released their latest album, Faster than Death, in 2024, their sixth release since 1985. They opened their set with “Hellion Rising,” followed by “Blind Faith” and “Warlord Command.” When they announced they expected more crowd surfing, it opened the floodgates to a continuous flow. De Pena himself jumped into the crowd, surfing back around in a semicircle, crossing over my head as he jumped back on stage. Their music was a great mix of old school thrash with a more modern twist to the genre. They really enjoyed being there, bringing their music to Mesa.
If you want to know more about Hirax, you can follow them at these links.
Sacred Reich is a band native to Arizona coming out of the Phoenix area in 1985. They were clearly the crowd’s favorite, and they were glad to be back home performing. They had many friends and family there, and many of their songs were being sung by the crowd. Crowd surfing continued as they hit the stage and did their own hair-tossing performance before jumping back into the crowd.
Phil Rind, vocalist and bass player, is the longest-running band member. He was joined on stage by lead guitarist Wiley Arnett, Dave McClain on drums, and rhythm guitarist Joey Radziwell. They are very close to releasing their sixth album and are looking forward to what new they have in store. Rind did say that the album will feature some surprisingly fun guitar riffs by Radziwell. They opened their show with the title song off their 1990-released album American Way, then performed “Independent” and “Ignorance.” Their old-school thrash style came through with each and every song. They performed songs from all five previous albums, and they teased the crowd about their newest album.
I am going to look for their new album and watch to see when they will come to my local area to go watch them again. You can follow Sacred Reich at the following links.
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
Dark Angel, an American thrash band from Downey, California, has been making music since 1981. They disbanded in 1992, but from 2013 up until 2023, when guitarist Jim Durkin passed away, he was the last of the original band. The band was not sure what they were going to do, but they decided to bring in Laura Christine as his replacement and continue performing as a tribute to Durkin, who was the driving force to keep the band going after all these years. “The Extinction Level Event Tour” has been their first U.S. tour in 30 years. They started the tour in California, and Mesa was only the third stop on the tour. They are excited for the tour, as they have gotten a lot of great feedback on it so far.
With this tour comes the release of their fifth album, released just weeks ago, titled Extinction Level Event. The title track was one of the last songs written by the late Jim Durkin and was never performed by him before his death, so the album and the tour are a very important moment for the band as they honor his memory. They started the night off with the song “We Have Arrived,” followed with “Time Does Not Heal” and “No One Answers” After a conversation about the next song, they performed the title track off their new album, “Extinction Level Event,” dedicating it to the late, great guitarist Jim Durkin.
The current members of the band are Ron Rinehart, vocalist, Gene Hoglan, drummer, Eric Meyer, guitarist, Michael Gonzalez, bassist, and Laura Christine, guitarist. Hoglan is a legendary drummer, performing with so many different bands over the years, but he has been Dark Angel’s primary drummer for the longest. Laura Christine is his wife and an amazing guitarist. Eric Meyer and Ron Rinehart have been with the band for almost as long as the band has existed, while Michael Gonzalez has been around since the release of their third album, Leave Scars.
This band always seems to fly under the radar but is always known by many. Their followers are dedicated true fans and have been there for them through the ups and downs. The band has never really won any awards, and they only had one album, Leave Scars, make it to the Billboard 200 charts. But over the years, they have been credited as an influence to many bands, like Pantera, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, and Exhorder, just to name a few.
If you want to follow the band or buy some of their merchandise or their album, here are a few links.
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