Rising metal bands Deathchant and Bewitcher come to the Bottom of the Hill
Founded in Los Angeles in 2018 by guitarist/singer T.J. Lemieux, Deathchant takes an aggressive, DIY punk approach to heavy sounds not unlike fellow LA outfit the Shrine. Touching on '70s boogie/hard rock like Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy, the same New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) groups that inspired early Metallica, psychedelia and SoCal hardcore, the quartet put out its eponymous first album in 2019 for the King Volume imprint.
The band's catchy tunes and reputation for blazing, high-energy live performances soon saw them signed to SoCal heavy psych/metal imprint Riding Easy Records, who put out their second album Waste in 2021. Another frenetic blast of tuneful, neck-snapping tracks that were recorded quickly and simply over the course of two weekends, the record announced Deathchant to a wider audience and invitations to play music festivals, including the 2022 edition of Psycho Las Vegas.
In October of 2023, Lemieux and the current line-up of the quartet featuring bassist George Camacho, ex-Banquet guitarist Doug Stuckey and drummer Joe Herzog released the band's third album Thrones. Another caustic combination of raw punk-rock wrath and fluid tandem guitar acrobatics, the collection has been praised by some critics as their most accomplished yet.
On this current co-headlining tour, Deathchant shares the stage with Portland headbangers Bewitcher. For the past dozen years, the ferocious trio has been building an international following with relentless touring and four full-length albums of old-school blackened speed metal. The project was started in 2013 by guitarist/singer Mateo von Bewitcher and bassist A. Magus, who drew inspiration from the locomotive fury of Motörhead and the diabolical sounds of early black metal purveyors like Venom and Bathory. The duo began writing and recording songs, finding drummer Rand Crusher aboard two years later to complete the full original line-up.
The trio released its eponymous debut recorded with Municipal Waste main man Joel Grind in 2016 and quickly earned rave reviews for their self-described style of "black magick metal." The group toured extensively, supporting such established underground metal giants as Goatwhore, Cavalera and Exhumed. Since the first effort came out, the band has graduated to major metal label Century Media, releasing 2021's Cursed Be Thy Kingdom (the trio's first with new drummer Aris Wales) and the early demos and unreleased tracks compilation Deep Cuts & Shallow Graves before last year's Spell Shock.
Produced by Bay Area punk legend Lars Frederiksen of Rancid and Old Firm Casuals fame, the latest collection of songs spotlights some of the Bewitcher's most infectious and hook-laden metal anthems yet. Last spring, the band was one of the highlights of the all-day Omega Fest at the UC Theatre curated by local thrash titans Forbidden. Opening the show is Romanian-born, LA-based crew Persekutor, who released their tuneful Celtic-Frost-meets-the-Scorpions debut Snow Business on Blues Funeral Recordings in 2023.
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