Jun 9

Jun 9 Show Review: Vio-lence Bring Epic Bay Area Thrash Matinee To Oakland

Vio-lence
w/ Exmortus, Defiance
10th Street and Broadway
Oakland, CA
June 5th, 2022

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

On a Sunday afternoon, nestled between several brick buildings at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway in Oakland, CA, controlled chaos ensued. One of the biggest Bay Area thrash metal bands in the history of the genre, Vio-lence, took the stage for a matinee performance dubbed “Live and Outside”. The Bay Area five-piece act powered through an intensified hour-long performance, feeding off the energy of the Oakland crowd on that humid weekend afternoon.

A spattering of rain occurred throughout the Bay Area early that morning, finally dissipating around 1 PM, but the threat of rain clouds was imminent as they hovered over the towering downtown Oakland skyscrapers. By 3 PM, the clouds were gone, and the sunshine beckoned concertgoers to don their Sunday best, crack open a beer, and throw down in the pit. The show was opened by two acts: old school Oakland thrashers Defiance and melodic death four-piece Exmortus. Both acts did an extraordinary job of raising the energy throughout the crowd. It only took a few songs from each act before crowd surfers started barreling over the front barricade. Defiance evoked the more traditional thrash metal sound of the late 80s that ushered in acts like Vio-lence, while Exmortus put their own twist on the genre, pulling more from the death metal end of the spectrum while still keeping the fast paced tempo and shredding guitar interludes in tact.

Whenever a legendary metal act plays in the Bay Area, the crowd always turns out. When a legendary Bay Area metal act takes the stage, it’s unlike anything you could ever imagine. Given that this show was initially supposed to take place in 2020, to say that fans were excited the moment the band walked out on stage would be an understatement. The San Francisco thrash outfit took the stage and put on an incredibly endearing and aggressive performance. Phil Demmel and Bobby Gustafson absolutely decimated the audience with their guitar chops, led by an incredible rhythm section rounded out by Perry Strickland on drums and Christian Olde Wolbers on bass. Sean Killian is an enigmatic frontman; he exudes confidence on the stage, switching from being all smiles to looking like he’s about to murder you in the span of twenty seconds. Killian rips through lyric after lyric, the crowd feeding off every word.

I hope that there’s more to come from Vio-lence. With this current iteration of the band, they released a new EP back in March called Let The World Burn, and stated that they have more material coming in the next year. New music means new tours, and you need to see Vio-lence live. An unforgettable experience, that’s for damn sure.

Vio-lence Set List
I Profit
Calling In The Coroner
Kill on Command
Officer Nice
Eternal Nightmare
Serial Killer
Upon Their Cross
TDS
Mentally Afflicted
Flesh From Bone
Photophobia
World In A World