It’s mind-boggling to comprehend that we’re already halfway through 2019. With six more months left, the summer season is now upon us, and as usual, we are spoiled as Southern California residents with the endless supply of touring bands, local gigs, club shows, and massive concerts. This month is no exception, and when it comes to metal shows there are a plethora to choose from, from death metal, power metal, or thrash, and even punk.
Pathology, June 6th @ The Slidebar
This free death metal show will showcase some of the heaviest extreme music on the underground with the ultra brutal, guttural death metal from San Diego miscreants, Pathology, as part of the band’s 2019 West Coast Tour. This death metal gig in Fullerton will also feature Pomona heavy metallers Throne of Tyranny, plus Los Angeles metalcore up and comers Elixir of An Alchemist. For a night of death metal fury and heaviness, you can’t go wrong with this show at the Slidebar.
The Original Misfits, June 29 @ Banc of CA Stadium Los Angeles
Many naysayers said it would never happen, but finally, Glenn Danzig and his Misfits bandmate Jerry Only have reunited, and now, for the past several years, under the Original Misfits moniker, Only, along with Danzig and fellow Misfit Doyle, all perform classic Misfits tunes for sold out arenas of screaming fans throughout the U.S. With numerous appearances in Las Vegas, Chicago, Denver and other cities, Los Angeles is once again home to this show. Expect punk rock nostalgia throughout the entire night, as Glenn howls and croons his way through classic Misfits songs from the band’s musical legacy. Plus, opening the show for this one will be The Distillers, Cro Mags, Rise Against and Anti-Nowhere League. This should be a punk rock-fueled party.
Flotsam and Jetsam with Madrost, June 12 @ Malone’s
Although Flotsam and Jetsam might be most notable for featuring former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted who left the band to replace the late Cliff Burton, Flotsam and Jetsam was on its own an important part of the American thrash metal scene in the 1980s. Hailing from Arizona, the band found its way working up the ranks with its melodic speed metal, to perform with everyone from Megadeth and Prong to Testament and King Diamond.
In 2019, with the only original member of the band being singer Eric Knutson, Flotsam and Jetsom continues on and keeps the thrash metal sound they were part of alive, by creating new music and touring to promote it. With now 13 studio albums worth of experience, Flotsam and Jetsom’s latest album is entitled The End of Chaos(2019). For old school, and new school fans of thrash metal, this would be a show to attend. The show also features direct support from Dead By Wednesday, as well as local thrashers Madrost who will do plenty of headbanging and hair whipping to get the crowd warmed up. Also on the bill are Disciples of Death, Three Sixes, Anathemma and Demassacre.
Inanimate Existence, June 22, @ The Karman Bar
From the Northern California Bay Area underground metal scene, Inanimate Existence will bring forth its esoteric, heavy and cathartic brand of extreme metal to Orange County for an intimate performance at the Karman Bar in Laguna Niguel. These types of small, dive bars are the venues best suited for a band like this, where fans can experience the loud, in your face music up close and personal. Nothing beats feeling the thunder of the bass in your chest, or the force and pulsating blast beats from the drums less than 20 feet from you. Get ready for a night of brutal, yet technical death metal in its more pure form. Also appearing are Chicago based epic heavy metal band Warforged, as well as local avant-garde experimental extreme metal band, The Last of Lucy.
16, Sixes, Yidhra, Atlas June 30, @ The Slidebar
Another show free show at The Slidebar in Fullerton, this one emphasizes heaviness and amplification. LA’s sludge metal rockers 16 will perform, along with distortion worshippers Sixes and the heavy hitting doom metal band Yidhra. Also appearing on this bill will be heavy stoner desert doom rock, Atala. Remember the best shows are the free ones, so this gives everyone an excuse to come down to Fullerton and party/support the local metal scene This show is a doom metal, stoner rock’s dream gig for the local scene of exciting up and coming extreme metal bands.
Alex Distefano is an established freelance writer and music blogger from the Los Angeles area. With over a dozen years under his belt as a published Journalist, he covers the worlds of heavy metal music, punk rock, current events, cannabis culture, comedy, radio, food, tattoos, the paranormal, and ‘conspiracy theories.’ He graduated from California State University Long Beach in 2012 with a Bachelor’s Degree in both Journalism and Ancient History. Aside from his professional writing endeavors, Distefano works as an Educator, and delivery/rideshare driver.
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