I guess a little background info might be necessary for those outside of the Chicago area. A week prior to the show there was a shooting at the venue, as a result the city forced Mojoes to close up shop for a week forcing them to cancel some shows and relocate others, Metalliance being one of the shows they moved, to a place called the Bada Brew. I don’t know where Mojoes is, but the Bada Brew was parked between a crappy little convenience store and the some cafe called The Broken Egg in a tiny little strip mall. Not your typical scene for a show so I didn’t know what to expect, but who cares right?

     I happened to miss the first two or three bands that opened, but I did catch the last two songs of Howl’s set. I caught Howl when the came through with Valient Thorr and noticed that they had replace the female guitarist with some new dude and they sounded way heavier to me. Definitely check these guys out if you haven’t already.

   Next up was a band I knew nothing about, Red Fang. I had heard good things about these guys but I didn’t know what to expect. Beards, one missing member, and a pair of thick rimmed glasses with an elastic band. This could have gone either way, and luckily it went the right way. These guys were really heavy and pretty awesome without one of their members so I could only imagine it being like 30 times heavier. The second to last song was a cove that they absolutely killed. The drummer really stood out here during his solo which really got the crowd pumped. It was clear that they had some big fans around here and I know they gained one more. Check these guys out here http://www.redfang.net/#topbar

     Kylesa’s set was next. I’m not the biggest fan of these guys, I have seen them a few times and like what I heard but it just didn’t do it for me. this night was a little different. Everyone was having sound issues, monitors not working, vocals dropping out, brain splitting feedback, and what’s the point of your light show in such a tiny space. The frustration came through in a fairly positive way, Laura really got into the vocals, and everyone really thrashed and got into it. All in all it was one of the better Kylesa shows I have seen, and it re-sparked my interest in these guys.  http://www.myspace.com/kylesa

     By the time Crowbar hit the stage the crowd seemed a little tired, it was Sunday, its cold, and we’re drunk. Crowbar could sense this and after two slabs of metal gave everybody a shot of pure face pummeling adrenaline and ushered forth “All I Had I Gave”. The crowd exploded from horns and head banging to a frenzied mosh pit, I even saw a security guard getting down. Crowbar kept the crowd amped for the rest of their relatively short set. I have failed by not having witnessed the sheer massiveness known as crowbar until now, if you are late to the party like I was you owe it to yourself to check them out. You can also purchase their new album here http://www.crowbarmusic.com/

        Up next was St. Vitus who absolutely blew me away. I had heard their stuff on my crappy headphones and laptop speakers and was completely unaware of the awesomeness. The bass drums were gargantuan and dwarfed the drummer who was huge himself, he also stole the show in my opinion. The guitar was the fuzziest thing I’ve ever heard and squealed and squelched in ways I’ve never witnessed. Wino looked odd to me without a guitar strapped around his neck but really had a dominating presence. For once camera phones had a purpose and didn’t completely piss me off, I was able to actually see past all the tall people in the front and get a glimpse of the show. There were two songs that completely killed, White Stallions and Born Too Late, which they dedicated to the recently deceased drummer.  During the last song the guitar player walked throught the crowed grinding his guitar on chicks heads.  Buy all of their stuff, http://www.myspace.com/stvitus

           Helmet was last and still had a big crowd, which I didn’t really expect because I had head a lot of grumbling about. Because there were a lot of problems throughout the day helmet really had no time to spare and hammered out their set with tons of energy and seemed to be having a really good time doing it cracking  jokes and singing some lines to shitty pop song . Hearing those songs brought me back to eighth grade and I remembered why they were so badass. They even played right up to and a little past the curfew which was a pretty cool thing. If you go to one of the upcoming shows stay for Helmet it totally worth it.  http://www.helmetmusic.com/