Motorhead with special guests Graveyard
April 11
Club Nokia
What is amazing about this legendary band, is the dedication that heavy metal iconic front man Lemmy Kilmister has for the fans. Despite the numerous health problems the 68-year-old has endured over the past few years–including heart surgery, diabetes and a severe blood clot and bruising that caused him to cancel a European tour last year–Motorhead has vowed to make a return to the stage, performing a special concert for fans in downtown LA at Club Nokia, prior to the band's scheduled appearance at this year's Coachella Music festival. If you have not yet experienced Motorhead live, now would be the best time, the band still puts on a show that will rock your socks off with its sonic, loud and powerful classic sound of metal's finest and oldest bands. Special guests are the Swedish doom metal band Graveyard.
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Ghoul, Iron Regan, Occultist, ACxDC
April 11
The Constellation Room
The Oakland based self-proclaimed splatter thrash band Ghoul keep alive a tradition started by the late great Oderus Urungus of GWAR. The band uses horror movie imagery, costumes made of blood rags, saws and killer robots in a wild stage show, deviant characters, and the musical backdrop of hardcore crossover thrash that never fails to get a slam pit going, along with kids crowd surfing and stage diving into the mayhem. Ghoul is never a disappointment live, and is sure to destroy the Constellation Room at this appearance. Also appearing at this show in the Constellation Room will be politically charged crossover misfits from Richmond, Virginia, Iron Regan, and the darker riffs of Occultist and local LA based grindcore band ACxDC.
Tesseract with Intronaut and Cloudkicker,
April 12
The Constellation Room
Headlining this show will be Tesseract, the British Progressive 'djent' metal band, formed in 2007, and are on Century Media Records. But, be sure to come early for openers LA's own atmospheric, experimental, metal band Intronaut, one metal's hardest working up and comers, who have been on tour for the past three years almost non-stop touring with Cynic, Tool, Meshuggah, Mastodon, and most recently Between the Buried and Me. The band, which features vocalist/guitarist Sacha Dunable, along with guitarist Dave Timick, bass player Joe Lester and drummer Danny Walker will pull a double shift on this tour, also performing as the musicians in Cloudkicker, the avant garde, instrumental metal tinged music made by Columbus, Ohio based musician Ben Sharp.
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Graf Orlock
April 17
Chain Reaction
This LA/Long Beach based grindcore band has often been referred to as 'Cinema Grind' due to the band's heavy use of samples from sci-fi movies such as The Terminator, RoboCop, Aliens and others, and are guaranteed to bring a huge technical slab of speed brutality and angst, that has the power to shred ear drums and grind teeth. This all ages show in Anaheim at Chain Reaction will sure to be another fun, explosive performance for these local grindcore maniacs.
Kataklysm, Aborted & others
April 18
Mirror Image Studios in Anaheim
These two bands have earned their keep in the death metal scene over the past 15 to 20 years respectively. Headlining the Kill the Elite Tour, 2014, is a band from Canada, Kataklysm, whose dark apocalyptic take on extreme metal is sure to get a sea of heads banging. Throw in the blood drenched goregrind death metal sounds of Belgium's Aborted, and it's pretty much a sure thing that will be one hell of a brutal show. If you're a fan of brutal, fast, technical death metal, this will be one show you don't want to miss.
See also
Top 10 Shock Rock Bands of All Time
10 Goriest Album Covers
10 Most Satanic Metal Bands
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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.