LOOKBACK: Hobbs Angel of Death Concert Review

Originally written on October 21, 2014:
Out of all of the shows happening during the fall of 2014, the one I saw on a Sunday night was definitely the one that I was excited about the most. The
Australian thrash metal band Hobbs Angel of Death was coming to the United States for the first time in their career, so naturally catching them on their Indianapolis date of the tour was an absolute must!! Given their underground status, I figured Hobbs would be the kind of band that would be more likely to play at a big metal festival instead of doing a full U.S. tour, but somehow they ended up booking shows throughout various parts of the country. As unlikely as it seemed, I recall reading an interview with the
band’s guitarist/vocalist/founding member Peter Hobbs about ten years ago that always gave a small glimpse of hope. Peter concluded the interview by declaring that, “Every angle of the metal world will witness the return of Hobbs Angel of Death!!”

I brought that up to him when I met him outside of the venue and he said, “Yeah, and now it’s happening here tonight!” Sure enough, it was announced when I was least expecting or thinking about it, and once I got the news I couldn’t stop anticipating it.

There were a few bands from the Indiana area opening up for them; namely Lucifist, Legion, and Radiation Sickness. Legion, a death metal act hailing from Munice, IN; was easily my favorite of the three bands, and the other two bands were fine. Radiation Sickness’s performance wasn’t very well-executed at first, but they picked up eventually. Their singer didn’t express much enthusiasm when he was speaking to the crowd, though, he seemed kind of out of it.

Armed with a fresh new line-up, Hobbs Angel of Death played everything from their 1988 debut except the last two songs. Peter Hobbs may have reflected a case of aging badly in his appearance and maybe even his voice, but there was still a whole lot of energy in his guitar playing and enthusiasm. The second guitarist in the band now proved to be one of
metal’s finest new talents with lots of impressive leadwork filled with sweeping, etc. Headbanging ensued from the small denim-and-leather-clad audience as soon as the band plugged in and kicked right off with “Lucifer’s Domain”. There was actually no moshing the entire night, just lots of headbanging, raising of the horns, etc. There was one probably drunk guy that kept booing them after every song, but everybody else was nothing short of ecstatic. Peter, in turn, expressed his appreciation and allegiance towards his fans, and thanked them sincerely on and offstage. He stated that he wouldn’t still be doing this if he hadn’t placed his fans first and himself second. There were some brief technical issues with the drums and so forth that seemed to go away quickly.

The highlight of the set for me was “House of Death”, and Peter’s hilarious introduction made it even better. He screamed at the audience, “I wrote this song when I was in Italy 28 years ago, and F**K ME!! Now I’ve got two Italian BROTHERS playing it with
me!!” He’d tell the audience, “Let’s have a wild time tonight!!!” and ask, “What can you tell me about Indiana??!!” A lot of people groaned in reply and one person commented, “Indiana sucks!” and he just replied, “Must be pretty boring, huh?” In addition to the eight songs from the debut, they also played several new songs (and when I say new, I mean they haven’t even been released yet!!), all of which were tons of fun. The new songs were still very thrashy, with more melody at times, and more blast beats at other times. They actually closed with two new ones, the last song of the night being “Hypocrites”. I am really looking forward to their next album, and I
told a few of the guys in the band that, too!

I did not get to see much of Indianapolis, but I have a lot of great things to say about the Headquarters, the venue where the event took place. I love this venue because it is truly unlike any other concert venue I have ever seen. For one thing, the venue is actually a storage room in a row of other storage areas. The venue is very small with two basketball goals to the left and right of the stage, a bunch of musical equipment on the left side, etc. We talked to the guy that runs the venue before the show and he was very friendly and really knew his metal. I love when a mid-sized venue packs a full house on a weekend night, and seeing 30-60 people in attendance when there is still plenty of space for more concert-goers can be
disappointing. This venue, however, was clearly built for shows with that small cult audience!! So, you can bet that I am looking forward to seeing more shows at this venue in the future, but this gig will surely be one of the fondest memories I’ll ever have!

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Tags:  Hobbs Angel of Death    

Nicholas Statuto    October 20, 2016