Show Review: Metal at Mustang Sally’s – 9/7/13

Review by Joel Naugle

This week’s show review is all about the 6 band, face melting metal show that went down at Mustang Sally’s in Moraine, OH on Saturday, September 7th.

Mustang Sally’s is a great venue with an excellent bar, serving your choice of a ton of domestic beer and great mixed drinks. The bartenders are also cool and will get you whatever you need. Smoking is allowed outside of the 
building and they have fire pits to keep you warm on those cold winter nights. Inside, they have 2 dart boards and 2 pool tables to keep you entertained between sets or when you just need something to keep your hands busy.  As for the stage area, it’s a pretty good set up with plenty of room for people to sit or stand to see their favorite bands play.

Shadows In The Hour Glass is a drum and bass combo that tore it up, playing so well together and seamless. Zack Ryan shredded the bass like he’s playing a guitar and picked up harmonics like crazy. Travis Abling is very progressive on the drums, and truly has great talent. They tell amazing stories with each song; it was a pleasure to hear them play.

Forces of Nature is extraordinary! This band has some serious talent with 2 guitars, bass, drums and a singer. They shred  your face off from the 1^st note and don’t stop until they are done, leaving you with a feeling of amazement. The guitar work is awesome; Marc Godsey and Jimmy Rose tear it up every time they play with plenty of dueling back and forth, and every once in a while you can hear a DImebag squeal.   Johnnie “Vladimir” Wallace on bass rips it up and adds serious back-up vocals, and Shannon Godsey is a machine on the drums. Then there comes Tate Moore’s voice screaming at you, doing the highs and lows that are so ferocious.

King Stench is hardcore death metal, and they are ruthless!  They have some incredible vocals that go so deep you feel it in the bowels of your soul. Decrepit Bowels was like a deranged man playing the skins, and doing some pretty epic breakdowns. Lance A Rot on bass made your brain turn to mush, and Cess Pool played some incredible solos, making everybody in the place headbang like crazy.

Horlet is a melodic death metal band; they have such amazing guitar work and insane breakdowns. You can really tell the time and effort they have put into their songs, so many emotions are present.  Jason Lyons has some incredible vocals screaming like crazy, but it fits perfectly in this lineup.  Keith Byerman and Seth Mullins ripping on their guitars playing on different times and then blending them effortlessly back together and then playing solos off each other was killer. Eric Barnes was hammering the drums, never missing a beat, and Allen D. McCowan slamming the bass with those bright green strings was sweet as hell. Big thanks for the CD and the sticker!!!

Engraved Darkness is a black metal/ thrash band, and they are insane,  There are a lot of fast riffs going on here. With fast drumming and bass lines, they dare you to try and keep up!  Johnnie “Vladimir” Wallace (Guitar/vocals) was shredding out solos and deep gut-wrenching vocals, Morbid Mat (Drums) playing so fast and Logan Baker (Guitar/back up vocals) playing some crazy solos as well were both awesome. Logan and Johnnie were playing back and forth like they’d been doing it for years, and Randall Davis was playing the bass like a man possessed, running all over the stage and getting everybody into the show. A big thanks to Johnnie for the shirt and stickers!!!

Zuel is another one of those bands you really don’t want to miss; they are a treat to listen to blending hard core thrash with melodic tendencies with some jazz thrown in there. Currently, they still have no singer (they are looking), but with such great talent they stand on their own very well.  Matt (Stu) Tickle is like a brutal octopus while playing drums. Nick was tearing his bass up. Tim and Brent played a lot of sick and twisted guitar riffs, great intros to songs and interludes are spot on, making the music truly unique.

I left the show feeling high on the music and such amazing talent, and was blown away by all the bands, I truly thank you!  A huge thanks goes out to Zack Ryan for making all this happen, making the flyers, booking the venue and everything else, and you can’t ever forget the sound guy, Marc Godsey, for providing the sound system and making everybody sound awesome!  Check out some pictures of the show below!