April 9th in New Kensington, PA and 10th in Columbus, OH
Combichrist
by Drew Latshaw
I want to start this off by saying that it is an absolute privilege to say that I am friends with Cultus Black! Having found them during the pandemic, I was then able to interview L (vocalist) before a show in Cleveland at the House of Blues. Later on, I was able to photograph them at a couple of shows and as time has gone on, I have become a bigger fan and a friend of the band!
As Combichrist was touring, I was chatting with my guys in Cultus Black, and so I asked them about who else was on tour with them, and they told me of Dead Animal Assembly Plant, Esoterik, and TREASVRE. Having never heard of Dead Animal Assembly Plant; I looked them up on the usual streaming sites. First, I was listening to them on Spotify as I was driving and they sounded like the early days of Marilyn Manson, with a twinge of Rob Zombie. Being a visual person, I wanted to see their videos, and looked them up on YouTube and their videos were brutal and unrelenting… I loved it! I fell short on looking up the others prior to the day of the show.
On April 9th I left set out from the day job in Canton, OH and drove to New Kensington, PA where my friends were direct support for Combichrist at Preserving the Underground concert venue. I got there, and I saw Jaime and Eric of Combichrist sitting outside and enjoying the warm weather that day. I said hello to them and got my fist bumps from them. I went into the venue and saw L OF Cultus Black getting ready for the evening festivities while the rest of the guys were down the street grabbing some early dinner.
I walked around and was checking out the venue, and it was awesome! The venue itself was previously a church turned into a vintage record shop upstairs, and the concert venue was in the basement that was obviously a large cafeteria area when this church was active. The record shop had cassettes, CD’s, and rows upon rows of vinyl records! The smell of old record shops is distinct, and intoxicating! This shop was no different!
Another band that was on the tour that I had been talking with prior to the show was Dead Animal Assembly Plant. Zach and I had been talking prior to this show, and so getting to meet Zach and his wife who plays bass was another treat added to the day.
Let’s fast forward to show time… first up was TREASVRE. They had leafy vines with flowers all over their instruments and microphones. They were what I would imagine what druidic metal would be, if there were such a genre. Their sound was unique to me. It was uplifting, powerful, and deafening in a good way! I had not ever come across TREASVRE before this show, and I am happy that I have. They had a 30min set that night. They were energetic, and at one point the vocalist came off the stage and was out in the crowd just living her best life! You could tell that her “great vibes of life” was contagious to all those around her!
You can check out TREASVRE here:
https://www.facebook.com/treasvremusic
Next up was Esoterik which was a duet made up of a husband and wife. I fear that my honesty may not sit well with some, but I am not a fan of techno, they were super nice people! I personally do not get into that sort of sound. The husband of the duo, Brady was playing keyboards, and putting out some heavy synthed sounds as Allison danced around the stage singing. Her voice was great, and melodic enough. As I said, they were so much fun to hang out with and chat with backstage, but I cannot figure out why their sound just did not click for me. This is where my opinion is just that, my opinion! The crowd was loving it! There were some outliers that were on the outskirts of the room just looking on, but the majority of the crowd was jamming hard!
Check out Esoteirck here: https://www.facebook.com/esoterikmusic
Up next was Zwager and his crew from the Dead Animal Assembly Plant who decided to take a momentary vacation from the Sweet Meats Slaughterhouse to bring their brutality to the masses!
Watching Zwager get stage ready, it was like watching a bomb squad tech gearing up to defuse a bomb! He had pieces and parts to put, and his wife helped with fastening his gauntlets and wrappings. Their costumes and makeup were superb!
Seeing the crew of the Dead Animal Assembly Plant live was as entertaining as I hoped it would be! I love theatrical acts, and costumed musicians! For me, if I am going to go to a show, I want to be entertained! If it is a matter of just listening to the music, I will pull it up on streaming services. Zach was engaging and sounded just as good live as he did on Spotify and YouTube!
If you get a chance to see Dead Animal Assembly Plant live, make sure you get out there and take in this spectacle of the eyes and ears, you will thank me!
Next up, in direct support of Combichrist was Cultus Black! I heard the tracks playing, and I knew it was about to go nuts in there! Looking around the room, it was obvious that half of the room was there for Cultus Black! The guys took the stage, and the instrumentals started to lead into the vocals of the opening song, and the L exploded onto the stage! As predicted, the crowd went nuts! People throughout the crowd were pumping their fists and banging their heads to the beat of the music blasting them in the faces!
As a photographer, I am discouraged by certain venues due to not having the best lighting set ups. As a concert goer however, I LOVE these clubs! The personal engagement you get to have with the bands and the sounds is at times an emotional experience! I did not get a lot of great shots on the 1st of two nights I was going to be hanging out with the tour, which was fine because I was still caught up into the flurry of all that was happening.
As Cultus Black played on and tore up the stage making it through their set list of the night, and the crowd was ready and frothing for Combichrist at this point! The guys from Combichrist are getting positioned, and Dane was at his kit and the drums were absolutely ferocious! The crowd was riled up more and more throughout the night, and I thought that they were as feisty as possible by the time that Cultus Black left the stage, but they quickly proved me wrong. The house was trembling between the music and the people jumping and moshing! Fun fact, we were in the basement!
Check out Cultus Black:
https://www.facebook.com/Cultusblack
Combichrist opened their set with “Planet Doom” and no matter how many times I have seen and covered Combichrist, they never disappointed! I have seen hundreds, bordering on a thousand shows in my life now and Combichrist has headlined 8x of those shows and it is always a night to remember!
After Planet Doom, they went into Blut Royale, onto Maggots at the Party, and realizing I was in the 4th song I left the front of the stage to not obstruct the crowd. At this point, I went to the merch area, and was hanging out with the opening acts. The people in TREASVRE and Esoteirck were hanging out with the fans, Zach from Dead Animal Assembly Plant was still in full costume and make up taking pictures with the crowd and signing merch and tickets.
By this point, I was back out to the club at the side of the stage watching Jamie shred, watching Dane destroy his kit! After the show, I once again greeted Dane and looked at his sides and asked him where he was hiding his other arms! I cannot figure how he does what he does with only the standard issue of 2 arms! It was great that he laughed at that horrible joke!
Now it was time to make the 2.5hr drive home, and get ready to head to Columbus, OH for the next show with the guys. I got home about 2a cleaned off my memory cards and started charging my batteries before leaving early afternoon to head to King of Clubs for the second night with this lineup!
Seeing first-hand what these musicians go through while on the road, I cannot fathom how they make it through a tour, let alone making a life of it! I can truly appreciate what they do, I love their music, I love their contributions to the world and my life… I cannot understand how they manage, and still want to do it over, and over again!
