Heshers Pizza & Taproom Oakland, CA August 29, 2026 What decade is it? One of the best death metal shows I’ve been to in years (and I’ve been to a lot) was at a pizza place last night. Not the legendary Pony Express Pizza in Redwood City (before my time living in the Bay Area), where I’ve heard tales of many thrash and punk bands that played gigs there in the 1980s, but Hesher’s Pizza in 2026 no less. If you haven’t been to Hesher’s, you really must go. Their formula for su

Lagunitas Brewing Co. Petaluma, CA August 29, 2026 I hadn’t been to the Lagunitas Brewery and Taproom in over a decade, as it is a bit over an hour drive from San Francisco in southern Sonoma county. It is a magical compound on the outskirts of Petaluma, that still retains its attitude (and its fantastic IPAs) despite a decade of ownership by beer conglomerate Heineken. They’d upgraded the place since I last got there, with a large open barn structure so you don’t have to dri

The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA August 19, 2026 “This must be a metal show, how many women do you see?” “This ain't a metal show, this is a Stoner rock show.” I’m not sure the gender balance was much different than many metal shows, but there were certainly fewer long hairs than your typical Death Metal gig. My buddy and I had gone from a pre-gaming session at Benders to catch Spoon Benders, the opening band of a three band bill featuring Stoner / Metal / Doom / whate

Phase 2 of my extended Euro vacation has commenced. I’m now traveling with Nefarious but let’s wrap up the second half of the Death Angel tour shall we? Let’s pick up where we left off. After the trio of headliners we had a couple of days off in Germany. On one of those days I went to a pretty killer and true Metal record store in Essen called Yeah Records. Don’t let the name fool you, this place is the shit. The last time I was there the owner brought me into the back and go

Merchants Saloon Oakland, CA August 15, 2026 Saturday night with 3 great local bands, an eclectic mix of heavy music styles with some unique twists, in true Bay Area fashion. Better yet the show was at one of Oakland’s oldest of old school dive bars, Merchants Saloon. I started the day slinging records in the East Bay for the second time in a few weeks, first at Amoeba Records Berkeley to see what had sold and put the new Frolic and Deth Provider on consignment. I hate consig

The New Farm San Francisco, CA August 8, 2026 Lost Goat isn’t a metal band, more of a hard rock band. But given how important they were in San Francisco's Mission District 90s punk and metal scene, their first show in 25 years is worthy of a writeup here for sure. Singer / bass player Erica Stoltz also fronts another heavy trio, the NY-based metal band Sanhedrin, but that is now, this was then. Both Sanhedrin and Lost Goat are regularly part of my playlist. This was actually

Greetings from Europe! Death Angel’s out here celebrating the 10th anniversary of our 2016 record The Evil Divide. We’re about at the halfway point and I thought it was high time I checked in. The tour kicked off in Poland with a show sharing the stage with Biohazard and NY Hardcore legends Cro-mags. There were two other hardcore bands on the bill (Sworn Enemy and Striking 13) which made Death Angel the odd band out on the bill but surprisingly (or not) we went over well and

Listen to the YouTube show for the full experience, what follows is a slightly shortened version of the conversation between Will and Zach. Touring Europe with Two Bands Zach: Hell yeah, motherfuckers—Death Angel right there. Guess who I've got on the line with me right now. Dude, what's going on? How you doing? Will: Good, man. I just got home from Death Angel rehearsal like twenty minutes ago. Zach: Hell yeah! I know you guys are busy as hell, and you especially have all ki

Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA July 13, 2026 Monday night in San Francisco at The Great American Music Hall. How rockin’ could it be? You’d be surprised. This particular Monday boasted Corrosion Of Conformity, Whores and Crobot. And the house was PACKED!! It may have been sold out but I’m not certain of that. Having just got off a 9 week tour (8 with Death Angel and 1 with Nefarious) I was a tad burnt on live music but I’m glad I was able to get one show in befor

Milwaukee Metal Fest! Feels like we were here last year…wait a second…WE WERE!! I think this might be the first time I’ve ever played the same festival 2 years in a row. Certainly with Death Angel. No complaints from me though. Death Angel had a great time last year and this one was more of the same. The MMF has come a long way from the borderline white power fest it was slowly becoming by the late 90’s. I went twice back then, once in 94’ or 95’ and again in 97’. The second

Neck of the Woods San Francisco, CA July 3, 2026 Frolic’s record release party! On a Friday night starting off the July 4th holiday weekend, Frolic celebrated the release of their 2nd album Legacies of Cybernetica. Vinyl LPs are out now on Hectic / Bleeding Priest records and CDs/Cassettes at merch.frolic.band. Despite it being a holiday weekend when a lot of people leave town, the Neck of the Woods was fairly crowded. Luckily it was in the upstairs space, where there is more

The Warfield San Francisco, CA June 27, 2026 I wasn’t planning on going to this show, even though I’m a big Iron Reagan fan. The modern metal sound of the bands topping the bill really isn’t my thing. But when the people from The Warfield / Goldenvoice reached out to SanFran666co to let us start giving away tickets to their metal shows, with a staff pair as well, I thought why not! Speaking of which: RSVP to any metal show at The Warfield to enter to win a pair of tickets! An

Cornerstone Berkeley, CA June 26, 2026 It was night 2 of a 3 show mini tour of some of the Bay Area’s best thrashers - Nefarious, Defiance and Parabellum. Plus it was Rick Hunolt’s birthday (63, not 68 as Will claimed in a video on this site – sorry!) Having played Thursday in Sacramento, it was a Friday night celebration at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, before the band moved on to Reno Saturday night. A short tour to be sure, but it was Nefarious’s first ever tour and a solid

Spats Berkeley, CA June 19, 2026 I hadn’t been to Spats, a dive bar near the UC Berkeley campus, in probably 20+ years. With a recent change of management they are now having regular shows though. So when a Friday night Dungeons & Dragons inspired local metal showcase came up, I had to go. Spats is really 3 separate storefronts on Telegraph avenue, a normal sized space with a bar, a room with 2 pool tables in the middle, and a small live room on the end. The live room is narr

Nefarious is going on tour! After only playing at our favorite venue the DNA Lounge – 3 times, the first time nearly 2 years ago – the band is hitting the road. Finally. Updated Nefarious European tour dates (August 14, 2026): Nefarious is going to start out with a local mini-tour (Roseville > Berkeley > Reno) with Defiance and Parabellum. Technically it will be a multi-state tour, though just 3 gigs. A truly stacked lineup of Northern California Thrash metal! Then later t

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA June 7, 2026 Sunday night at the DNA, and my second metal show of the day. Following the afternoon death metal show, it was time for some thrash, most of it blackened. This show wasn’t very well attended, but there were a ton of young people there. Good to see the next generation into some thrash metal. Crazy deep pit pushing us old folks to the back bar. The pit was pretty wild and took up practically the whole room! Us old folks had to retreat b

Kilowatt San Francisco, CA June 7, 2026 Sunday afternoon free metal show at the Kilowatt, what could be better? Due to a birthday lunch I was late to this show, and I missed the two openers. I heard that Eaten by Insects was particularly great, I guess this was one of their first few shows. I did manage to catch the last couple songs of Viscelator, who I’ve seen multiple times and always enjoy. Frontman Justin had some technical difficulties with his guitar during the last s

Maryland Deathfest! My first time attending or playing. It lived up to all my expectations. Death Angel played the main stage outside. We were sandwiched between a bunch of Death Metal bands. To some folks we probably sounded like a Rock n’ Roll band compared to the ultra-heaviness going on around us but the crowd went NUTS! Let’s talk about the lineup, the bands I saw, the record vendors I met and the day in general. Death Angel, Backstage in Atlanta, GA Photo by @cbvideom

Mabuhay Gardens San Francisco, CA May 30, 2026 I’ve been to the On Broadway, the upstairs concert hall also known as the Rock on Broadway, but the Mab was closed a few years before my time in San Francisco. This legendary venue and Filipino restaurant at 443 Broadway in San Francisco was a key venue in the Bay Area’s punk scene in the 1970s and ’80s, hosting acts like the Dead Kennedys, Devo and Blondie until it closed in 1987. While the larger upstairs On Broadway was popula

UC Theatre Berkeley, CA May 28, 2026 This sold out Thursday night show at the UC Theatre was supposedly Sepultura’s last Bay Area show ever. I feel like I’ve now seen them several times on their “farewell” tour. After the antics of KISS and Motley Crue and their “farewell” tours, you’d think bands might stop doing that. But Quadra came out in February 2020, and I saw Sepultura twice on the Klash of the Titans tour in 2023 with Kreator and Death Angel, and then again in 2024 w

Holy hell a lot’s happened since the last blog. The tour has kicked into high gear with more shows and less days off. Let’s see, when we last spoke Death Angel were at Welcome To Rockville in Daytona. Since then we’ve played some rad shows and I’ve visited a ton of record shops. I’m going to cover the highlights here. Used Kids Records, Columbus, OH All the gigs have been pretty cool but the one in Asheville, North Carolina was especially rad. The crowd was electric and there

Frolic drops their second album “Legacies of Cybernetica” on July 3, 2026! Part of the next generation of Bay Area thrash metal, Frolic’s second album shows more trad and prog influences, with death metal style vocals. Frolic has been crushing stages all over the Bay Area (and one tour that led them to understand how large Texas is) for over a decade. Previous releases include their debut Fusion of Spirits and LIVE at the Great American Music Hall from their set opening one

What’s up everybody and welcome to another edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. This time, the spotlight comes from the brand new office headquarters of Hectic / Bleeding Priest Records. Today’s record is one of the most unusual thrash albums ever recorded, not just in the Bay Area, but anywhere: Blind Illusion’s The Sane Asylum. What a crazy album. The first time I heard it was at Ted Aguilar’s house around 1989, maybe about a year after it came out. I had

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA May 7, 2026 Thursday night thrash metal extravaganza at the DNA Lounge. Three local Bay Area thrash bands, plus a touring band from Montreal. The show was upstairs at the DNA, since in the main room they were showing the 1988 movie They Live with some sort of themed dance party afterwards. No idea what that was about, but I liked the signs promoting it: They Live promos with scary lenticular posters I’m normally not a fan of the upstairs space for

Leg 2 of the Act III 35th Anniversary tour is underway and what better way to get things to a roaring start than with a day off! We left SF on Wednesday night and our first gig was on Fri. in Tempe AZ. So we had a day off in Burbank Ca. Fun day actually. In the evening my drum tech Zack and I went into Hollywood and had dinner at one of my favorite places on Earth, The Rainbow. And by complete coincidence my friends in Spirit World were playing next door at The Roxy. They pla

Makeout Room San Francisco, CA April 24, 2026 The Makeout Room is a venue in SF that I’ve been to only a handful of times in all the years living here. They rarely put on a show I’d be interested in seeing. In fact they rarely put on shows at all it seems like. Nevertheless I do like this spot and look forward to seeing more heavy(ish) shows there. The entertainment for this evening’s gig was provided by Haardvark, Gravedodger and Soothsayer. Soothsayer are a relatively new b

DNA Lounge San Francisco CA April 29, 2026 I’ve never been in the DNA Lounge when the doors were locked and all the lights were up. Boy are those rafters dusty. On this Wednesday night it was the final dress rehearsal for the second leg of Death Angel’s ACT III 40th anniversary tour, and a few of us got to witness the culmination of weeks of practice before the band departed on tour. Death Angel dress rehearsal, DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA, April 29, 2026 Courtesy of the D

Rainbow Bar and Grill Los Angeles, CA April 19, 2026 I know our site covers Bay Area shows but this event I went to in LA was just too over the top to not cover here. The event I speak of is Rainbow Bar and Grill’s Anniversary Party. I believe they were celebrating its 54th year of business. The Bay Area Thrash scene in the 80’s was a fertile ground for LA hate. It was the norm for East Bay Thrashers to dub bands from LA as “fags” or “posers”. I never subscribed to that trai

Will Carroll here, coming at you from Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records headquarters. I want to talk about an upcoming release, and that is Deth Provider. This is a death metal record where I drummed on every track, and it also features members of Exhumed, Necrot, Molten, Insanity, Deathgrave, and Ripped to Shreds. It’s a great collective of musicians, and the stuff turned out great. All songs were written by this dude named Kenneth Dutton. He’s kind of the mastermind

The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA April 15, 2026 Dude, Deicide played “In Hell I Burn!!!” Ok, I’m getting way ahead of myself here. Sold out Death Metal show on a Wednesday night. Fuck yeah!! Anyone who says the scene in SF is dead has their head squarely up their fucking ass! The show was Behemoth, Deicide, Rotting Christ and Immolation. The venue, The Regency! All four of these bands could easily headline a show on their own, perhaps not at The Regency but they could

Eli's Mile High Club Oakland, CA April 11, 2026 Third night in a row for Metal gigs brought me to Eli’s in Oakland. Sure it’s not nearly as cool as it was when the back patio was open but it’s still always a great time hitting this Oakland live music institution. The sound is usually the issue I have with Eli’s but Sonny from Necrot was working the board so the evening was in very capable hands. And it sounded better than ever! Hellfire, Eli's Mile High Club, Oakland, CA, Ap

UC Theatre Berkeley, CA April 10, 2026 Night #2 of the trifecta of shows I went to this particular week/weekend was Testament / Destruction / Parabellum at The UC Theatre in Berkeley. Between the spots I had on the list and a friend having extra tickets himself I had to corral 5 semi-wasted Metalheads before going in. Never again! Parabellum had already started when we finally entered the theatre. There’s a lot of hype following these guys. But unlike a lot of bands that

California Theater Pittsburg, CA April 9, 2026 Holy fucking hell I’ve seen a lot of live music in the past 72 hours. Three different shows in three different cities all in the East Bay! And there were actually multiple shows on some nights with Rock or Metal bands playing at the DNA (Thursday was also Weedeater/Conan ) and Eli’s (Fri. was Birth , Tom Draper’s prog band). It almost felt like the 80’s with all this live music happening all at once. The first show I attended in

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 29, 2026 Jeez, I’ve spent so much time at The DNA this week I may as well move in. The final show in a week full of kick ass Metal gigs at said club was Eyehategod / Crowbar / Bl’ast / Worship . I was a tad green around the gills being that Nefarious played that same stage the night before but I persevered. Plus, the music featured at this particular show was a great soundtrack for feeling like shit. Here we go…. Worship, DNA Lounge, San Fr

What’s up everybody? Will Carroll back here again with Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. And it’s been a minute. It’s been long enough where my beard’s back. How about that? But the band I’m covering today is one of my old bands. Not necessarily a metal band, but absolutely heavy and one of the heaviest bands I’ve been in. And that is The Cutthroats 9. I’m going to be covering our second release, the EP Anger Management. It came out in 2002, I believe, on a label ca

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 25, 2026 Ok, I know I’m behind on this review but give a guy a break. In the past five days I was the DJ for three shows, DJd a Metal night at a bar and played a show with Nefarious. I’m trying to get all the info sorted out in my head….which takes a minute. So…this Onslaught show was a doozy for a number of reasons. Shall we discuss? Opening were Oakland favorites, Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records alumni and quite frankly one of the hardest

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 28, 2026 Saturday night at the DNA Lounge for Nefarious ’ third show (and the band’s third show at the DNA – touring coming soon!). Plus a trio of metal power trios, headlined by the mighty Raven . Good things do come in threes sometimes. Opening the show was local band Shark in the Water . I’ve seen this band’s name on bills for years, my friend Dale even played drums for them a decade ago or so, but this was my first time seeing them live.

DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA March 21, 2026 Another Metal extravaganza at The DNA. This time around it’s Exhumed/Oxygen Destroyer/ No/Mas and Iron Front . Before I get into the show I want to quickly talk about what I did earlier in the day. After the Nefarious rehearsal in the early afternoon I went to go see the Kreator documentary HATE & HOPE . It was being shown as a part of the Berlin Film Festival at SF MOMA. It was a pretty cool little theatre with a great bunch of

The Kilowatt San Francisco, CA March 19, 2026 Hippie Death Cult and Glowing Brain , two bands I’ve been hearing about for a while but seeing for the first time. They did not disappoint. The Kilowatt was well attended this sweltering Thursday eve. It was a good mix of different folks from different scenes. I met the couple who put on the Punk Rock Record Swap in Alameda. Good people. Glowing Brain was first. Their music wasn’t quite what I was expecting. With the name I was

March 12, 2026 Neck of the Woods San Francisco, CA Second show of the night and what a DRASTIC change of audience from one show to the other. At Vicious Rumors I was arguably the youngest male there. I would say I was the youngest person across the board but I knew a girl there who is definitely younger than me. And at Trencher I was one of the oldest….one of. There were multiple bandmates of mine there who are at least 10 years older than me. But enough of this nonsense,

March 12, 2026 DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA San Francisco was jumping on this Thursday night. We had two Metal shows happening on either end of town. On one side we had Vicious Rumors and on the other there was Solicitor/Trencher/Phantasmal Abyss and others. Did I dare go to both? I dared! I hit the Vicious Rumors show first at the DNA (upstairs) being that it was an early show. I knew it was going to be a long night of loud music so I decided to show up just late enough t

March 7, 2026 DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA It seems like it’s been a minute since I did the DJ thing at The DNA. It felt good to be back behind the tables. And it was a hell of a night of blasphemous Metal for sure. The DNA was packed this Saturday eve and for good reason: Belphegor , Incantation , Hate and Narcotic Wasteland were in town. Let’s jump right in. Starting off the proceedings was Narcotic Wasteland . This band boasts the extraordinary talents of former Nile ax

March 3, 2026 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA Tuesday night and The Bottom Of The Hill was sold the fuck out! The lineup was Swedish occult rockers Witchcraft , L.A.’s Candlemass worshipping doomsters Early Moods and returning locals Psychic Hit . A solid show any day of the week. Starting things off were Oakland’s Psychic Hit . This band was quite popular in the SF/Oakland scene pre-pandemic. They played frequently and every time I saw them the place was packed no mat

Bay Area thrashers Frolic have partnered with Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest Records to release their second full-length studio album this summer. Hectic Records / Bleeding Priest records specializes in putting out San Francisco Bay Area metal bands on vinyl, and Dave and Will are excited to welcome Frolic to the label as one of the best of a new generation of Bay Area thrash bands. The intergenerational nature of the Bay Area’s thrash scene is pretty special, with shows

Hey boys and girls and undecided. This is Will Carroll and welcome to another edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. Today I am covering one of my favorite bands to emerge from our wretched scene in the last few years, Vorlust with their debut full-length album, Lick the Flesh . Great stuff. Killer, nasty, dirty death metal. The guitarist is Sonny, who is also in Necrot . These bands do not sound anything alike, which is really impressive. The fact that he ca

February 14, 2026 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA Hey, if Will can write about Weird Al Yankovic on this heavy metal website, I can write about weird psychedelic punk rock – NYC’s Alice Donut . At least Alice Donut wrote a song about Metallica . And weird is definitely the vibe with this band, kinda Frank Zappa meets the Butthole Surfers or the Melvins . I was a big fan in the early 90s, and saw them a few times over the years, but it had been quite a while. I’

February 13, 2026 Local Tap San Francisco, CA What else are you gonna do at happy hour on a Friday? See a KISS tribute band at a tiny watering hole near the ballpark of course. Destroyer are SF’s longest running and currently only KISS tribute band. There’s been three others in The Bay that I can remember, Detroit Rock City who predate Destroyer . Heroes , who if memory serves only played one gig. And Kisser , an all female tribute that I never got the chance to see. And

February 9, 2026 The Ritz San Jose, CA February 10, 2026 The Cornerstone Berkeley, CA November 15, 1991. That’s the last time Coroner played the Bay Area. It was at The Omni in Oakland for the Shadows Of The Dark Side (Mental Vortex) tour. The last time I saw them live. THIRTY FOUR (and change) FUCKING YEARS AGO!!! Needless to say I was pretty goddamn excited to see one of my favorite bands of all time once again. I saw them two nights in a row, sort of. Let’s get into it…

February 9, 2026 DNA Lounge San Francisco, CA Question: How do you get a metal show to be over by 8:45? Answer: Announce that it is going to start really early, and then start it 30 minutes earlier than that. Even as I write this, the DNA’s website clearly says doors @ 6pm; show @ 6:30pm - 9:30pm., but apparently the show started at 6 PM. I love the DNA Lounge, but they really need to stop messing with the start times, especially for shows that are already starting early. Th