Blood Incantation, Dispirit, Krallice
- Bleeding Priest
- Aug 8
- 4 min read
August 6, 2025
Regency Ballroom
San Francisco, CA
Hey all! I’ve been pretty silent here since returning from tour but I’ve washed the tour rust off and am ready to hit the local shows once again. I’ve actually been to a couple of gigs since being home but nothing really worth addressing here on this site. Last night I went to a gig that certainly deserves some attention.
The show I speak of is/was Blood Incantation/Dispirit/Krallice at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Let’s jump right in shall we?
My buddy and I walked in a few minutes after Krallice had started. The last time I saw these guys from Queens was about 15 years ago at either the Elbo Room or the Knockout. Foggy times. This band has progressed by enormous leaps and bounds from what I remember. Again, foggy times.
Krallice were head and shoulders my favorite band of the night and one of the most interesting bands I’ve witnessed live in quite some time. Even with the muddy, bass heavy sound (that The Regency is known to provide) they had my full attention from the second I walked in. Their music is rooted in Black Metal but there’s oh so much more going on here. Their music is highly technical but not so much in the shredding, mathematical sense (but there’s plenty of that to spare as well) but more in a dynamic way.
There were plenty of moments in their set where they took me on a total musical adventure from blast beats one second to lush, almost psychedelic keyboard drenched passages the next. Speaking of the keys, keyboardist / percussionist / vocalist Colin Marston was a joy to watch and was the star of the show. How often do you see a percussionist on stage at a Black Metal show? These guys think way out of the box and I love it!
Up next we had Oakland’s Dispirit. Like Krallice, the last time I saw these dudes was about 15 years ago as well. It was at this thing in LA called Scion-fest. Remember the car Scion? For a while there in the late 00’s Scion were catering hard to the Rock and Metal community. You’d see their ads in Decibel magazine. They were even loaning their vehicles to bands to use on tour.
Anyways, in I think 2010 or somewhere around there Death Angel played the Scion-fest along with a shit ton of other bands (Municipal Waste and Morbid Angel are the first two that come to mind). Dispirit played a side stage way late in the night. Unlike Krallice they were exactly how I remembered them. Incredibly long, somewhat droning, bleak songs with endless blast beats. In other words BLACK METAL!
I may be wrong but I believe they only played 2 songs clocking in at 20 minutes plus each. Vocalist/guitarist John Gossard has been in the SF scene for years fronting BM legends Weakling back in late 90’s. I think he was maybe involved with the band Black Goat as well but I could be wrong about that. Anyways, it was great to see John up on stage performing in front of a packed house.
Now to the headliners Blood Incantation. This was my first time seeing them and they lived up to everything I’ve heard. Total epic, technical/psychedelic outer space themed Death Metal. I was fixated on the drummer for most of the set. He had a pretty neat cymbal set-up behind him complete with a gong which he’d play with during quieter moments of the set. Shit, I’ve wanted a gong for the better part of my life. When I was a kid I used to judge bands not by if the drummer had a gong BUT how big it was. If your band didn’t have a gong then your band ain’t shit.
Anyways, these dudes from Denver completely tore it up and the packed Wednesday night crowd ate it up. Speaking of the crowd, the guy to girl ratio was about 50/50 which is a great thing to see. Metal is no longer a boys club and I am 100% ok with that.
I ended the night doing shots with Dave Ed from Neurosis next door at the Route 101 bar and stayed there way later than I should’ve. He told me quite an amusing story on how original Metallica bassist Ron McGovney got fired from the band. A tale for another time…
–Bleeding Priest
