Cartilage, Frolic, Beheader and Vestige
- Bleeding Priest
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
January 10, 2026
The Cornerstone
Berkeley, CA
‘Twas a brisk night in Berkeley this January eve. The show on the menu is Cartilage, Frolic, Beheader and Vestige at The Cornerstone.
I guess I should check this site more often because clearly I had no idea what time the show started. By the time I got there I had missed Vestige and Beheader were already on. Oh well. I did hear Vestige had a really good set. There will be other opportunities to see them I’m sure.
Beheader were pretty killer. They reminded me of Pleasure To Kill era Kreator with unique Death Metal vocals. The singer bellowed between songs “Your pizza and beer have failed you!” which set an ominous tone over the crowd.
Speaking of the crowd, the place was pretty damn full. And the pit was RAGING at times. There’s a whole new crop of youngsters coming out to these Thrash and Death Metal shows and it’s awesome to see. There’s been some great energy at Metal shows in The Bay in days of late.
Oh yeah, back to Beheader, now that I know how good they are I will make sure to catch their whole set the next time they play in my area. They’re from Vacaville so I don’t know how soon that will be.
Up next was local Thrash Metal heroes Frolic. It’s funny, they’re named after the Death Angel album Frolic Through The Park but I honestly can’t hear any hint of DA in their music.
Regardless these dude tore shit up at The Cornerstone. Despite the TOTAL incompetence of the house sound guy. If you’ve been following my reviews in the past year you know I can’t and WON’T stand for shitty sound people.
Frolic’s set got off to a rocky start when lead vocalist Edgar Sanchez’s mic wasn’t working. Q from Phantom Witch went on stage to change mic cables but that didn’t work either. I look back to the sound guy and he did absolutely nothing to help. Edgar finally went over to the stage right mic to finish the song. Basically the first song was ruined.
Once things stabilized with Edgar’s vocals things were cooking. Until….the stage left mic stopped working a few songs later. I looked back at the “sound guy” and he was staring blankly at the band. Somehow he couldn’t see that the other guitarist was shouting his head off into the mic with no sound.
I told him the mic wasn’t working and had to literally point at the stage while the guitarist was trying to sing. The sound guy was totally confused but FINALLY figured it out…by like song number 5. The sound overall was not great. The drums were way too loud and pretty much buried the rest of the band. Wait…did I just say that?
Despite the sound issues Frolic were AWESOME! They have improved by large leaps and bounds since the last time I had seen them. Which was when they opened for one of Death Angel ‘s Christmas shows a year ago…..maybe 2.
Edgar has become a much more confident frontman and Elijah has really tightened up his drumming and broadened his Rolodex of fills. They were firing on all cylinders all the way and the crowd went off for them. The night was theirs for sure.
Headlining was San Francisco’s (at least that’s where they say they’re from) Cartilage. They play blood soaked (literally) gore grind Death Metal in the vein of Impaled or Exhumed. Drummer Adam Houmam is his generation’s Pete Sandoval. The dude is lightning fast and knows his way around a blast beat. Absolutely punishing.
They have some really catchy, fun tunes amidst all the savage brutality. It’s a fun experience all around catching these guys (and gal) live and they look like they’re having a blast as well. And that’s what it’s all about.
Or in the immortal words of Paul Baloff in reference to heavy music…”I love this shit too man. It makes people go crazy….and that’s what it’s all about”.
–Bleeding Priest
