Exhorder, Phantom, Parabellum, Mortal
The HUB RWC
Redwood City, CA
October 11, 2026
Two shows in two nights. Why stop there? Let’s make a whole weekend of it and go to a third. For this evening I travelled down to Redwood City. A town I rarely go to for live entertainment but oddly enough is the place where I played my very first “professional” gig on April 15 1988 at The Pony Express Pizza Parlor.
It was with my very first “real” band Armament. The bill was us opening, SF skate/grindsters Morbid Life Society and peninsula technical Thrashers Apathy. It was a great first gig from what I can remember.
Anyways, let’s talk about THIS gig. It was held at a place called The Hub. It was actually a pretty cool spot. Kinda reminded me of The Elbo Room SF with a bar downstairs and music up. The original bill was Exhorder, No/Mas, Phantom, Intoxicated and Parabellum. But No/Mas and Intoxicated pulled out of the tour. I’m guessing because of lack of ticket sales. The Sacramento show the night before was cancelled for that very reason. In their absence we had Mortal open the gig. No complaints here.
Mortal play a style of Death Metal right up my alley. Old school and filthy. The crowd ate em’ up too. Every time I see them they tighten up just a little bit but not too much so they don’t become sterile. These guys have a future if they keep at it. I know Dave and I are on the same page with wanting to put something out of theirs on Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records in the future.
The only drawback with their set was the sound which really isn’t their fault. It wasn’t terrible or anything but was a tad muddy. Aye, it’s a small room with limited sound gear, I get it. It actually sounded exactly how I expected it to.
Up next was Sacramento’s pride and joy Parabellum. The sound was definitely dialed in a bit more for their set. I enjoy these guys the more I see them. Very pro with well written and played songs. They kind of bounce between styles of Thrash with some tunes sounding very Bay Area and others sounding very Kreator-esque.
I prefer these guys’s faster, more unhinged stuff they do. The strange thing was how the crowd kind of thinned out for them compared to Mortal’s set. Vocalist/guitarist Emre Aube even addressed it before one of their songs. In any case they played a pretty ripping set for sure.
Next was the band everybody was clearly there to see, Phantom from Mexico. A buddy of mine was in Mexico a year ago and caught one of their shows and picked up a vinyl for me, thanks Ref! Since then, Dave caught them a month or so ago at a festival in Massachusetts and said they were great. So needless to say I was very much looking forward to hearing some very violent and evil Thrash.
Phantom delivered. Like Mortal, Phantom play with a looseness that screams Old School Thrash. Any looser and I’d have to say they were sloppy but Phantom pulls it off in such a way that their sound just has a great vibe to it. Very human. The crowd went pretty apeshit for them with a decent raging pit going on from start to finish.
You could tell they were stoked to be playing the Bay Area, even Redwood City. They gave numerous shoutouts to Baloff and “the birthplace of Thrash”. I would love to see them play a proper SF or Oakland gig the next time they come through so they can get a REAL taste of the Bay Area Thrash scene. Hellhunter would be a great match with these guys.
Headlining were Pantera inspirers Exhorder. I’ve never really followed these guys too closely. I know their debut Slaughter In The Vatican is considered a classic to some and it certainly does have some seriously punishing riffs/songs on it for sure. I guess when it came out I was already fully onboard the Death Metal express train to Hell so it kinda came and went for me. And since then I haven’t followed their music at all.
They hit the stage with all guns blazing and most certainly had the best sound of the night. I seem to remember them being a five piece back in the day but now they’re a quartet with sole original member Kyle Thomas handling vocals and guitar. I also forgot that Pat O’Brien of Cannibal Corpse fame was in the band as well. It was good to see him rip it up.
Unfortunately not many people stuck around for them which is a shame because they certainly played their hearts out to the few fans that stuck around. Touring is not for the weak of spirit and I commend them for their professionalism. They certainly deserved better than what they got.
I have to give props to Elijah from Frolic for making this show happen. A job well done sir. If the right band were playing I would absolutely come back to this venue.
–Bleeding Priest
