Exhumed, Impaled, Cretin, Mæntra
- Hectic
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
DNA Lounge
San Francisco, CA
October 24, 2025
This four band bill turned out to be one of the DNA Lounge’s early shows, there was some club night happening afterwards going late. When I showed up around 7:30 I had missed the opener Mæntra without realizing their bass player was Paul Ryan of Origin (and DNA Lounge bartending) fame. Bummer. Early bird gets all the death metal.
I managed to just catch the last couple songs of Cretin’s set. What I heard sounded good, shoulda been there to catch the whole set. Especially since Cretin has not been active much over the past decade apparently.
Supporting was Impaled, who I had not seen live since the 90s. Back in 1997-98 I saw Impaled play many times with Old Grandad, including a few memorable shows back then with The Melvins, Old Grandad and Impaled, and Suffocation, Old Grandad and Impaled.
The show was a celebration of the 50th birthdays of Matt Harvey (guitar / vocals in Exhumed) and Ross Sewage (bass in both Exhumed and Impaled). It was quite a celebratory atmosphere, with more fun and more beer being had on stage than your typical death metal show. “We’re not usually this drunk” Matt Harvey said at one point, though there was no sloppiness on display, it was a killer show through and through.
For a 50th birthday celebration the crowd was younger than your average DNA Lounge metal crowd. Not sure if that was because some people were there early for the dance club afterward or Exhumed has a new generation of fans these days, but regardless (and despite the jokes about old age coming from the stage), it was a high energy show.
Impaled delivered an intense death metal / grindcore performance with their multiple vocalists, including at least one track off their new Demo Medicale release that came out this year on Tankcrimes.
Exhumed capped off the celebration. I’ve seen them much more recently, including two years ago on the same DNA Lounge stage. Exhumed always put on a great show. From their tight brand of gore-themed death metal to their fun stage show of the chainsaw wielding maniac, mad doctor shooting blood from syringes, and guillotine a la Alice Cooper, they never disappoint.
Exhumed also paid tribute to their origins, with Leon Del Muerte of Impaled and a different bass player joining the band on stage to play a couple of early songs. Leon played on some early Exhumed recordings more in the goregrind Carcass style. And continuing the tributes to Ace Frehley’s passing last week, one of their encores was Detroit Rock City. Great show all around.
With the show over by 10:30, I decided to head to the Kilowatt to continue punishing my liver. They had a free show in the upstairs space, where I had never been before (the main stage and bar are downstairs, and the upstairs is more of a private events space with an entrance on the side street).
A band called Johnny was playing their debut show, and while not metal (more of a punk / raw power pop band), they were fast and pretty great. An unexpectedly good show, maybe it is my issue but when someone says “come out to an indie rock show” I always expect the worst, some kind of jangly pretentiousness. Not the case at all, Johnny rocked hard, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again.
–Hectic
