Hellhunter, Phantasmal Abyss, Absolute Darkness
- Hectic
- Sep 27
- 2 min read
Kilowatt
San Francisco, CA
September 25, 2025
Thursday night at the Kilowatt down on 16th street in the Mission, and a good turnout for 3 local metal bands. Occupying an old firehouse with super high ceilings, the Kilowatt these days is a pretty cool place to see shows. Painted dark red from floor to ceiling, with static playing on old tube TVs behind the bar, and a water station made out of a beer tap at the end of the bar (very convenient for trying to stay hydrated between beers).
I saw some great shows at the Kilowatt in the late 90s, then more or less boycotted it for the better part of two decades once they stopped having live music. Though I did watch football there a few Sundays. Reopened under new ownership a couple of years ago, the live music schedule these days is stronger than ever, and it is the perfect sized club for local bands.
This was my first time seeing Absolute Darkness, a local death / thrash metal band with some modern metal influences, but of course everyone in the San Francisco metal scene knows the bass player Orson Sojo. (The lead vocalist and guitarist Ron Dorn even asked for a show of hands of how many people knew Orson at one point, and most of the hands in the place shot up. Great dude.)
Anyway, they put on a pretty solid set, though I could have done without the sample pedal playing stuff like sirens (everybody run, the cops are raiding the Kilowatt!) and disturbing quotes from news anchors. Thrashy with death metal vocals, I guess the samples fit their political and social commentary themed songs, so what do I know?
Second up were the trio Phatasmal Abyss, who also played with Hellhunter earlier this year, and are playing a lot of SF / Oakland metal shows these days. They are sounding better than ever, having completed a week-long East Coast tour last month (Philly / DC / Pittsburgh etc.). Great energy and more heavy death thrash from the Bay.
The headliner Hellhunter hadn’t played live since a show back in April at the DNA Lounge. I guess life (and work) get in the way sometimes. But they delivered an intense performance of their signature dirty thrash sound, with frontman Gordon Liucifer’s black metal style vocals.
It was one of Hellhunter’s better sounding recent shows in fact, despite some technical difficulties causing guitarist Lord Godgore’s guitar to cut out at one point. Apparently there are some issues with power on part of the stage, which also caused trouble for Orson just as Absolute Darkness took the stage. Not a good sign when an orange extension cord is being run during a performance. But they finished strong, including a two song encore. Good times.
–Hectic
