Nefarious, Defiance, Parabellum
- Hectic
- 16 hours ago
- 2 min read
Cornerstone
Berkeley, CA
June 26, 2026
It was night 2 of a 3 show mini tour of some of the Bay Area’s best thrashers - Nefarious, Defiance and Parabellum. Plus it was Rick Hunolt’s birthday (63, not 68 as Will claimed in a video on this site – sorry!)
Having played Thursday in Sacramento, it was a Friday night celebration at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, before the band moved on to Reno Saturday night. A short tour to be sure, but it was Nefarious’s first ever tour and a solid 3 band lineup of Bay Area thrash metal.
Young thrashers Parabellum started the show. Unfortunately I thought the show started at 9 based on the Cornerstone website, so I only caught the last two songs of Parabellum’s set when I walked in. Doh, I guess they started at 8:30. I hate when websites lie (and don’t trust any set times you see on this site either!)
These guys always deliver a solid, energetic set though, with echoes of Machine Head, Sepultura (they cover “Territory”) and other greats. So I was bummed to not catch their entire set, though I have managed to see them live 3 times this year already. Their most recent album Behold a Pale Horse has on regular rotation in the Hectic / Bleeding Priest records office CD changer.
Defiance was up second, and this was my second time seeing them with Nefarious. I missed seeing Defiance back in the day, though I saw singer Steev Esquivel fronting Skinlab many times in the second half of the 90s. Luckily they are playing more frequently since their second and most recent reunion as a band a few years ago, including an upcoming summer European tour.
Defiance played a great set. If you aren’t familiar, check out their album Void Terra Firma, featured in this Bay Area Metal Spotlight. They closed their set with a cover of “Killers” by Iron Maiden, which is also on that album.
Headliners Nefarious came out with what I think was their most energetic and tight performance to date. Maybe it was finally playing two nights in a row, maybe it was Will’s 8 week tour with Death Angel, straight into Nefarious practice and tour with 1 day off only, maybe it was birthday magic.
Whatever the case, I think it was the best performance of the 4 times I’ve seen them. In addition to much of Nefarious’ debut album Addicted to Power, the vinyl of which was released on Hectic / Bleeding Priest Records, they played a new original song “Feeding on You.” Plus they did covers of Goblin’s Blade by Heathen and Metal Command by Exodus. That last one is still stuck in my head 2 days and a full 4 more live metal bands later. It was a great show. More soon!
–Hectic
