Wraith, Witchtrap, The Black Moriah, Burial Oath
- Hectic
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
DNA Lounge
San Francisco, CA
June 7, 2026
Sunday night at the DNA, and my second metal show of the day. Following the afternoon death metal show, it was time for some thrash, most of it blackened.
This show wasn’t very well attended, but there were a ton of young people there. Good to see the next generation into some thrash metal.
The pit was pretty wild and took up practically the whole room! Us old folks had to retreat back to the bar. No complaints from me though, I’m sure the bands appreciated the energy.
Burial Oath I unfortunately can’t say much about, as I walked in toward the end of their last song. I guess they are a black metal band from Cleveland, Ohio.
The Black Moriah people had told me about, but I’d never seen them before. Western themed Blackened Thrash from Dallas, Texas. They were jokingly described as “evil cattle rustler metal” by Ron, a longtime bartender at the DNA, who has seen many shows for sure.
And it was an accurate description, there was definitely some kind of western theme going on, at first I thought pirate. The singer had one of those old school 1950s type microphones, but it was hand-held, so that was different. I enjoyed The Black Moriah’s music, and I bought a couple of their CDs afterwards. It was a good set.
I hadn’t heard of either of the two headliners (not sure if they were co-headliners on the tour but they had similar billing, I thought Wraith would be the headliner based on the flyer). But I think a lot of people knew them, at least in the mid-sized crowd that eventually showed up.
Taking the support slot, Wraith was a killer band, heavy thrash / speed metal from Indiana. A great high energy set, little bit of punk influence, blackened vocals. I guess they’ve been around a decade but they were new to me. I picked up some of their vinyl after the show (it was a shopping spree evening for me, definitely stocking the new label office with some vinyl and CDs).
Witchtrap was an old-school three piece all the way from Colombia. Apparently they formed in 1996, so they really were old school. I’m a sucker for a heavy 3 piece band. They put on a great show, lots of influences like Slayer and Venom could be heard, and they had their fans at the show for sure.
Apparently the name of the band comes from a film, though I haven’t seen it. They had fans both local and local immigrants, as their stage banter was bilingual, and towards the end of their set some fans attached the Colombian flag to the singer’s mike stand. They were a pretty low budget affair, no costumes or even banner announcing themselves like most metal bands these days, but they put on a heck of a show.
–Hectic
