Man Minus Label, The Abuse, Season of Decay
Brick By Brick - Bay Park, San Diego
February 28th 2003
By
Amber Shaffer,
SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright
2008
SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer
 My head is still ringing from all the metal that assaulted my ears tonight at
Brick by Brick's "Hellbent on Hardcore" night. When I walked in,
I was surprised to see such a large crowd. There must have been between 150-200
people there, when normally I'm used to 50 or less. And something else was
different too: there were chicks! Cute one's too. I'm sure the mostly
male crowd was digging that.
The evening's headliner, The Abuse, went on second to last. The singer was a cliché - little tiny metal chick proving she can scream just as long, loud, and deep as a man. But who ever said screaming was a good thing? I'd rather hear you sing, babe. The band itself was great, especially the bassist Derek, who happened to be celebrating his birthday this night. Technically solid with a strong rhythm section, The Abuse got an energetic pit started in no time at all. I like pits; I find them an interesting social phenomena: I'm going to push, shove, and bump into you with all my might and swing my fists around a bit to get my aggressions out, but if I'm so rough that I knock you over, me and some of the other pit kids will immediately help you up so you don't get trampled. I guess it's a controlled release of aggression? I actually like the strange brotherhood that forms in the pit, I just think it's weird at the same time. One guy was shoved so hard toward me as I stood on the edge of the circle that he fell down and knocked me off balance, but it was no big deal. But as I helped him stand up, he was apologizing profusely for running into me and gave me a hug before jumping back in.
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Hands down, the best band of the night was Man Minus Label, who were third in
the night's lineup (I was late, as usual). A hard rock/nu-metal act, with
crunching guitars, layers of sound, and a kick-ass drummer, MML were definitely
the crowd favorite.
Speed metal has a very limited appeal; it's very fast (duh), aggressive,
and in the case of Season of Decay, the evening's closing act, full of
gut-wrenching screams/vocals. I couldn't tell you if the musicians in this
band are technically good, all I can tell you is they play astoundingly fast.
Even their "slow" songs were fast; kinda like getting on the freeway:
they start out slow and then it's pedal to the metal.
Season of Decay also had some serious headbanging going on; I only hope they
stretched before going on stage otherwise not a single one of them will be able
to move their necks tomorrow. Except the drummer. He had no time for whipping
his long locks in the wind what with navigating his monstrous drum kit.