Thrash, death, doom, and all of the above types of heavy metal will wreak madness on stage for a night to bring together the metal head-bangers of Iowa City.
Currently on tour, Havok, Jungle Rot, and Extinction A.D. are giving it hell on their North American tour. They will be joined by Cedar Rapids bands Black Hilt and Frontal Assault.
The bands will take over Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St., at 5 p.m. Aug. 3 to express their feelings about corruption, money, and power in the form of loud, aggressive music that will be a true thrashter-piece.
Formed in 2004 in Denver, Havok is a successful thrash-metal band that has gained popularity with its hard vocals and messages of nonconforming with societal beliefs.
Frontal Assault member Anthony Thomas says Havok has been his favorite band and the No. 1 source of inspiration for his music. He describes Havok as new wave and tech thrash, and he said if people love riffs, they’ll love Havok.
The death-metal band from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jungle Rot, will also explode on stage — and in ear drums — to slay the audience with its grotesque sounds of brutality and darkness. The group has toured around the world and released a self-titled album July 20.
Touring for the third time with Havok, Extinction A.D. shares similar points of views on life and political issues that make the bands’ performances together powerful and meaningful to moshing audiences.
Based in Long Island, New York, Extinction A.D. vocalist and guitarist Rick Jimenez said the early thrash bands of the 1980s, such as Testament, Slayer, and Metallica, are his primary influences, along with first-wave American punk music.
“A lot of that punk influence is really what sets us apart from other bands, and that’s not even just songwriting but our live energy,” Jimenez said.
Thrash-band Black Hilt is locally known in the metal community for a unique stage show.
“We have a lot of inspirations, and we kind of blend our own styles into it, like Metallica and Slayers to Beatles and Black Sabbath, and mix the two evils together to get a doom thrash,” band member (for now) Triston Lochner said.
Gabe’s will be one of Black Hilt’s last couple performances as a four-member band because bass player and vocalist Preston Waterbury and drummer Lochner will part ways to focus on careers outside of music.
Frontal Assault creates loud, thrash-metal, riff-based music that came about a couple years ago when some friends decided to have a jam session together.
“A lot of bands aren’t doing politically driven music, a lot of bands are using their music to put forth stories and personal feelings, and we’re just using our music as a platform to try to point out corruption in the government — it’s got a lot of dynamic to it,” Thomas said.