"Possessed by Metal"

by: Dexter "Neonblack"  Duran

My elder brothers were music-minded persons when they were in their teens so, under the influence of my elder brothers, I was exposed early to rock music and along the way I also picked up metal music.  As young as grade 4 I was already listening to my brother’s Divine Intervention and Far Beyond Driven tapes.  Of course, I did not understand all the words that Tom Araya or Phil Anselmo sang, but there was something about the aggressive, heavy music that I found enthralling.  After classes I would sometimes hit up Primerose in Colon, the long gone record bar that sold all the rare metal albums found nowhere else in the city.  I was often just ogling over all the metal albums that were there, never buying a single tape because I never had enough money when I was in grade school.  Now, after all these years, metal music has always been an integral part of my everyday life and my interest in it has never waned.  It goes to say that some things never change, some just grow along with you. 

The C.E.M.P. (Cebu Extreme Music Prodution) Hellfest has been raging on for 5 years now, although I have only been to the fourth one last year that was held for 2 nights at the now defunct Zzubu Rock Bar in Colon. Hellfest is a gathering of the various bands under the C.E.M.P. roster, all playing for there fans and supporters of the scene. This year Hellfest V was held in Boss Grill last March 14.  Though rain interrupted the revelry for a bit, it did not stop the pandemonium that was unleashed upon this night of Hellfest.  The annual gig commenced with the new band Tyrant who played black metal.  They played covers from the mighty Celtic Frost and other black metal luminaries, and with that I grinned and thought to myself that this was going to be one hell of a night.  The next band was Forgotten Knights who played cover songs from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Megadeth.  Things got better and better because you can never go wrong if you’re covering songs from those three bands.  After that was the band Mystery ov Death who played death metal and not being not serious about it.  If you’ve read my previous endeavor, it was written as “that death metal, good musical talent and a sense of humor do not mix well together” which was an honest mistake and my apologies to Genital Decay.  What I really meant was that they do mix well together.  Fun is never a hindrance for playing good music.  Local legends Astarus played next on a set that was about to be interrupted by the heavy rains that almost got some equipments soaked.  I really did think that it would have been so appropriate that they played Slayer’s Raining Blood, since it was raining at the time but unfortunately they did not.  This didn’t mean though that the band played a lackluster set, for they tore through their set and fed the eager crowd some metal down their throats and ears.  They were followed by another legendary local band Agnas who ripped open their set with a powerful rendition of Slayer’s South of Heaven.  After that was the band Comatose who covered Deicide’s Scars of the Crucifix and Slayer’s Angel of Death.  If there’s any undisputable way to fire up the crowd, its playing Slayer, Sepultura (Max Cavalera era) or Pantera songs.  You can never go wrong with that and everyone in the immediate vicinity will go apesh*t.  Demise played afterwards and shredded the hell out of their guitars for the sake of metal.  They, along with Comatose, are quickly becoming nationally known bands for there gigs outside of Cebu.  Next up was Kasakit  and are definitely crowd favorites during the gig.  Everyone banged their heads for them and screamed along “WAR FOR TERRITORY!” as they played cover song from Sepultura as well their own compositions.  Black metal band Imperial Resistance followed up and was one of my personal favorites.  I went ballistic when the opening lines of Venom’s Black Metal were sang and got off of my seat and into the pit.  I definitely laid down my soul to the gods of rock n’ roll that night.  They were then followed by the quite young-looking band Fallen Angel who instilled terror upon the spectators with a scorching set of death metal madness.  Capping the whole gathering was the not-so-serious Embryonic Massacre. This being already at almost 3 am, they still had command of the mosh pit and had everyone breaking their necks to their songs they dubbed as “porn grind”.  It looked like it was the most fun set during the whole gig.  This band can be brutally heavy and not take themselves too seriously at the same time, which is awesome in my opinion.

Before when I first saw a flyer for the previous Hellfest, it conjured up in my mind a monumental event much like Wacken Open Air or Ozzfest.  A stage with an open mosh pit in front and lots of band merch booths around.  I honestly was a little bit disappointed to read that the venue for it was just Zzubu Rock Bar.  But, then again, I enjoyed the hell out of last year and this year’s Hellfest.  Hey, everything starts somewhere.  I am very certain that in the near future Hellfest would grow into the event that I had imagined.   Just give it time, you’ll see.  Until then, we’re all gonna have to wait for next year’s Hellfest and ‘til all hell breaks loose again.