On April 11, 2025 I left work early to head to the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California. The event that night was Warbringer and special guests Allegaeon, Skeletal Remains and Summoning the Lich. The stage was set for an awesome night of thrash metal music and an epic time to be had.
When Summoning the Lich took the stage, the crowd was excited to be part of the event. The band delivered a powerful performance during their short set, filled with driving lyrics and impressive musicianship. Despite some technical issues that were eventually resolved, they rocked the house.
“Demon of the Snow” provided a cool moment for the lead singer before jumping into “The Nightmare Begins,” which really energized the crowd. “Return to the Soil” was a fantastic track that encouraged many in the audience to unleash their energy in the mosh pit. They performed “Reviled Crystal Wielders” with two songs remaining before finishing the night with “The Forest Feasts.”
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Dave Bruno – vocals
Ryan Felps – guitar
TJ Chilton – drums
Nick “Muck” Muckerman – guitar
Skeletal Remains were up next. This band, hailing from Los Angeles California, had a ton of technical issues. Starting late, they only had time for four songs but what they played were spot on. From the first song their disappointment quickly turned to raw emotion and they slayed the tune. As they hit their second song, they had the pit going and the audience, the ones that weren’t in the pit, glued to the stage. Now, if that song wasn’t powerful enough, the next one had power to spare and then some. That was to be their last song but, the crowd yelling, One more song, had them graciously coming back out to do just that.
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Mike De La O – guitar
Chris Monroy – vocals, guitar
Pierce Williams – drums
Brian Rush – bass
When Allegaeon took the stage, the atmosphere transformed entirely. The performance went off without a hitch, with the band delivering their set with precise timing and technical perfection. They played for nearly an hour, energizing a swirling pit of enthusiastic moshing fans. The set included many of their favorites as well as crowd favorites, such as “Terrathaw and the Quake” “Of Beasts and Worms” and “Parthenogenesis” to name a few. Toward the end of the performance, they played “1.618”, which was a standout moment in the set. To conclude the show, they played “Behold (God I Am)”, leaving the crowd more than satisfied. It was truly an epic performance.
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Ezra Haynes – vocals
Greg Burgess – guitar
Michael Stancel – vocals, guitar
Brandon Michael – vocals, bass
Jeff Saltzman – drums
Warbringer is a band that defies all the rules. Although crowd surfing and stage diving were prohibited at the DNA Lounge, the audience was already engaging in those activities from the very beginning. They kicked off the show with “Severed Reality,” setting a high-energy tone that didn’t let up. Following that, they played “The Black Hand Reaches Out” and “Woe to the Vanquished,” before launching into “Crushed Beneath the Tracks,” which stood out as a highlight of the performance.
Next, they introduced a new song titled “The Sword and the Cross,” during which the lead singer dramatically held up a broadsword, eliciting cheers from the excited crowd. After several more songs, they reached their final piece of the evening, “Remain Violent,” which sent the audience into a frenzy. The power of that track had the pit moving and the crowd fully engaged.
As “Remain Violent” came to an end, there was a palpable sense of disappointment among the fans, but then the chant for “One More Song” erupted. After a couple of minutes of chanting, the band returned to the stage for an encore. They played “Total War,” which lived up to its name with an all-out explosive sound. And with the conclusion of that song, the night was over. Although it ended, it certainly left a lasting impression on everyone who was there.
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John Kevill – vocals
Adam Carroll – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Carlos Cruz – drums
Chase Becker – lead guitar, backing vocals
Chase Bryant – bass
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