Death to All live in Buenos Aires: Chuck’s legacy more alive than ever
After 10 years of long wait, Chuck Schuldiner’s legacy has landed again in South America, including Buenos Aires city. Death to All, the mighty Death tribute band that includs ex members of the late Death Metal legend, performed all time classics with an exquisite prolixity.
Last March 19th, The gig was agreed at “El Teatrito“, a venue in the capitol of Buenos Aires. The bands that did the uneasy job of warming the stage for the virtuous americans were “Lesa Humanidad”, “Buena Muerte” and “Dislepsia”, long time Death Metal bands from Argentina who have an old school sounding and got his place well deserved, giving a perfect class of Extreme Metal and reminding the crowd why they were there: for a violent tuesday night where the blastbeats and agressive riffs were the major hosts.
At 21.30 the band went on stage and all after that was surrealistic. The lineup consists in Bobby Koelble on guitar (from Symbolic record), Gene Hoglan on drums (from Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic), Steve DiGiorgio on bass (from Human and Individual Thought Patterns) and Max Phelps, from the band Cynic, taking Chuck’s part by playing guitar while singing.
“Open Casket” gave an outstanding opening full of rawness. They weren’t joking at all. The crowd was on fire in a non-stop mosh pit. “The Philosopher” and “Suicide Machine” made things even more spicy. “Living Monstrosity” followed by “Symbolic”, this one being one of the most sung riffs by the people (and I gotta tell that the place was full. Death Metal fans really showed their passion and support). The thing proceed with “infernal Death” and “Scavenger of Human Sorrow”, literally going from the first album to the last one in a second. You could see that the band was really excited about the argentinian crowd singing every song and melody they played, and even chanting the classic “Olé Olé” about the band and each member on it. It must have felt very pleasant for them, who couldn’t stop smiling and laughing at each other. Along the night Steve DiGiorgio said more than once that it was one of their best shows!
The show continued with “Overactive Imagination”, “Within the Mind”, “Baptized in Blood” and “Flesh and the Power It Holds”, so the people can get a taste of every Death album and appreciate the evolution and transition between each of them. I mean, come on, they don’t even have one lame album.
“Lack of Comprehension” came to become the most sung intro, there were some times you hardly could listen to the band because of the loud volume of the crowd. Just mind-blowing.
Then Steve played a bass solo, reminding us why he’s one of the most requested session bassist in the whole Metal scene.
By the hand of “Crystal Mountain” they left the stage, getting the people ready for an encore, which came sooner than later to fulfill the final act with huge hits, such as “Zombie Ritual”, “Spirit Crusher” and, respecting the way Chuck finished every Death show back in the day, “Pull the Plug” for the end. The mosh pits in these last 3 songs were simply brutal. Even a light turned on to aim to it, as it had the same importance as the band itself.
Chuck left us 22 years ago, but there’s no doubt that his legacy is more alive than ever. A lot of young faces showed up, so it’s easy to tell that Death’s music is just beyond generations, a timeless band that still sounds as fresh as when every album came out. We gotta believe that he was somewhere hearing the argentinian crowd screaming “Chuck Chuck Chuck” with fists up!
Review by Agustin Lopez
Photos by Ivy Llad (Ivana Llusco Aduviri)
Produced by Icarus Music
Publicist Marcerla Scorca