LIVE REVIEW: Sacred Reich Returns to Los Angeles on May 31, 2019

June 8, 2019 Maurice Nunez Concert Reviews Comments Off

Sacred Reich performs in the front of sold out crowd at The Regent Theater in Los Angeles, California on Friday, May 31, 2019. Photo by Maurice Nunez.

BY MAURICE NUNEZ | Go Venue Magazine

The Regent Theater in Los Angeles was tonight’s setting for what was to be an evening of pure chaos. This show Sold Out almost immediately once it was announced. Last time I had an opportunity to see Sacred Reich was way back in 1993 when they toured with Danzig. I was definitely looking forward to seeing them again tonight. Many familiar faces on hand tonight including Juan Garcia of Body Count and Robert Trujillo of Metallica. As a photographer, it’s always nice to be able to take photos from the photo pit. Tonight the barricade was setup for a photo pit, but then taken down. The band requested it be removed as they wanted the crowd right up front against the stage. This ended up proving to be the perfect call.

The opening bands set the stage for the evening’s event. It was a strong bill with Yidhra getting the night started. They were followed by Sworn Enemy, Excel, and Vio-lence who hadn’t played Los Angeles in years. A solid lineup of opening bands, which were all well received by the LA crowd. As the night moved on, the venue got packed and eventually the mosh pit and stage diving took full effect. Since the barricade was removed, the stage was used more like a diving board for the fans to jump into the sea of metal heads. During the Vio-lence set, the crowd really got into it as more and more fans were making it to the stage. At one point, one of the stage divers got his hair stuck in Phil Demmel’s (of Vio-lence) guitar as he was jumping back into the crowd. At first I thought they were fighting, but the stage diver ended up back in the crowd and Phil Demmel now had a huge chunk of hair stuck on the neck of his guitar. A true heavy metal scalping is what occurred there!

It was finally time for Sacred Reich to take the stage. They are currently working on their highly anticipated new studio album. This will be their first album in 23 years, which will be titled “Awakening”. It’s due out this summer, and is being produced by Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with Cavalera Conspiracy, Power Trip and Code Orange. Tonight the band got things started with “The American Way” then went right into “Death Squad.” The crowd was intense and never relented as Sacred Reich had the Los Angeles fans screaming for more. This was reminiscent of the 80’s punk shows where security was minimal and the crowd went nuts. Totally understand why the band requested that the barricade be removed. They wanted to be right up front with the fans. I look forward to their new album and hope they return to LA again sometime soon.