209Metal View By Mike Vanek
The Rise of HATRIOT and the glue that keep us all together…
So this month I would like to talk about a few things… First of all there is a band making a lot of noise in the national metal community these days and they are called HATRIOT. Featuring former Exodus frontman Steve “ZETRO” Souza and his two sons Cody and Nick. Hatriot has a local Modesto connection… both of Hatriot’s guitarists hail from our fair city!! Miguel Esparza (Ex-Cadavric) & Kosta Varvatakis (Ex-Kranial Damage) round up Hatriot’s Duel guitar attack!!
This band has been on fire after being signed to Massacre Records and working on their debut album due out this month. After opening for Death Angel and headlining the Fat Cat as a tune up shows, Hatriot seems to have a wide-open future. The other night, Kosta pulled me aside and played me the HATRIOT album and I’ll be reviewing it upon its release but just let me tell you, this is THE best new band in metal today!! Zetro Souza sings his ass off not only live but I would say this is the best record he has made in many years, if not his best ever. The band he hand picked is a powerful juggernaut of metal madness. I highly suggest you follow this band as they just might be the next big thing, with 2 guys from OUR METAL SCENE!!
Next I want to take notice of a fire being lit as of late. As old venues reimagine themselves and exclude the local metal scene a local promoter has taken it upon himself to do something about it!! Nic Padilla Promotions has worked metal bands into his shows for moths and has convinced the fine people at Yosemite lanes to have an all METAL bill and it was a GIANT success!!! A giant salute to Nic for fighting for metal and it doesn’t stop there. Bands like Nothing But Losers, Zombie Death Stench, California Medication, Galvan Eyes, Cursed, This Times Brutal, Hang The Kode, Eroszion, Aborticide, Bombs Overhead, Warpath Assassins among others have really taken the bull by the horns and have fought through things like the lack of venues willing to do metal, a bad economy, etc. They not only promote themselves but finally each other and I hope this is the beginning of something special in the MO!! There are thousands of metal heads in our fair city and I think we should all get a fair shake!!
Last of all I wanna thank venues keeping metal alive in Modesto. Fat Cat as always, but you can go see 21+ shows mostly for FREE at Spinnakers and The Other Place, and now at Yosemite Lanes 300 Club and the shows there are only $2! When my band played there last year we bowled until 1am after the show!! Anyway, that’s all for me this month. As always keep one foot in the gutter and one fist in the gold!!
