In the World of metal music and horror movies it really doesn’t get much more ridiculously awesome than San Antonio TX’s annual Housecore Horror Film Festival hosted by Housecore Records. The World renowned festival just wrapped a third installment. This multi-day and multi-venue event saw an incredible first day line-up of bands that included sought-after acts Child Bite, Warbeast, EyeHateGod, Exodus, Superjoint, and the legendary King Diamond at the Aztec Theater in San Antonio, TX. BTS’s Dante Torrieri had the pleasure of flying down to the Lone Star State and covering the madness for our viewing pleasure featured below the fold.
Danish heavy metal legend King Diamond is currently on tour with heavyweights Exodus, performing the renowned 1987 Abigail album in it’s entirety. For Housecore Horror Fest 2015, King Diamond broke off a 90+ minute set and in addition to performing Abigail in its entirety, the crowd was treated to a handful of rare Mercyful Fate songs and a number from the King‘s extensive catalog. The tour is currently residing in NYC for a 3-night run at The Best Buy Theater and is completely sold out. Upon its release in November of 2014, King Diamond‘s latest release, Dreams of Horror reached #28 on the Billboard Hard Music charts. Nothing to sneeze at considering this is just a “best of” album covering the band’s entire career. King Diamond and Andy La Rocque meticulously mastered and enhanced these 23 hand-picked cuts into the ultimate editions, chosen by the band from both the Roadrunner and MetalBlade catalogs.
Legendary Bay area thrashers Exodus brought the crowd to their knees with a powerful shellacking of thrash as the band continues to support a latest full-length, Blood In, Blood Out, that was released in 2014 via Nuclear Blast to rave reviews. Punknews.org hailed the effort in a 4/5 review stating, “one of the best heavy releases of the year” seeing guest appearances and surprises by Dan the Automator, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, and Testament vocalist Chuck Billy, who punctuated the return of vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza and highly anticipated follow-up to 2004’s Tempo of the Damned.
Superjoint (formerly Superjoint Ritual) absolutely killed it like they were the hometown headliner. To get a more intimate crowd response the band invited all the photographers on stage so crowd surfers could come over the barricade unimpeded. Win. Win. Abosultely smashing set and the crowd went babanas as you’ll see in the photos below. This performance followed the band’s wildly successful It Takes Guts Summer takeover and subsequent Danzig support tours this Fall. In a live review of their New Orleans performance, Whereyat.com commended the band’s signature, “straight-up, no-frills, hardcore rock,” and, “a very spirited, and just plain fun, rock n’ roll show.” Now featuring Philp H. Anselmo (Down, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, Pantera et al), guitarists Kevin Bond (Christ Inversion, Artimus Pyledriver et al) and Jimmy Bower (Down, Eyehategod), drummer José Manuel Gonzalez Jr. (Warbeast, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals) and bassist Stephen Taylor (Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, Wovenhand, 16 Horsepower), Superjoint unleashed two critically-lauded full-lengths- 2002’s Use Once And Destroy and 2003’s Lethal Dose Of American Hatred, before taking hiatus in 2005. Expect more tour actions coming soon.
This insane bill was rounded out by a slathering of intense bands including Child Bite, Warbeast, and New Orelan’s legends Eyehategod. Without further ado enjoy an exclusive round of photos by BTS’s Senior Photographer Dante Torrieri (Useless Rebel)
