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Apr 21, 2025 By Matthew Berlyant Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

Since its inception in 2017, the long-running extreme metal publication Decibel Magazine has hosted its annual Metal and Beer Festival at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, where the magazine is also based, with a Denver-based festival held every year since 2022 as well. However, despite the amazing line-ups and my proximity to its location, I had never been able to attend before this year.

Sadly, I couldn’t attend day one of the festival, so I missed performances I would’ve LOVED to have seen by headliners Dismember (playing their classic debut Like an Ever Flowing Stream in full), Maul, Vastum, Darkest Hour (playing their 2005 classic Undoing Ruin in full), and more, though I did manage to see Vastum with tour mates Goetia (who also played the afterparty at the tiny bar Ortlieb’s on night one) a few nights later here in NYC (review forthcoming). However, I WAS able to attend day two, and so that’s what this review will focus on. While day one (perhaps inadvertently) focused heavily on various styles of death metal ranging from the melodeath (melodic death metal) of Darkest Hour to the technical brutality of Vastum, day two seemed to veer towards “trad” (i.e. traditional) metal, black metal, and especially good old fashioned eighties thrash.

I got there too late to see show openers and Pittsburgh thrashers Vicious Blade, but heard they were great by all accounts. Therefore, New Yorkers Funeral Leech played an incredibly solid and enjoyable set of death doom (a hybrid of death and doom metal that was arguably kicked off by the Long Island-based Winter in the early ‘90s) that echoed back to everything from The Melvins’ earliest, sludgiest recordings (think Gooey Porch Treatments, kids) to the heaviest recordings by the so-called Peaceville Three (Anathema, My Dying Bride, and Paradise Lost).

Afterwards, Philly locals Sonja (led by vocalist/guitarist Melissa Moore and featuring members of past bands ranging from Absu to Tombs to the wonderfully-named Rumpelstiltskin Grinder) played a solid set of goth-tinged “trad” metal. Continuing the emphasis on Philly’s incredible metal scene, the black metal-tinged and, therefore, appropriately named Devil Master, were next and cast a spell over the entire audience.

The long-running, Texas-based Eternal Champion were next to proudly wave the trad metal banner and seemed even tighter than the last time I saw them, at their headlining set at Music Hall of Williamsburg last year (see my review HERE) to show their versatility, guitarist and producer Arthur Rizk filled in on drums for this set!

After this, the old school thrash portion of the evening commenced, and boy did it deliver. New York’s incredible Demolition Hammer, whose initial run spanned the mid-eighties to mid-nineties, reunited in 2016, and just absolutely destroyed.

Playing a fifty-minute set with four selections each from their first and second albums (1990’s Tortured Existence and 1992’s Epidemic of Violence, respectively) and towing the line between speedy, Slayer-inspired thrash metal and brutal early nineties style death metal, it was easily the best and most forceful performance of the evening up to that point, delivering on all levels. Frontman Steve Reynolds was an amiable, appreciative, but also rousing presence, thanking the crowd profusely before they ended the set with the aptly-titled “.44 Caliber Brain Surgery.”

And now it was time for the main event, San Francisco Bay Area thrash forebearers Exodus playing the entirety of their 1985 debut LP Bonded in Blood in full! As if that wasn’t exciting enough, singer Rob Dukes has returned to the band as of January 2025, replacing Steve “Zetro” Souzsa. This was significant for several reasons.

First off and perhaps most obviously, the Dukes-led version of the band re-recorded Bonded by Blood in 2008, retitled Let There Be Blood, and therefore the version heard on this evening bore more similarity to the re-recordings than the 1985 original. While that’s usually a cause for concern and some old school fans adamantly prefer the original, this is one of those relatively rare cases where the re-recording goes toe to toe with the original.

I, for one, am glad that both exist and that Dukes’ more confrontational, hardcore-influenced style can coexist with the much more trad-metal style vocals of their previous two singers (including the late Paul Baloff, who sang on the original). And, as expected, long-time guitarist (since 1981!) Gary Holt, founding drummer Tom Hunting, bassist Jack Gibson, and guitarist Lee Altus ripped through classics like the title track, “Exodus,” “A Lesson in Violence,” and “Metal Command” as if possessed, and taking a break from the Bonded by Blood album sequence, they managed to insert several mid ‘00s Dukes-era tunes from Tempo of the Damned and Shovel Headed Kill Machine, respectively.

After this, side two of Bonded by Blood was delivered in order and with brute force, the one exception being that between “Deliver Us to Evil” and their typical wild closer “Strike of the Beast,” they played perhaps their most well-known song, “The Toxic Waltz,” a song which received lots of MTV airplay in early 1989 and which brought them to a wider audience when they toured with Anthrax and Helloween that year on the Headbanger’s Ball tour. While this was unexpected, as this was initially recorded with Zetro, it did show Dukes’ ability to perform it in his vocal style and the band to adapt to it, much like the Bonded by Blood material.

It should also be noted that this was one of the most well-organized festivals I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, not only because everything started on time, but because it was easy to get between the performance area and the massive amounts of unique merch (and phenomenal tasting microbrewed beer and even mead) also available. The vibes were friendly, too, as despite the ultra-aggressive nature of much of this music, you will rarely find a nicer audience. Many folks travelled from other states or even countries just to be there and see their favorite bands, and everyone left happy and properly thrashed!