Not in any of our lifetimes have we experienced receiving new music releases during a global pandemic. We are accustomed to the write, release, tour, repeat cycle in modern music. COVID-19 & its relentless onslaught on the music industry specifically, has rewritten the script as we know it. As one of the founding fathers of Bay Area thrash, Testament has persevered over three decades of industry and social climate shifts to release their thirteenth album, “Titans of Creation” released on Nuclear Blast Records. SF SONIC sat down with frontman Chuck Billy, affectionately known as The Chief to talk about the…
Author: Dylan Dominguez Waltz
Dylan Dominguez Waltz
Having been named by his hippy father after Bob Dylan and poet Dylan Thomas in the early 70s, it appears Dylan Dominguez Waltz had his path to music & writing paved for him. He picked up a guitar and started singing Jon Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at family gatherings at age 4. Flash forward to age 14 and he had his first job in music as a guitar tech & roadie for San Francisco glam rock outfit Vain and their management firm Rebel Productions. That lead to additional work with bands like 4-Non-Blondes, Shine, etc. 30 plus years later you can still catch him on the road with Vain, these days with a laptop making set lists and handing out itineraries, not schlepping Marshall cabinets. Forever fascinated by the artists’ perspective or painting a picture of a live performance with words, Dylan began writing for SF SONIC in 2015 to put to good use the time spent in private high school & collegiate classrooms. He is no stranger to being on the stage either. Dylan also has plenty of time behind the mic as former frontman for metal/rock bands Outrage, Sarcoma, Motogruv, Shotgun Harlot, and currently fronting NWOBHM tribute band Union Jack & The Rippers. Enjoying the glory years of his 40s now, Dylan loves spending time traveling with his wife Caressa, hanging with his four sons, family, sports, hiking, cooking, and of course lots of live music on, in front of, or backstage getting the artists’ point of view.
It’s been roughly thirty-seven years since Death Angel unleashed their ultra-violent sound bound together by their love for metal and family ties. This pack of wolves has weathered many storms together over their career and while there have been breaks, bumps, and bruises along the way, they continue to persevere and peak. The San Francisco-based thrash legends are currently in the midst of a headlining North American tour promoting their ninth studio release, Humanicide. SF Sonic caught up with co-founding member guitarist Rob Cavestany to discuss the current state of affairs and, most notably, their recent Grammy Award nomination for…
They used to say James Brown was the hardest working man in show business. Well the sultan of soul has long been gone but there are a handful of road warriors touring relentlessly as well as maintaining the ability to churn out great albums much like James did. With the eleventh Soulfly studio release Ritual on Nuclear Blast Records, Max Cavalera and company continue the path of salvation as martyrs of metal. I had the repeat pleasure of sitting down with Max to discuss the new record, touring, family, and the best musical mashup idea shared in many moons. SF…
Ghost The Warfield July 2, 2017 All photos by Raymond Ahner. The chapel of ritual was quite familiar as it had been only a touch over a trip and a half around the Sun since Papa Emeritus III & The Nameless Ghouls known as Ghost adorned the stage of The Warfield. Again, accompanied by giant backdrops of stained glass and similar décor of Baphomet-like inspiration, there were equal parts of adrenaline and fervor amongst the crowd, balanced with the ominous scene so well set by the quintet from Linköping, Sweden. No external white noise perpetuated by the scoop seekers and…
Testament The Regency Ballroom May 19, 2017 Photos by Raymond Ahner. One could assign any number of adjectives to describe the hordes of metal fans who are fortunate enough to reside in the Bay Area. Lucky, elitist, envied, spoiled, I’m sure there have been plenty of other colorful words used. But one thing is for certain, there is a special kinship that has existed since the very beginning, when bands like Metallica, Exodus, Death Angel, Legacy and the spawned Testament were laying the foundation for the empire of thrash metal. It started here, period. There has always existed a sense…
It’s no small task to step into the shoes as a frontman of a band that has a cult following. Add to the equation the fact that metal fans are extremely loyal and are not huge fans of change. It’s not like a band like Foreigner or Journey that you can insert a charismatic frontman with a similar tone and the nostalgia takes over with the adoring fans not skipping a beat in ticket sales. A band like Sepultura that blazed a new trail in the metal world with a signature sound had an uphill battle when iconic original frontman…
Dirkschneider Slim’s January 21, 2017 All photos by Raymond Ahner. Two decades and four years had passed since Udo Dirkschneider graced a San Francisco stage prior to last Saturday’s Dirkschneider show at Slim’s. That last appearance in 1993 saw Udo accompanied by his German mates in Accept. He had never played San Francisco with his post-Accept band U.D.O. either. Although U.D.O. is very-much an active band, the band is touring as Dirkschneider to mark Udo’s swan song performances of Accept-era material. He is forever (word used loosely by musicians) closing the door on that chapter of his career and has…
Hitting the scene with Accept in 1978, Udo Dirkschneider has enjoyed success for nearly forty years as a metal frontman. The stout camouflaged one has been ruling center stage across the globe with his unique gruff vocal delivery. After seven studio albums with Accept, Dirkschneider left the band in 1987 and has gone on to release fifteen albums under the U.D.O. moniker. He returned to Accept 1993 pumping out three more releases, but the reunion was short-lived. Now hitting the road as ‘Dirkschneider,’ including a date at Slim’s in San Francisco, it is Udo’s final farewell to performing the Accept…
The Art of Rap Fest featuring Public Enemy, Ice-T, Naughty By Nature, and Grandmaster Melle Mel and Scorpio Regency Ballroom July 24, 2016 All photos by Jeff Spirer. In a genre that has had its artistic integrity diluted by lyrical content about rims, gold grills, sexual conquests, the drug or drink ‘flavor of the month,’ and often grunting gibberish, the architects of hip-hop refuse to relinquish the reigns. In an age where anyone with a laptop, a microphone, and auto-tune is oversaturating the market, the pioneers that hit the street with artistic labors of love & messages that contained social…