On Friday, January 23, 2015, the concert promotion company Gotham Rocks hosted their bi-monthly Weekend of Wreckage tour at Trash Bar in Brooklyn, New York. Gotham Rocks is widely known in the heavy metal scene for hosting successful concerts at popular concert venues in New York City. Many local, national, and international bands have performed on Gotham Rocks bills, especially at the Weekend of Wreckage events hosted by Brooke Von Berg.
January 23 – January 24, 2015, the Weekend of Wreckage returned to Brooklyn’s Trash Bar for perhaps the last time before the venue closes its doors to the Williamsburg neighborhood, with twelve bands broken up into two chaotic nights of heavy metal wreckage. The first night featured kick ass Hard Rock and Heavy metal bands Lethal Affection, Dark Matter, Common Wealth, Libricide, Pralaya, and Sun & Flesh. Night two stomped its way in with Death and Heavy Metal bands Divergence, Entropy, This Life We Live, A Great Day to Die, Lies Beneath, and Plague of Humanity.
New Jersey natives and Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band Lethal Affection (Noah Simon – Lead Vocals, Nick Kashmanian – Guitar and Vocals, Joe Percario – Guitar and Vocals, David James – Bass, Cameron Rozell – Drums and Vocals) kicked off Weekend of Wreckage with their heavy hitter “The Road” followed by “Frozen in Time” and “Choose a Side”. With Gotham Rocks Presents…Brook Von Berg’s Weekend of Wreckage moshing two nights in a row, Trash Bar packed out the venue’s show space with supporters and fans from each of the performing bands.
Industrial Metal band from New Jersey Dark Matter (Vik-vocals/Guitars/Programing, Rene-Drums, Jerry-Lead Guitar, Anthony-Rhythm Guitar, Erick- Bass)opened up with their ironically titled single “Sane”. The band enaged their audience with high energy and stage banter. Lead singer Viaktor Pingin dove into the set with screams and growling vocals, while the band delivered a true industrial sound. “One Day”, “Imprint”, and their closer “Pulse” were just some of Dark Matter’s hits performed at Weekend of Wreckage.
Also hailing from New Jersey, Metal band COMMON WEALTH (Charlie Wealth- Bass, Joey Cappasso- Drums, Giovanni St. James-Guitar, Vinny Black- Guitar, Christian Carson- Vocals) took the stage with adrenaline rushed guitar riffs and raspy vocals. COMMON WEALTH’s track “Pull Me Through” did just that at the Weekend of Wreckage, drawing the audience into a heavy melodic trance. COMMON WEALTH’s music and cryptic stage presence kept fans locked into songs like “Caught In Between” and “Mend The Pieces”.
Prog Rock band Libricide (Harun Gadol – Vocals & Guitars, Dario Ciccioni – Drums & Samples, Dylan Stark – Guitars & Vocals, Max Devlin – Bass) opened their set with the bass slapping and shared solo single “Destiny Weights”. Known for alternate timing music, Libricide produces a sound that refelects current events. The 7/8 “Sky Burial” performance came with crashing drum cymbals and catchy lead guitar riffs.
Melodic/Prog Rock band Pralaya from New York City began a strong set the first night at Weekend of Wreckage. Songs “Farewell”, “Fugitive”, and “Cycle” had show goers chanting for one more song. Pralaya is a promising almagamation of musical inspiration.
Sun & Flesh (Christoph – Vocals/Guitar, Stefan Reinberger – Guitar, Jonathan Serwinowski – Drums) from Brooklyn, NY returned to Weekend of Wreckage heavier than ever. “Tread Carefully” and “Yuck Fou (interlude)” sent Gotham Rockers’ horns and fists up. Fans gathered close to the stage for synchronized head banging to the Sun & Flesh eargasm “Purge”. The guys of Sun & Flesh concluded their set with crowd surfing by lead singer and guitarist Christoph Manuel.
Progressive/Death Metal band Divergence (Daniel Benenati, Anthony Espinal, Andrew Nunez, Giovanni Serrano, Clark Gavidia)opened up night two of Weekend of Wreckage. Divergence unleashed indivertable fury unto the Weekend of Wreckage crowd while performing “The Divided Line”. Say that three times! “Paradise Lost” straight from Divergence’s EP brought the audience up close to the stage for intense vocals from lead singer Giovanni Serrano.
Entropy (Paul Klassek, Dan Fazio/Guitars, John Bernstein/Bass/Vocals, Annie Lou Buchwald/Drums, William Welfel/Vocals) performed forcefully with screeching and backing vocals. Entropy showed the crowd who they really were with heavy shredding guitar riffs. Entropians satisfied their appetite for metal music during songs “Depravity”, “Revelation”, “Pleading”, and “Roots of Hate”.
This Life We Live from Long Island, NY took the Trash Bar stage heavily inked with long growling vocals. This solid set began with the strong and brooding song “Novena”. “Itch Scratch Bleed” unleashed manic fury with intense lead guitar riffs. Performing for their high energy audience, This Life We Live’s set concluded with their single “All Alone”.
Brooklyn’s A Great Day to Die (Jim Donovan – Drums, Hector Rodriguez – Guitar, Mike Kontaras – Guitar, Ryan Murphy – Vocals, Steve Perlmutter – Bass) brought the Trash Bar roof down with “Zygote”, heavy on lead guitars and screaming vocals. A Great Day to Die’s single “Through The Corridors” was a song fit for Trash Bar’s metal heads to head band to. With an impressive set, A Great Day to Die wrapped up their set with the morbid sounding “Katch’em Kill’em”.
All lights fell for Lies Beneath (Nick Serr – Vocals, Ben Serr – Guitar, Spencer Guttenberg – Bass, Andrew Czegledi – Drums, Wayne Cornwall – Guitar) at Weekend of Wreckage who preferred sound over visual. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY Lies Beneath played deep rhythm and lead guitars and melodies.
The award winning band of WreaBAB 102.3 FM’s “Homegrown Superstars” Finalists – 2014 , Plague of Humanity (Larry Forman – Guitar, Brian Lynch – Lead vocals/synth/programs, Drums ?, Rich Streng – Bass) wrapped up yet another wreckage filled weekend with Industrial/Groove Metal tracks “Good Try”, “Statement”, and “Opposite” leaving Gotham Rockers anxious for the next Weekend of Wreckage.
Words and photography by Marissa Rodriguez
THIS LIFE WE LIVE:
SUN AND FLESH: 
PRALAYA:
PLAGUE OF HUMANITY:
LIBRICIDE:
ENTROPY:
DIVERGENCE:
DARK MATTER:
COMMONWEALTH:
A GREAT DAY TO DIE:
