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METAL AND MORE
Ten acts to catch at Psycho Las Vegas’ festival return BY CASE KEEFER
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sycho Las Vegas always books a wide variety of bands from all across the extreme music spectrum, and this year’s festival—running from August 20-22 at Mandalay Bay—is no exception. Here are 10 acts beyond the headliners, mostly pulled from different subcultures across the metal world, worth checking out across the three primary stages.
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS
KHEMMIS (Friday, 4 p.m., House of Blues) With 2018 album Desolation, this Denver trio became the current standard-bearers of the doom metal/stoner rock sound upon which Psycho was founded. A highly anticipated follow-up was recently recorded, and this year’s fest seems like a natural place to debut some of that new material. OBITUARY (Friday, 7 p.m., Michelob Ultra Arena) This year’s Psycho lineup leans heavier into death metal than ever before, and these Tampa, Florida, genre pioneers remain ferocious enough to put the younger acts to shame. Beware of the pit when Obituary dusts off classics like 1989’s “Slowly We Rot” and 1990’s “Find the Arise.”
August 20-22, Mandalay Bay, $299-$599/3-day pass, $129/day pass, vivapsycho.com.
GZA (Friday, 11 p.m., Mandalay Bay Beach) The Wu-Tang Clan member’s 1995 sophomore solo release, Liquid Swords, remains among the most-beloved cult albums in hip-hop history. GZA will pay homage to that masterpiece with a set commemorating that project’s 25th anniversary.
(AP)
RED FANG (Saturday, 2:25 p.m., Michelob Ultra Arena) The Portland sludge merchants closed out Psycho 2018 with a memorable performance at the Hard Rock pool. They now find themselves promoted to mainstage openers on the back of their fifth full-length, Arrows, released earlier this year. It might contain their most gloriously grimy output yet. DEAFHEAVEN (Saturday, 3:50 p.m., Michelob Ultra Arena) Think of it as an album release show for Infinite Granite, as the influential blackgaze band will release its latest fulllength one day before this set. Singles “The Gnashing” and “Great Mass of Color” showed the band heading into more delicate, less-aggressive territory, and the Psycho crowd will be the first to see how that translates live.
