Heathens in the Chapel

There is a bit of irony in having Bay Area thrash metal legends Heathen headline a show at a place with Chapel in the name. On Monday, July 27, Heathen came to Chapel of Bones in Raleigh to throw down, and throw down they did, with support from Lafayette, Louisiana’s Void and Raleigh, North Carolina’s Outliar. This was probably the thrashiest night I have experienced at Chapel of Bones in the past year.

Heathen played plenty of fan favorites, including “Dying Season,” “Open the Grave,” “Heathen’s Song,” and “Hypnotized.” They also played their new cover of Iron Maiden’s “The Prisoner,” which was released less than two weeks before the show. So, as a fan, you definitely got what you came for. They played to the fans, fed off the energy, and did all the other cliches you can think of. But they themselves are not cliché, to be clear. Formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984, Heathen is a core force and part of the origin story behind the thrash genre.

Typically, I would do the whole “this happened at the show, then this happened” thing. There are plenty of those writeups. For this one, I wanted to focus on a different aspect of the show. As always, the staff at Chapel of Bones was amazing. The sound was really great, and the lighting worked for me and the way I like to shoot. Instead of a play-by-play, I just want to share a quick one-off story about an experience I had at the show.

I had a chance encounter with Dave White, Heathen’s vocalist, when I arrived at the venue earlier that evening. I was walking up to the side door, looking to meet up with the guys from Outliar. Dave simply opened the door, smiled, and said, “Hey, what’s up?”

I mentioned that I was looking for the guys from Outliar, and he responded, “Yeah, they mentioned you. Come on in. They are over there.”

Such a simple interaction. A normal, everyday type of interaction you have with an everyday person. That is what made it a memorable moment for me. Here is a legend in the thrash genre being chill as hell and just being a regular person. No ego, no attitude, just chill.

I have to say, if Dave White from Heathen can be chill, well, so can the rest of the people we run into from day to day. I have found that there are a lot of well-meaning and cool people in the metal scene, but it still matters when you experience it firsthand. In fact, all the bands that night were awesome, both onstage and off.

With all that being said, it is not too late to see Heathen and Void together again, as well as Raleigh’s Outliar. They will be at Hangar 1819 in Greensboro on Monday, November 9, supporting Forbidden on the Chaos by Design US Tour. I will be there as well, camera in hand, so come by, say hey, and get your picture taken at the show.