Saturday, 20th May 2006: Demonic 2006, Bangkok

from roll call:

Demonic 4
w/ Carnivora, Destroy, Damokis [Malaysia], Torture Incident [Malaysia], Bhelliom [Singapore], Drug Kill Insect, Lost In Silence, Eccentric Toilet, Crying Blood, A-Zero, Batstrom, Tazzmanian, Enemy, Rancorous, many more bands
Saturday May 20
Thai Cultural Centre (Small Hall); a/a, B300, 3pm @

As if spewed from Bangkok’s silty catacombs, some 800 died-in-the-wool Metal maniacs will descend on Thai Cultural Centre this Saturday for the Thai headbanger’s biennale – Demonic. The showcase that gave a stage to bands like Ebola and Dezember (then unknown outside the underground Metal scene and now signed to Warner and GMM-Grammy, respectively) hasn’t sacrificed a shred of its underground street cred since the inaugural event in 1998.

Regrettably, this year’s programming stuffs fourteen bands from three countries (Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore) on two stages, so there’s bound to be some attention deficit disorder in the air. Standout acts include awesomely menacing Enemy, whose gnarled riffs and low-end bass frequencies, leave the unsuspecting gasping for breath. Also worth catching: Drug Kill Insect, fronted by a petite girl who sounds like a gremlin clawing its way out of Chewbacca.