The Return!
On Friday August 6th an amazing thing happened here in Vegas. Ricky Hoover, (ex-Suffokate) exploded onto the scene with a new blackened deathcore project – Ov Sulfur. The last time anybody saw Ricky perform was at the 2012 memorial show for Suicide Silence original frontman, Mitch Lucker. I wasn’t originally going to write out a piece for this show, but since it was so fucking good, I just can’t help but lift these guys up!
Openers
On this bill we saw three bands that just dominate the crowd every time they play. The first one being my friends in SHEER COLD. These guys hold so much intensity and every time I see them, they get better and better. They’re building a foundation of hard work and dedication that I believe will take them places within this niche of the scene.
Next up was SILENCE SPEAKS. It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen these guys perform. (I actually hadn’t seen them since they opened up for Escape the Fate and Slaves at Vinyl inside the old Hard Rock) It looks like they have an updated lineup, and a more fine tuned sound. Regardless, I’m all about it. Show out dudes!
DISTINGUISHER is another band that I’ve only seen a handful of times as well. The last time being at Vinyl opening up for After the Burial and The Acacia Strain. (I did not cover that show, I went as a fan.) I have to say their set really impressed me. Really intense and a much deserved spot on this bill particularly. They really got the crowd amped up for Ov Sulfur.
Ov Sulfur
“So who’s Ov Sulfur, anyway?” you might be asking yourself. WELL THEN. Ov Sulfur’s members are in a number of different bands here in Vegas, so even if you don’t know who they are directly, there is a possibility that you’ve seen them around. Along with their other respective projects, these guys are regulars around the heavier side of the Las Vegas music scene in general.
Members:
Ricky Hoover – Vocals (ex-Suffokate)
Chase Wilson – Guitar (ex-Sigil)
Cory Walker – Guitar (Graey)
Parker Adsit – Drums (Alura)
Taylor Adsit – Bass (Alura/Graey)
PRE Ov Sulfur… SUFFOKATE
Let’s go back for just a few moments. The last time I saw Ricky Hoover perform was in 2009 at this little place called The Farm out on Rainbow blvd, I believe. (The place is long gone, but a memorable place for most of us that were running around the streets of Vegas going to shows multiple nights a week.) While so many of those shows clash together in my mind, I still have the ticket stubs and really shitty pocket camera photos that I’ve saved. When I first looked back at these images I had a serious “What. The. Fuck?” moment. Ricky doesn’t even look like the same person. Long gone are the big stretched ears, and hello muscles! The dude is RIPPED. It’s honestly a really good look on him. He looks happy and healthy.
I remember his performance with Suffokate though, and how wild the crowd was, and how intense he was as a front man. (I always think it’s amazing to look back at the intensity of the rise of deathcore here.) The Farm wasn’t a big place and they PACKED kids into this building for these (now) BIG names in the “core” subgenres. Even going back and listening to the old Suffokate records you can hear that Ricky has always had something extra there. It feels like now, after all these years and coming back to music; he has perfected that something extra. I’m convinced that’s part of how Ov Sulfur has already gained incredible traction. (Oblivion ft Tim Lambesis definitely helped that too!)
Onto the Show!
As far as their show goes… Which, they sold out the Backstage Bar & Billiards side, so naturally 601 Fremont opened up the Fremont Country Club stage to give people more room to move around; which also opened up the possibility for tickets at the door. Ov Sulfur played their EP “Oblivion” front to back. We saw Nick Arthur (Molotov Solution) perform his parts on the “Doomhead” track; and we also saw Tim Lambesis come out and perform his part on the “Oblivion” track. (This was really cool. I’ve only seen him perform BIG venues so to catch him on a smaller stage with guys that are from my own music scene? Way cool.)
The whole room was filled with energy the whole set, which you can see in the photos they’ve shared on all of their socials. (Alana Lopez works a lot of these kinds of shows and she really captures a whole viewpoint of these bands.) The pit was opened all the way up, there were people moshing and jumping off the stage into the crowd, and it was just all around the kind of show you WANT to see. If you did not get to hit this show, NOT EVEN A PROBLEM! Ov Sulfur have a special livestream feed of the show that will be going live on August 21st. They definitely had Ricky Hoover’s return well documented and props to them and everyone involved for that!
If you need any more reasons to keep an eye on these guys, Nuclear Blast just added them onto their Hand-Picked & Heavy playlist. They are GOING PLACES. And I’m here for it! Check out the fliers below for Ov Sulfur’s upcoming show/tour dates, and keep up with more OV SULFUR here!
Until next time…
Listen to OV SULFUR’s debut EP “Oblivion” below!
ALL LIVE PHOTOS TAKEN BY COURTNEY WARE – Contributed to ZrockR Magazine 2021