Music Preview: Heavy metal heads to Complex in Glendale this weekend

April 23, 2016 12:45 PM PT

The man called Daniel Dismal was born in Glendale, and yet never expected to find a regular home for his beloved heavy metal on quiet Colorado Street. He’s devoted much of his life to promoting and playing his music of choice, and for nearly three years has found Complex to be among the most welcoming.

Dismal says he’s booked about 300 shows of various metal flavors during that time, focused on a variety of ear-rattling subgenres: metalcore, hardcore, death metal, black metal, deathcore, stoner rock, doom and more. This weekend, he brings a three-day Mini-Murder Festival to Glendale.

He expects a good turnout. “There is always a core audience for it. Punk is the same way, as is underground hip-hop,” he says. “It’s underground music. You champion a band and you love them forever. No matter how old you are, you always go out to see them. Mainstream culture doesn’t get that.”

Prior to Complex, he says, “There was no place for these bands to go. The places were disappearing quicker than they were coming up.” At Complex, he explains, “It’s small but it’s got a good sound system and a good bar, which most metal heads look for. It goes hand in hand with the genre.”

The festival was set to open Friday with “traditional old school death metal” headliner Gravehill. On Saturday is the band Cattle Decapitation, which he describes as “American brutal death metal with a technical background.” Sunday is the “death metal grindcore crust crossover” of Nausea.

Dismal, who is in the band Crematorium, is playing the fest on Saturday.

In 2003, Dismal started the Murderfest at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, where he promoted shows from 2004 to 2009, and where he brought in national and international metal headliners. When the Knit closed, he lost a crucial metal venue for local acts.

Ever since, Dismal says, he has been “searching for a venue that understood what the metal scene was about, that respected it.”

Though much smaller, Complex has been a welcoming home for his shows, and Dismal recently decided to resurrect Murderfest on a smaller scale at the Glendale room “because it’s better to have something than nothing.”

Metal continues to reside on the Sunset Strip, but in many cases the shows are “pay-to-play,” where bands essentially agree to purchase a large number of tickets to get the gig. The result too often is that bands with money can get a show regardless of ability, while a hugely talented group with no resources can’t.

Dismal shows are curated, in the tradition of club-owner as tastemaker. He knows the bands playing on the scene and constructs shows that make logical aesthetic sense.

“We cultivate a night so that when the audience goes out and listens to it, they feel like there is a flow of music and they’re possibly hearing something they haven’t heard before or seeing things they know they love,” says Dismal. “I consider it an art gallery. If you’re going to curate an art gallery, you want all the artists to follow a same theme.”

Dismal, who grew up mostly in Los Angeles and now lives in Sylmar, knows the scene and the sound intimately, and has a regular audience. As a result, he’s sometimes called on by other venues and promoters for help. The Echo in Echo Park reached out after seeing his success at Complex and he has begun bringing metal nights there.

When the massive Goldenvoice Productions puts together a metal package, they frequently call on Dismal to help get the word out to the crowd he knows so well. “It’s like a marketing company on the side,” he says, requiring him to be aware of shifts in the music scene, as new fans emerge.

“Every two to three years, you see a scene shift. You see some people start to gravitate away from it – it’s the whole growing up thing that happens: Families happen, jobs happen, people move away. For a long time you see the same people,” he says. “Some of these guys that come out I’ve seen going to shows since I was a kid. I’m in my 40s now, and these guys are like 50-plus.”

He’s also careful how to mix genres on a single night. Some things just don’t go together, Dismal explains.

“A hardcore band doesn’t really go well with a death metal band — unless they’re older,” he says of fans. “Once people start to get into their 30s, they stop worrying about scene classification. When they’re young — like 20 to 29 — they’re much more ‘I only listen to this!’ It’s all the same thing at the end of the day. It’s rock ‘n’ roll music.”

What: Mini-Murder Festival

When: Friday to Sunday

Where: Complex, 806 E. Colorado St., Glendale

More info: (323) 642-7519, complexla.com

Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveAppleford