Sound Check drove the dreaded 32 miles down to La Pine Friday night for the R3 Festival and learned three very important things; Vengeance Creek are Central Oregon’s metal royalty, clever beat-boxing can steal the show and you can three-person sandwich grind to metal.

As the sun set on a triple-digit August night, band after band played to a half-interested crowd switching between the two trailer truck stages. The crowd grew as the sun descended and the local rap group Povciti took the stage giving the crowd its promised dose of local rap and properly woke them up. Sound Check learned from this set that you can apparently find Povciti’s Epic and H@ze in the Old Mill District and that they’re established local celebrities. Well, if they weren’t local celebrities before then they are now. The duo laid their underground hip-hop routine on thick and brought the crowd to its feet with their finale – a freestyle rap accompanied by master beat boxer Dain Strothoff. The kid can beat-box like nobody’s business to every kind of beat imaginable and stole the show from right under the duo. Whoever this kid is, Sound Check contemplated that he could give Person People (keyword “could”) a run for their money if accompanied by the right freestyle artist. Maybe it was the possible heat stroke, but our thirty bucks entrance fee was justified right then and there.

Soon after, it was time to switch stages and give metal their go with local heroes Vengeance Creek. At first glance, the band members mirror other rock gods. The bass player is a dead ringer for Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, guitarist Don Adams resembles Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and for a moment in the heat of metal riff shredding you could swear it was him and the singer has a serious case of Eddie Vedder hair. Appearances aside Vengeance Creek handed every other band their asses royally in just the first shred of metal riffs.

Yagermeister and all, and Don Adams approached the mic and announced he would be playing a Dimebag Darrell-style national anthem. With the first note of the “Star Spangled Banner” power cut out.  The crowd in its drunken haze was bewildered by the screeching sound. Then the power struck back on and the band rocked that trailer truck bed with glory.

Vengeance Creek’s one up on all other local metalites because of their musicianship, especially Adams. They don’t need to scream lyrics to get their presence felt. It’s throwback metal done with justice. Paul Roberts truly captures Bruce Dickinson and the band wouldn’t do badly as an Iron Maiden tribute band either.

After Creek properly put up points for the metal side it was time to venture back to Sound Check’s neck of the woods and cool off. It’s a bonafide fact that it’s always ten degrees hotter in La Pine. Or so we heard…

Upon first listen to Vengeance Creek’s new self-titled album, an instant image of tribal tattoos or truly rockin’ ‘80s hair may come to mind. It’s common for a metal band in a smallish town to hop on stage and rattle off four to five songs in the vein of a half-baked Metallica or Godsmack imitation. This band, however, is a refreshing facet of the local metal scene. The album resonates the same buzz one gets from listening to Number of the Beast, if only for a short while – it’s that overly overindulgent, glorious late-‘70s, early ‘80s metal panache. Electrifying-Randy-Rhodes style guitar riffs and solos accompanied by a distinctive expressive vocal style that suggests Bruce Dickson or Rob Halford.

At times, like most modern metal, the band ventures in a light grunge manner, explicitly redolent of Alice in Chains. “Upon the Battlefield” sets a head-banging rhythm backed by Don Adams’s guitar riffs and a heavy Ozzy style vocal arrangement complete with thematic war lyrical content. “Riding the Wind” could have jumped right out of Blizzard of Oz or Number of the Beast in all its true ‘81, ’82 heavy metal glory. Paul Roberts tends to hold steady on the Dickson, Ozzy vocal opulence. Occasionally, as Roberts does on “Midnight Mass,” he stylistically laces a Layne Staley tinge in the mix. For those longing for the glory of true invigorating 80s heavy metal but don’t want to leave town, this band may be your answer. Any band that can pull this sort of yowling vocals or honest-to-God-head-banging guitar mastery is worth a listen, if not a trip down to a local watering hole to see the band shred it up live.

This band was awesome! Paul on lead vocals has a fantastic voice, reminding me a little of Ronnie James Dio. With Don on guitar and backup vox, Tim on bass and Jeff on drums, they rocked the Roseland!!

An interesting experiment in concert demographics went down last Thursday when a slew of punk, rock, ska, and metal bands worked the Domino Room.

Bend's own Vengeance Creek was tearing shit up with their classic arena metal show, complete with bird-of-prey vocals, flying V guitar, and such. In terms of crowd response, they upped the ante. Lots of stuff went down that was totally fair to call epic, including frontman Paul stripping off his shirt for an encore.

Exhibit 3: Grown men shreddin' the rad.

Vengeance was billed as Dio/Iron Maiden style old school metal. They were all of that and more, super fast, heavy, melodic, and tighter than any local band I've seen yet. Screaming vocals, super heavy riffs, double bass drumming, 5 string bass. Holy f*** it was cool.