PHOTOS: Attila at White Oak Music Hall, Houston, TX

Attila
White Oak Music Hall, August 16, 2018
By Michael Mullenix

Landing at the White Oak Music Hall in Hoston, Texas, Attila brought the hammer down this Friday night in the form of their headlining tour dubbed Ragefest.  Attila has crawled their way since 2005 to be a cultural force in the Metal world, and though sometimes divisive, and most times just plain obscene, this tour served as a cultural benchmark for the band’s self-proclaimed dominance of the modern scene.  After the house lights went dark, the track samples began to swell as the band took their spots to launch into Three 6, a new track from an unreleased album.  The band actually hovered primarily between their 2013 album About That Life and newer material that at this point exists almost exclusively on Youtube and Soundcloud.  Shockingly though, the band did not miss a beat with their fans and even had plenty of crazed reactions from the crowd when they played new material like Soda In The Water Cup and Blackout (a surprise song released for this tour).  There’s no sugar-coating Attila’s reputation.  The initiated have either embraced frontman Chris Fronzak’s careless disregard and hip-hop infused swagger or written him off a slime lord tainting the reputation of modern metal the way nu-metal singers did nearly 3 decades ago.  Despite the smears of his harshest critics, unquestionably Fronz (as he’s called) has a unique voice and almost impossible style, not to overlook an infectious charisma.  Pair that with his band-mates Kalan Blehm and Chris Linck being the songsmiths to the most biting Party Metal anthems that Andrew WK did not compose, Attila is a rare breed with no imitators.  After a string of old classics like Rage, Party With The Devil and Proving Grounds the band came back on for the encore… Pizza… It is a song called and about Pizza.  That’s Attila; everything you thought you knew about them can change in a heartbeat!

ATTILA PHOTO GALLERY

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Michael Mullenix

Growing up around the world, Michael developed a taste and appreciation for all styles of music. While studying film making at Boston University, he dove headfirst into a mosh-pit and never came out. It was in Boston that he combined his love of film and photography with his drive and passion for being a chronicler of the underground music scene. After graduation he headed to Los Angeles and for over a decade has worked with some of the top musicians and actors in the entertainment industry. Lured to Austin by the cultural explosion in the music and film scenes taking place there, he relocated two years ago and describes Austin as a cultural Shang Ri La!