A 12 Gauge Embrace Adrenaline Race

If you know what NAMM is, then no explanation required. But for any who do not. NAMM is the National Association Of Musical Merchants. To elaborate, it is where mass amounts of musical industry people from all over, converge in one large convention location, the Anaheim convention center, to be precise. January 21st-24th, managers, musicians, and musical merchants of all kinds come together to emerge themselves and help promote new music, new bands, and the newest most innovated technology the Industry has to offer. 

I attended the Schecter Guitar Research Indie NAMM party, at the Juke Joint Bar and Grill in old historic downtown Anaheim, to hear the best (signed) and upcoming hard bands around. This known event brought out punks and metalheads alike, making it a very loud after NAMM crowd, with a lot of professional photographers, a few film crews (12 Gauge Embrace themselves had a film crew there to capture their live video and the crowd who came to support) and several journalist, myself included. Though we were all there for different bands, we were all there for the same reasons. To see and hear the best new thrashing sounds shake the place and to see who stands out in the crowd in shredding hard stuff.

12 Gauge Embrace nailed it. Their energy was fast paced and heart pounding. They owned the stage. Jim Harnish, lead vocals, can hit the hard notes and scream with the best of them, but definitely shows diversity and soul as evident on their ballots. 

Rob Woods kills it on drums, as he pounded through their set, Lil Joe Taback, rhythm guitar, had everyone headbanging hard to his thrashing sounds. While lead guitarist playing vet, Steve Marshall added some seriously heavy tracks. It is no surprise why Marshall was added, as you can hear in our audio, he tells us he, at this moment, plays with the guitarist for In This Moment, and also happens to be in, Three Thirteen, Blackfall, and Soul Bleed, as well as being the audio engineer who owns Redneck Ranch Studios. (a favorite studio amongst the heavy playing musicians) You could not help but want to scream their songs out with them, which incidentally I did. Shout out to Marshall's wife Elaina, who plays the piano and keyboards for them when needed and was also there this night. I got to meet her as well.

Their Bass player, Mikael (Mike) Nissen, is an active duty naval man connected to the Navy Seals, he is part of a naval expeditionary combat command, as he says "Green Navy." So we had a highly decorated naval war hero, giving us his all, but this time on stage. Click on our interview to hear the danger he must go through though he speaks so nonchalantly of it.

Nissen had the crowd grunting at the extreme facial expressions he displayed, as he immersed in the performance, seeming as if egging on to participate and hyping up the already rowdy crowd. He was all over the small stage in a frenzy and madly bouncing high in the air and landing with a solid force, as he wailed on that bass. By the end of their performance, it felt as if we had just run a race. The adrenaline was flowing and the crowd was going. We got what we came for. To hear some of the best new hard bands around and to see who stands out in the crowd. Mission accomplished. But do not just take my word for it, check them out for yourselves. Hear them on Spotify, iTunes, or any digital outlet. They are also on facebook and Reverbnation. 

I'm Dilly Brigs and it was awesome to bring a little bit of amped up music to the readers of Center Stage Magazine. Thanks for the cool opportunity. This was a fun gig.