It is fair to say that every person at one point in their life was asked by their parents, teachers or employers, “Where do you see yourself in 5, 10 or 15 years”. Nobody could possibly answer this question while they are in their youth since life has a way of taking a strange turn of events, however, Frank and Rob of Metal Injection proved, that in 15 years, with persistence and hard work, you can do anything you want.

On December 17^th 2019, we celebrated the 15-year anniversary of Metal Injection at St Vitus. We had a stacked lineup with Cloud Rat, Dave Hill’s Witch Taint, an awesome 2 song set from Cougrrr and more. Opening this stacked bill that has everything we love about the brutal metal underground was the ultimate Metal Injection Jam. Ultimate Jams are always fun, however with this ultimate jam, it showcased talent, fun and friendship that was built over these last 15 years.

Like Roadrunner United, or Metal Allegiance, the Metal Injection Jam had a great group of talented and dedicated musicians all do classic covers. The covers ranged from Thrash Classics such as Metallica’s Battery, Megadeth’s Tornado of Souls, and Slayer’s Reign in Blood. How else do you celebrate metal than doing Black Sabbath’s cover of War Pigs, how about a cover of a cover, covering Sepultura’s cover of Black Sabbath’s Sympton of the Universe. We get a good throwback to the 90s with Alice in Chain’s Them Bones and bring in some hardcore punk with Suicidal Tendencies, You Cant Bring Me Down, ending with Nine Inch Nails’s Wish and Beastie Boys Fight for your Right, you get the ultimate setlist for an ultimate jam.

To execute these classic songs, you had Metal Injection’s Frank Godla pounding away on the drums for all of these tracks while different musicians rotated. You had Dave Davidson of Revocation and Gargoyle while you had Johnny and Mike of Candiria adding to the mix, and opening with these thrash classics on vocals you had the incredibly hilarious and incredibly KVLT Gwarsinio Hall from Two Minutes to Late Night. Spirits were held high and the momentum was set. When Rein in Blood kicked in, we had Kenny Hickey from Type O Negative and Silvertomb hit vocals. Kenny hit the vocals and lyrics to a T executing it in the perfect Tom Araya fashion. As the set moves on, you get Dave Hill on a track, you had Alex Skolnick of Testament jamming as well as Hank Hell from Silvertomb and Inhuman. It gets even more chaotic as you have Necrosexual and Ben Weinman of Dillinger Escape Plan and Suicidal Tendencies bring in chaos and heaviness. We even have Rob of Metal Injection jump up on vocals for a jam. We get Kenny Kickey back on Vocals as well as Hank Hell on bass for the Alice in Chains classic Them Bones, serving as the ultimate pregame for Silvertomb’s show at St Vitus 12/21. When the Nine Inch Nails cover of Wish kicks in, we have Steven Brodsky of Mutoid Man jump up and take the place of Trent Reznor. Ending with the classic Beastie Boys track with Chef Brian Tsao on guitars, who we all know and love from Metal Injection’s Taste of Metal, this Jam ended on a high note, therefor starting things on the highest notes passing the torches on to Witch Taint and Cloud Rat.

This was the ultimate jam, not just as a way of celebrating 15 years of metal injection, but a way to celebrate metal in general and the friendships that are cultivated as a result. Metal Injection has always had events and promoted shows that helped keep metal alive, where there is metal, there are metalheads, and where there are metalheads, there are friends who have yet to make.

We all got our fix of Metal Injection that night.

Congrats to Frank and Rob for 15 years!!!!