When you come to see The Illness, you don't come to chill. Lead singer Josh Viers made this abundantly clear when he took the stage and started yelling at all the Kimo's patrons who were standing around and idly sipping drinks.

Indeed, anybody who comes out to listen to a metal show should have a fire under their ass, especially when with The Illness is about to barrage eardrums with their balls-out, guitar-mashing Great Wall of Sound. The relatively relaxing vibes of their opening number, "File 092," were about as light as things got, and even that song quickly devolved into a stage-stomping frenzy. From there on, it was pandemonium. The band's essential madness is largely due to their double-headed guitar attack, Matthew Zipkin and Carlos Villareal. Even when they teased that they might be capable of harmony, as in "Monument to Our Gilded Age" and "Herd Loathing," they would inevitably engage each other in a cacophonous, spine-numbing Battle Royale: Zipkin's Les Paul versus Villareal's Ibanez.

But make no mistake; it is Viers who demands the most attention. Like a puppet to its master, he let the aggressiveness of the music control his nervous system. He was a dynamo (one trusts his claim to be the inspiration for "Ignorant Degenerate"). At any given moment, he could be shoving Zipkin and Villareal, slamming his mic on the floor, or launching himself into the crowd when he felt like a little moshing. He also screamed louder and more frequently than a soul lost in the inner-most ring of Hell. How he still had a voice left by the end of their hour-long set is a mystery.

No doubt, the niche occupied by The Illness is not for everyone. For those who do belong, there are just two words: MOSH PIT!

http://www.myspace.com/theillness

Photographer: Zach Rymer