On Valentine’s Day at the DownLo, tucked away underground, metal bands shredded the small stage for enthusiastic Chico fans. Head-banging, moshing, physical confrontations with bouncers and good times with friends all took place throughout the evening.

Subcreature was the first band to take the stage. Their raw, old school death-metal approach was intense and brought back a legendary sound to Chico.

The Deprived played next with a more heavy sound. Parts of their songs resembled death-core breakdowns. The vocalist did grind-core pig squeals at times. The band had a great stage presence that the crowd identified with and head-banged to.

Another band was Burial Grounds. Each of their songs had their own special vibe to it with multiple sub-genres meshed together. Out of all the bands they were the most melodic.

The headlining band from Brazil consisted of three women called Nervosa, a thrash metal band. When they were up, the mosh pit doubled in number and people went even crazier than before. One fan even ended up with a bloody nose.

Later on an altercation broke out between two fans, causing four bouncers to jump in and pull them out. Although the situation was very aggressive, after about 30 seconds things returned to normal.

Nervosa was a very solid band that brought great energy to the crowd. Everyone had a great time. Whether it was with laughs, head-banging, moving in the sweaty mosh pit or throwing up the horns for the bands that rocked the stage, the audience shared a collective appreciation for the extreme music.

Tom Sundgren can be reached at [email protected] or @tomsundgren on Twitter.