Morbid Angels

And damage they sometimes do, to themselves and the occasional audience member who might make the mistake of standing a little too close to the stage. Zac mentions offhandedly that Leonard will sometimes accidentally conk someone in the head with his microphone or his own body, and that his wife has come to regard his arrival at home with bloody hands and a sore back as surefire signs of a good show. That was the case in March of this year, when Cephalic Carnage attended the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas; the band performed as part of a Relapse showcase, stunning a house full of industry-mongers at the infamous club Emo's. "We were told there was a lot of pop and poppy punk-rock stuff happening down there," Zac says. "I'm not sure the crowd knew what to make of us at first. But the room was packed for the whole show."

And while Zac swears that all of the nearly primordial aggression is authentic, he says it's more a sign of the players' recreational catharsis than some deep-seated dementia.

The members of Denver's Cephalic Carnage are proud to be a bunch of grindcore nutjobs.

Details

With Kreator and Destruction
8 p.m. Tuesday, September 24
Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue
303-322-2308

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"I feel like I'm becoming almost a completely reasonable and adjusted adult," says Zac, a new father who, like several of his bandmates, works in the service industry in Denver. "But there is so much frustration involved in even playing this music, because parts of it are so complicated. I feel like, if I didn't have this outlet on stage, I'd just carry that stuff around with me. You don't want to be jumping up and screaming at people and waving things in their faces when you walk down the street."

And why not?

"You can get beat up that way. Forget that -- I'd rather be violent in my music than in my life."