3/8/2025

Grave Corps (Headliner)

St. October (Direct headline support)

Event: 2nd Annual Women's History Month Music Fest

Venue: Lefty’s, Des Moines, IA

#metal #concertreview #horror #horrorpunk #goth #darkmetal #leftys #desmoines 

This past Saturday I attended the “2nd Annual Women's History Month Music Fest” with St. October, at Lefty’s in Des Moines, Iowa.

In transparency, I was also St. October’s driver for the gig, along with having taken on the role of being their regular photographer, so I travel with the band as much as I can. Driving them is one additional way that I can help right now. 

Anyways, onto the gig in question.

We got there later in the evening as the earlier half of the performing bands were going. So we missed a lot of what went prior to our arrival. St. October and Grave Corps were the final two bands of the evening, with Grave Corps being the headliner. 

As always St. October sounded great, with this being one of the band's best performances. Monica’s (Demonica) vocals are always improving with every show, and she sounded fantastic. With Dusten (Dhadi Darkness) doing lots of the musical songwriting and contributing heavily to the lyrical horror content, Sid (Six Six Sid) being a legit beast on the bass, and Joe pounding away like a mad man on the drums, St. October improves with every show. In the 5 months since the UK tour ended, the band has worked diligently to continue improving both their stage show, their rig for ease of load in and setup, and their general overall skills. 

St. October has some killer shows coming up, so keep up with them on all of their social media channels. 

Then we got Grave Corps, a Horror Punk/ Horror Rock band and Iowa Music Award winning band, featuring an Iowa Music Award winning vocalist in Traci Von Krypt.

I had never seen Grave Corps before, but I had heard of them through conversations with friends in the Iowa music scene, and through various social media posts. Wow they were fun to watch, and listen to. 

A hell of an energetic stage show, with some unique characters as part of the lineup. A band with a larger stage presence than other bands, sitting at 6 people, there is a lot to see. Traci runs around like a mad woman with her bloody axe and gritty, soaring vocals. If I had to describe her vocal style, think about her style being like a grittier Noora Louhimo, the singer from Battle Beast. Musically, the band has many obvious influences on their sound. 

You can say they sound like Wednesday 13, older Misfits, The Murderdolls, and straight up punk rock if you want to break it into the easiest parts. 

They were amazing, and it’s easy to see why they have been around since 2007. They have a very dedicated fan base, a cool stage appearance, and are very personable and friendly off stage, like so many other bands these days. With their brand of horror punk, I would expect them to be around for a long time. They’re at almost 20 years as a band, I would expect to last at least until their 30th anniversary, hopefully longer. On stage their very tight with a solid sound that any concert goer would enjoy. 

If Grave Corps comes to your local area, I highly recommend going to check them out. 

—BG

Grave Corps Link: https://linktr.ee/gravecorps

Grave Crps Music Video for ‘Raise the Dead’

St. October Link: https://www.facebook.com/St.October13

St. October Music Video for ‘Sweet Succubi’