Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Sapremia with Engorged, Avernus Ortus, and Seax [Ralph's, Worcester, 9/15/2011]

The program on this Metal Thursday shows that the organizers are true, deep, Motorhead fans; the construction of this program was simple and direct: Seax and death (metal). After the weekend, I wanted to see the aforementioned on a proper stage, and by no way was missing Engorged on probably their last gig ever. So out it was, getting in a little early as the roadworks were less severe than anticipated, and unwinding a little before the bands went on.

Seax [5/7]
What they gained in the larger stage set, they kind of lost in immediacy; Seax handled themselves well, but they've got to work a bit on the logistic side of things. The music was good, but the set wasn't as strongly organized as it should've been, and they got cut off at the end for running over their allotted time. Nevertheless, they got a full death metal crowd screaming along to "High On Metal", and definitely should be satisfied with that result.

Side note: it is by now out of line for anyone, let alone some shithead with an interblag, to use the "p" word in relation to Carmine, but dude, diving down to make faces at the camera where the music doesn't demand it is exactly what Def Leppard were doing when it was coined. Aint sayin, just sayin.

Avernus Ortus [6/7]
We do not have death metal like this in New England, really, and this is why even in the modern internet age where anyone can be influenced by anyone anywhere, bands still need to tour. A.O (Crowleyism not really warranted, but I have to suck up to Ipsissimus somehow) smashed out a direct and ruinous set of punishingly technical brutal death metal, utterly unconcerned with any other style or influence. The various slamming, thrashy, and bestial styles of death we have around in eastern New England are cool and all, but there's also a need, at times, for this kind of direct and uncompromised brutality, and it's good to see that it's still alive and kicking elsewhere in the underground.

Unfortunately, they didn't have anything for sale; they got a good enough response, though, that they'll almost surely be back, and hopefully packing some CDs or shit, because this was seriously good music.

Engorged [6/7]
In addition to being their second gig in 17 years, and their last gig ever, this was also Engorged's inaugural performance in their hometown; there was no Metal Thursday 20 years ago when they were getting started, and though you'd never know it now with how well Ralph's and Oasis are doing, by the existence of the Wheelchair, and the fact that the friggin Palladium is in town, it was at one time impossible to book metal in Worcester. Go fig. Regardless, they of course killed it, perhaps even overtopping their Bobfest set, to a crowd more or less evenly split between old heads who'd followed them to Boston and Newport back in the day, and folk who were in grade school when they broke up. The circle's complete, and if you missed these two sets of essentialist 90's death metal, you've got to be satisfied with Fires of Old and Faces of Bayon -- well, that or spam NWN until they agree to rerelease their demo to shut you the fuck up.

Sapremia [6/7]
Last in line, Sapremia up from Jersey, and as much as Lou talked about the difficulties of following three bands killing it in such strong and diverse ways, they were able to pull it off, with their characteristic grooving brutality following naturally on from Engorged -- as you'd expect from a band of the same era that's been reunited and active for a while, moving forward -- and bridging the gap towards Avernus. This was where the crowd got its most turbulent, Dan at one point getting flipped completely over, and the band got into the act as well, dragging Chris on stage to play some bass (unrehearsed live, but dood was in Zircon, so of course he had it drilled down) on one of their tunes so that Lou could take some turns in the pit between verses. All in all, a killer capstone to an awesome night.

After Sapremia closed up, it didn't feel that late, maybe just because this had only been four bands and I was still in festival mode from Bobfest. Regardless, I split, and true to form it was like 2 in the morning before I got home. Work's been ruinous since, but the worst is temporarily over.

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