Seax with Amadis, Avernus Ortus, and Krakatoa [Ralph's, Worcester, 3/29/2012]

Despite some non-promising-looking construction and nearly getting crunched by a semi coming off the Pike, I got over in decent order and not too long before the bands started. It was getting towards the end of a long day that had started earlier than anticipated, so I was a little ground down, but this rapidly took care of itself as the venue started to fill up in earnest and the first bands went on.

Krakatoa [5/7]

Someone is going to have to eventually make up a real word for this band's style of modern-God Dethroned black/melodeath mix, as the conventional ones are running a little short, and there's no shortage of modern bands playing around with the style. "Extreme metal" gets kicked around, but I refuse to redefine a term this general to the stuff in that subclass that isn't strictly black, death, or grind...and a lot of the bands claiming the label are not exactly extreme in any real sense. This was a decent set of decent music, if a little handicapped by technical difficulties. Most of those, though, arose from the PA trying to manage Steve's borgbass; hopefully, they'll be back with demos, where this won't be an issue.

Borgbass in action -- YOUR KEYBOARDS WILL BE ASSIMILATED!

Avernus Ortus [6/7]

They were more matched to the rest of the bill originally, before In Human Form dropped and Seax filled in, but didn't let their accidental odd-duck status stop them from delivering a punishing set of positively slam-hostile technical brutality. Even when it would be easy and consonant to dig in and chug away, Avernus refuse the temptation and do something brain-breakingly hard. It is flat awesome, and if you wish that Hate Eternal was less accessible or that Goreality occasionally played outside New Bedford, this is definitely a band to watch for.

Attendees agreed; at the conclusion of A.O's set, there was a short and sharp run on their demos -- which were conspicuously absent last time -- so immediate as to suggest Necrophagist at NEMHF '06. Said record is definitely worth it; not quite up to their live presentation, but still a kickass chunk of death metal, promising nothing but good things for whenever they get enough good songs written and perfected to get up to a full-length.

Amadis [6/7]

The amount of black leather on stage was a little over the top, and so many songs about heavy metal was just unnecessary. But Amadis is just so fucking good that this set was never going to end up anywhere else ratingswise. Lightly progressive but mostly traditional, this came out as a straight scream-n-shred-fest that got the floor nice and turbulent for the first time; you'd generally expect more mosh for the preceding death metal band out of a Metal Thursday crowd, but as noted this bill ended up pulling in a more trad audience -- and more importantly, it's very seldom that bands before the third have a drunk enough audience to get major motion. Flat killer all the way around.

No armor, no top hat, but still silly. The highlighted area is either a sporran or a lace-up codpiece.

Seax [6/7]

The power of experience; Seax were able to carry a headlining set of all originals and neither over- nor under-run the allotted slot. The band continues to ride that fine line between clever and stupid; their old-school ideas never coming off as dishonest, but with the band acknowledging that this is a nostalgia trip rather than 1982 itself, and that they might as well have somee fun with it. The trolls who were promoting this gig on New England's premier metal sitesource for dicks and abortions by bamming up the easily-excited Carmine, and anyone else who gave this one a pass, missed not only a pretty killer set of stripped-down old-school speed metal to cap off Avernus' underground fundamentalism and Amadis' Priest channeling, but also said frontman rubbing his spandex-covered dick all over the front row. This may have been the first non-ironic use of spandex pants by a local-level Massachusetts metal band in the last 20 years, but as long as Seax carry on, it's not likely to be the last.

Matt, not wearing spandex and not rubbing his dingus on people, but still "Living Above The Law".

It felt a little early leaving, but exhaustion kicked in hard despite getting back a little before 2 AM. That pushed this writeup out from Friday -- and then four discs' worth of Party.San history arrived on Saturday and delayed it further. I can has foreshadowing?

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.