Hekseri with Obsidian Tongue, Noose, Deathgod Messiah, and Grue [O'Brien's, Allston, 8/31/2012]

I was a little later than anticipated getting out for this one, but due to typically hard hiking, even with my rig full of stuff to hand out locally, and typically late actual start (five bands, I was expecting 8:30, but the music didn't start till 9), I got in with time to spare and to cool down in the still-functioning, still not overwhelmed AC.  In this time I was able to get some stuff passed out to Larissa in the course of talking about, among other things, the upcoming Hekseri album (as soon as they can finish putting the recordings together and find a label that's not going to go bankrupt) and the chance that they might be playing out in Europe in support of it.  Not a whole lot of discussion, though; her priority was of course on keeping things going smoothly, and secondarily finding out where the hell Noose was, because they didn't make it up to the venue in time to take the first slot, letting it get shuffled up for...

Grue [5.5/7]
The step up from the last outing in this building is quite evident, showing the difference a month can make.  The fundamentals are still the same, but more refined, and with a stronger sense of original self from the band.  If the bark was still on the logs last time, this set saw those chunks of The Olden Domain and Mardraum sawed and hewn into blocks, strapped together with some more third-wave chords and Dave's fulminating death-influenced drumstyle, corners still rough in some places but definitely showing the plan of what this band is building towards.  If we have to use those buckets, Grue is still definitely a third-wave black metal band, but more than any other third-wave band in this area, they're drawing clear lines: "no," the music says, "we're not completely on board with what's been happening in this style lately, so just to be sure, we're going to go back to Dead As Dreams and the proggier end of the viking metal flowering and start from there."  Where they're going, and if they can catch OT in terms of overall effect, are still to be decided, but this is definitely a band worth watching.

Grue setting up.

Since DGM and Grue were mostly backlining out of a shared equipment pool (and things were running a couple minutes behind), this was a short set change, but still long enough to get a beer and peruse the merchdesks; Obsidian Tongue's buttons are a little big, but still decent enough to take one to fill out a fiver in the process of picking up some very cool patches.  This new printing process -- if it catches on; Hekseri also had patches in this line -- in combination with the return towards patched gear on the part of the audience, has the potential to be very, very cool for DIY bands, as the quality is a huge step up from stamping onto a roll of denim and hand-cutting shit, at what seemed to be a pretty marginal additional investment.

Deathgod Messiah [5.5/7]
Hekseri wasn't the only band making a rare return here; it had been a couple years since I saw DGM, partly due to bad luck on my part and partly due to lineup issues and members concentrating on other projects, but they made up for lost time in their typically explosive fashion.  There was a little more Obituary in the sound than I noticed before, but the basic parameters remain, and the resolute violence of their attack got the floor moving for the first time on "Sexual Violence".  Because this kind of gutter-born first-wave black-death is kind of inherently and violently opposed to any kind of transcendance, there may be a ceiling on their arbitrary-numbers rating relative to every other band in the world, but that ultimately doesn't matter to the experience of getting down front, banging like a maniac, and fully soaking up that feeling of relentless war against everything.  Killer.

Also, as before, DGM blacked up for the gig (the only band to do so), and reinforced a long-held personal conviction by positive example: if you're going to do corpsepaint, black shoepolish or you're a fucking false.  No mercy ever.

Marcus invokes hell for Deathgod Messiah -- but not dicks, yet, though those were also on offer later.

Here, Wren finally goddamned showed up, and I was able to hand him the merchpack I'd accumulated overseas.  As noted repeatedly, Party.San has an infinite appetite for DIY material -- and the sources feeding that hunger aint chopped liver either.  Mostly flyers, but still an original Death Agony CD, a copy of Violent Sun's demo, and G.U.C. #28, which will be of dubious utility outside of the CD, but was necessary to hand across regardless.

Noose [5/7]
Despite the fears that they might not show, Noose eventually did get in, and slotted themselves in here as soon as a slot became available.  Unfortunately, they didn't quite meet the standard of the first bands -- indicating why they were initially slotted to go on first -- and attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to cover for their relative lack of compositional prowess by turning up the volume.  Noose thoroughly overpowered the room withtheir sound, but eventually, you decide to plug up or stand further back, and what you get is, at this point, a largely formulaic third-wave black metal act that's making itself difficult to hear via feedback.  They had some cool lines, but ultimately not enough of them to stand out; at the end of the day 'loud' is the bread and butter of metalheads, and no amount of loud is enough loud to prevent us from eventually digging through and evaluating the music underneath.  Noose has some decent potential, but at this point, it's a lot more for the future than the present.

Sorry, no pictures; the lights were down, and since I don't use plugs, I had to be a decent distance back if I wanted any hope of hearing the last two bands.

In this break, I also did my Hekseri/Witchblood merch, and of course all in German.  Meg had been at Party.San, but didn't see me there, for the obvious reason that most of my infield time was spent skulling Totenmacher with various dudes from Germany and the Republic, and that my non-infield time was thoroughly consumed by Dosenfußball and getting up to no good with Müller.  (Report to come, seriously.)  I passed out some flyers in return, but probably to no effect; even Jena is a fair piece from Nürnberg, and Dresden, from that perspective, is almost in goddamned Poland.

Obsidian Tongue [6/7]
Material-wise, this set from OT had a lot of similarities to the last one in this building, and we still didn't get "It Dangles..." or "Distant, Residual", despite the band giving props to the older-styled violence of the balance of the bill by pulling a track off their tape demo.  There will be other shows, though, and this one was pretty damn killer, even if beset by occasional technical difficulties.  As Obsidian Tongue's been playing lately, this was a down outing, but that says more about how good this band's been lately than about their form on this date.  Even as such, ceaselessly cool, still transcendant.

A light in the darkness -- when bands are super popular, it's hard to stand close enough to get pics with stuff in the rest of the frame.

Since I had to stop drinking to dry out for the drive home, I took a  break outside here.  It's getting to the part of the year where Boston's no longer a smelting furnace, but it's still not exactly cool out, even at eleven at night.

Hekseri [6/7]
Meg's Ausseidlung has meant, of course, no gigs since PT109 last year, but this admittedly short set made up for lost time in pretty impressive fashion.  I'm not sure how much new stuff we got along with the classics and Celtic Frost covers, as the front was pretty goddamn turbulent (putting at least one pint glass on the floor, leading me to spend most of "Der Hexenhammer" and "Hekseri" sweeping with my boot soles), but new material is not strictly needed here.  All the audience was looking for was Hekseri, again, and that's exactly what we got, driven, focused, bloody-minded, and somewhat more technically adept than when they were playing out more regularly.  Additionally, Meg's split her bodhran parts out into a new pagan project, keeping the focus here thoroughly on true black fucking metal.  I'd rather have gotten more, but curfews are curfews, and under these conditions, it's good enough to still be able to get Hekseri locally, period.

Hekseri return.

Jerome and Josh, shadowed but not overlooked.  If you want pictures that actually have recognizable people in them, go to RTTP, this is for inaccurate words and occasional poorly-resolved visuals.

Whole band again, with marginally better light on Megan.

As noted, though, the set had to come to an end, and with the bar bellowing for last call, I beat feet for the bridges.  I dodged a scare on the highway -- the stretch by Jordan's in Reading had apparently turned into a Twisted Metal track -- and got home, but at goddamned 2 in the morning, in just enough time to go to sleep, snooze through the alarm, and not hike enough on Saturday before getting drunk watching bad EPL games.  Long weekend, it'll work out.

Obsidian Tongue with Neldorath, Vulkodlak, and Grue [O'Brien's, Allston, 7/28/2012]

Most of this Saturday was spent driving around various places picking up extra equipment for the coming tour; the weather was bright and clear as you'll get in a New England summer.  This done and a couple hours spent puttering around the house and cooking the remaining contents of the fridge, I didn't notice that by the time I needed to head in to Boston for the show, a torrential rain had blown up.  This made driving a little slower, but the roads on this route were at least large, wide, and well-maintained, which made it a little easier than the historical parallel....which actually isn't much of a parallel because this rain, while difficult, was not snorkel-bad.  Indeed, it had lightened up substantially by the time I got in to the city, stowed the car, and started in on the hiking portion.  The rain on the hike over kept things a little cooler, and also provided a decent dose of "also training"; I'd done hot weather with the pack strapped up, but in Germany in August, you're as likely to get torrential rain, so it was good to get some practice on wet roads.  Not all that much, though, because the distance to O'B's remains about as short as ever, and I still ended up one of the earlier patrons in the building.

Grue [5/7]
This was the first time that I'd seen Grue in person (well, on stage); this is a new two-man third-wave black metal combo from Dave of Summoning Hate/Untombed fame and Morgan from Unholy Goatfucker, and both that newness and the members' strong experience showed off here.  The execution was top-notch, but the songs, at least at this point, had a lot of the structural deficits that Obsidian Tongue had at first, which appears to be a kind of necessary teething process as guys accustomed to writing for what we usually think of as "full bands" get used to the restricted instrumentation.  The riffs in that material, though, in spite of the underfinished or occasionally disjointed way they stack together, holds out the promise that when those issues are resolved, Grue has a fighting chance of catching up to the headliners here.  Balanced neatly between violence and melancholy and subtly loaded with undertones and harmonics reminiscent of early Borknagar and turn-of-the-century Enslaved, Grue's music has a lot of the sublime about it, and while they're cool to listen to right now, there's the potential to be extremely impressive once these guys finish deciding how they need to arrange their writing for maximum effect.

A Grue in the light?  That's unpossible!

Set breaks at this gig consisted of three things happening in any order.  1) Get new beer.  2) Go outside to cool down.  3) Dave comes by and promises that he has Grue tapes for export.  I did eventually get said tapes at the end of the night, and wasn't planning on leaving without them, but Dave of course had other stuff to do and other people to hang with over the course of the night rather than making up export packs.

Vulkodlak [5.5/7]
After seeing the parade of dudes in NYDM vests going in and out carrying gear, it was a little surprising to see this band line up and start playing as only a two-piece.  Member absences are no rare thing in the underground, even when it comes to underground touring, but this turns out to be most of Vulkodlak, and despite being down to just drums and guitar (this was kind of a theme for the night) they managed to mostly carry off the material.  Their spiky death-tinged black metal wasn't the most diversified or original in the whole world, but they generated a good performance with what they had, pulled up in closing by a fast, violent, cover of Sodom's "Blasphemer".  Pretty good stuff; hopefully, they'll be back, and in greater numbers.

Vulkodlak committing "Rites of the Equinox".

I apologize to anyone (mostly Mike Kleptocracy, maybe also the Rev) who I provided with false information on this band.  This is not the same band as the Vukodlak who put out Darkest Autumn ten years ago, despite the practically identical spelling of an extremely uncommon word and the fact that they were touring with another NYDM band from Pennsylvania.  That other L is significant, and they are legit 100% from Alabama.  Support real hinterlands extreme metal (see also), not gimmick rednecks.

Neldoreth [4/7]
Neldoreth continued on with the two-member theme, albeit not nearly as effectively as any of the other bands, and without a drummer (points may be related).  With live members consisting of a vocalist, a (second) guitarist, and a hell of a lot of playback, they put up an oddly-sourced set of unexceptional blackened death metal that was at times difficult to watch (playback guitars are ok, but the live guitar should lead the playback rather than fill in behind it, always always always) and due to the volumes needed for the band to hear their drums out of the PA, occasionally impossible to listen to.  Their set basically read their Invert Christ CD straight down (if in different order), and though it improved a little at the end, the only way this band is going to make any significant improvement is to get more non-digitized members in.

All of Neldoreth.  Seriously.  The first draft note on this set read "bring your whole band", but this is as much of Neldoreth as there ever is in one building at the same time.

Obsidian Tongue [6/7]
The evolution continues; another Obsidian Tongue set close on the heels of this one ten days ago, but with a fairly substantial reshuffle of the (four-song) setlist, taking a different side on Volume I.  At this point, it's barely worth noting when this band does something excellent, but they continue to get better and better on each successive date.  If, as this show seems to indicate, restricted instrumentation/membership is going to be a coming thing in third-wave black metal/black metal generally, Obsidian Tongue are clearly at the forefront of it, and we around Boston somehow continue be able to see them do their alchemy on a $7 ticket.  Brendan's (joking) comments on "fuck you bassplayers fest" ((jokingly) disappreeshed by actual and frustrated bassists alike) aside, this set was essentially one long, uniform, high that only offended by eventually drawing to a close.

As implied, this one did finally finish, at which point I got Neldoreth's record (at 25 minutes, and less than 20 of original music, not such a great deal for $12, but bands that have the guts to tour still need the support) and picked up tapes from both Grue and Kleptocracy, then headed out across the bridges again, the rain completely gone.  Another one down.  Another day closer to the tour.

Dark Passenger with Faces of Bayon, Obsidian Tongue, and Barren Oak [Ralph's, Worcester, 7/19/2012]

The conditions prevailing the last time out had subsided back to normal, but despite the lane closings getting down to the Pike and the work on 290, I managed to get in just about doors, and had the chance to rest up a little before the bands went on.  The heat was starting to go down a little, but Ralph's' upstairs is kind of steamy even under the best of conditions, so people, even this early, were staying more downstairs and in the parking lot when they came in.  As the bands started up, though, the room did fill in.

Barren Oak [5/7]
This was a slightly larger sample of Barren Oak than I got the last time, but continued to be nothing but thought-provoking.  Some of the stuff that Alex (and now Steve (ex-Cythraul)) was doing here, in particular a lot of the clean vocals and some of the more-jazz driven lines, didn't work that well, but more of their material did, including a lot of a unique take on Amon Amarth's "Victorious March" into Dissection's "Thorns of Crimson Death" that, via the diminished instrumentation, really recalled the MIDI/MOD reprogrammings of metal songs briefly popular at the end of the last century, before bandwidth caught up to processor speeds.  It may be that nothing comes out of this project, but with each show that becomes less and less likely: if nothing else, Barren Oak makes you think about what's possible at the very margins of black metal -- what this music can be, and maybe about what it should and shouldn't be.  Barren Oak still works as a band as well as an intellectual experiment, but the deliberate intent to push the line between experiment and trolling, to test boundaries and affirm or discard them, is likely going to continue to be the driving force behind this project in the future.

Alex in hakama and leather trenchcoat, looking like the black metal Hiko Seijuro.

Obsidian Tongue [6.5/7]
Midway through the set, Brendan asked the crowd "so are you sick of us yet?  We've been here like ten times"; I obviously can't answer for everyone, but as long as OT keeps rolling out performances like this one, it's going to be a long time before anyone has enough.  This set wasn't quite as good as the one at their release show, but it nearly got to that level despite having a pretty minimal overlap in terms of material selection.  Obsidian Tongue continue to develop, but even where they are, they've got a lot of really good material that, as they are now, is consistently performed despite the variety in terms of riffs and composition at a consistently high level.  They're starting to get a little more visibility on the heels of Volume 1..., and every bit of it is deserved.

Faces of Bayon [6/7]
In a way paralleling Napalm Death's flirtation with the absurd as they tested the boundaries in the other direction two decades ago, Faces of Bayon appears to be on a mission to write the longest practical doom song -- and while they've got a ways to go to catch, say, Green Carnation, they're definitely closing in on the limitations of DIY set times.  The new tune that they opened with was deep, extensive, varied, epic, intense, captivating -- and so long that at its conclusion, Matt had to ask the sound guy if they had time for another.  As good as the Heart of the Fire material is, the new stuff is a step forward from there, justifying the anticipation that's sure to build as we get it in drips and drabs thanks to being unable to play more than a handfull of tunes on any one set.  Two songs, on paper, may not look like much of a set, but two Faces songs (or at least the two we got here) represent on the order of half an hour of classic, high-grade, no-limits doom-death in the best old English style.  Great stuff.

Between sets I did merch of some sorts and others; one of the Darkwor guys told me to hang around for more discs to take over, and I picked up both Dark Passenger's record and a shirt from Faces in the process of asking Matt for some stickers for export.  I was kind of torn on Obsidian Tongue - I'm not sure if I already have one of their shirts or not (I think so), but if not, there's another gig next week that I should be able to nab something at.

Unrelated fun fact: Dan from Dark Passenger's other band, Shroud of Bereavement, has at times had a lineup on stage fully as large as all of the first three bands on this gig combined.

Dark Passenger [5.5/7]
I hadn't actually heard this band going in, mostly drawn out by good recs, the solid undercard, and the history of Shroud as proof that Dan doesn't get himself involved in no-account bands.  Dark Passenger's fairly new, and the material that they have so far is a little raw and undifferentiated, but the band's performance was strong, and there are seeds of something really cool in the music that they have right now that will surely get brought out further as they write and gig more.  Their sound, at least as far as I can track it, comes from a midpoint between the classic doom of early My Dying Bride and the first Cathedral record and the inward-focused black metal of turn-of-the-century Enslaved; they're still in the process of sorting a distinct Dark Passenger sound out of those influences, but any way you cut it, this is a good and intriguing jumping-off point.  They might have gone on a little longer, just on the available time to curfew, but they ran out of material -- not so great for the audience at the present moment, but a positive sign going forward, as it makes clear that as good, solid, and professional as Dark Passenger is right now, they're still really just starting their journey as a band, and will definitely produce even better stuff and better sets down the line.

Dark Passenger set out across the brine.

After waiting around a bit to pick up those Darkwor materials, and again explaining the legend of Anton Maiden (rapidly becoming the Metal Thursday preferred clear-out music), I hit the road, and despite the fucking DOT closing the onramp to the Pike AGAIN for another 15-minute detour, I got back in good order before work kicked my ass forwards and backwards on Friday, making timely publication impossible.  Next week is the last sprint to the finish line: Agalloch and Mausoleum and Obsidian Tongue again with barely a breather, and after that, it's off across the open seas.

Graveheart with Sauriel, Obsidian Tongue, and Weregild [Ralph's, Worcester, 5/3/2012]

Though the (six-six-)sixth anniversary of Metal Thursday was a little less flashy than the fifth (not to mention contained in one night rather than spread over two), it was still, as usual, a pretty kickass bill on offer, and with two bands releasing fairly anticipated CDs.  (Graveheart's record is, so far, only out digitally; the prediction referenced last time is still on for an eventual physical release.)  So it was out across the hills and through the rain, under the light of towns and strip malls bouncing back off the blanketing clouds, jamming Sagas again, because for some reason the wet New England spring calls out for this music.  Also, under the prevailing traffic conditions, the disc will play through exactly once during the ride from Burlington out to the Ralph's parking lot, which is convenient.  I got in, as expected, a little early, and after establishing that there probably weren't going to be any Weregild shirts on offer, I sat about and cooled my heels waiting for the bands to start.

Weregild [5.5/7]
Cape Cod's finest locally-sourced low-fat Amon Amarth substitute have taken their game up a notch since last time, both in design and in execution, despite the fact that they had Kyle from Sentinel covering the second guitar on short notice.  There were a few desyncs that probably came down to that, but for the most part, the band was dead-on, and if they didn't ever get the floor motion they were looking for, even on the final breakdown in "Journey Through Muspellheim", they did get a lot of headbanging and a good strong reaction from a crowd that had not yet begun to drink.  Weregild remains, and likely will continue to remain, so obvious an Amon Amarth clone that their ceiling in terms of exposure is pretty low, but the excellent execution involved here -- to get to the point where you can actually clone Amon Amarth live in the first place --  also guarantees the band a fairly high floor.  This isn't a band that's going to take over the world, but they're likely going to continue to improve local bills around the area for a while yet.

Weregild (permanent members and loanee) concentrating wicked hard.  This is the final and most vital part of cloning Amon Amarth as an original band.  First, you have to write Amon Amarth riffs, which with the body of work they have, is an easily-referenced task.  Then you need to tweak your instrumental and vocal tone to match; with experience, the right gear, and some trial and error, this is also eminently doable.  Then comes the hard part: ceaseless precision.  It's not immediately obvious, but a lot of Amon Amarth's separation from other bands, and how they got to the top of the game, is that they are incredibly precise about staying locked in and keeping all of the guitars exactly on top of each other.  This is, of course, wicked hard to do, especially in a small club where most of the sound is coming out of the cabs rather than the PA and the monitors can be intermittent, but it's also expected if you're going to try to sound like Amon Amarth.  Weregild's commitment to precision, even as here at the expense of looking at the audience rather than their own hands, is what keeps them on the right side of the enormous gulf between "cool Amon Amarth clone" and "failbad Amon Amarth ripoff".

Obsidian Tongue [6/7]
In the past, I've had concerns about how far Obsidian Tongue would be able to take what they're doing as a guitar-and-drums duo.  Six months on and with a full-length album under their belts, those concerns have been convincingly laid to rest via a fully-developed and significantly diverse set of third-wave black metal.  Neither excessively hipster nor necro for its own sake, OT manage to convincingly balance their atmospheric and raw elements as well as keep the music vital despite the reduced instrumentation.  They dropped in a couple keyboard passages for effect, and since this was a local show, were able to bring Christina up out of the audience to do her parts on "Distant, Residual", but for the most part, this set was guitar, drums, and two throats, and of this proved to be entirely sufficient.

Brendan contemplating the infinite.

Naturally, in this break, I picked up OT's new record and also a shirt, and continued to weigh the options on Sauriel's stuff.  They didn't have the full packaged CD yet, so they were giving away burns in half-height cases with the insert, and though I was not crazy about having to take home another shirt (I purged like 30 a couple months ago, and the stacks have built right the fuck back up again) in order to give the band money, I remain reluctant to take CDs with actual production value on them without paying.  Had I known that these were MP3CDs instead of something with uncompressed audio on them, maybe I'd've been less reluctant, but things worked out the way they eventually worked out.

Sauriel [5/7]
I hadn't seen Sauriel since they were putting out their demo seventeen months ago; in the intervening, they've gotten a little more deathy and a little more vital, but are on the cusp of another member change, on this gig bringing in a new drummer and saying farewell to a guitarist.  (The incipient sound changes are still undefined of course, but more significant of the fact is that Rob didn't really deserve to have his last show with Sauriel be the one where he lost his balance and fell over backwards into his amp 30 seconds into the first song.  Still happened.)  On this sample, playing the new Akasha record pretty much straight down in order, they showed a sound more inspired by the likes of Behemoth and Belphegor in its mix of death into black metal, but independent of those influences even if they stayed within that generally mainstream ouevre.  It's decent, to be sure, but given the members' previous history, there's more that they can -- and should, in the future, be able to -- do to distinguish themselves.

Sauriel gets Chris (Smite The Righteous, ex-The Accursed) up to draw some "Ritualistic Circles".  Seeing this band is in a way pretty bittersweet; everyone involved is/was in fairly major NWOSDM-driven bands back when "Gothenchusetts" was a thing, and now, they're playing NEMHF-mainstage black metal and having internet bampots question the continued relevance of their sound.  Acaro notwithstanding, the tide on that part of the scene has well and truly set.

In the present, though, I still did get Sauriel's new CD, picked up a bunch of stickers to take over, and ended up via the pay-the-band impulse with a shirt that I can wear but won't; it's on the pile with the Herugrim one for export.  These things work out, but pack space is, thanks to having to take shirts again, getting more limited faster than anticipated.  If you want CDs exported, take action quick.

Graveheart [6/7]
This set started a little slow, but got cranked up as the band got going, building to a frantic and hammering climax as the floor finally, finally got moving, partly due to "civilian" "tourists" and partly due to Chris and Samantha passing out gratis whiskey shots.  (Those who dodged the cover weren't supposed to partake, but there were enough of us stalwarts not partaking due to an impending hour-plus drive through the depredations of the state police that it probably came out in the wash.)  Alcohol and metal girls flipping out, in addition to the band's Metallica-Slayer-Sepultura-based deathed-up thrash hitting into a couple of their better tunes right at that point, got things proper violent, and if the "tourists" started out taking the piss, it was pretty clear that at least for a moment, they were into it for real by the end.  Graveheart's mix of the accessible and the extreme tends to work that way, and the band delivered a really killer second half after a good first half, and ended the night on a definite high note.  We're still waiting for a physical release of Return of the Curse of the Creature's Ghost -- though you can download it, and as a wag noted last night, you can't download alcohol -- but when that does arrive, it'll be a releaseshow and a half.

Graveheart chugging away (trololololol) on "Drinking From A Horn".

After it was clear no encore was on offer, I beat feet for the exits and got home shortly after 2, with a minimal exhaustion load, and accordingly got this turned around quicklike.  I go on call tonight, but if everything goes right, I may make it to Sabaton and/or Black Pyramid before the shift finishes.  We'll see.

Impiety with Nachzehrer, Obsidian Tongue, and Blessed Offal [Ralph's, Worcester, 10/20/2011]

Despite getting stuck in a little late at work and the concern that this would end up packed, I got out in good order and over to Ralph's just about doors. There was a while till the bands started, but with a bill likely to draw this well, better safe than sorry.

Blessed Offal [5.5/7]
While this probably wasn't the best show I've seen from the band, it was probably the best-sounding. The Ralph's sound carried every instrument forward in good balance, really bringing out the blacker elements of their sound, which hasn't come forward as much in the past but was really obvious here. It seemed like they were running out of steam a bit towards the end of the set, but this was a dropoff from 'great' to 'really good'. This band has really established themselves on the last year or so as now one of the legit top Boston death metal bands, and they're only going to keep improving.




Marcus' beat-to-fuck China in front of Impiety's banner captures the dirt-level don't-give-a-fuck-ness of the balance of the bill.

It was about here that I did most of my merch, deciding against the Impiety shirt (in favor of a patch and about the most expensive CD-EP I've ever run across) because it would kick too big a hole in what I had in my wallet. One day, I'm going to remember to get loaded up cashwise before going out to see bands from far away on infrequent tours, but that day was not this time out.

Obsidian Tongue [5.5/7]
This was probably the best set I've seen from this band, as they continue to overcome their limited numbers with creativity and cabinet buildout. There were still a few sticking points that show they don't have all the answers yet, but they were greatly outnumbered by long stretches of the sublime. OT aren't quite yet in the top rank of black metal bands locally -- mostly due to intense competition -- but if any two-piece outfit can get to that level, they will.




Obsidian Tongue jamming with the lights on. Ralph's doesn't always render blue inside.

Having spent less than all my goddamn money on Impiety, I was able to pick up Blessed Offal's CD (having honor, I didn't rip the one that I brought over this summer), and at least pay for an Absu ticket off Nachzehrer, which by the time this is getting written up, is already in the post. Result.

Nachzehrer [6/7]
A strong return to form for Nachzehrer, though for the pessimistic, Nachzehrer playing at all, with all the members they had at the start of the month, might alone have qualified for that. Their thrashing black metal set things up well for Impiety, but more importantly was a kickass outing in its own right, and on any other Metal Thursday would have capped off a good and varied night of the contending definitions of NEBM. They justified their relative place on the bill, as much as that ever means at the local level, but in fairness all the locals were pretty close to this level in setting the bar for our guests.




Nachzeher keeping on rolling.

At this point, I was out of money thanks to grabbing a Hollenthon record off Bill Zebub's distro that I wasn't sure even existed, but Bobby, settling an old debt unprompted, set up my last drink of the night, something heavily alcoholic in a tall glass that didn't end up screwing up the drive home. Double result.

Impiety [7/7]
Of course, you don't haul over from Singapore (or, ok, well now, Italy), even just Shyaithan alone, to play slapdick shows. The stand-in sidemen held up well, and the result was a kickass and undeniably true Impiety set that justified the late hour, the long haul, and the room packed brimfull of damn near everyone in blackish metal in New England. When bands that don't tour play out, you go, because when they do play, they destroy.




Impiety tuning up.



More setup.



Shyaithan faces the audience.


After "Blood Ritual Defamation" led into "Torment In Fire" and the deliciously unlistenable tones of Anton Maiden took over the PA, it was time to split, dead skint but rich in music and experience. That part where I had only three bucks in my pocket prevented me from getting out to GWAR on Friday, but even I don't have infinite resources, and after I discovered that I was confused about the openers (I blame the Impaled guys for lying about the band's origin, Creepsylvania != Bulgaria, so obviously Ghoul != Corpse, despite the marginally similar logo, or maybe this is something that only morons get confused about), the Thursday night show was definitely more of an attraction. After the nine billion Halloween shows this coming weekend, next real gig is probably next Thursday....and then like every night in the first week of November, there's a Palladium show. Hello Mayhem, Cynic, Exhumed, and Anthrax (headliners, in that order, Sun thru Tues and Friday), goodbye cash.

Woods of Ypres with Shroud of Bereavement, Obsidian Tongue, and Vattnet Viskar [Ralph's, Worcester, 3/17/2011]

Despite difficulties getting out of work on any kind of timely schedule, traffic was light, and I blasted my way out to Worcester at possible personal bests for speed and fuel efficiency. I got in and up and drinking just before 9; plenty of time to browse merch before the bands started.


Vattnet Viskar [5/7]
It's an overreaction to say that this band means that the tide (the hipster one, not the orcish tide) is reaching the shores of New England at last. This kind of droning black metal's been around for a while, just not as obviously third-wave as these guys make it. That being said, they put out some solid if completely undiversified music, showing good chops despite PA issues that gimped their sound at the start. (With the rhythm guitar essentially turned off, they sounded like Witch Tomb gone third-wave, which was cool, but further songs showed that this wasn't actually what they were going for. The foundations are there, but there's a lot of improvement that needs to come if Vattnet is eventually going to get into the first rank of NEBM. And if they can do so, given how high that mark is, getting assimilated into that black cascade won't be so bad.

Some people might pull the band up for blacking up for a local show in 2011, but it would be extremely poor form for someone who once did an academic presentation with Abbath-scale incursions of shoe polish on his face to do so. Actually believing in black metal can excuse a multitude of sins, from corpsepaint down on to hipster shoes.

Obsidian Tongue [5.5/7]
A better showing than last time, maybe just down to improved PA, maybe not. The sound felt a little more muscular, slightly more death-influenced, but still with the band's unique highs and lows. At some points, it felt like they were running into the limitations of what it's generally possible to do with one guitar and a drumkit in a black metal context, but despite these limitations, they still closed really strong. Time will tell if these apparent boundaries are real, or if I'm talking out of my ass, but if OT can continue to devise new and cool things to do with their existing instrumentation, they're definitely going to be a band to watch.

Shroud of Bereavement [5/7]
This was not a real good set from Shroud. "From" rather than "by", because most of the issues were not their fault. The PA wasn't really well-balanced to handle their relatively complex and somewhat delicate sound, and the monitors apparently weren't consistently balanced to allow the vocalists to hear themselves. Woods had some intonation issues on clean vocal sections as well, but nearly all of Shroud's material has at least one clean vocal line going, often two, and too often the exposed vocals were either buried in the mix and/or out of tune. When things came together, they cane together very well -- Shroud also finished strong after the technical issues had been mostly sweated out -- but the tradeoff as demonstrated is inherent in the ambitious music and arrangements that the band does. You can play intricately composed 20-minute doom metal symphonies, and you can play stuff that's always going to be balanced correctly by the soundboard, but it's not really reasonable to expect that you can always do both at the same time.

Woods of Ypres [6.5/7]
Though this wasn't quite as good as the summer gig, and, as will be seen, a lot of that is on the band, even that is somewhat out of their control. They've been picked up by Earache, who're re-releasing the Green Album (go buy it in the store or online if you can't make it to a show, leech), which translates not only into formalism -- vice four work visas for touring in two countries, and Dave carping about it -- but also this being an album tour. Where July was a diverse set heavy on Woods II, this one was almost completely pulled from Woods IV. It's a good record, but the songs that are not its best are not as good as the stuff off II and III that got left out of the setlist in order to sell the new record. That's the debit; the good news is that Woods still don't lack for power or shading in presenting the new material or reshaping the catalog stuff. Dave had a couple intonation issues mid-set, but this is a casual hazard of doing clean vocals at the DIY level, and it didn't stick out in an overall well-delivered set. As the band showed in closing with "A Meeting Place and Time" (well, before doing "Ontario Town" as a perhaps-legit encore), execution-wise they were dead-on -- just handicapped a little by playing their latest-best material to the exclusion of some of their best overall.


Home over empty roads; the heavy police presence must've scared the drunks off. Next show is Agalloch tonight at the Middle East, provided I can get in; Bat Cuntry, JJF, and The Frog over the weekend didn't really end up being under survey.

Nachzehrer with Obsidian Tongue [O'Brien's, Allston, 2/24/2011]

After a short but still unacceptable delay, here's the writeup of this Born of Fire gig; with what's slated to go in today, I should be up to date.


Obsidian Tongue [5.5/7]
Though it's almost getting to be a dirty word in the dirt-raw Boston scene, this duo put up a cool set of highly atmospheric black metal that in its spaces and stylings verged on the dare-we-say it "Cascadian". :eyeroll: The sound still came raw as well as hypnotizing, though, and combined to cool effect, especially from just guitar and drums. There were a few technical fillips, as might, really, be expected from a band that's using a lot of pedals and controls to transform their sound rather than separate instrumental lines, but the net effect was still killer.

In addition to the band's own demo, I also picked up the new Blood of the Gods record, since a) it's out and b) the drummer in this band is also in that one, playing "crust" that is separated only with great difficulty from early Entombed. Bethatasitmay; good music anyway.

Nachzehrer [6/7]
While this outing was rawer than the last time I saw them (it was Draak (ex-Unholy Goatfucker)'s first live show with the band, as I found out later), the integration was still smooth and the sound still cool and ripping. They didn't have anything new out this time, but talking with Mike/Hrasvelg after, they're close to getting a new 10" out through an English label, as well as some discussions about another split that is truly councils-of-the-wise-and-great stuff not up for discussion in scurrilious reportage like this. If it comes off, though, it'll be great exposure for them, and definitely not undeserved, whether on this performance or their history in general.

Bands finished, it was off to hike off the beer and get settled to drive home. Easily accomplished, but then I was distracted by other stuff from Bobfest at the weekend and didn't get out again till the "Master" show to be accounted here.