Coming out for this, the drive wasn't a problem, and the sky was magnificent. Going out to a show like this, it's somehow more fitting that the clouds twist themselves into crenellations and funnels, lit by the sunset into a tapestry of intricately woven orange, like an old LP sleeve that you need to spend an hour with your nose literally jammed into to pick up everything. It's not really possible to do this with the sky, of course, nor safe to attempt to do so while driving, but it fit in well all the same.
Despite starting out a little late, I got in with enough time to get a beer and realize that I had less money with me than I thought, and would be coming back with less Truckfighters material than optimal. Oh well. Soon enough, though, the music started, and this stuff became a little more academic.
Blue Aside [5.5/7]
It wasn't until the start of their fifth and last song, when they actually introduced it as another song, that I was sure that Blue Aside's set was composed out of discrete songs rather than several movements of a single longer piece. This was good stuff, flowing material that connected strongly to itself and hung together not only internally but song to song; built, like a lot of doom (if not so many of the bands on this particular bill) on a lot of Sabbath, they also mixed in a fair amount of Yes and non-trace concentrations of Slough Feg. Their set progressed from wicked doomy at the start to a lot more upbeat and 70s-rockish at the end, kind of an anti-Autumn Above, but maybe with the same motivations of suckering in an audience who might not initially react well to the way the set balanced out. This was a good outing, but in a way it's not surprising that I hadn't seen this band before; the audience for a good, proficient metal-rooted band that can cross over is greater where they can cross over than it is in the metal context, and they don't come from my town.
Mockingbird [5.5/7]
In from Ohio, these guys flipped the script around: this is the side of doom not touching on Black Sabbath, but built out of pure, gravelling punk'n'roll rebarreled down to 10-gauge. They didn't get an especially long set -- maybe it just felt like that, after Blue Aside's endlessly flowing compositions -- but every minute was pure crush. Less variety, but it's kind of heaviness, not necessarily variety, that this kind of band aims for, and they delivered abundantly on the heaviness front.
In here I went back and did my merch: I'd now heard or at least decided on (only Truckfighters exposure was their movie trailer, and that they were in from fucking Sweden) all of the bands on the bill, and so put down on the headliners' Mania album, Mockingbird's self-titled EP, which came with an unexpected number of extras, and Blue Aside's The Orange Tree record on CD, along with a couple spare stickers to pass around in the east. All good stuff, as it turned out, but 12" LPs don't fit in the occasionally-useful trauma plate pouch in my lightweight kutte, so what the fuck was I supposed to do with these unwieldy and highly frangible chunks of wax for the rest of the night? Fortunately, genetic advantages saved the day again: there's a shelf on one of the walls about 7 1/2, 8 feet off the floor that has a hacked station of the cross or something on it, and there was enough space that your size-enabled correspondent could slap his vinyls up there, have his hands free to handle any pit action -- not that there was a lot of it -- and be pretty sure that almost nobody in the room would be able, much less inclined, to swipe them or inadvertently knock them off.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
I'd just seen Black Pyramid again here three weeks ago, and most of the notes on that set just carry straight over. This set was a little shorter, and maybe a little heavier, but in the main Black Pyramid is a very good, very consistent band who can be relied upon to produce a great set of crowd-friendly doom-drenched heavy metal. In that regard, this was about the most metal of the performances on offer, and got probably the best response; some of that is Metal Thursday being Metal Thursday, even when a gang of stoner punks from Sweden are headlining, but most of it is a very good band turning in a very good performance in front of a crowd that, if they aren't exactly hometown (Black Pyramid is technically based further west), still sees them on a regular and knows most if not all of the material.
Truckfighters [6.5/7]
I obviously hadn't seen Truckfighters before -- this was their first US tour, and they haven't played any of the festivals I've been to elsewhere -- and no one else who wasn't in Providence the night before was likely to have either, so for this set there was a lot of the odd dynamic of a band and an audience trying to figure each other out, to see what worked and what didn't. At the start, the response was a little flat, maybe a little frustrating for the band, but people got into it as the set went on, because seriously, how can you not get into this kind of bouncing, driving doom/fuzz/van/desert rock, Kyuss or Fu Manchu infused with the manic svenskpunk energy of a Millencolin or No Fun At All. Seriously, Dango gets more air onstage than anyone I've yet seen, and better than anyone except Jim (Aura of Aquila, Autumn Above) Joyce. (Sorry Jim, longer legs mean bigger hops.) They played all over their ten-year catalog, and straight up to the deadline -- no encore, despite pleading with the bar staff to go on a little longer. If anyone at this show complains about not getting enough Truckfighters out of this, though, they're straight mental -- or planned their parkinglot rituals incorrectly, which would also be a mental failure on their part.
It was 1:45 in the morning by the end, and not only did I have to work in the morning, but everyone was getting loudly shooed out by the staff. High-volume show, to say the least. I made it back, and somehow was able to cycle for the weekend -- the training helps, but more of it is festival mode coming back on line. Of course, the other two shows this weekend, and then catching up on tour prep stuff, meant that this didn't get written up for a while, but here goes, and the other two are in the pipeline as well.
Showing posts with label black pyramid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black pyramid. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Faces of Bayon with Black Pyramid, Dead Languages, and Pilgrim [Ralph's, Worcester, 6/24/2011]
Due to a late-breaking prod ticket tying me up at work, I wasn't able to make it in to Abnormality the night before, but with my on-call shift finished and nothing tying me down for the weekend, it was a quick out to Worcester for Faces of Bayon's release show. As usual due to consistently budgeting more time for travel than I actually need, I was one of the earlier members of the general public in, but the room quickly filled in as Pilgrim set up and got ready.
Pilgrim [5/7]
Whether you define this band as "classic" or "not doing anything new" is primarily going to come down to how you feel about doom metal in general. This underage power trio sump-vented a thick, long set of slow, heavy material inspired heavily by Black Sabbath and Candlemass, and did so with a quality of execution, especially on the mostly melodic vocals, that a lot of other bands can only aspire to. At the same time, though, there wasn't a lot in this set that didn't have those obvious precursors, and on a couple songs, the length of the composition somewhat overran the ability of the riffs to hold it up. Local bands being heavily influenced by those that have gone before them, in any style, though, is not exactly news, and Pilgrim are all really young; if they've crystallized doom as a style to this extent at this age, it's going to be really interesting to see where they go with it in the future.
During Pilgrim's set, they mentioned that this was about the largest number of people they'd ever played for. This was one of the denser crowds that I've seen at Ralph's for an all-local show (probably have to go back to Darkwor for an immediate comparison), but given their performance, they'll likely be back on a Metal Thursday bill for a similar audience sooner or later.
Dead Languages [5/7]
Despite having spent a significant amount of time on the 2010 Euro tour (pssst, time is running out on the 2011 RFM) moving their records and stickers (and of course, on the front end listening through the EP I had in order to know what I was talking about), this was the first time I'd actually seen Dead Languages live. They generally matched up to recorded expectations; mostly doom, but with occasional grind tendencies that manifested themselves off and on in faster tempos, breaking up the main flow of slow, heavy, heavily distorted doom. Most of the set here was off their Ancient Astronauts record, but they also did a hardcore song that nobody in attendance was able to claim the prize for recognizing...maybe because doom and hardcore don't traditionally have a huge degree of audience overlap, but maybe also because they doomed it up, taking the tempo down by half and burying the expected up-beat hits beneath a sludgy morass.
In here, I did most of my merch (getting a self-build kit of Dead Languages' record later), which ended up running to recorded material from all four bands, which is kind of rare these days. Pilgrim and Faces of Bayon on CD, and Black Pyramid's Stormbringer 8" on what turned out to be red vinyl -- I don't collect, so no care -- plus a nontrivial whack of various kinds of Black Pyramid stickers for export. Unlike the last two pretty-much-doom-dominated shows I was at, though, I didn't end up with one of the bands giving me a free undersized t-shirt for little readily discernable reason, so that part of the export mix remains unaffected.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
While the other two openers followed mostly in Faces of Bayon's vein of extremely heavy, graveling doom, Black Pyramid cut the other way, pulling in more melodics while still not stinting on the heaviness. That's in many ways the great strength of this band: the ability to pull in early-Iron-Maiden shadings from prog rock and early-'70s electric folk rock (cf. Wishbone Ash) in a doom context and play equally as well, and as well-received, with Faces of Bayon as with a band like Truckfighters in a couple weeks. Seriously, listen to something like "Macedonia" and try to honestly claim there's no late-'70s/early-'80s Harris influence in the mix. This was a killer set that got a strong and turbulent crowd response, probably more so than most people would have expected from a doom metal band, sending more than a few people running for cover when they unexpectedly found themselves in the middle of the pit.
The crowd filtered down a little after Black Pyramid, which was a bit of a shame; on the one hand, some people do have to work Saturdays, but this was pretty late already, and Faces of Bayon was about to put up a pretty class set themselves.
Faces of Bayon [6/7]
Most stuck, though, and those who hadn't bought the CD at the start of the night and spun it in their cars during parking lot rituals in preference to seeing the other bands on the bill got a good first look at the record as the band played it straight down, thirteen-minute songs, tricky and ethereal ambient parts, and all. This was an emotional set for the band -- a year removed from their first show (if I remember Matt's words correctly), and they've not only finally gotten this record out, but tragically lost their original drummer -- but they executed the material little short of flawlessly, conveying those emotions of passion and desolation out to the audience. Heart of the Fire is a long, meaty, diverse record, the variation in sound making this performance come off a little close to Sabbath and a little farther from early Cathedral than I've heard from them in the past, but there was plenty of molten-glass pounding in the set as well, especially in closing with "So Mote It Be".
As mentioned, Heart of the Fire is kind of a long album, so when the band finished up, we were basically shooed out by the venue management; I gave trying to buy Drudkh's Blood In Our Wells off the Ragnarok distro table a pass and headed out, getting back home a little past 3 AM. Fortunately, I don't have to work weekends, so I could sleep all day and then stay out on the booze till 3 on Saturday as well; eventually, I recovered from all of this and got this pile of likely-mostly-inaccurate verbiage loaded out just in time to head in to see Scaphism.
As alluded, there is a month until I head out across the ocean, and these are the remaining shows:
Jun 28 - Scaphism, Totality - Church (Boston, MA)
Jun 30 - Coffin Birth, Totality - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 7 - The Accursed, Warblade, Hirudinea, Autolatry - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 8 - Untombed, Humanity Falls - Champions Cafe (Everett, MA)
Jul 9 - Hate Eternal - Palladium (Worcester, MA)
Jul 14 - Truckfighters, Black Pyramid, Mockingbird - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 16 - Abnormality, Human Infection - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 17 - Ash Borer - PT-109, Allston (provided I remember to get the location from the Nachzehrer guys)
Jul 21 - Morgirion, Nathruzym, Vattnet Viskar, Bog of the Infidel - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 23 - Vital Remains - Middle East (Cambridge, MA)
Jul 24 - Acaro - Church (Boston, MA)
The last two may be somewhat endangered by my on-call schedule, so get your stuff in early.
Pilgrim [5/7]
Whether you define this band as "classic" or "not doing anything new" is primarily going to come down to how you feel about doom metal in general. This underage power trio sump-vented a thick, long set of slow, heavy material inspired heavily by Black Sabbath and Candlemass, and did so with a quality of execution, especially on the mostly melodic vocals, that a lot of other bands can only aspire to. At the same time, though, there wasn't a lot in this set that didn't have those obvious precursors, and on a couple songs, the length of the composition somewhat overran the ability of the riffs to hold it up. Local bands being heavily influenced by those that have gone before them, in any style, though, is not exactly news, and Pilgrim are all really young; if they've crystallized doom as a style to this extent at this age, it's going to be really interesting to see where they go with it in the future.
During Pilgrim's set, they mentioned that this was about the largest number of people they'd ever played for. This was one of the denser crowds that I've seen at Ralph's for an all-local show (probably have to go back to Darkwor for an immediate comparison), but given their performance, they'll likely be back on a Metal Thursday bill for a similar audience sooner or later.
Dead Languages [5/7]
Despite having spent a significant amount of time on the 2010 Euro tour (pssst, time is running out on the 2011 RFM) moving their records and stickers (and of course, on the front end listening through the EP I had in order to know what I was talking about), this was the first time I'd actually seen Dead Languages live. They generally matched up to recorded expectations; mostly doom, but with occasional grind tendencies that manifested themselves off and on in faster tempos, breaking up the main flow of slow, heavy, heavily distorted doom. Most of the set here was off their Ancient Astronauts record, but they also did a hardcore song that nobody in attendance was able to claim the prize for recognizing...maybe because doom and hardcore don't traditionally have a huge degree of audience overlap, but maybe also because they doomed it up, taking the tempo down by half and burying the expected up-beat hits beneath a sludgy morass.
In here, I did most of my merch (getting a self-build kit of Dead Languages' record later), which ended up running to recorded material from all four bands, which is kind of rare these days. Pilgrim and Faces of Bayon on CD, and Black Pyramid's Stormbringer 8" on what turned out to be red vinyl -- I don't collect, so no care -- plus a nontrivial whack of various kinds of Black Pyramid stickers for export. Unlike the last two pretty-much-doom-dominated shows I was at, though, I didn't end up with one of the bands giving me a free undersized t-shirt for little readily discernable reason, so that part of the export mix remains unaffected.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
While the other two openers followed mostly in Faces of Bayon's vein of extremely heavy, graveling doom, Black Pyramid cut the other way, pulling in more melodics while still not stinting on the heaviness. That's in many ways the great strength of this band: the ability to pull in early-Iron-Maiden shadings from prog rock and early-'70s electric folk rock (cf. Wishbone Ash) in a doom context and play equally as well, and as well-received, with Faces of Bayon as with a band like Truckfighters in a couple weeks. Seriously, listen to something like "Macedonia" and try to honestly claim there's no late-'70s/early-'80s Harris influence in the mix. This was a killer set that got a strong and turbulent crowd response, probably more so than most people would have expected from a doom metal band, sending more than a few people running for cover when they unexpectedly found themselves in the middle of the pit.
The crowd filtered down a little after Black Pyramid, which was a bit of a shame; on the one hand, some people do have to work Saturdays, but this was pretty late already, and Faces of Bayon was about to put up a pretty class set themselves.
Faces of Bayon [6/7]
Most stuck, though, and those who hadn't bought the CD at the start of the night and spun it in their cars during parking lot rituals in preference to seeing the other bands on the bill got a good first look at the record as the band played it straight down, thirteen-minute songs, tricky and ethereal ambient parts, and all. This was an emotional set for the band -- a year removed from their first show (if I remember Matt's words correctly), and they've not only finally gotten this record out, but tragically lost their original drummer -- but they executed the material little short of flawlessly, conveying those emotions of passion and desolation out to the audience. Heart of the Fire is a long, meaty, diverse record, the variation in sound making this performance come off a little close to Sabbath and a little farther from early Cathedral than I've heard from them in the past, but there was plenty of molten-glass pounding in the set as well, especially in closing with "So Mote It Be".
As mentioned, Heart of the Fire is kind of a long album, so when the band finished up, we were basically shooed out by the venue management; I gave trying to buy Drudkh's Blood In Our Wells off the Ragnarok distro table a pass and headed out, getting back home a little past 3 AM. Fortunately, I don't have to work weekends, so I could sleep all day and then stay out on the booze till 3 on Saturday as well; eventually, I recovered from all of this and got this pile of likely-mostly-inaccurate verbiage loaded out just in time to head in to see Scaphism.
As alluded, there is a month until I head out across the ocean, and these are the remaining shows:
Jun 28 - Scaphism, Totality - Church (Boston, MA)
Jun 30 - Coffin Birth, Totality - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 7 - The Accursed, Warblade, Hirudinea, Autolatry - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 8 - Untombed, Humanity Falls - Champions Cafe (Everett, MA)
Jul 9 - Hate Eternal - Palladium (Worcester, MA)
Jul 14 - Truckfighters, Black Pyramid, Mockingbird - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 16 - Abnormality, Human Infection - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 17 - Ash Borer - PT-109, Allston (provided I remember to get the location from the Nachzehrer guys)
Jul 21 - Morgirion, Nathruzym, Vattnet Viskar, Bog of the Infidel - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 23 - Vital Remains - Middle East (Cambridge, MA)
Jul 24 - Acaro - Church (Boston, MA)
The last two may be somewhat endangered by my on-call schedule, so get your stuff in early.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Black Pyramid with Ichabod and Livver [Bangkok Paradise, Salem, 10/22/2010]
Thanks to a late-striking production ticket, I missed out on Ipsissimus and Nachzehrer the night before, but the combination of coming off that shift and this show being one stop away on the T meant that it was going to be very difficult to miss out -- or to justify it if I did so.
Fortunately, it was as easy getting in as anticipated; quick hitch on the train over and then literally right across from the station, less than a hundred yards from the steps up out of the parking lot to the venue. This remarkable convenience is probably a major reason we don't see a lot of metal shows here, especially this time of year; access this easy is going to be highly contended for. Despite being laid out kind of weird inside, and the lengths the Livver guys had to go to in setting up to get everything powered, the ease of access makes this one of the better small venues on the North Shore.
Livver [5.5/7]
A quality set to open things up, of pretty much just the kind of doom metal you'd expect from a band showing up to play a gig at a goth club in Disfear and Rotten Sound shirts -- classic Boston hardcore gone doom, much like we've been hearing from various bands around here since Doomriders, but with, obviously, their own take on the sound, coming out a little grindier than the common reference points might indicate. Solid set, good foundation for the bands to follow.
Ichabod [6/7]
There's got to be a better description for this band than "Eyescale covering Sabbath", or at least one that anyone reading this is likely to recognize an understand, but this is how they sounded live, that mix of warbling yet still harsh electronics and classic doom grooves. Though this was still, of course, fully qualified metal, the dark-industrial elements took this set the closest to what this place most often has on offer for their Darque Gathering nights. This was probably why there was more floor movement for this band than any of the others -- though not floor movement as we know it. Still, though, there's a place for hawt goth girls dancing, just as much as there is for sweaty dudes slamming into stuff -- and for those who violently disagree, there's some potentially bad news incoming.
The audience thinned out a little while Black Pyramid was setting up; the reason likely being that the last train inbound was leaving at 11:24. Too bad; this band rules, and while I didn't get to stay for all of their set either, this was one of the rare occasions that living up here in the Blight actually worked out to my advantage.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
They had some sound issues at the start, the vocals not cutting through as necessary, but these were smoothed out in short order, and the customary head-fuzzing crunch rapidly cycled up to full power. It was almost physically painful to step out when I did, but the three songs that I did get to see, likely about half their set on the pace that the other bands had set earlier, were simply straight-up class. Those who left earlier than I did missed out; this was a killer performance rounding off a hella good show overall.
I could probably have stayed one song longer, maybe two; I misoverestimated the time needed to get back to the station relative to when the train was coming through, but even this worked out; I was able to avoid some potentially violent drama by coming in when I did, and I also got to sing the Fields to an appreciative audience. These also, like metal shows on gothic nights at a Thai restaurant, are things that can happen in Salem around this time of year.
Next gig, likely Champions tonight, and definitely tomorrow at O'B's for the benefit for Jason from Abacinate.
Fortunately, it was as easy getting in as anticipated; quick hitch on the train over and then literally right across from the station, less than a hundred yards from the steps up out of the parking lot to the venue. This remarkable convenience is probably a major reason we don't see a lot of metal shows here, especially this time of year; access this easy is going to be highly contended for. Despite being laid out kind of weird inside, and the lengths the Livver guys had to go to in setting up to get everything powered, the ease of access makes this one of the better small venues on the North Shore.
Livver [5.5/7]
A quality set to open things up, of pretty much just the kind of doom metal you'd expect from a band showing up to play a gig at a goth club in Disfear and Rotten Sound shirts -- classic Boston hardcore gone doom, much like we've been hearing from various bands around here since Doomriders, but with, obviously, their own take on the sound, coming out a little grindier than the common reference points might indicate. Solid set, good foundation for the bands to follow.
Ichabod [6/7]
There's got to be a better description for this band than "Eyescale covering Sabbath", or at least one that anyone reading this is likely to recognize an understand, but this is how they sounded live, that mix of warbling yet still harsh electronics and classic doom grooves. Though this was still, of course, fully qualified metal, the dark-industrial elements took this set the closest to what this place most often has on offer for their Darque Gathering nights. This was probably why there was more floor movement for this band than any of the others -- though not floor movement as we know it. Still, though, there's a place for hawt goth girls dancing, just as much as there is for sweaty dudes slamming into stuff -- and for those who violently disagree, there's some potentially bad news incoming.
The audience thinned out a little while Black Pyramid was setting up; the reason likely being that the last train inbound was leaving at 11:24. Too bad; this band rules, and while I didn't get to stay for all of their set either, this was one of the rare occasions that living up here in the Blight actually worked out to my advantage.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
They had some sound issues at the start, the vocals not cutting through as necessary, but these were smoothed out in short order, and the customary head-fuzzing crunch rapidly cycled up to full power. It was almost physically painful to step out when I did, but the three songs that I did get to see, likely about half their set on the pace that the other bands had set earlier, were simply straight-up class. Those who left earlier than I did missed out; this was a killer performance rounding off a hella good show overall.
I could probably have stayed one song longer, maybe two; I misoverestimated the time needed to get back to the station relative to when the train was coming through, but even this worked out; I was able to avoid some potentially violent drama by coming in when I did, and I also got to sing the Fields to an appreciative audience. These also, like metal shows on gothic nights at a Thai restaurant, are things that can happen in Salem around this time of year.
Next gig, likely Champions tonight, and definitely tomorrow at O'B's for the benefit for Jason from Abacinate.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Witch Tomb with Black Pyramid, Darkwor, and Nachzehrer [O'Brien's, Allston, 2/12/2010]
Though work was wicked busy and I was unsure as to whether I'd get out on time for this, I went off on-call on schedule and was accordingly deshackled from my laptop. A brisk hike over a couple bridges later, and I was on the doorstep of O'Brien's, shortly after doors and just in time to have to watch where I was standing as Nachzehrer loaded in.
As usual on getting in early, there was a bunch of standing around drinking; I didn't need to get in this early, but the alternative was to maybe get stuck in traffic and end up missing bands or, having arrived in Boston, stand around pointlessly in the cold.
Soon enough, though, the music started.
Nachzehrer [5/7]
The second time I'd seen them, and maybe their second show overall, this presented a different side to the band: darker, heavier, and more first-wave black metal. With a wee bit of stretching, one might get to a heavier Bifrost minus the keys; this band is still, obviously, in the process of finding their feet, but there's not a lot of Low-Countries-derived black metal in this part of the world, and it'll be interesting to see how Nachzehrer's take on the raw and thrashy sound develops going forward.
Darkwor [6/7]
This was a shorter set than they had in Worcester, and one with a few more technical difficulties -- the guitars rather buried at the start -- but a good solid one. Of the three black metal bands here, Darkwor was the most expansive and 'epic', even with their raw bits, and they did a good job bringing that sound forward.
Unfortunately, I got mixed up and asked after a CD that the band didn't have -- but it is coming out for real, imminently, and if regular Darkwor shows in Worcester are something else, a Darkwor release show at Ralph's with Woe heading the bill will be something else again, and not to be missed. Mark your calendars for 3/13 -- it's not the Ides, but Metal Thursday is kind of constrained as to what day of the week it can happen on.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
The only thing "black metal" about Black Pyramid is that they are a "metal" band with "black" in their name, but regardless they were well-matched to this bill and well-received by the audience. This is partly because Rich Horror just plain doesn't book shows where all the bands don't flow with and set up each other in subtly awesome fashion, and partly because Black Pyramid is a fuckin good and fuckin heavy doom metal band. Not content to just revive Sabbath (though, admittedly, there are a lot of Sabbath riffs going on here), Black Pyramid substantially reinvents the progress of rock starting about 1978, taking first-wave blues-metal and NWOBHM as the foundation, then discarding everything after as irrelevant to their vision of metal. It was an awesome time at a crushing volume (making the case advanced by others who've seen them, that, despite not being remotely a death metal band, they would do well at MDF), and enthusiastically received by the peak audience; these people were up for the black metal portions of the bill as well, but truer-than-thou is a disease on the wane in Boston, as evinced by the diversity of the lineups on the last couple black metal shows documented here, as well as this bill itself.
Before Witch Tomb, people sadly and completely expectedly started to filter out; this is a consequence of MBTA policies, as noted on other O'B's shows in the past, rather than any reflection on the bands, and will likely continue until the T officils grow the stones to keep some kind of service running overnight -- and with the various anti-party ordinances currently in force in mind, this is not likely. It is, though, pretty amazing that the Boston DIY music scenes are able to continue to be so vibrant and productive in a town where the bars close before 1 AM on the weekends.
Witch Tomb [6/7]
As Witch Tomb goes, this was in some ways a down set. However, it really speaks to the quality and consistency of this band that even a relatively "down" set could be this good and this dominant, debatably the best outing on a very strong show. This performance was brutal first, last, and foremost, a powerful statement of urban yet never urbane black metal that, as with the band's tenuous antecedents in December Wolves, really needs to get out to more people. Witch Tomb's done better sets than this (mostly where a longer set time's afforded them more space to plow dissonant atmospheres into the abysal blasting, but this set was crushing and impressive in its own right, and a worthy capstone to another good local black metal show.
Things having closed up, it was time for the hike again, and though it was still freezing, it was not here, but the next night, somewhere in the process of getting wasted and sticking public pencils in my chop while doing karaoke in a dive bar, that I got sick. Hence the delay in getting this thing out. I'm still too dinged up to make it down to Bobfest tonight (the birthday celebration by and for Boston's most eclectic and enthusiastic DIY music fan, Wren "Bob" Leader), and sadly either on-call or busy with other stuff for Revocation's sure-to-be-memorable gig at the Cambridge Marriott, but there aint no such thing as too sick to go to Kreator.....even if it turns out to be IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE TO CURE!!!!!
As usual on getting in early, there was a bunch of standing around drinking; I didn't need to get in this early, but the alternative was to maybe get stuck in traffic and end up missing bands or, having arrived in Boston, stand around pointlessly in the cold.
Soon enough, though, the music started.
Nachzehrer [5/7]
The second time I'd seen them, and maybe their second show overall, this presented a different side to the band: darker, heavier, and more first-wave black metal. With a wee bit of stretching, one might get to a heavier Bifrost minus the keys; this band is still, obviously, in the process of finding their feet, but there's not a lot of Low-Countries-derived black metal in this part of the world, and it'll be interesting to see how Nachzehrer's take on the raw and thrashy sound develops going forward.
Darkwor [6/7]
This was a shorter set than they had in Worcester, and one with a few more technical difficulties -- the guitars rather buried at the start -- but a good solid one. Of the three black metal bands here, Darkwor was the most expansive and 'epic', even with their raw bits, and they did a good job bringing that sound forward.
Unfortunately, I got mixed up and asked after a CD that the band didn't have -- but it is coming out for real, imminently, and if regular Darkwor shows in Worcester are something else, a Darkwor release show at Ralph's with Woe heading the bill will be something else again, and not to be missed. Mark your calendars for 3/13 -- it's not the Ides, but Metal Thursday is kind of constrained as to what day of the week it can happen on.
Black Pyramid [6/7]
The only thing "black metal" about Black Pyramid is that they are a "metal" band with "black" in their name, but regardless they were well-matched to this bill and well-received by the audience. This is partly because Rich Horror just plain doesn't book shows where all the bands don't flow with and set up each other in subtly awesome fashion, and partly because Black Pyramid is a fuckin good and fuckin heavy doom metal band. Not content to just revive Sabbath (though, admittedly, there are a lot of Sabbath riffs going on here), Black Pyramid substantially reinvents the progress of rock starting about 1978, taking first-wave blues-metal and NWOBHM as the foundation, then discarding everything after as irrelevant to their vision of metal. It was an awesome time at a crushing volume (making the case advanced by others who've seen them, that, despite not being remotely a death metal band, they would do well at MDF), and enthusiastically received by the peak audience; these people were up for the black metal portions of the bill as well, but truer-than-thou is a disease on the wane in Boston, as evinced by the diversity of the lineups on the last couple black metal shows documented here, as well as this bill itself.
Before Witch Tomb, people sadly and completely expectedly started to filter out; this is a consequence of MBTA policies, as noted on other O'B's shows in the past, rather than any reflection on the bands, and will likely continue until the T officils grow the stones to keep some kind of service running overnight -- and with the various anti-party ordinances currently in force in mind, this is not likely. It is, though, pretty amazing that the Boston DIY music scenes are able to continue to be so vibrant and productive in a town where the bars close before 1 AM on the weekends.
Witch Tomb [6/7]
As Witch Tomb goes, this was in some ways a down set. However, it really speaks to the quality and consistency of this band that even a relatively "down" set could be this good and this dominant, debatably the best outing on a very strong show. This performance was brutal first, last, and foremost, a powerful statement of urban yet never urbane black metal that, as with the band's tenuous antecedents in December Wolves, really needs to get out to more people. Witch Tomb's done better sets than this (mostly where a longer set time's afforded them more space to plow dissonant atmospheres into the abysal blasting, but this set was crushing and impressive in its own right, and a worthy capstone to another good local black metal show.
Things having closed up, it was time for the hike again, and though it was still freezing, it was not here, but the next night, somewhere in the process of getting wasted and sticking public pencils in my chop while doing karaoke in a dive bar, that I got sick. Hence the delay in getting this thing out. I'm still too dinged up to make it down to Bobfest tonight (the birthday celebration by and for Boston's most eclectic and enthusiastic DIY music fan, Wren "Bob" Leader), and sadly either on-call or busy with other stuff for Revocation's sure-to-be-memorable gig at the Cambridge Marriott, but there aint no such thing as too sick to go to Kreator.....even if it turns out to be IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE TO CURE!!!!!
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