Composted with Parasitic Extirpation, Hivesmasher, Goreality, and Scaphism (supporting The Funeral Pyre and Early Graves) [Midway, J.P., 7/11/2010]

As alluded to previously, this was the conclusion to a rather full afternoon/evening of events. After Inestia successfully prevented an often-boring (decent, but not a patch on Germany-Uruguay the day before) and unnecessarily violent (thanks Webb for chickening out and not sending De Jong off for his Mortal Kombat tackle) final from going to penalties, I drove pell-mell to get in a decent amount of hanging out and socialization before bailing for this showcase of pure death metal quality.

I got in a little late thanks to the aforementioned, but got through the door without issue and right into the raging from Scaphism.

Scaphism [5/7]
Though I missed at least their first song, they still set out a killer performance of crunching death metal; relatively less grind and more death this time than the last that I'd seen them, but still quality. This band keeps getting better and better; unfortunate that they probably won't have anything to lug over to Europe this time around, but those who don't have that hard cutoff will probably see their demo soon enough.



Tom's favorite hockey player is from the underworld. Seriously, what took this guy so long to get to Boston? Even New Jersey would have probably played it down, but as soon as he signed here, the bootleggers had shirts like this out aping the Haunting The Chapel cover with hockey sticks, and next season, they'll probably be in the official Bruins stores.

Goreality [5.5/7]
Another show, another different Goreality lineup; this one, though, with bass and only one guitar. The resulting sound was a little less complex than Goreality have been before, but still crushing; what really hurt them, though, was the heat on stage. Even at the best of times the Midway can be a bit of a sauna, but with New England in the bowels of repuga significant heatwave, things got out of hand, and Fish was having problems holding onto his guitar pick due to the sweat. It shouldn't be necessary to note that this is a bad thing to have happen to you as a technical death metal band. They persevered and laid out a solid performance including a few new ones, but some 100-grit sandpaper glued to the back end of a couple guitar picks might have made it go a little smoother.

Hivesmasher [6/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, somehow, but now I know what I was missing out on. From the first moment, just an absolute maniac grind avalanche, and when Aaron hit the floor, the pit started moving good and proper. In the pummeling, though, it was hard to hear exactly why they have a member on keyboards/fx -- as if more inducement was needed, the answer to that one is to actually pick up some recorded material from them, in a setting where they've got slightly more control of the total balance and aren't trying to incite/play over a riot, to see what the sound is like in that context. Killer regardless.

Parasitic Extirpation [6.5/7]
Amazing. Just a stupendous performance of solid, violent, chunky yet technical death metal accompanied by insane floor violence, every bit the kind of performance the band would have desired to kick off a long and brutally-slotted (it's not too surprising that brutal gigs are few and far between in flyover country, but one day to go between OKC and southern Illinois is really backbreaking) tour out to the LVDF and back. They're hitting on all cylinders right now, and hopefully will get more attention out west out of this, and be more able to plan longer tours with shorter between-gigs legs.

I got a shirt off Blue afterwards, as well as a couple stickers, but since they were leaving on, um, a national tour the next morning, I didn't go mining for stuff to lug over to Europe. Dudes who show up and see the band should get first shot at merch for themselves and to push on their friends; on the 30th, though, any leavings will get looted to the bare walls of the bucket.



Special World Cup extra: Drew in Netherlands-supporting mode. You can see him in his orange (or Oranje, whichever) shirt in the back, but Tim is unfortunately standing in front of the red-white-blue sweatband on his plucking hand, which was usually the case in moments like this where the band wasn't playing and I had the ability to hold my phone up as opposed to staying on guard to avoid getting punched in the mouth.

Composted [6/7]
When Composted says it's Pride Month, it's Pride Month. Especially when they do it with a new lineup, balloons, and a black male blowup doll to celebrate. The new members blend well in with the rest of the guys, and in addition to the bizarre props and silly costumes, pounded out the deceptively strong slam-death that audiences have come to expect from this band; lineup surgery success, roll on the AWSMcore. The performance was good, the floor was violent, and in a testament to the abuse that such things are anticipated to get by their makers, the blowup doll survived all the way through, despite being kicked, stomped, tossed all over the room, used to beat several band members about the head and shoulders, and repeatedly thrown into the ceiling fans. In the official Composted say-no-to-drugs-comic-book continuity (note: does not actually exist, but someone should make it up on wikipedia anyway), he has obviously swum off with Leo the fish to Rainbow Unicorn Buttrape Land to live happily ever after.

When Composted wrapped up, it was getting towards the point where I had to split in order to get the last Orange Line train back towards where I left my car. It was tough missing the nationals on this one, especially since I'd been impressed with The Funeral Pyre the last time I saw them (at Metalfest a few years back, for like 20 minutes), but I picked up a record from each before heading out. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make any of the several other gigs in the region; when they come back, you have to hope.

Even without the nationals, though, this was a kickass gig, at a place that's only going to get better: the Midway was well under construction for his one, so you've got to figure that they'll be expanded to their full new dimensions (more room for more audience, less gear piled on the sidewalk, and less sauna atmosphere) by the next gig I end up going down there for.

Dysentery with Goreality, Abdicate, and Humanity Falls [Ralph's, Worcester, 5/20/2010]

I was originally going to go to the Wednesday date on this tour, but that fell through for various mostly work-related reasons, making it even more imperative that I get out for the Metal Thursday version. The late-breaking Goreality appearance sealed the deal even further; for a band as ballpunchingly awesome as they are, they don't play outside New Bedford a whole lot, and that, like Providence, is just outside my "willing to drive to for a normal show" radius.

Of course, I should have planned a little better if I had known that 290 was going to be all fucked up, which made going in slow and coming back complicated. This sucked, but ultimately didn't matter; despite the traffic and the weird road closures, I got over well in time to get in and get a beer before the bands started.

Humanity Falls [5/7]
When I went over to their table to buy some swag after their set, and ended up talking with Eston for a bit, about the first thing he remarked on was the Maruta patch on my rig, which was only logical: their set, death-flavored but heavily grindcore, staffed out as vox+drums+guitar, had me thinking of Maruta's performance with Impaled two years back first off as well. Humanity Falls isn't quite that developed yet, and though the band did a hell of a job holding up these songs with just the one guitar and the drumkit, I can see where other people would be coming from in suggesting that they might add a bassist (back) or another guitar. The floor wasn't really enthusiastic, but the crowd had only started to fill in during their set; it might also be argued that this wasn't the sort of grind crowd that would get super up for this material, but I'd be more inclined to argue a weird down night for people getting hit at Metal Thursday. This was a good performance from a band that's already gotten significantly better than their demo; if they come back to Boston and are in at the Democracy Center, the Midway on a grind bill, or any DIY space, watch out, because people are going to completely lose their shit.

Abdicate [5/7]
Much as on the last time I saw them, on NEDF 2009, Abdicate put out a good thumping performance of sold brutal death metal in that good old New York way. They'd changed out a few members recently -- the bassist and singer were new, the latter conspicuously so by not being a 12-foot yeti -- but there didn't appear to be any adverse effect from getting the new guys integrated so shortly before hitting the road, and as this package goes on, the band's probably going to get tighter even from here. They still don't, to me, step out and immediately separate themselves from the general brutal-death sound, but regardless, they do this music very well, and are worth a listen when the tour package comes around to your area.

Because I am a moron, I spent about the first half of their first song thinking "wow, the member change has a definite effect, they're not nearly as slammy as I remembered them", because I'd read the promo materials wrong and thought that Abacinate was playing. The logo on their merch and CDs should have tipped me off, but apparently, no effect; chalk this one up either to getting old or, more likely, that I've had a pile of bricks located where my thinking apparatus ought to be the entire time.

Goreality [6/7]
Between one thing and another, I'm not sure that I've ever seen Goreality twice with the same lineup. This one seems to be still coming together to a degree, but for the first time in a while, Goreality is a five-piece again, and it makes a difference when it comes to their songs. I've seen better sets from the band, but this was still a good and powerful one, with all the pieces back in place, and a relentlessly high and solid level of execution throughout. Hopefully, this lineup will stick for a while and we'll get some new material; even since Perverse Depraved Indifference three years ago is too long for a band this good.

Dysentery [6.5/7]
Maybe it was just that I wasn't as significantly challenged to keep from getting knocked unconscious as at some gigs in the past, but this came out as a really top-shelf Dysentery set, a ne plus ultra of locked-in, floor-pounding, relentless slam riffage that really should have gotten people a lot more violent than it did. By any other band's standards, there was a decent amount of movement, but this was Dysentery, even more absolutely on than they've been in the past, and so of course Will is taunting the crowd: "I'm down here on the floor with you guys, and I'm not scared at all. If this was New York somebody'd've hit me already." People rose to the challenge after that, but not to the extent that's made Dysentery's pits so legendary in the past. Part of this may be just natural cycles: Dysentery gets people going apeshit, so the floor turns into a Mas Oyama kumite-sen, so people get scared that their whole face is going to get kicked off, so they don't pile in, so pits get more placid, which encourages people to dive in and go crazier, repeat. Even taking that long view, it's kind of depressing to lose to New York at anything, so it may be worth training up again or getting knee surgery done in order to do something, at Dysentery gigs, beyond keeping people from running into the wall or into metal poles at speed.

At the end of the night, though, all my joints were still in place, so it was pretty trivial to lumber back out and pick my way back to the highway, despite the 290-90 exchange being closed. This made things a little more complicated than they needed to be, but I got home in one piece, and actually managed to get this writeup out in some kind of timely fashion. Next show may not be for a while; I'm on call this week and then have a conflict with Hypocrisy on Saturday -- and anything further out than that is going to require actual planning.

Every Shirt CXXII: Goreality

shirt: Goreality
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: band

Also from the last pre-festivals gig of '09, this shirt is folded weird because that's how it came in the bag I got from Steve. This shirt wasn't opened until I got back from Europe, and the result is that it isn't folded like, er, every other shirt in the series. It's also a little unique in that the ink is injected into rather than printed onto the shirt, which looks really cool in person (you do get a little of it in the picture) and will mean that this one has a significant amount of durability. It's likely to need it; Goreality is a cool band, and their kit is seldom out of place, metal context or no.

Summoning Hate with Goreality, Dysentery, Blessed Offal, and Axiom [Plaza Garibaldi, Revere, 7/23/2009]

Because I wanted to be sure that I found the place and could deliver correct directions back to some people who'd hit me up to potentially lug stuff over to Europe, I left right from work and picked my way carefully in through the rain and backroads traffic. The venue was exactly where the map said it was, and the tricks needed to get turned back around were pretty straightforward. I got in right about doors, and got my entry comped by Dave, which was unexpected. I had qualms about writing the show up afterwards; the experience you have as just someone who sees a flier and comes out is necessarily different from someone who just gets handed through by the promoter, if only because mine is missing that important arm of “value for money”. Ultimately, though, this massed out as pretty academic: this was a fucking awesome show in a hell of good venue, providing so much total value that the $5 entry charge effectively goes to zero in comparison.

The venue is a Colombian-operated (allegedly; doesn't matter, so I didn't check) Mexican restaurant with a good stage, a decent PA, TVs that follow the fitba, and a reputation online for bad margaritas and general gunginess. None of this was in evidence here; some people complained after about the price of drinks, but not the quality. One expects a certain amount of “yanqui go home” may have been poured out on the negative commenters, probably with reason; if the staff are cool with a bunch of death metallers thrashing out, spilling beer, and otherwise being death metal fans, you've probably got to be a real A-line jerk to get bad service out of them.

Though the music was slated to start sharply at 8:30, this was delayed a little; maybe part setup, maybe part Dave holding the start until the Gold Cup semifinal finished. Despite the US defense, as usual, doing their wet paper bag impression from about 55' on, Honduras proved themselves unable of punching through said wet paper bag, and the US stole a late reinforcement to make it 2-0, where the game ended. It was a crappy match, and I, a USA supporter, was nearly as mad as the Honduras fans in the bar at a generally incompetent display of football. And yeah, maybe not everyone knows everyone going in, but no matter who you are, if you stand next to Juan (Untombed) and rant about bad performances in the current game with him, you will, shortly, be in with all and sundry at this kind of show. (Well, as long as you don't run down Mexico too much.)

Beer, metal, fitba, and good company; I thought I wasn't getting over to Europe till Saturday?

Axiom [5.5/7]
These guys had a couple false starts, and took a song or two to get cranked up and dialed in, but when they did, they laid out a nice performance mixing a lot of elements of Dissection and Hypocrisy, melding melody and brutality in a way that you don't see much any more. It also needs to be said that they either explicitly or just by association pull some influences from Revocation as well; only Dave Davidson is Dave Davidson, but the guitar player in this bunch is cut from the same cloth, even if his style and skills aren't quite as developed. It could be mutual influence or parallel evolution, but regardless, it made for some cool-ass guitar work, and a killer set overall.

Blessed Offal [6/7]
I hadn't seen these guys since the Skybar was still open, and they've substantially revamped their lineup since, but if anything this hasn't affected their provision of high-quality, dirty, blackened death metal. This was about as black as the bands would get, but each of the bands represented a maximum outlier on some axis: melody, blackness, slam, brutality, thrash, and all of them tied back in with the provision of fundamentally worthy death metal in the bargain. Hopefully, this lineup will stick, and it'll be less than two years before I see Blessed Offal again.

Dysentery [6/7]
If you are lazy and just like to look at scores rather than reading about what the bands did to pull those marks, you will see an extremely limited range on this show. If you're also wicked anal, I'll cut to the chase and note that Dysentery's set was probably the top among equals. The band does what they do, and they did it extremely well here, locked in, mountain-thick, perfectly clicking for an avalanche of audio destruction that meshed well with their crew thrashing the fuck out in the pit. Only one person got injured (busted knuckle, self-inflicted), Paul (Proteus R.I.P.) didn't spin-kick the head off any of the normal patrons, a couple of whom were up front and into the band, and everyone had a good time or a piece of ballistic-rated cover to stand behind, which is as close to a success criterion as you're going to be able to encapsulate for a Dysentery performance.

Goreality [6/7]
This may be the lowest score I've given Goreality (still without bass, but no marks off); if they'd gone on, this might have gone up, as they started slow and cranked up through the course of the set, perhaps an adjustment process with their new/fill-in singer, who had a good command of the material, but, as any rational person should have expected, was no Dan Pevides. From the sample at the end of the set rather than the start, she's definitely good enough to stick full-time if needed; we'll see if she's still out front (and if they can recruit a capable bass player in time) on the NEDF.

Yes, “she”. It's perfectly possible for a woman to front a brutal death metal band and do brutal vocals, ande Scariel definitely filled her role capably. Not Arch Enemy style; think of the old Russian band Mary....or not, because nobody fucking knows them except absurdly underground 1%ers who didn't have a problem with the initial idea in the first place.

It should also be mentioned that this show was effectively backlined with Goreality's Vader cabs (Steve and Mark are Vader endorsees), and this may have played a part in the uniformly high scores. While crap still sounds like crap when played through good equipment, good music will only sound better when pumped through two to four Vader 4x12s.

There was a bit of a break here while the Mexico – Costa Rica game wrapped up. Mexico stole an absolutely brilliant winner in the 88th minute with an attack that resembled a hxc VFW show, half their strike force ending up in the back of the net before one of the midfielders volleyed the ball past the goalie at last. Go find this goal, it's awesome.

Summoning Hate [6/7]
They came off as a lot more together than their last outing, which will go to rehearsal more than anything. Even though Marco's bass died in the middle of their second song, they soldiered on and smashed out a badass set of thrash-death metal, closing up only after pleading with Dave and the ownership to give them a last song. Maybe not a whole set, and maybe not a full band for most of it, but Summoning Hate still makes some quality metal, and though the crowd thinned after Goreality, they had as much a claim to a legit headliner-quality set as any of the last three bands.

NB: Though the last two bands were effectively bassless, Drew's bass attack in Dysentery provided enough low-end awesomeness to compensate. Pure annihillation.

In the end, it was time to go, as I had to work and then fly the next day. I picked up some Parasitic Extirpation, Dysentery, and Goreality stuffs, both for personal use and general distro in the eastern territories, and made my way out into the downpour to wend my way home.


Written in the Logan terminal before boarding for Iceland; next is German fests, which will probably not be digitized and published till well after.

Mortal Decay with Goreality, Abnormality, and Summoning Hate [O'Brien's, Allston, 11/29/2008]

I'd skipped two shows due to work commitments (part of the reason that this review is so colossally late) -- and depression at Celtic crashing out of Europe -- earlier in this week, so this one was pretty much de riguer. It didn't hurt that it also packed a hell of a lineup, and allowed me to avoid going out locally and running into people back in town for Thanksgiving and/or reunions that I had little interest in seeing.

I left a little late due to working on some other junk, but managed to get in to Boston and stumped over to O'Brien's while the bands were still setting up. It was fairly crowded; Saturday show with a lot of good bands will do that, and there was a decent amount of time to hang out, stretch out, and drink chemicals.

Summoning Hate [6/7]
There are a lot of people who complain about NEDM being all slam these days, and far too many of them just sit on their asses and whine, instead of going out and supporting this band. Summoning Hate's old-school attack may not be as complicated as the other bands on this bill, but holy crap is it heavy, and you're not a fan of the likes of Obituary and Master, you really need to take a look at yourself and try to figure out exactly why you're in death metal, anyway. The songs that they pull Juan back in for may be borrowed finery, but they do a good job with them, and their original material is pretty killer as well. The night did only get better from here, but listening to this set, that wouldn't've been a rational expectation.

David later promised me that they'd have patches out sometime in the nebulous future, but we'll see if this materializes; there was a fair amount of Milwaukee's Purest Biotropic Reactant in play at that point, but doing patches would be in-character for the band, and their logo is pretty freakin badass.

Abnormality [6.5/7]
I thought they'd added a bass player recently, but I was wrong; fortunately, Abnormality proved that they still don't need one, with probably the best set that I've seen from them. Their low end sounded stronger, and the riffs were still ridiculously complex, for a killer total effect that set the stage for the bands to come. This would have been a killer headlining set in any other circumstance, but here it was just the second of four -- we have an embarrasment of riches as far as death metal goes in Boston, so go to local gigs and enjoy it.

Those not in the Boston area can check out Abnormality via their song "Visions" on Rock Band 2 -- and if you like torturing yourself, you can actually try to play it. The track is generally rated "impossible", which is the way technical death metal should be in a rhythm game, and cleverly positioned (Malika, the vocalist, works for Activision) to achieve maximum exposure from the band via YouTube videos of people killing themselves to beat it on Expert.

Goreality [7/7]
This must have been Leave Your Bassist Home Day; I swear that Abnormality announced that they'd got one, and then Goreality, who normally do have a four-stringer in the lineup, came out without theirs. I was initially concerned about this, as what really drives Goreality is the mixture of that absolutely punishing low end with the ridiculous technicality of the guitar lines, but Steve and Mark stepped it up here, and if the rhythm section wasn't as thick and overpowering, the sound wasn't any thinner for it. I'd rather see this band with a bassist than without, but they fully earned this mark even as a four-piece, and that they're able to do such a great set with an integral part of their sound removed is truly mind-blowing. They set a high bar for Mortal Decay to follow, and if they got the exposure that they deserve, they'd be setting that bar for the death metal scene as a whole.

Unfortunately, the number of people who stuck around for their set was a little diminished. Part of it may be people getting into Abnormality from the game, then not wanting to stick around late, but part of it was people leaving to catch the last train to wherever. Part of this is fail on the part of Boston, which needs to keep its public transit open later, but part of it is people needing to buck up and buckle down -- seriously, you go to a DIY bar show and miss Goreality and Mortal Decay? Sure, the first two bands are plenty of value for your seven bucks, but this was some of the best death metal of the year, and missing out on it would've sucked.

Mortal Decay [7/7]
From New Jersey, but frequent visitors to this region, Mortal Decay demonstrated why Boston loves them (and hence, why they love Boston). This was a ripping set of technical brutal death metal that united a lot of elements present in the three bands that had opened up, but also did take it to a higher level, as hard as that is to believe given how good the bands had been to this point. Shit also got brewed up in the crowd as well; Malika and Juan, along with a few others, finally managed to get people moving enough to start a classic O'Brien's pit (one with a pole in the middle), and only a few containers got broken, and nobody injured. Things were running a touch late, so the lights were on for curfew when they finally closed up, but I don't think there was a single metalhead left in the building who actually wanted them to pack up. Seriously, it wasn't even one in the morning! On a Saturday! Bogus is what it is.

Of course, the bar had to close, and threw everyone out, so it was time to beat feet back across the bridges, then get lost in Boston because I fucked up the Memorial Drive approach, but one way or another I got home, and one of the better local shows in recent memory went into the books. Next is a bunch of thrash bands at this same place on the 15th, then not too much until the turn of the year.

2 shows 1 day

Sunday was a rather epic day for music, in which I first finally got my butt in gear and got down to the NEDF, and then closed out the day with a friend's band in my home stomping grounds. It was a fair bit of driving, but definitely worthwhile in terms of the music.


New England Deathfest (day 2)
Jerky's and Club Hell, Providence, 8/10/2008
--

After missing the first day while recuperating from Wacken and planning to go to a show that I actually ended up missing, I finally got my shit in gear and headed down 95 to Providence for the first half of the second day of the NEDF. Under ideal circumstances, I'd've stuck for the second half as well, but I had to work in the morning, and driving the 80 miles back while exhausted was tough enough when I ended up doing it. Finding the venue was easy enough; the place is pretty much right off 195 just as this road splits off 95, and there were parking lots everywhere, which being Sunday were completely free; dunno how good the parking situation here is mid-week.

Though I got in right about the time Strappado was supposed to start, I ended up hanging on the sidewalk for a while; Hivesmasher cancelled shortly before the fest, which meant that everything got shifted back about half an hour. So I stood around, got pumped for Wacken info, and generally shot the shit until the club people had their stuff ready to start letting us one-dayers in.

Since Strappado wasn't starting until like 2:25, I had a bit of time to browse the merch stands and begin my day-long descent into an empty wallet and full vest pockets. Highlights include Toxik, Master, Witch Trap, Vomit Remnants, Crucified Mortals, and a bunch of other stuff that I still have to listen through; no Intestine Baalism, but you can't have everything.

Strappado [5/7]
This group, featuring members of Sexcrement and Revocation, has been a 'band in being' for a long time, though mostly in theory and in name as opposed to one that plays music. This was, according to Anthony before the event, their first show ever, and it showed; not a lack of practice, cohesion, or technique, but only that they had a total of five songs prepared, and thus didn't run for their full allotted time. This might see some raised eyebrows, but only if you're mental and don't take into consideration the fact that most of the lineup is also in some of New England's most active and well-liked extreme metal bands. Strappado may be an incidental side project, but the material that they had ready here was good stuff, old-school brutal death that made a nice start to the day, and if it was short, definitely left the audience wanting more.

Composted [6/7]
Slam-diculous as usual, New England's masters of absurdist extremes took the stage unfortunately without Rich, but dressed to the nines for the occasion: Mark and Dave taking a swipe at the "wiggerslam" criticisms levied at this festival by those who somehow missed Skinless, Dying Fetus, and Mortal Decay at the top of the bills, and Eliot, to remind any out-of-the-loop old bangers that this was in jest, wearing fairy wings, scuba flippers, and a pink pool noodle out the front of his crotch. The set was as bizarre, hilarious, and brutally tight as might be expected; killer stuff, including some newer material that they haven't done live as much, but unfortunately marred as an experience by something out of the band's control.

About halfway through the set, this big dude starts spinning and thrashing around, and he ended up spin-kicking a guy in the face, who was standing on the edge of the floor and didn't see him coming. The combination of 'huge guy', 'foot to the jaw', and 'completely unprepared' resulted in an immediate knockout; the band kept going, but the club guys with first aid training and a couple metalheads (including me) moved him out of the line of fire and tried to get him stabilized, once we established that he was still alive and there wasn't much chance of spinal damage, while his kid called in the paramedics. The incident ended up looking a lot worse than it actually was; within 10 minutes, he'd come around and was talking, moving his appendages, and trying to sit up by the time the ambulance arrived. They still collared and backboarded him, though, and took him out for evaluation; even if he got away with only a concussion and a bitten lip, it's still worth the medical attention rather than just leaving him at a metal show.

There was some scuttlebutt at the fest that this might have been an intentional attack, but this is bullshit circulated by people who didn't see it go down; unfortunately, circumstances combined that gave such scurrilious rumors credence. First, the guy who got knocked out was standing in the back, on the side, away from the part of the floor where you're likely to eat a flying fist or foot; he was being a smart non-mosher and standing somewhere where there was as reasonable an expectation of not getting hurt as you're likely to have at an underground show. Second, the dude who hit him was not in among those of us holding his hands and keeping his head still until the rescue team arrived; while if you don't know the guy, and maybe are coming from a scene where the expectation is that the friends of a guy who gets hurt are on a hair trigger, this is slightly understandable, there were still a lot of people here who believe that if a guy goes down near you, whether you were the one who put him on the floor or not, he becomes your responsibility, and not picking that responsibility up looks suspicious. There was no malice here, just maybe not as much forethought as might have been desired.

Fortunately, word came in later that Allen was doing all right, and his kid eventually did come back to the festival, though not before I left. Horns up, Mr. Chen; finish getting well soon.

After recovering my jacket from under Allen's head when the paramedics picked him up, I went back upstairs to try and watch some more death metal.

Without Remorse [4.5/7]
With your eyes closed, this Long Island combo sounded much like a decent ripoff of Long Island's most famous death metal export (and if you don't know who the band in question is, why are you reading this far about NEDF?); unfortunately, I'm too much of an old stick-in-the-mud to not get cognitive dissonance seeing such performed by guys in flat-billed hats and basketball shorts, talking like rappers between songs. It was decent music, but they'd've done better if there was more hardcore or deathcore on the bill -- and if most of the audience hadn't just been down at Composted and seen one of their own get knocked out, which probably suppressed the mosh impetus a little, and which the band probably wasn't themselves aware of. Some people did get violent, and I ended up accidentally getting punched in the head by Paul from Proteus, but overall this was the down set of what I saw, though likely more due to complete exhaustion than to just non-inspiring music.

Somewhere around here I significantly injured my left wrist; not sure if it was during Composted and I was concentrating on someone with a much more major injury and didn't notice, or if I got socked during Without Remorse. Whatever; it now hurts like hell whenever I try to bend it in certain directions, but I'll live.

As they finished, Blue, the headman of the fest, announced that Behead The Lamb wasn't going to be able to make it; this freed up some time to walk around, get some eats, and generally decompress from the events of the morning. I ended up going up the street a ways to get some pizza; this part of Providence is flat dead on a Sunday afternoon, the streets silent and empty of traffic, only a few people walking around here and there. Despite the sour taste of some of the morning, there were little bits of larger metalfests present as well; normal establishments invaded by black-shirted longhairs, people grilling at their 'campsite' (on the sidewalk by their car, but what the hell), hot girls in Endstille shirts -- wait, what again? Her boyfriend was in an Obscene Extreme lineup shirt, so it's pretty clear that other people from around here also go bang their heads in central Europe; the more we can bring that spirit back here, the more future iterations of this fest will go from strength to strength.

Abacinate [5/7]
Now this was a pleasant surprise; a band from New Jersey that didn't sound like Waking The Cadaver. They brought one of the WTC guys up for guest vocals on one song, but mostly stuck to kickass old-school brutality in the vein of a less-evolved Decrepit Birth. It made for a good restart after the downtime, and some fun headbanging, along with a few breakdowns for the ninjas. Good stuff from a traveling band; I picked up one of their shirts later, a merch Spende that I didn't make for the New England acts on the bill...mainly because I have shirts from most to all of them already, and Dwyer didn't seem to have his table out so that I could drop the last of my change on a Goreality hat.

Revocation [6.5/7]
Another fucking amazing set from Revocation, but unfortunately the sound wasn't super-kind to them. The upstairs sound was clean and sharp, while downstairs in Club Hell often came off fuzzy with overdriven bass. Most of their sound got through, though, and the Empire material is so completely dominating you could play it to your friend over the telephone and it'd still rule. They covered "Symbolic" (Dave: "It's the Deathfest, so let's play some Death!"), and interestingly Dave did his own solos rather than following Chuck's as he's done in the past; it takes a lot of confidence in your abilities as a guitarist to play your own notes over Chuck Schuldiner's changes, but if you can pull it off, as Revocation did here, it's massive win in getting to the real heart of the material. Great stuff, great time.

I finally bought Empire of the Obscene, and it is currently on repeat in my car. What an absolutely incredible album. No words, just get it; no idea how they haven't been picked up yet, though with the standard "dry buttrape" contracts available to bands putting out their first full-length, they may have decided to just DIY it for a while until a major (CM, Relapse, etc) makes them an offer with some actual meat in it.

Proteus [5.5/7]
I went upstairs, then, and saw Proteus with my back against the bar. This is the outcome of one of those tough decisions that you have to make every once in a while; I love how Proteus mixes up post-rock and extreme death metal, but hate getting spin-kicked, and it's pretty much a given that at any Proteus show in New England, at some point Will from Dysentery is going to flip out and completely destroy someone. Thus the bar thing, and the set went pretty much as expected; Proteus was great, though not quite as overwhelming as when I saw them in Haverhill (Drew's bass still sounded a little low in the mix), people went crazy in the pit, Will shoved half a dozen people nearly out the door, and I didn't get kicked by anyone. If I still had a functioning knee, maybe I'd've been in closer, but that's not something I can count on at this point.

During Proteus' set, I finally finished the Narraganset that I picked up in the downstairs bar before Revocation went on. That stuff is absolute swill, worse than PBR; I swear it smells like vomit even coming out of the can, but that may just be me stinking from sweating all day, and the corollary stench of hanging with 30-70 other metalheads who've been doing the same.

Goreality [6/7]
Back downstairs for Goreality; I'm not sure I'd seen them with the new singer previously, but the performance was still everything you could have wanted from them. The sound hit like a ton of bricks, and though it was still a little fuzzed, the sound board did better for them than for the other bands I saw down here. This was some good shit, front to back, and while immensely brutal, not a whole lot of mosh going on; everyone was too dialed in on the band, which, at least for us old people, is the way it oughta be. Killer set; shame that I wasn't able to stay longer.

Every single comment I've seen on this festival has been immensely lauditory, and it should be; even for the brief time that I was able to participate, it was almost without exception an awesome experience, full of quality death metal of all kinds, in a good environment with ready cameraderie and inexpensive beer. Blue and those who assisted him did a great job on the organization, keeping everything rolling despite the really large bill for a first-year fest and the vagaries of DIY bands who may just not be able to make the show for reasons totally outside their control. This wasn't a perfect fest, but it was damn good, about as good as we're going to get on this continent, and the organizers are definitely smart enough to look at what worked and what didn't, then make the necessary changes to make next year's even better. This gig won't be moving outside anytime soon -- blame the alcohol laws for this, and those in change of enforcing them for their zeal and enthusiasm -- but for a club fest, this one is as close as we're likely to get.


As I drove north, I closed in on a huge electrical storm that was moving west to east, and barely managed to get across the front of it before the rain arrived in force. The views of the storm were just unbelievable; someday when I get a car I care enough to customize, I'm going to get a camera built in coaxial with my line of vision, focused lens-to-infinity, and not miss out on this cool stuff just because I have to keep my vehicle from crashing into others or driving off the road or such.

In the end, I got back home in good time to fit out again, and head down to.....


Slow Fuse Burning with Autumn Above, The Real Smokin' Power, and Cape Terra
Dodge Street, Salem, 8/10/2008
--

This was not a metal show, and will not be rated as such, but I still showed up to this bar, recently highlighted as one of the best live music venues north of Boston, stinking of NEDF and wearing my Sodom-enabled flak vest. Part of it was the timing dimension -- I barely had the chance to take the CDs out of my vest before heading over -- and part of it was deliberate, but there was no fear and revulsion, so I guess things were ok.

Cape Terra [NR]
I got in about midway through their set, and drank part of a Guinness listening; decent but nothing to write home about as long as you had rock radio on at some point between about 1996 and 1998. Post-grunge, vaguely indie, peripherally interesting and mildly entertaining, they never really stepped out and established themselves, but in this genre I'm not exactly sure that bands are supposed to. I don't have much of any point of evaluation, but they weren't terrible, so if you like alt-rock from that period, you may want to check them out.

The Real Smokin' Power [5/7]
An instrumental collaboration between Sean (drums) and Tone (bass) of Autumn Above, this band showed some interesting promise and some cool lines, but wasn't quite as developed as perhaps they'll be if it turns into a real project instead of just a guaranteed undercard for the members' main band. The bass was too low at the start, a right problem when there's no other non-percussion instruments, but this was rapidly settled, and the short but definitely thoroughly cool set rolled on.

Autumn Above [6/7]
They changed up the order for this set, doing their heavier songs earlier instead of later, but aside from some clammed notes early where Ryan's voice wasn't completely warmed up, this was another great performance from a band that continues to be solid in everything they do. This wasn't as apex a performance as they've done in the past, but for a non-headlining slot, it was rock-solid.

They finally had shirts available, and also mentioned a couple times the anti-drunk-driving fest they're playing at the ADC in Southbridge this week; hopefully people hit them up for merch and tickets, because between them and Slow Fuse Burning, the nominal headliners, the venue kind of emptied out. It was a Sunday night, but seriously, sticking around another half hour isn't going to kill you. The sensible thing might have been to rearrange the lineup as has been done at a couple O'Brien's shows I can recall where the headliner was going to be outdrawn by the top local support, but unfortunately the fact that RSP was playing -- and, of course, using Autumn Above's gear -- kind of complicated this. More people might stick later, but some might just leave with the extra time needed to tear down and build up Sean's kit twice.

Slow Fuse Burning [5/7]
Again, not especially germane for rating, but they were a good time; punk bands who like late Bad Religion (and probably some other canonical influences, but I'm not a punk guy) a lot are seldom unwelcome, and even though they were playing to a handful of people, most of whom were in Autumn Above, they didn't let it affect their professionalism or their performance. Pretty decent; I sprang for a CD as they were going for a largely optional $3, then split; Slow Fuse Burning may not have been quite like the band who, also, had only five songs prepared with whom I started the day, but they provided a good enough finish to it.


Now that's a day worth recording; eleven bands in three venues with some impressive separation between two of them. The road continues later this week; after Autumn Above Wednesday, I'll be out in Worcester for Testament and Motorhead (with a bunch of crummy undercard bands and Arsis) on Thursday and Friday respectively. After that, I can sleep, and feel a little less down about not doing more German fests this year.

Hekseri with Goreality and Abnormality [Skybar, Somerville, 3/18/2007]

This is a little delayed because I had to spend all of yesterday going to Texas, but it still doesn't impede the fact that this was an awesome show. Unfortunately, I got in late due to having to prepare to travel Monday, and missed almost all of Abnormality.

Abnormality [NR]
I hate giving bands a null rating. This isn't because it gives my life some perverse obsessive-compulsive critical meaning to assign relative weights to bands' sets, but because it means that I saw the band, but not enough of them to give a fair assessment. In this case, I got in to the Skybar just at 8 PM, just in time to see Abnormality's last song, which turned out to be just enough to get me disappointed that I couldn't get there sooner. Despite the absence of a bass player (no idea whether this is their normal configuration or not), the death metal sound was nice and thick, not quite as dense or frenetic as Goreality, but still pretty crushing all the same. I've got to try and see a full set from this band sometime.

After their set, I got a beer and hit the Pathos table; as usual, Dwyer had about 87 time more interesting or cool-looking records than I actually had money for, but I was able to pick up some Horn of Valere and Cianide that I didn't have, and he recced me two more cult German albums....none of which I've listened to yet, or will listen to for another week, because I had to keep the weight of my gear for this trip to a minimum.

Hekseri [6/7]
Assuming that Abnormality usually has a bassist instead of using their guitarist's 7th string for the low end, this was the second band of the night to show up without their nominal bass player. However, unlike the last time, I saw Hekseri without Jason, Larissa switched over to bass, presenting yet another version of their sound. It looked like she was mostly just transposing her normal rhythm lines down rather than duplicating Jason's more gymnastic attack, and the result was a slightly simpler sound, but one that in its evolution of folkic melodies out of ripping noise recalled the best of true black metal. The best part, though, is that this is still a band that can evoke Dissection as easily as Darkthrone, and even though recent shows have shown that their sound is still very much under development, they're still creating quality music and putting up kickass sets.

The reason that Hekseri played second, despite setting up the show and nominally having top billing, was that Goreality's singer didn't show up until the end of their soundcheck. The Skybar is a little difficult to get to, but only the Harvard rotary and the turn at Porter Square are technically challenging, and the band has actually played here before (with Godless Rising, back in January). Be that as it may, though; the band did get in place with their full lineup, just in time to start blasting.

Goreality [7/7]
This was not as superlative a performance as the last time I saw them here. However, it was still completely awesome, both in music and in the audience reaction, and so simply well-refined that you really have to wonder how on earth this band is still toiling in such relative obscurity. Of course, ultra-brutal gore-death is never going to get you on the Billboard 200, but people on other continents into this scene should know who this band is; hopefully, their new record will get them over that mark, especially if Dwyer is able to get it out in good distro channels and reviewed by some high-profile sources. The new stuff that they played is just as awesome as the older material; all that remains is to get it out into people's ears.

The audience reaction mentioned above is no joke; the Skybar is not generally a huge moshing venue, but it's also not a no-mosh venue either, and the front got pretty turbulent for Goreality. I did my best to keep people from flying into the tables, and while this wasn't completely successful -- though I was able to catch the two guys who knocked that one table over before they fell down on it and its sharp-cornered metal foot -- it was still fun as hell and a great addition to the music. There were also a good number of people in throughout the show, and hopefully more of them will start coming regularly to Sunday gigs. The genres vary, and some shows are more awesome than others, but it's still always a cool time, and always gets out in plenty of time for people to get home and get enough sleep to face work (or a plane ride to Texas) on Monday.


Next show, presuming I don't get held up here, is on Friday at the Palladium, where I'll finally get to see DT; next underground show is on Saturday up in Haverhill, with Shroud of Bereavement, Hekseri, and probably some other Merrimac Valley bands that I ought to be keeping better tabs on. Of course, I have to complete my mission here and get back out of Texas, but it's some pretty simple stuff that I have to do...as long as things don't go sideways.

Godless Rising with Downfall, Goreality, and Mortis Deveia [Skybar, Somerville, 1/24/2007]

Midweek shows suck. Well, more accurately, it sucks that shows are put on midweek, and it would suck if a midweek show, once attended, was not so awesome that you don't care that it's on a Wednesday. This show, quite obviously, did not suck, but I definitely would rather have caught it on the weekend for external reasons.

Though it was a little more difficult parking with the factory behind the venue still working, not leaving huge swaths of sidewalk open for cars, I got in without a hitch a little before Mortis Dev went on. I probably could have taken a little more time and got some Chinese food before going in, but I misestimated their ability to be open later midweek and didn't. Instead, I went in, started drinking, and pawed through the distro table while the bands were setting up. Jeff gave me a 20-percent discount on the crazy stack of CDs I pulled out -- sue me, I'm a sucker for anything on Wild Rags -- and also sold me on a plainly awesome Godless Rising patch, which is one of the most well-finished that I've ever seen, especially from so underground a band. Of course, it's the top patch on his kutte, so he's going to be sure that it kicks some serious ass from the design and manufacturing standpoints. Contrast this with Celtic Frost's M.O. of "screenprint something, overcharge for it, and show no signs of caring at any point in the process".

While I was buying the patch, Mortis Deveia started up; this was unexpected because the band was down to a four-piece, and I like most people was anticipating that they wouldn't start until all of the band was there.

Mortis Deveia [5/7]
The bassist had to work or something, leaving the band as a four-piece with little low end. They still did a good set, mostly because the rest of the band is awesome enough to pull such off, even when the number of paying audience members is still in the single digits. The absence of the bass was definitely felt, though, because without the low end solidifying the song, Mortis Deveia transforms easily into the Henry Khiev Show, and as sick as he is on guitar, the band works better when they're playing as a band, not as sidemen. Still a good performance, though not their best. They'll have other chances to establish themselves more strongly in the Boston area, and they definitely moved a lot of demos, which are now in a new pressing with a tracklisting and a larger spiffy logo. The old demos are now collectible, but still have Mortis Deveia on them, making it unlikely that anyone who currently has one will want to part with it.

Goreality [7/7]
I've heard a lot of good things about this band, and was somewhat surprised that they were going on second, instead of Downfall. Of course, bills don't have to make sense; the bands just have to rock. And rock Goreality certainly did, laying out one of the strongest brutal death sets that I've ever seen, and quite possibly the strongest at the local level. The technicality never overwhelmed the groove, and the songs moved and roared into one another in an organic and epic fashion. The other bands on the bill also kicked ass, but Goreality's set, at least to someone who hadn't seen them before, was something else and something special. This was the same kind of feeling that I got seeing Suffocation at the Palladium a few months back: the promise of brutal death metal fulfilled, in this monolith of sky-filling sound that acquires beauty and wonder by disregarding everything except its own existence. Awesome.

I should have nailed them to the wall and got a shirt as well as their split with Clitorture (which I did get from Jeff), but it was at this time that I unsuccessfully attempted to get Chinese. I'm slotted to see them again here in April, though, so I can nab it then.

Downfall [6/7]
And just like that, it was time for Boston's favorite local South American death metal band. Yes, it sounds odd, but only in that this band is based out of the Bay State, not that they're a bunch of Latin guys who play thrashy brutal death. They had a single false start on a song, but otherwise more or less destroyed, putting out a killer set and getting the developing crowd involved. Of course, people had been up and thrashing as soon as people who weren't in bands got to the venue, but Downfall drew a lot of people in, and the craziness from them carried over into Godless Rising's set. I need to get a demo from these guys as well, but they didn't appear to have anything out; have to watch out in the future.

Godless Rising [6/7]
Though to a certain degree Goreality stole this show, Godless Rising went a long way towards taking it all back with their set here. As a NWOBHM freak and semi-professional snark, it's easy for me to think of this band as "Gruslin/Flynn Vital Remains", but that's not exactly the case. They played no Vital covers, and a ton of new (yet-unreleased) material, which strongly establishes this band as doing something independent and self-sufficient. Sure, the concept of fast brutal death metal with a melodic finish inherits from Vital's early work as much as the current lineup of Vital does, but this music is being developed in a different direction, with different priorities. It was a great set, and I'm sure that everyone else there also wished that they could have gone on longer, but they did play right up to the venue's cutoff.

Before leaving I nabbed a shirt (can't have my characters buying their merch if I don't as well) to evangelize them around some, then pulled to make sure that I got home in time to sleep some before work. Closures of 93 did not help in this regard, but I got around and back in one piece, having done 3 shows on one tank of gas. Work being so close rocks.


I'm currently mulling over a compilation project to make my yearly pilgrimage to Wacken more useful for other people, but that's waiting on getting the tickets and flight set, then doing a check on what space I have available in my pack. More info later if I end up deciding it's feasible.