Every Shirt XCVIII: Indignation raglan

shirt: Indignation rapper raglan
size: 3XL? (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band

This is the bizarre Indignation shirt with the bizarre backstory mentioned much earlier. I picked this shirt up at some DIY venue in the last three months of 2006; maybe at Sputnix, maybe up at the Haverhill Elks, maybe somewhere entirely unrelated. Regardless, it is a serviceable if gigantic piece of clothing that yells DIY rather loudly.

As tags that were on this shirt before I cut them off indicated, the fabric for this one was assembled for the Negro Leagues museum as replica kit for some old-time club, but obviously, it was cut out and seconded, either due to manufacturing errors or simple overstock. Having fallen through the cracks of the primary economy, Indignation acquired it, probably in bulk with other mismatched shirts, and screenprinted their logo onto it. When I got this one, such shirts, many using the older logo from when they were more of a punk band, made up the bulk of their merch, and they were distributing them rather freely to anybody who came into range. I'm pretty sure I got this one gratis for picking up a CD, which is the opposite of how such things usually go, but whatever. The usual model in the current digital age is to loss-lead with the music and use it to get people to buy shirts, but if your raw shirts are next to free and you consider your ink and screens as a sunk cost, you're a lot more likely to get people listening to your music if you buck the flow and give them free shirts.

Every Shirt IV: Indignation

shirt: Indignation flaming skull back
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band

I'd actually almost forgotten about my other Indignation shirt, partly because it wasn't in the pile with all the rest, and partly because I almost never wear it. It's a little unwieldy; some weekend, though, I have to wear it, and when that time comes it'll show up here.

This one, though, was purchased off the band at the moderately infamous South Central show at (IIRC) Tabu in Saugus at the tail end of December '06. This was notably the first and last time that there's been a metal show at this place, as well as the first and last time I've gone through an explicit metal detector stop to see a band. That was a hell of a lineup; Ravage with Pat (MPD) McNeil on some vocals because Al got stuck in traffic, Mortis Dev, MPD, Death Defect, and of course Indignation seeing as I got the shirt from them there. I don't know if the band's still active, as I haven't seen a lot of Haverhill shows being advertised, and they were always a linchpin of South Central's lineups. It's a shame if they aren't; their derivation of power/thrash out of hardcore was fairly original and completely unexpected, and the organizational element that they brought to heavy music in the Valley (viz school buses chartered to lug fans around to out-of-market gigs like this one) will be sorely missed. Good band, nice shirt, but the story that goes with the other 'Nation shirt is a lot weirder.

My Pet Demon with Only Ash Remains, Indignation, Rend The Veil, Rohirrim, and The Turn [Haverhill Elks, 9/21/2007]

If you live south of Manchester and north of Lynn, between Route 3 and the ocean, you could do a hell of a lot worse than keep up with South Central, who put together a really good bill for this show and looks to have the right ideas and the right business sense to keep good music coming back to this venue, which has a lot of potential. A nice big room with all-ages admission and a full bar, the Haverhill Elks is exactly what the underground in the North Shore and the Valley needs, and for the next couple months, there's a really good show in about every three weeks.

I got in early due to some confusion about when doors was, but used the time profitably -- results to be seen in this space in October -- and got in as the bands were setting up.

The Turn [5/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, but was not tremendously surprised when they came out and played some hardcore -- albeit hardcore that would fit in well at a show where half the bill was composed with northeast-Mass metal bands. This means heavily NWOBHM-inflected, though probably from different influences, and while this probably makes them too poppy or "posi" for the xPunchxYourxFacex crew and the like, they played some decent music, especially starting off the evening's entertainments.

Rohirrim [6/7]
This was billed as a double-release show, but apparently MPD's CD hasn't got back from the production facility yet; hopefully they'll have them in by the next gig. Rohirrim, on the other hand, did have their debut record available, and did a strong job of advertising it with a really killer set. Despite the Wolverine mask that Brandon started the set wearing, their performance was mostly serious and thoroughly dialed in. Rohirrim are one of the few bands on this continent, at least that I've heard, to really get viking metal; most of the material they did in this one is best described as a slightly different take on classic Enslaved, though "A Grevious Gift" is heavily suggestive of Einherjer -- even the part that was announced as a break for people who really like Type O. They've come a long way since I saw them early this summer, and it's going to be really cool to see them at Welfare Records with a more extreme surrounding bill.

I got their CD, of course, but haven't listened to it yet; I've got a crapload of stuff to do before I go to Finntroll tonight, and Monday isn't going anywhere.

Rend The Veil [4/7]
I'm not much of a hardcore fan, but I do know what a clipped amp sounds like, and I can accordingly say with a fair degree of confidence that this set would have done better and been better received if they guitarist hadn't had his amp clipped out too high for his speakers. Personally, I thought it sounded terrible in several spots, and good when he was using settings that did not get the signal mutilated, but if he actually likes the clipped-over tone that they opened and closed with, more power to him. The band played a decent set of by-the-numbers HC, and seemed a little disappointed that a giant arena opened up in front of them with no one to fill it. They probably do much better and have much better crowds when they play with all hardcore bands instead of half-hardcore, half-metal, but that's a hazard of them playing shows like this -- and doing shows like this without getting more of the doods who saw them with Killing Kings the previous night to come over and support.

Another reason that a huge void opened up is the presence of ninjas. When you have a metal pit, as happened during all of the metal bands on this gig, and get mostly doods pushing each other around, more people will jump in. When you have three guys throwing spin kicks and doing somersaults, your pit will be those three guys, and if they get tired or go get a beer, nobody will go in the pit, because they don't want to get kicked in the face. The way to fill in a pit like this is either a) don't book bands that draw ninjas or b) draw more ninjas if you're going to going to book HC bands that play dojocore. The idea of splitting a bill half-hardcore, half-metal, is a good one in the abstract, but you need to draw more hardcore fans to make it work, or book different bands so that the ones who come will also go in the center, unafraid of losing teeth.

Indignation [6/7]
It's moving by fits and starts, but in this set Indignation played, if I remember correctly, more originals than covers, which is a definite step forward for them. I've written elsewhere about the unique way that this band has developed from hardcore into power/thrash metal, so it may not be necessary to repeat; what should be repeated is that if you're in the area, this band is not to be missed; mostly for the music and the pure power of their delivery, but also because one of their sets is probably the only place in the world that you're going to see girls grinding on each other to somewhat obscure Megadeth songs (yes, most casual fans don't know "Tornado of Souls", and yes, that's an injustice, but we have to deal). They went back to their oi! roots on their last song, but through the whole of their set, there wasn't really anything that wouldn't appeal to both the hardcore and metal audiences in attendance, which is how it should be.

I got a sticker from Justin of their PBR logo, and I'm uncertain what to do with it; it'll probably go on the men's room wall at the Palladium early at the Municipal Waste gig next week. The HC-rooted thrash revival is the people who need to hear Indignation who haven't yet, and a Peeb logo over the john is the way to catch their eye.

Only Ash Remains [4/7]
This was the promoter's band, and the cynical out there might conclude that the sole reason that they got on the bill was that the guitarist was the one who set it up; this fortunately was not the case. Their set consisted mostly of run-of-the-mill metalcore, but it was executed strongly and with a proper sense of itself, so nobody there who was into this style of music could have been disappointed. I'm not crazy about it myself, but the execution was solid, and they definitely deserved their slot.

My Pet Demon [6/7]
Though they got cut off at the end by a little bit, this set still kicked a lot of ass. As mentioned, they didn't have CDs available yet, but they did play a bunch of stuff off the forthcoming record, which still seems to be as cool as anticipated. "Raise The Flag" was killer, and got a nice pileup from the crowd; their blues-based thrash attack meshed well with the surrounding hardcore lineup, which bodes well for future gigs here, especially the next on the slate, on the 12th. They closed with a novel change, putting Kenny on drums to bring Matt out for vocals on "Fight For Your Right", and didn't give in to the few voices needling them to play old stuff -- which they're probably quite glad to let slip out of memory.

All in all, a cool gig, and I'll probably be up again in three weeks. I wasn't able to get MPD on disc, but all this means is that we'll have to wait a little longer to get the new stuff -- some of which hasn't been done live yet -- and visually confirm that I got into the thankslist.


This weekend, I also incidentally dug up the remaining portion of my old cassette tapes for review and potential posting; in addition to typical juvenalia like Silverchair's debut and Diabolus In Musica (which doesn't suck as much as advertised), this includes Medieval's only label recording (AFAIK) and a first-run copy of The Number of the Beast. Rare and out-of-print stuff may be converted and up here; all in good time, and probably after November. I've got two rather ambitious projects lined up for ~130K words estimated, and not only will this kill the whole month, going through the research materials will take most of October as well.

Indignation with My Pet Demon, Ravage, Reign in Ruin, and Rohirrim [Haverhill Elks, 6/22/2007]

From Friday, out of order due to internet problems (and laziness).


One day after pulling both sides of my groin playing soccer (and thus missing Shroud at Metal Thursday, damnit), the time spent sitting on my ass was enough to allow me to drive up to Helltown and get turbulent at this benefit, the first gig in unfortunately too long. I also lugged up my youngest brother, whose arm I've been trying to twist into shows for a while; he digs metal, but unfortunately hates people even more than I do -- and worse, he's got red hair and a red beard, so the sullen-corpsepainted-31337 thing absolutely isn't happening. This gig was well worth it, and hopefully will get him out more in the future.

We got up a little early, but used the time to wait out the torrential-downpour part of the rain. When we actually got up to the door, Rohirrim was just starting. This is a really good venue: easy access from major roads (take 97 north and turn right when the road turns left on the hill -- doesn't get much easier than that), all-ages with a full bar, decent sound, and a huge parking lot across the street that's usually empty because the Haverhill library isn't open when a show's going down. Good stuff; hopefully, the good relation between the Haverhill Elks and the Valley scene will continue and we will continue to get good shows here.


Rohirrim [4/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, but I did recognize a bunch of the members; I think the vocalist was in (Endless) Ruin (the death-thrash band that half the North Shore scene was in at some point, not the tech-death band from Maine) when I saw them a few years back, and I'm pretty sure that I've seen the guitarist around somewhere before, either with some other local band or just at shows. They did a decent set, but one that wasn't without a few typical problems of newer bands: the music was decent, but fairly undifferentiated, its power metal and black metal elements setting off but not materially changing the base brutal death sound. The centerpiece of their set was a longer song that contained in it about 80% of each of two good songs, and another 60% of a mediocre song; the riffs in themselves were good, but the composition came off as unfinished and disconnected. More experience as a band will of course fix both of these problems, and the technical ability here is good enough that even with the composition lagging, the band puts on a cool and fun show.

Rohirrim also got a good response for the first Manowar cover of the night. Yes, the implication of this statement is correct: there was more Manowar to come, for reasons to be discussed later. They did "Warriors of the World", which a surprising number of people knew more than the chorus to.

Reign In Ruin [4/7]
I also recognized several people in this band; the guitarist guested with The Four Horsemen when I saw them last August with the top three bands on this bill, and I think the vocalist was in Four Horsemen as well. It's possible that this is a new alignment of that band with a new name, but I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to them and thus don't know for sure. The music might have given more credence to this line of thought if there weren't a lot of other bands doing heavily Pantera-influenced modern thrash; some basic research established that yes, it's the same band. As noted, the music owed a lot to Pantera as presented, but according to Pat (MPD) they were down a guitarist for this set, and may sound less derivative with their full complement. Still, they put on a good show, and the vocalist has definitely gained in presence over the past year. It's good stuff, and if they can step a little further out of Pantera's shadow, both stylistically and with less emphasis on covering them, they'll get even better.

Between sets was not only time, as usual, to get beers, but also to listen to Emily Russo, a friend of the bands, provide light entertainment with keyboard covers of various classics. She has a good voice and a solid command of her instrument, but for whatever reason I didn't end up picking up a CD. More importantly, probably, her intermezzos provided some less challenging (or at least less loud and abrasive) music for those patrons who weren't in for the show, of which there were a few. Before MPD's set, Matt accompanied her on the drums; maybe the seeds of the North Shore's own Mambo Kurt experience, but even if not, still a cool time.

Ravage [6/7]
The sound wasn't as clear as when I saw them in Worcester, but Al seemed a lot more on (maybe due to a lack of mic issues), and with a band like this, the vocalist's state is a major factor. The set was a little shorter, also, and as a consequence consisted largely of new material (DamnNation is allegedly going to drop before the end of the year). This is by no means a bad thing; the new material is awesome, and as last time, they stuck "Nightcrawler" into the middle of "Nightmares". The result takes up a significant chunk of any set, but they really nail it, and given the riff similarities between the two songs, it'd be difficult for them not to acknowledge this somewhat underrated Priest classic.

My no-account brother was one of the few people in the venue who did not recognize "Nightcrawler". Seriously, I don't even know this kid anymore; doesn't recognize "Nightcrawler", doesn't like Jaeger -- what the hell is wrong with him?

My Pet Demon [6/7]
After a long layoff, the Demons returned, and it was well worth it, not only for the kickass new material, which is a lot more tuned and focused for the recent recording process, but also for the reworkings of older tunes. I'm not sure that turning "Between The Pages" into a hardcore song is 100% the way to go, even though it suits the lyrical direction, but there's really nothing else to complain about; "Jaws of Life" sounds immense, and if they were based out of anywhere in Europe, they'd be blasting the close-harmonic chorus of "Raise The Flag" every time the local 3rd-division soccer club netted a goal. Terrace anthems are kind of a lost art here, but this one should catch on with metal fans as well as theoretical football supporters. It's not the best set I've seen from them, but it came close, and if the new CD is on this level, they ought to attract some interest from at least someone.

In addition to talking with Ken about the ins and outs of European distro -- like a lot of traditionally-minded metal bands, they're looking east for their first contract -- I also found out from Pat that they'll hopefully have the new CD out by the benefit-carwash festival they'll be playing up here next month.

Indignation [6/7]
This set from this band really epitomizes what "hometown heroes" is all about. The response was intense and amazing, but this is far from surprising when you step back and look at the band; you've got a tight, practiced combo pushing a sound most reminiscent of early (Spreading...-era) Anthrax, a singer seemingly incapable of doing his set from anywhere but right in the middle of the madly thrashing crowd, and also a bunch of originals that are just as good and well-executed as their arsenal of covers. "Kickass" doesn't even begin to cover it; this was definitely the best set I've seen from them so far, the improved execution and overall energy only slightly tempered by the fact that a lot of their set is still by other people. Nobody really minds the cover volume as long as they're so well-executed, but this band could majorly go places if they could put together a full-length of original material at this execution level. As they are, they'll be awesome at the local level forever, but with more originals to match those they've got, they could take on the world.

The transformation of Indignation from a hardcore band to a power-thrash outfit may seem a little odd, but with their power metal side drawing from Manowar, this is a little easier understood. The existence of the internet allows people to get into all kinds of bands that they might not have otherwise, and if you can get past the fuzzy loincloths, Manowar is a straight-ahead, riff-driven, crowd-driving synthesis of the aggressive and melodic; that such a band should appeal to people coming from a punk background and connected to metal bands that don't take everything super-serious ought to surprise no one. And once one band picks it up, others will follow; thus we have this pocket in northeast MA where you have bands not only covering Manowar (Indignation did "Hail And Kill" for the second and last cover), but also writing Manowar songs for their own bands (Indignation again with "Warriors", which killed as expected). Odd, sure, but it's cool music, and nobody's going to seriously break out the furry underwear.

As mentioned, this was a benefit for Delusions of Grandeur, who lost all their gear in a practice-space fire, and with somewhere around 120 or so attending, they made enough money to allegedly get all new gear. I know next to nothing about them, but a band getting burned out is always worth helping, and they're on the bill for the fest on the 22nd.

Indignation with Death Defect, Mortis Deveia, My Pet Demon, and Ravage [Club Tabu, Saugus, 12/28/2006]

This was a good show, the first at this venue in recent memory and unfortunately, quite probably the last for a while. Of course, this because it was a good show...though totally unsuited for this club.

Mark and I got in about 15 minutes before nominal doors, hanging out in the parking lot with some of his crew, discussing past shows, expectations here, and, of course, the venue, which someone had declined to come down to because it was allegedly too sketchy. This was a nightclub on Route 1 in Saugus. On their big sign facing the highway, they were advertising JAM'N 94.5 Night on Friday...and on Thursday night, they had five metal bands in. Obviously, this place had nothing on O'Brien's, Exit 13, Club 125, or any other of the legendarily crummy venues that we'd seen bands at in the past, and I'm sure that we were all looking forward to destroying it.

Eventually, it got to be doors, so we went over to the 'door', but it was not, like, open or anything. This defeats not only the purpose of a 'door', but also the purpose of 'doors', and the idea of getting into a venue in a timely fashion. So we stood around a little more in a different place, until after Indignation's two buses of doods pulled up, and the line stretched back around the front of the club. The buses were kind of whacked out, but Haverhill is a long way from Saugus, and it's better than asking metalheads from the Merrimac Valley to drive this far down into the Great Blight on their own for a local show. The odd lack of metal bands between Boston and the New Hampshire border is kind of weird, but by force and with sufficiently good music, we can overcome the Blight. Provided, of course, that we can get some decent venues that will do more than one show, and don't dick around like this one did with their metal detector, which significantly slowed down the entry process. Metalheads don't stab each other! Metalheads don't carry guns to shows! Seriously, fuck this lame shit.

This delayed the start of the show as people got processed, but eventually things got rolling.

Ravage [5/7]
Ravage opened, and were unfairly held back by this fact...because Al Ravage got lost on the way to the venue. It's easy to get to this place if you know how to turn around on Route 1, but this is not universal knowledge, especially as most people just prefer to never drive on Route 1 at all. So they played half their set as an instrumental four-piece, with Pat from MPD jumping in on guest vocals for the last half of "The Wicked Way", and then Al finally got through security and onto stage. The PA wasn't especially kind to them -- the club's PA was so shitty that MPD had to bring their own down -- but this was still a very solid performance. "DamnNation" was the only 'new' song they did, and despite various people's yelling, "Wyvern" stayed retired. Unfortunately, they pulled out of the venue pretty quick, so I still wasn't able to pick up Spectral Rider. I gotta get more on the ball with this, but this time around, there were a bunch more great bands in the offing.

My Pet Demon [5.5/7]
This was a solid set with a few new touches, mostly Alex playing more of the solos, but pretty much -- after five years following these guys, from their first headlining set in my parents' basement -- just another good set from MPD. More of the set is new material, which Kenny is incredibly pumped about recording, but the "Crime Pays" stuff is still a centerpiece. They covered not only "Ace of Spades", but also "Self Esteem", which they hadn't done in a while, in a sludge-thrash style fairly close to the original but still thoroughly metal. They brought a good number of people in, but many of them drifted out after their set; symptomatic of the local scene at large, but still kind of discouraging. Seven bucks isn't much for a show, and one of the best parts of going to gigs, for me, is the chance to see bands that I don't know and hear something new and cool. Besides, what the hell else are you doing on a Thursday night?

Before Mortis Deveia went on, Chris, Indignation's "hype man", came over and talked with us a bit about the bands, the setup of the show, and plans to finish uniting the scene. Haverhill's got a good scene, but it's cut off from the rest of Massachusetts by something like a Great Blight of venues; there's the Merrimac Valley, and then there's Club Lido in Revere and maybe this place in Saugus if they ever book another metal show here, but basically nowhere else in Essex County. The yuppie population forms a barrier preventing metal fans from easily jumping from town to town and hooking up with other fans from other areas and building scene. More shows like this will connect the Merrimac scene with the holdouts left on the North Shore, and if Chris remembers the tip I gave him on Random Acts of Violence and they're able to work something out, the Massachusetts scene may be able to rebuild itself out of its now-separated component parts. It's a long-term project, but eminently doable; promoters need to cross-book more bands out of region, and normal metalheads like me need to go to more out-of-region local shows -- and try to bring friends.

Mortis Deveia [5.5/7]
I hadn't heard these people before -- 'people', because this band is not uniformly 'guys'. Their female singer looks looks like basically any other slight twentysomething woman from this area, but unleashed a vicious NWOSDM-driven performance that melded well with their overall brutal thrash sound. With a brutal female singer and a standout guitar virtuoso in the lineup, the Arch Enemy comparisons are going to be inevitable, but the more brutal sound and Bay Area thematics (the drummer does one of the best blastbeat-polka beats I've ever heard at the local level) make them much more reminiscent of Exodus. They also showed some flashes of real brilliance, but are still obviously developing; I'll have to hear them on record to assess them further, despite their balls-out, uptempo cover of "Raining Blood", which pulled up Chris from Indignation's crew to do guest vocals. I did get their demo, but I now owe Henry three bucks due to not having proper change. I did get a God Forbid ticket off him, though, so the band is slightly compensated, and I'll be able to pay him for the demo at that show. DIY FTW. I was unsure about going to this show, but now it's a sealed deal.

Between MD and Death Defect, Matt (MPD) invited Mark and me up to the "VIP room", a small green-room kind of area behind the bar, where we sat around, shot the shit with Matt and Alex, and met the brother of one of the guys in Indignation, who was definitely taking full advantage of the fact that he didn't have to drive anywhere any time soon. It was a cool and novel experience, but "VIP" or "backstage" at a local show is definitely more to be taken tongue in cheek than to get amped up about.

Death Defect [4/7]
I hadn't previously heard of this band, but they were decent enough, though not especially well-matched to the overall bill. The strongest similarities were to Danzig, and they didn't really push much beyond this. The crowd was into them, especially on "More Human Than Human", which has more meaning for a Haverhill band and for a Haverhill audience like this one, but all the sentiment and audience participation in the world wouldn't've helped had they not been at least decent in executing it. I picked up their demo, and as an inveterate reviewer and scene head I probably would have had it not been free, but this isn't a band that, at this point without hearing them on record, would draw me in to a show. Part of it is the style, but part of it is also that there are a lot of better bands in this area.

Indignation [5.5/7]
All of the bands had at least some sound problems with the carted-in PA, but Indignation's seemed both the most and least severe. Their overall balance was really good, the vocalist's mic had good response, but their lead guitarist kept going over to the board at the side of the stage to tweak stuff. Overall, this time out, they seem to have smoothed their sound some more, coming off much more like early Testament...with, of course, a nice swirl of Manowar, which really came out when they covered "Hail and Kill". Yes, you read that right: a band on this continent covering Manowar at a local show. Indignation presents a really interesting show; it's melodic thrash on stage, but the singer is still possessed with the egalitarian spirit of hardcore, spending half the gig out in the audience, calling people up for guest vocals, doing trustfalls off the stage (until the security came up and made him stop, lameasses), getting the crowd as much involved as the band. At this point, the combination of accumulated beer and headline performance got the crowd their most thrashing, and while the security did enforce the 'no moshing' regulations, they weren't totally fascist about it. No pit ever really developed, but under the circumstances there was a fairly decent degree of motion. Indignation closed with "Warriors", and then those who were left and hadn't come on buses started out to head home. Mark picked up a replacement knit hat from Indignation, and I got a proper shirt to go with the seconded one from the Negro League museum that Chris geve me back in August.

So, a good show overall, and by the end, there was some good proper traction on the floor from spilled beer. It's not much of a metal show if you can't brace yourself up extra by letting your boots glue themselves to the floor. However, this place is normally a dance club, and now their nice dance floor has alcohol all over it, part of the stage support is pulled out, and if we could have found a fire axe, we would have replicated Tankard's Disco Destroyer cover with one or both of the mirror balls hanging from the ceiling. It's not that metalheads inherently destroy stuff, but when you combine a lot of floor movement with a lot of beer, the floor is going to get 'treated', and I don't really know what disco balls are for if not to get smashed up. I don't know what the club management was expecting, but anyone with disco balls on the ceiling and No Moshing signs probably is not expecting to get their club shittified even this much. Hopefully, the janitors won't complain too much, and the bar receipts will outweigh the trouble enough to allow more shows to be booked here. Despite the hassle of Route 1, the drive is about 15 or 20 minutes, and the venue is located far south enough and convenient enough to major roads for bands to come up from the south and in from the west. It's no substitute for a real metal club, but it'll do.



Next show, as mentioned, is God Forbid on Saturday; I saw a total of like 120 bands in the course of 19 gigs or festivals in 2006, mostly between Metalfest and Wacken, and I'm hoping to improve on that in 2007.

My Pet Demon with Ravage, Indignation, Pyad, and The Four Horsemen [Sputnix, 8/25/2006]

This show was about everything a local show ought to be, and a frickin' incredible time for seven bucks. It may well be the best show in Sputnix' history, but this is quite likely because the top three bands on the bill are more than ready to go on to much bigger and better things. At this level, they're mostly doing this sort of thing to keep in shape -- or should be.

Doors was not stupid early, so I had time to drive home and get changed before heading in to Salem, then hang around on the sidewalk for a bit chatting with various people before going in. Because of this stupid review compulsion, I feel guilty if I miss a major part of any band's set.

The Four Horsemen [4/7]
These guys have definitely taken a step up from the last time I saw them, though they're definitely the 'openers' on this bill in terms of overall effect -- and a lot of the focus this time was on their guest guitarist. However, this made a cool and interesting snapshot of the way in which bands rise out of the morass of a local scene, by either breaking up or slowly aggregating the best players of bands that do. The Pantera-worship is still extremely obvious, and the singer still oddly lacks presence, but these are redressable issues. This band is good and getting better, and becoming more original will necessarily come with writing more original material.

Pyad [4/7]
Another good band being held back by various factors, I had not heard these death-doomsters before, but was glad to see them put on a cool show. The guitarist has a few more good ideas per song than can always be structured in, and won't exactly be auditioning for Atheist real soon, the bass sound was often buried, and the vocalist had a tendency to sound like Rapid Charlie when doing his clean parts, but it was still a good set of some interesting music, probably the most in my normal underground line of the night.

Indignation [6/7]
Kenny was referring to these guys as the Priest/Manowar of the night before they went on, though I have little idea of where he got this from: their sound is a lot more in the line of early Pantera (the 'early' part of their career that the band ever actually acknowledged) or a more brutal Megadeth. They put on a killer set, but it was a little cover-heavy, especially given the talent that they obviously have, but they picked a nice diverse selection of material (seriously, who does "Tornado of Souls" when they play Megadeth?), and kicked ass on that as well.
This really points up one of the biggest advantages of going to local shows; by necessity, you're going to get at least two or three bands that really should be headlining gigs like this or doing local support for national tours -- if you're in a serious local band, you prefer bigger gigs, but will do just about any show to stay in shape. We got a total of three headliner-level performances out of this show, again for basically pocket change.

Ravage [6/7]
Some people in the crowd were feeling sorry for Ravage, having to follow Indignation, but this reckoned without the band, and without the fact that these guys were the only outfit on the bill with a record contract at the time. They started off a little slow as Al's vocals got properly dialed in (Pyad had had some problems with the board as well), but eventually wound up and blasted out a strong set of their characteristic power/thrash that got everyone up and moving. The Spectral Rider material sounded great, and the Damnation stuff at least as good, though they're still working up that record. They're not quite ready for the True Metal stage yet, but if they can get some decent label support in Europe and keep making good music, I would not be surprised at all to see them up there early in the day in '09 or '10.

My Pet Demon [7/7]
DAMN. There were a few rough parts, mostly in "Raise The Flag", which as a new song is necessarily somewhat under-rehearsed, though still overall killer; for the most part, though, they were dead on, and when MPD is dead on, they are dead fucking on. The set built in intensity straight through, even past the closer and into the first encore that I can remember them playing since they were headlining my basement. For this they even kicked out "Self Destruct", sandwiched in between "The Trooper" and "Demons Are Forever", even though that song isn't supposed to exist any more. The last two tracks also saw probably the first two crowdsurfers in Sputnix history, which given that the place can hold maybe 100 people, absolute tops, is kind of amazing. A lot of this rating may be the fact that I was basically on top of the stage, flailing and thrashing around into members of the other bands on the bill, also going nuts, burning out energy I didn't know I had left, but this is what local shows do, and it's what makes them special; even in a tiny hall that used to be a Russian bingo room, when nobody on the bill is basically getting paid at all for their music and bands will give away shirts for no reason, just to build scene, we both audience and musicians can synthesize that unbeatable high that you can't get from anything but music. We all know each other, either personally or within three degrees of separation, and thus we can all completely sell out, no need to impress anyone and nobody is going to be fooled.
The next step, of course, for MPD is a real record deal, and it's clear that they're aiming in that direction, especially given the amount of professionalism that is going into the writing process for the new demo (still not recorded, but they played like half of it). Depending on perspective, they're either a companion piece or perfect antidote to the current metalcore trend, and that can't help but be a positive; they've got enough crossover points to appeal to the trend crowd, but their metal roots go deep and they will be around long after this, and the next, trend wave rolls back out. I have to dupe Metal Inquisitor and Spellbound's debuts for Kenny, and probably pack along Hellion and Armageddon's contact info as well. It's too bad that I don't actually know anyone in the business in Germany, but the least I can do is share my knowledge of how the scene is, and where in the business they should look first.

I also found out from Kenny that Maiden will be playing in Boston after all, so I need to get moving on tickets, and from Garret (Bat Cuntry) that Anal Cunt is actually doing a show at the Middle East next Sunday. Gotta see if I can get down for that, for the experience if nothing else. My jacket got a fair share of comments again, but probably more than it deserved; Pat had his kutte on as well, and that has the potential to be substantially cooler if he does a little work on it. From the first three bands on the bill I picked up three new demos (unfortunately, I couldn't wrangle a copy of Spectral Rider); reviews will be forthcoming in with everything else acquired on the weekend.