Every Shirt XIII: Mortis Deveia

shirt: Mortis Deveia
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2007
provenance: band

I picked this shirt up from the band sometime probably in the first half of 2007; between when I had to nearly put Henry in a headlock to get him to take my money for their demo and when Mark's ran out of bands willing to p2p to allow them to support concerts. This shirt, said demo, and a track on an Oak Knoll comp are, apparently, now all that remains of one of the Merrimack Valley's most promising bands.

Playing thrashy yet accessible NWOSDM-influenced music while that style was still in its ascendancy, and sporting a female vocalist and a truly elite lead guitarist, Mortis Dev drew a lot of interest, and a few contract offers from smaller labels, but did not sign. Eventually Caitlin quit the band, and while they got a new (male) singer and the instrumental positions were completely unaffected, a significant portion of their local audience, in one of the more egregious and stupid dick moves we have on record, lost interest. The music stayed the same, but the change in peripherals left the band high and dry.

Even at this distance, it rankles. Support music, not rumors, so that good bands don't get jobbed by ultimately immaterial cosmetic issues.

Edguy with Into Eternity, Light This City, Echoes of Eternity, Mortis Deveia, Chapter 50, and Troll [Mark's, Bedford, 9/14/2007]

I actually got out of work early for this one due to my boss telling us to just go the hell home; he's got some kind of inverse Korean complex and doesn't feel comfortable leaving while we're still around; as a consequence I got onto 93 before the big clot of traffic coming out of Boston hit, and got up just before doors. Hopefully this'll keep up; the fall touing season is just lousy with Mark's shows, and a bunch of them are really good.

Troll [4/7]
This was the third time I've seen this band, with, as far as I can tell, the exact same setlist. They added a little wrinkle this time by letting a flanged-out low end dominate their sound, but it was the same songs in mostly the same order. The vocalist referred to them as "the generic opener that nobody remembers", and while this is true to a certain degree, Troll does have some memorable riffs and lines; it's just that they get tiresome after a while.

In contrast to a lot of Mark's shows, the front row was full right from the start, and there was never any question about there being more people on stage than in the crowd. Of course, this was probably due to the "non-core" people who came for Edguy (and camped the front all night), and weren't aware of how this place operates. Hence the exchange between one of the newcomers and the security while I was coming in, which went something like this:

N00b: Do you have anything to eat in there?
Secu: No, I don't think so. They sometimes get pizza in later, but we just opened.
N: Ok; when's the band start?
S: First band goes on at seven.
N: That's the opener, right?
S: Yeah, that's the first opening band. The first local opener, there's seven bands tonight.
N: Seven?! When does the show get out?
S: Uh, around one, I think.
N: Wow, one o'clock, I didn't realize that. (N00bs huddle up in consternation before leaving to find a BK.)

SRSLY, LERN2P2PVENUE. I was actually surprised that there were only 3 locals against 4 nationals, but the bands got longer sets, and this may be an indication that Bernie's working out who's going to draw from outside the core scene, and will continue to refine the moderation of his policies in the future.

Chapter 50 [4/7]
I'm sure that it's possible to have a more pedestrian metalcore band than this one. I just have no idea how that would be implemented. The sound was pretty much a direct follow-on to almost everything going currently in the "bands who wish they were as cool as Heaven Shall Burn and Shadows Fall" caption, and there was the persistent suspicion on the part of several people (documented elsewhere) that some band members were actively trying to look like people from bigger and better metalcore bands. Whether this was to drive interest in their band or just to pick up girls with lip piercings and Myspace haircuts was unknown at press time.

As a convenient distraction, while this band was playing, one of the guys from From The Shadows came up and tried to sell me Firewind tickets; I didn't bite, but might end up going to the gig anyway. The 29th is a busy night; if I can remember to order a ticket I might go to Megadeth (though I'm not real thrilled about their openers), and if I'm poor and my knees are feeling all right, it might be Toxic Narcotic up in Haverhill. Otherwise, sure; the drive's as long but less intense than going to Worcester, and I like Firewind better than Sonata Arctica anyway.

Mortis Deveia [6/7]
Duuude...I don't know what's up with Henry, man. The new singer for Mortis Deveia is, like, the ugliest chick in the world. SERIOUSLY. ;P
Ok, now that we've got the required-by-law lame joke out of the way, let's have some real information about the band. Andrew presents a different feel than Caitlin did, but the sound is still thoroughly Mortis Deveia, and this was one of their better outings. This was a moment of truth, and the band rose to the occasion, showing that any previous gimmick was incidental to the core purpose of just playing awesome music, and that they remain a leading contender for the next band to break it big out of New England. They had sold out of CDs again coming in, unsurprisingly, but there were also a few songs not on the current demo, so there's likely the prospect of more MD recordings in the non-distant future, and as in the last time I saw them on a properly raised stage (the Skybar had more of a one-step riser, and I think everything else was just on the raft at the back of Mark's), they did "Raining Blood" to close. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as good as back then, but only because the bassist snapped his E-string at the end of "The Disappearance". The bass dropping out is not, of course, necessarily fatal to a Slayer song, and they blasted it up as a two-guitar, two-vocal lineup for a bit to a great audience reaction, but in all likelihood it would have gone better if everyone's axe was still in proper working order.

In between the local and touring lineup, I went back and got some merch; no kutte parts, but I did spring for a CD from Light This City, as it definitely felt like they were the odd band out on this tour and the most in need of support, which was fortunately justified later. Their merch guy commented favorably on my Watain patch as a rare find; he, however, was wearing a Craft shirt, which is the absolute definition of kvlt (hint: if you like black metal, Terror Propaganda is killer.).

Echoes of Eternity [5/7]
Thus started the mostly progressive, mostly power-metal touring bill, which was a bit of an odd composite hooked together in an uneven chain rather than a truly solid package. Unfortunately, it's not really possible to put together an economical and strongly connected undercard for Edguy that will draw in this country. Echoes of Eternity was decent, but ultimately didn't leave a tremendous impression; the music was good, but seemed to lack impact and immediacy. I don't know if this is a personal thing or a "this is Boston, not L.A." dynamic, but it really seemed like the best thing this band had going for them was pretty much the same thing as Robin DeSanto's electoral advantage. There's nothing wrong with having attractive people in your band, but it's got to be "this band kicks ass, and the singer's hot", not "wow, the chick singing is hot, this band must rule".

Light This City [5/7]
I had a pretty good idea what to expect when I flipped over Facing The Thousand back at the merch stand and saw that they were on Prosthetic, though the name itself was a clue; a thrash band that used to be hardcore and hasn't completely accomplished the transition yet. There were still strong metalcore elements to their sound, but this was a lot more of a thrash performance; some progressive elements, but not on the whole on-topic with the rest of the tour. They fit in with Into Eternity's Headbanger's Ball mode, while Echoes of Eternity connected to IE's deeper cuts and IE's power metal split personality provided the connection to the headliner. It's like mapping hydrocarbons back in chemistry class. On topic, Light This City did a good set, better by a slice than Echoes of Eternity, and people were into them, but they probably would have been better served with a different environment in terms of staging as well as surrounding bands; Aaron mentioned that they were also allegedly playing some "off dates" on this tour with locals around the various stops, which is probably the better bet if you're not as into the rest of the headlining bill.

Into Eternity [6/7]
When this show was being booked, Bernie probably thought to himself, "wow, I've got a lineup with four bands with girl singers in a row, that's got to be a first on a normal show." Then Mortis Dev changed their lineup and he found out that Stu was a dude all along. ;P I kid, I kid.
There were a couple problems with the sound at the start, not that many of them really came through to where I was, and given that they seem to be on every time I put on the cable metal station, I'm thoroughly sick of the hits off Scattering of Ashes, but this was still a good performance, and one of the better I've seen out of them. I'm not a fan of the band, but they play some good music, and there's always something technically amazing on every set; here, Tim was basically just executing rather than stunning on guitar, but Stu was hitting some notes that even Maynard (R.I.P.) might have had a hard time with. That's just not natural, but it's friggin' killer when someone can pull it off.
I had a chance to observe Tim's hand action, which is something you get to do when you're in a small club and a music geek, and while he is fast, he's also fast because he has to be; his finger spread isn't the widest out there, and so he has to reposition a lot more to play stuff that someone with larger or more stretchable hands might be able to play without shifting their arm. His right hand, though, is where the really notable speed and accuracy comes in, much more than in the left.

Despite this obvious plug (ignore the emo first row and start from the first panel in the bottom row), I didn't see Tetraccino at this gig; maybe he hit the gig down at the Webster in Connecticut, or maybe he was in the back in the main part of the hall. I was up front in front of the bar, in the thick of a bunch of doods who were yelling for some kind of reaction from the drummer, who used to be in Beyond The Embrace, and for whom this was the homecoming gig. With this band and Despised Icon, there's the sense of the start of a troubling trend for Massachusetts metal; it's good to see musicians getting into bands with more visibility, but it's kind of embarrassing when your state is the farm system for freakin Canada. Seriously, it's a good thing that no one actually cares (and that there are a lot of Mass bands that succeed on their own), or it would be hard to live this down. ;)

Edguy [7/7]
Unfortunately, they came to the venue in a normal tourbus instead of by air, but while Tobi did cut his hair (he's thinning on top and it's a little less obvious now), he also left his zebra-print spandex pants back in Fulda, so the result was a net IMAGE UP. The music was also a step up from Wacken two years ago, partly from the longer set and partly from somewhat better conditions; I was right on top of the band instead of a hundred yards back, and nobody could get lost on here. Though they talked a good game about playing old stuff, this meant basically "playing stuff they hadn't done since the Mandrake tour"; if you have Burning Down The Opera and the two studio records they've done since that one came out, you basically have this set. Older stuff was replaced with newer material, but their deep back catalog material has remained basically the same since that time. "Save Me" from the new one has replaced "Land of the Miracle" as the requisite 'gay ballad', though in this part of the US, they probably could have made the Manowar reference that they used in Brazil (c.f. "for the wimps and posers out there...and women" on the bonus in the digibook version of Rocket Ride) and people would have gotten it. They ran through their normal crowd-participation antics, despite being in a hall of about a quarter the size needed to really sustain them, and definitely provided a good German Heavy Metal experience. They need a bigger stage, so Tobi can do his kicks-above-head-level without risking injury to anyone else in the band, and a bigger audience to play their side-vs-side games with, but I'm not sure that they can get either on this continent, as they may be a little too confident in their own heterosexuality -- and thus in their willingness to camp up the "straight band from Germany playing Gay-Metal" angle -- for the American power metal audience. We'll see, and we'll hopefully see them again, and in a more accessible venue thanks to their flouting of the ridiculous no-drinking-on-stage ordinances. Es sind hier Deutsche Musikannten! Es ist ihnen Alkohol kein Suchtgift!

On getting out, it was raining, and I steeled myself for a long, wet, and accordingly dangerous drive home. Fortunately, between exits 6 and 5 on 93, a miracle happened, and I outdrove the weather. The rest of the ride back was dry, fast, and stable, which you don't get much coming back from Mark's in the fall. It's raining now, but I'm on my couch and it doesn't matter, the show in the books.


Some words about Autumn Above from Thursday night: this was a remarkably heavy performance, though it might be expected as the band is composed mainly of people who are better known as being in several North Shore metal bands, mostly Endless Ruin. Sure, they're all-acoustic, and on CD their sound is a lot easier to interpret as more indie-rock (verging perhaps on emo due to the lyrical obsession with suicide), with nicely plucked guitar lines and close vocal harmonies, but live, up front, the impression is much different. The stop-on-a-dime riff blasts are pure metal, and if Ryan's been able to change his vocal style for this project, Chris has still definitely got his other influences (specifically, the ones that animate Cocaine Tongue) going strong. "Burn With Me", to call out a particular example, was significantly heavier, played sitting down on acoustics on Thursday night, than anything Chapter 50 did with synchronized headbanging on Friday night. As a result, this is a band that presents various sides that any rock fan can get into; the intent is still indie, but they were coming from a notably different place than the other bands at this gig, and the resulting sound is really interesting. If you know anyone who likes post-hardcore, point them at the band and tell them to spread the word; I haven't heard a whole ton of post-HC, but from what I have, listeners may find something to like, and I'm not sure that the band is going after that audience as of now.

This coming week is thick with gigs; Metal Thurday has a good lineup, MPD, Indignation, and Rohirrim provide eminent excuse to skip the drive and expense of going to Machine Head, and then it's Finntroll on Saturday. It may get expensive, but it's a fine time.

three shows due to laziness

There are three show reviews in this one, because I am lazy and spent the past week-and-a-half doing other stuff like sleeping, going to shows, and cleaning my house. Let's fuckin go:


This one is from the weekend after I came back from Texas; a good show at a good venue in Haverhill.

Shroud of Bereavement with Hekseri, Burn My Remains, and Wings Never Shattered
River City Billiards, Haverhill, 3/24/2007
--

So after the exhaustion of the previous night's mostly mainstream show, it was down into the underground and off into the snow and gathering darkness for this one. Given the bands involved, at least the last two, it fit perfectly, though it was a little rough to drive through on the way back.

I got up in time and got in just around when the bands were supposed to be starting, but due to the circumstances around the final lineup -- Id was supposed to be playing this, but their guitarist got clipped by a car the day before and Wings Never Shattered got added hours before they were supposed to go on -- the setup ran on for most of the next hour. This gave me some time to hang out and start drinking, and also to browse through the Oak Knoll table, which is a convenient euphemism for "lose all my money". The gig turned into a free show due to issues with door control -- the venue wanted to keep their normal bar custom as well, I guess, and had another room on the second floor that they needed to have open -- but I still feel bad about not compensating the bands, as this was a good show at a venue that has a fair degree of potential.

Wings Never Shattered [4/7]
Fittingly enough, the replacement band came in at replacement level, which shows why the term exists; if WNS was better, they'd have been on the bill initially, instead of coming off the figurative bench when Id had to scratch. They were okay, but as metalcore goes, fairly generic; there were some good parts, but more that everyone has heard already five thousand times before. The potential is definitely there for this band to diversify or otherwise distinguish themselves, but this step just hasn't been taken yet. Also, the vagaries of their genre mean that whether or not they decide to take that next step up, they could be on the main stage at Metalfest next year, or they could spend their entire career playing gigs no bigger than this one. When the rules for success are so ridiculously nondeterministic, it's very difficult to see the effort to become more than 'good enough' as worth the candle. They were entertaining and they drew well, but the sets did strictly improve as the night went on.

Burn My Remains [5/7]
I'd heard a fair bit about these guys due to interest in other North Shore/Merrimac Valley bands, and they certainly didn't disappoint, pounding out a strong set of brutal death metal, filled in with just enough neoclassical melodics to really set themselves apart. I'm hoping to see them again in the future, though it doesn't seem that they travel much outside their home range -- though this is less of an issue if there are more good shows up here in the Blight. The only real issue here was that I couldn't entirely hear the bass; the bass lines tracked mostly with the rhythm guitar, but for a 8x10 cab, there ought to have been a little more sound coming out of it. The sound guy was also a last-second fill-in, but in the main did a good job, fillips like these aside.

Hekseri [6/7]
Though there were some issues with Megan's mic initially -- like it wasn't on or someone moving equipment across the floor had kicked the other end out of the soundboard -- this was a thoroughly strong and dominating set of thrashing black metal that even drew in the bouncers who were supposed to be watching the door to the upstairs to marvel not only at girls driving a sonic tornado, but also at Seth's relentless blastbeat pace. The floor was thinner for them, at least initially, as the only non-local band, but it filled in properly in short order, though some weaklings might have been intimidated off by Larissa getting on the floor and attacking people with her bass (a good time for the rest, though). While their set was a little clipped at the end -- the bar wanted the bands over at midnightish, maybe due to noise ordinances, so the delay in startup made a definite difference -- it was still pretty fully developed, and definitely kickass.

Shroud of Bereavement [6/7]
This is where the time limitations really hurt; Shroud came right out at an amazing level, and had this set run as long as it was probably intended to, would have gotten into the top echelon. Though the stage was crowded with the six bandmembers, including three guitarists, it definitely made a difference, as this sort of doom metal really requires that kind of wall of sound to crush over the audience and get their full attention. The strongest comparison is probably to Novembers Doom, as a similar inheritance from multiple sources strongly reworked, but there were also parts where I couldn't help but notice the resemblance to Nightingale. Since he lives in Sweden and doesn't tour so much any more, local bands that can evoke a similar depth and maturity are definitely worth your attention. Though they did get cut off a little, this was still a great performance, and I'm going to make a point to see them in the future.

Unfortunately, I didn't stick around either to pick up Shroud's CDs or to go to Dan's after-party, both of which I should have; like a goober, I parked at the T station again, and like a goober, I was worried about getting towed or shit. I've got to either start parking smarter or caring less, as I still had to scoop slush off my car and drive home over windy back roads, but I did it short two discs from an awesome band and without further metal socialization. Not fun.


Now, shows from this past weekend:


1349 with Goatwhore, Nachtmystium, and Averse Sefira...and Mortis Deveia, Aura of Aquila, Zircon, and Cold Northern Vengeance
Mark's, Bedford, 3/31/2007
--

I had to bag a party for one of my high school friends in order to get up for this, but friends who've stayed around where they've been their whole life will tend to stay there; 1349 comes and goes, and the chance to see them on a small stage rather than out in front of 20,000+ ragers through crappy PA towers (like I will this summer) is something that does not occur a whole lot. However, as things panned out, I probably could have dropped in and said hi before going up, but of course there was no way to know that at the time.

Doors were reported for 6, and I got up there around 6:15, fully expecting to go in and find that I'd missed a couple local openers, because this is Mark's, and their ridiculous pay-to-play policy and its attendant circumstances have led to the running gag in the scene that doors for any Mark's show are at about 10 AM on the day before, and that by the time anyone actually gets there, they have already missed half of the 1500 local openers. Your band has just been added to this show, and you need to sell 15 tickets, even though this event is now in the past. However, wonder of wonders, the local support had been frozen at four bands, all of whom were quite good, and doors was actually delayed for soundchecking for the touring acts. So I stood around outside for a bit and talked some with Henry (Mortis Dev) and then briefly with Paul (CNV), who was then working on rounding up his band and understandably a little chafed about having to go on first. Given the circumstances under which CNV got on this show, it's perhaps not surprising that the club would do this, but looking at this bill and how the lineup fell together -- and also, to a lesser degree, what kinds of performances were delivered -- it makes a lot more sense commerically than it does artistically or socially. Somebody always has to go on first, because otherwise the show just fails to start, but on this occasion it should not have been CNV.

Eventually, they let us in, and after getting a beer I went down to the second-stage end to make sure that I didn't miss any CNV. I didn't, even including their initial start, which got cut off because they were still soundchecking up on the main stage. Though they were able to get their sound dialed in, they were notified after this that they'd start playing in 20 minutes. This is far too long to leave metalheads in the vicinity of three full merch and distro tables; I need to train my wallet better so that it doesn't immediately jump up and start vomiting money all over the dealers' hands in this situation. I'm more than satisfied with picking up everything Moonsorrow's ever done that I didn't have yet, plus some other rarities, but it was tough slapping it down enough to still be able to support the local and touring bands. Sure, it's all the same metal scene, but direct support is a lot better than having it routed through some sub-licensor label in Russia.

Eventually, CNV started around 8ish. If I'd dropped in on Jay's, I probably could have seen most of their set, but I had no way of knowing a Mark's show would start this late, and I'd feel pissed about missing any part of CNV in any case.

Cold Northern Vengeance [6/7]
CNV's Arising Dungeon Cult is one of the best black metal records from the North American continent, in its clarity and atmospheres as much as in its rawness and starkness. Live, with imperfect control over their sound (the second stage at Mark's is really good, but it's still a second stage at a bar), the stress is more on the raw aspects, presenting a different sound, but one no less cool or less black metal. Though it still hadn't really gotten dark when they started, if you closed your eyes at any point in the set, it wasn't hard to immediately infer the kind of frigid and snowing night as when they should have played supporting Enslaved. It was a great experience, probably the truest set of the night, and, of course, full of kickass music; they closed with "A Past Forgotten", and there was not a song the rest of the night more frigid or more epic.

As good as this set was, though, their support for Watain and Angelcorpse in Boston next month should be even more interesting, as there are a lot more antifas in Boston than in New Hampshire, so some might show up, even though you very seldom get antifas at a black metal show. I believe Paul in his assertions that CNV isn't a political band, and because I also believe in Amon Amarth's live-and-let-live-as-long-as-they-also-live-and-let-live approach to the right, I'm not going to stir shit with their more politicized fans, but some of the more political on the other end might. Burzum, Nokturnal Mortum, and even Graveland kit I can understand, but when you show up to a black metal show wearing Skrewdriver gear or shirts explicitly advertising racially-oriented forums, it's pretty obvious that it's being done for polemical or recruitment purposes. People have a right to believe whatever they want, as long as they aren't forcing it on others, but I'm not sure that the streets of Cambridge will take that view.

Political bullcrap aside, CNV is still awesome, and I'm still, obviously, looking forward to seeing them again, even though Boston in May is necessarily going to be much less grvm than New Hampshire, anytime.

Averse Sefira [5/7]
The venue was still filling up, so I was able to basically turn around from CNV and walk straight up to the stagefront. This was good and bad; I was, indeed, right the hell up front, but as a result I'm not sure that I got the optimum sound out of the experience. This was still a really good set, but they had the misfortune to be bracketed between two stellar locals, and while they aren't as thoroughly derivative of early Emperor now as on the earlier recorded stuff that I've heard from them, they haven't completely differentiated themselves either. If Zircon hadn't been on the bill, this would have been the most death-driven set (well, of the actual black metal bands, anyways), but unfortunately, they had to cut in between a band that evokes the spirit of old Norway better than they do, and one of the most complete crushing machines that the Northeast has to offer. After another record, they'll probably have their feet under them better, but on this night, Averse Sefira was just really good in a setting where there was a lot of greatness available.

Zircon [6/7]
I was playing around with the idea of doing split scores, and had I actually gone through with it, Averse Sefira would have come out with a 5.5 and these guys with a 6.5. As the last time, they absolutely slaughtered; just an excellent performance, little short of the transcendant. If you live in New England and like the sound of a Naglfar-Dissection-Zyklon fusion, you need to get to the show or shows that Zircon is doing within easy driving distance of you over the next two weeks (don't ask me where, just check your local bills, everyone knows Zircon is on every show); everyone else, either hit up the Oak Knoll mailorder or wait for Jeremy to upsell them to Candlelight or Relapse or something.

Nachtmystium [6/7]
I hadn't heard anything from these guys, but was looking forward to seeing them anyways; new and different music is always a good thing. of course, it's debatable how much was new and different in the set of black'n'roll that they cranked through, inheriting more from Celtic Frost than from what Goatwhore would do a little later on, but it was quite well-executed and the crowd actually in front of the stage -- I was off to the side again, ahead but out of the way of the people who wanted to be front and center -- was thoroughly into it. If the black'n'roll sound puts down permanent roots in the US, so much the better, especially as a contrast to the current dominating school in USBM, but I really need to get out my Vried disc again and be sure what and how much the differences are. Of course, Vried wasn't on this bill, and this was a really good set regardless; I'll have to see them again at Metalfest to be sure that there wasn't any acoustic-shadow bits getting in the way of my understanding of their sound.

Aura of Aquila [5/7]
These guys are actually from my area (Danvers, close enough, even in ultra-parochial New England), and Jim was allegedly in [Endless] Ruin with Ryan and Danny et al (I don't really remember him, but I only saw them once and it was like 4 years ago). Though they had an interesting sound, it wasn't always completely together in performance, and anyone who knows anything about the New England black metal scene would have to conclude that they were slotted where they were for commercial reasons, pushed this late so that people who bought tickets from them would stay at the club, buying drinks, at least through more than half the gig rather than seeing them and leaving early in order to avoid driving an hour and more home at Police Harrassment O'Clock in the morning. They were decent, and I have to pick up a CD from them at some point -- forgot this time -- but even considering their innate qualities, and that this was the bass player's last show, they should have still gone on earlier rather than later, if only in favor of the more high-profile bands on the local half of the bill.

Goatwhore [7/7]
Your eyes are not deceiving you, though I sure thought my ears were while watching the set. Despite the fact that Goatwhore at this point is, as commented (by the bassist from CNV), total Celtic Frost worship, there's nothing wrong with such when it's delivered with such absolute power and such amazing clarity of sound, especially since Celtic Frost isn't exactly doing this early-period sound themselves any more. About equal parts black'n'roll and old Frost, even down to Tom Warrior-style "ugh!" exclamations, this was by a long ways the best performance that I've seen from Goatwhore, and while they aren't particularly revolutionary in anything they do, they're definitely always entertaining, which is the goal to be aspired to for such perpetual road warriors; sometimes you just get a decent set, and sometimes you get an amazing one like this one, but you know they're always going to at least put on a good performance.

Mortis Deveia [5/7]
The Henry Khiev Show [7/7]
While the comments outside the show before doors from some of the other fans that Mortis Dev "didn't fit" on this bill were good for lulz -- because Henry and I were standing less than ten feet away from the people making them, apparently invisible or something -- they were also true to a certain degree; Mortis Deveia is not a black metal band, and they were principally on the bill for two reasons: first, they kick ass, and second, they draw a lot of people from the Valley who might not otherwise show up for a black metal show. Accordingly, they went on a lot later than I was expecting them to, to keep those extra bodies in the venue and drinking and tipping as long as possible. Their set was decent, and fairly high-energy, but there was very much the feeling of a fairly standard-form NWOSDM-driven thrash band riffing out, with occasional intermissions where Henry would do something incredible with his axe. It's not at the Joe Stump level, but it's also not nearly as balanced as some of the other local bands with sick lead guitarists that I follow. As a career pessimist, I can't see this as having good implications for future band chemistry, but there were some external factors that may have led to this being a down night for the other four members; I know I've seen better overall sets from them in the past, and hope to continue to see good sets from them in the future.

1349 [6/7]
The sound at the beginning of their set was oddly really quiet, much as with Dark Funeral the last time I was up here, and additionally I was standing over at the side of the stage, in a bit of an acoustic shadow, which pushed the sound that much lower and less clear for me. Despite this, the band soldiered on and eventually got properly dialed in all across the hall after a couple songs, unleashing their take on the oldest and coldest of Norway over all those in attendance. It may be me misremembering Dark Medieval Times, but the feel as far as I could compare was closest to a more closed-in and aggressive early Satyricon -- though Frost was not on the drums, at least at this gig, for reasons of undisclosed origin that might be personal as well as legal. (Frost allegedly beat the crap out of some guy over a girl or something back in the early '90s, and as a result has a felony assault charge on his rap sheet; perhaps not as significant as Jon Nodtveit or Bard Eithun's Murder Two convictions, but still problematic for the INS or whatever they're calling it these days.) It was still a kickass performance and a fitting capstone to the night, even if it wasn't quite as well-presented as Goatwhore's unexpectedly killer outing; black metal, even the kind that crosses the seas to play gigs, thrives on making people fight through the circumstances to the quality music beneath, and there was certainly plenty of good stuff here.

Eventually, of course, they had to close up, and since Mark's has learned their lesson about putting local bands on after the headliners (at least when the tour is as relatively inexpensive as this one), it was time to head home through the cop-ridden roads and highways down to the border and freedom from dunnage. While Louis from Goatwhore is certainly right that as soon as you stop supporting shows, you'll start bitching about how nothing good ever comes around any more, it's better for all concerned to support shows at places besides Mark's. The security is inconsistent, not patting people down but throwing people out without warnings for moshing, the local support has to pay for the privilege of playing (on an admittedly well-tuned PA setup) at the back of the hall to mostly the same people who would be there at a bar or basement show that they would be getting paid for or at least not losing money on, and on leaving, people have to deal with New Hampshire's finest, who are an obstacle not only to those who are legitimately too impaired to operate, but also to anyone else they happen to decide is a likely mark. This may strike some people as harsh on NH cops, but these people don't have anyone in their family who got a $300 ticket for reckless operation for pulling over when directed by a police officer on an empty highway. New Hampshire extracts enough revenue from Massachusetts by selling liquor on Sundays and without state taxes; it's not strictly necessary to supplement this by pulling over anyone with Mass plates that they think they can hang a violation on, but it still happens.


This last one is from Sunday at ye goode olde Somerville watering hole & Chinese dining room. Note: the Skybar does not actually serve Chinese food, but they don't mind people taking in takeout from the Chinese place next door.


Deathamphetamine with Dominatus and Volatile
Skybar, Somerville, 4/1/2007
--

In sharp contrast to the previous night's black metal festivities, this was a firmly grounded thrashout, but no less cool or possessed of less good music. There are a lot of high scores on the books for this weekend and nothing average or lower; maybe my standards are dropping, but the more likely conclusion is that the bands this weekend were just really that awesome.

Chastened by previous weeks, I made it down earlier and got there right at doors, in time to check in and go next door to pick up some Chinese, then come back and eat it before Volatile started up. It was a little close, but helped by the fact that the band delayed a little, potentially waiting for more people to show up, which I don't understand. The people, not the bands' reaction to them not showing; it's a Sunday evening, there's no football, so you come down, get some good Chinese food, drink some beers, and are done and can stand up sometime during the first band's set. It's not hard, y'all, and for the most part -- this one definitely included -- the Sunday shows at the Skybar have been really cool.

Volatile [6/7]
lol Volatile moar liek Vo-latile amirite lol
Now that the Encyclopedia Dramatica-style description is out of the way, it's time to be moderately serious, as the band is; they're not doing a 3 Inches of Blood-style piss take with their interpretations of primal thrash, but they definitely still are having fun with it, as it's fun music. If you go through your collection in alphabetical order you can find a lot of similarities: Venom, Vio-lence (viz the joke above), Volatile. While the focal point is still on their covers and the frantic passion that they execute them with, their originals are steadily improving, and there's a few that can stand in with their takes on Slayer and Kreator's early periods without losing out in quality or intensity. They're still developing as an original band, but they're already fully formed in their handling of other people's material, and the good reaction to their insanity in executing it seemed to feed forward into their confidence and project the later originals in the set stronger. Volatile may not ever stop playing a long slice of covers, but there may well come a day when people will wish they didn't, in order to give more time to their original work.

Volatile played as a four-piece, though I could almost swear that they had another guitarist when I saw them at Great Scott. The sound wasn't materially degraded for it, but if they're currently normally a five-piece, they're just the latest in a long string of bands playing the Skybar a member down.

Dominatus [5/7]
Like Deathamphetamine, Dominatus is currently in lineup flux, but unlike Deathamphetamine, they weren't able to persuade the exiting member to show up for this gig. The bassist search continues, and the consequence for this set was an occasionally confused sound; the composition was strong enough that the absence of the low end tying things together did make a difference. The impression was of a decent death metal band in the brutal style most common to this area -- Bane of Existence is probably the closest -- trying to play with one hand tied behind its back, though the sound did get better and more together as the set wore on. They also made an interesting exception to the regular practice, covering "Hermod's Ride to Hel" off Amon Amarth's most recent record, which they did a good rendition of. Metal bands, as with practically everyone else, cover mostly old standards, with contemporary material rarely getting played; it's not really possible, in the age of the internet, to do like Metallica did and clone some far-off band to wow local audiences, but nobody's really doing that, either. This will hopefully lead to more contemporary covers in the few non-original slots available; there's a lot of good deep cuts out there that the bands who wrote them don't do live, and someone might as well play the ones that strike their fancy.

This one incidental bit definitely inspired me; if I revive Coelem with actual people as opposed to a studio project, any shortfalls in the set will be filled with uncredited (except in this notice) endZone and Solar Signs material, both because it's really cool and to see if I can get away with co-opting stuff from ten years ago in Russia that never even made much of a stir there. It's not going to happen, but that doesn't make it not a cool idea.

Deathamphetamine [7/7]
Slightly less epic and slightly more crossover-driven than when I saw them last, Deathamphetamine left nothing on the table for Ben's final gig on vocals before moving out of state. Though there was a lot of commentary from the band members about how much stuff they were fucking up, it wasn't immediately noticeable, as the band for the most part stayed together and in time, and throughout laid down a battering barrage of variously-influenced thrash-death. They also got one of the longest sets I've seen from a local show; chalk that one up to three bands on a nearly-three hour timetable and quick setchanges. The result was a mad frenzy of headbanging and flailing limbs, driven up in intensity by action as well as invective from Rich (IWEIPH), who is also not long for this coast. It was a great set, one of the few at this place where the band has gone down off the stage to thrash along with the crowd, and the second-craziest in terms of forward motion to the last time I saw Goreality here, because this time I was the one getting knocked into the table, and I was able to catch it before it fell all the way over. Good times, and hopefully the band will pick up a suitable vocalist in short order so that they can continue rolling on. It'll be tough to replace Ben, but that's also what they said about Taneli Jarva, and Sentenced did okay once Ville got on the same page with the rest of the band.

Though things got over kind of early, despite the long sets, I still left shortly after nabbing Deathamphetamine's CD, overdue by about 5 months through nobody's real fault, except maybe the band's, indirectly, for not realizing how fast their awesomeness would run through their initial pressing. Can't go wrong with 18 tracks of Deathamphetamine for 3 bucks, but I also did have to go to work in the morning and finally take my car in for repairs; after it gets the new bumper, I can start subtly stickering it, which I hadn't done before due to the fact that it was popped and needed replacing.


In other show news, Revocation has been added to the NEMHF. This is the best news about the festival since I found out that there were a lot more bands that I didn't care about playing than bands that I really don't like. They're playing Friday, and they're probably going to be mired on the second stage, but they're still going to be blowing large cavities into the poser hordes and hopefully catching the ear of some of the industry types who are always about. The only downside to this is that now I need to add two offensive-lineman-style knee braces to my festival expenses. \m/.

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.

God Forbid with Goatwhore, Mnemic, The Human Abstract, Arsis, and goddamnit there's way too many local bands to fit into the title [Mark's, Bedford]

[This show was on the 6th, but I ran out of room in the title. :( ]

I started a little late, but the drive up turned out to be much less demanding than I thought going in. As it turns out, if it's not a weekday rush hour, there's not a whole lot of people driving up to New Hampshire. Who'da thunk? There was some rain coming in, and the lack of proper lane markings on parts of 93 made this a little stressful, but it mostly cleared out by the time I crossed the border...and I actually took the right turns off 101 this time.

I got in late from all this, but not too late; I still saw most of the first band, and all of the 11 following. Yes, you read that correctly. Twelve bands, total, and to handle them with a minimum of latency, they were distributed between two stages. Yes, you read that correctly as well. Two stages. In a bar. To fit in 12 bands.

Kipe [4/7]
I got in after this band started, and watched them from the rail before grabbing my first beer. Most of the other people in the venue at this time were hanging about, shooting pool, etc, and truth told there wasn't a lot about the band to make them pay attention. This band put out some decent, solid, mainstream-friendly nu-thrash, nothing really technical or attention-grabbing. Kipe at this point is a replacement-level metal band, dependable but thoroughly average, but this is hardly surprising given that they're the first of 12 bands on this bill. Maybe I'll see them again -- depends when that "Anthrax" show (I thought this was just Belladonna or something) up there is in the week.

Acariya [4/7]
I didn't catch this band's name until I dug through the merch table to their demo, but I did catch nearly all of their set as soon as I realized that there was a second stage. After I got done boggling, I got up into the crowd and watched some largely generic, replacement-level metalcore. They were decent overall, and thankfully they seemed to be more in line with the headliners on this bill than what this subgenre has become. I did get their demo, and I'll see how they match up on record.

Arsis [6/7]
I finally saw these guys live, and they pretty much match their recorded performance. Technical but still song-oriented, and they still get and perform NWOSDM better than pretty much everyone else on this continent. I've heard far more than my share of Swedish death, so I still can't see them as shatteringly original, but they are extremely solid, and they definitely put on a great show here.

There's been a lot of chatter on why Arsis is playing so relatively low on this bill, when, exposure and talent-wise, they definitely ought to be on above The JesterHuman Abstract. The reason is simple; Arsis is on this tour as a last-second replacement for Scar Symmetry, who would have been doing their first US tour and couldn't have appeared anywhere but at the front of the nationals. The slotting was set before they were brought on, not much that they could do about it.

Our Last Sacrifice [5/7]
The second stage was still warming up, but these guys did a good job, putting up a nice set of fairly brutal modern thrash. I remember this set less well than I ought to due to the extended nature of the total show, but it was still pretty cool. I did get their CD, and will doubtless have some more intelligent and relevant commentary on that.

After this band, I hit the merch stand, picking up a bunch of CDs from Arsis as well as some buttons for my jacket. I was going to go back and get a shirt from them and God Forbid, but waited until after Ruin, and they were closed up. Hopefully I'll get another chance; that "The Real Black Metal" design is pretty sweet.

The JesterHuman Abstract [5/7]
I kid, I kid. Seriously, though, this band was fairly good, but so totally derivative of Jester Race-era In Flames in both tone and style that it couldn't escape notice. There were some original bits, and the singer spun it in more of a metalcore direction, and really, In Flames isn't exactly using this style any more, but still. At one point, I thought they were covering "Graveland", but no, it was an original. A nice set, still, but more as a replacement for classic In Flames rather than as a new and exceptional band.

Illconcieved [4/7]
After the first song, the assessment was that the bandname could hardly be more accurate. That first song was the most godawful abortion of a musical performance that I've experienced since the last time I saw Halo of Thorns, but fortunately they got it together after that, pulling up the score somewhat. Once they got their feet under them, even before their second guitarist showed up with half the set in the books, they did a decent but unexceptional set of Sam Black Church-styled hardcore. At this point, I see them as pretty good, but erratic; if I ever see them again, I'll be able to determine more concretely whether they're an ok band with bad luck or a marginal band who makes their own bad luck. Either is probably possible at this point, though I'm hoping that the first is the case.

Mnemic [5/7]
I'll get this out at the start: I have never been an especial fan of Mnemic. I think they're oversold and overhyped as a Danish remake of Fear Factory, another band that I'm not a huge fan of, even though they aren't really. Their modern thrash style fit in well with this bill, and they put on a good show, but didn't push themselves up to a standout level. However, this is still a higher rather than a lower 5 (no, I'm not going to break rank and start doing fractional ratings, I hate when I have to knuckle and do that), and this was a nice performance that people largely enjoyed.

Like many of the bands, they were frustrated that people weren't moshing...due to the club's "No Moshing" rule. If you want people to mosh, book yourselves into the Middle East; it's not in the middle of nowhere, and people can brew it up in the pit if they feel like it. There was a little bit of moshing, which consisted mostly of this other bigdood jumping up and dropping an elbow into my shoulder before getting grabbed by security. Fortunately, he didn't get tossed; there was no damage, the content was mostly incidental, and even though I don't have the knees to get in the pit any more, I also oppose the lameness of no-mosh regs. This place is covered in carpet. There were enough people in the front to keep a pit wall and prevent people from flying out and hitting the bar, the rail, or the pool tables. Abstractly, this is one of the safer places to throw down that I've seen a show in, and they have an anti-mosh policy that would do Varg and Euro proud. Ell-four-em-three.

Mortis Deveia [6/7]
It was probably just the much-improved PA, but this set was significantly better than when I saw them the last time. The crowd was just as into it if not more so, and in total volume was basically equal to the "mainstage", probably the largest for the local-band stage. They definitely got what they bargained for, with an awesome and ripping set that included a little brand-new material...if not the blistering Slayer cover that they did back in Saugus. Henry continues to amaze, though he had some significant competition from the two bands that would follow them on this stage. The only down point was when they announced that they had only 7 demos left/with them; it's safe to assume that these have now entirely sold out, and though they may have had a few more copies for their show at Rusty's on the 7th, another pressing is probably (or ought to be) in the cards. They were the only band on this stage where the crowd yelled for an encore, and fortunately the organizers gave them the ok to hang over for another song...perhaps because this doesn't happen in real life for local bands, and when it does, you don't want to fuck it up or fuck with their fans who are buying your beer and filling your headcount.

I previously met up with Henry and paid him for the demo, over his protestations. Too much pride, too much honor, all sides. It's a point of honor for me to pay my debts like a normal dood, but also a point of honor for him to forego compensation to get his music out into the hands of people who dig it. Recording's still not free, though...but if they had some more merch, I would probably have nabbed that instead. Actually, I would probably have done as I did, then also bought a shirt. What can I say, it's not a rational world here.

Goatwhore [6/7]
This, also, was a better set than I saw from them last time, the smaller space proboably drawing them out more and getting them more up for it -- or maybe it's that Mark's sound system, in terms of, like, correct balance and stuff, kicks the hell out of the Palladium's. This set covered over their whole history, which was an illustrative as well as awesome expeience, moving between the pure black metal of the early stuff, the black/death of most of their output, and then closing with their current 'single', which has a lot more of a black'n'roll feel to it. A kickass and headliner-worthy performance, and it sure seemed like the guitarist picked up a bunch more spikes on his rig since I saw them in Worcester two months back...plus a Moser custom V, which is just over-the-top enough to work with his overall medieval-warclub look. Killer.

Frozen [5/7]
These guys also put on a better set than they did opening for Celtic Frost, despite their guitarist's untreated hernia, and the reason was probably also the better sound. Their set, like last time, trended steadily towards the wow-you-guys-really-like-Evergrey as it progressed, but showed off their significant thrash elements a little better. It'll be really interesting to see where and how these guys take this fusion, especially if the reports are accurate that Colin has left Cannae, presumably to focus on Frozen.

After Frozen's set, I met Aaron from RTTP for real, drawing his attention by nearly beaning him in the knee with a beer bottle. It wasn't really close to hitting him on its way to the trash can, but flying glass (even in a low arc) is a hell of an attention-getter. Fortunately, he didn't step off askance or anything, and we talked briefly before Colin cut in, and I headed back off to the other stage.

God Forbid [7/7]
Most of this set wasn't as transcendent as might be inferred, but it built steadily to this level by the final song, feeding off of and driving energy from the crowd, so that anyone wanting to dispute this assessment has a tough argument to make and probably wasn't actually at the show. Most of the set was from the new record, with a little old stuff sprinkled in in places; not that it mattered to anyone, as everyone was up for all of their stuff, and most of the main crowd was singing along with Byron on everything anyway. All in all, this was a kickass, committed set from a kickass, committed band that will still be going, even if it's playing bars in Bedford, NH, and kicking their asses long after the metalcore wave has rolled back out. Originators and imitators, man, and these guys are definitely among the first caption...and pretty fuckin' metal too.

I went back and saw Ruin setting up, without a bass player, and felt the bottoms of my feet whining at me. "All right," I thought to myself, "if it's past one, I'll grab a shirt and then bag this." I pulled my watch out of my pocket (irritates the hairs on my wrist when it gets sweaty), and read 12:40. Thanks, watch!

Ruin [6/7]
Though there were some technical problems with this set -- a stop-and-start when someone fucked up the intro of a song, and the non-singing guitarist blew out his A-string -- these barely held this somewhat unusual band back in their delivery of some surprisingly sharp and kickass technical death metal. The basics were fairly Death-like, and after a few seconds, you stopped noticing that there wasn't a bassist in the lineup. Unconventional, but quite cool, and I'm definitely going to be looking for these guys in the future; if Boston and Maine weren't so far apart, it would be most natural for these guys to get into an evil alliance with Revocation. Kick ass, and I'm glad I stayed, though I probably should have gotten merch while they were setting up rather than waiting.

All in all, a cool show, and the drive isn't that much longer or more intense than going to Worcester. The smoke also wasn't too bad...well, at least not in comparison to the Alter Schlachthof or to general outside conditions in Beijing, which are my current benchmarks for unbreathability. I'll probably be going back...but they gotta do something about this whole pay-to-play thing. LAME. And the 'no moshing' bit, but there's probably less chance of changing that.

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.