Black Trip with Ravage and Iron Will [Ralph's, Worcester, 5/17/2012]

Being on a vacation burn -- not going anywhere except "not to work" -- I got the chance to start a little later out to this, but between one thing and another, mostly the longer trip and less dense traffic, got in about the usual, with the bands starting later as there were only three on the bill.  You'd think, especially on a CD release, that fewer bands would still imply a normal start, and then the releasing band doing a longer set to play most of the new record down and/or get their friends to sit in for covers and other shenanigans.  This turned out not to be the case, partly because Black Trip was only putting out a 3-song EP, and partly because it took a while for all the members of Iron Will to actually get down to the venue.  It basically balanced out, though, as all of the bands got at least adequate sets when they finally started playing.

Iron Will [4.5/7]
I'm not sure if they've tweaked the lineup since last time (I would go with 'yes', since the potentially-new bassist is also the new bassist in Ravage, who I'm not sure I've seen twice in a row with the same bass player since 2003; if the Firicano brothers found a reliable bassist who digs power metal, it stands to reason they'd try to get him into this band as well), but Iron Will has taken a step forward in the intervening.  Some of this is just general tightness, but more of it is Tony improving his elocution; the dude sounds a lot more pro now, and a lot less like a guy from the block in Revere, which helps with bringing in an epic feeling to some of their more expansive stuff.  However, the songwriting is still pretty much where it was: second-run and consistent across songs to the point where it gets samey and hard to separate.  Iron Will brought it technically, and their cover of Witchfinder General's "Friends of Hell" was well-done as well as well-received, but their material continues to be that of a second-rank local trad-metal band: another reminder of just how fucking hard it is to even get up to average.

Iron Will driving on.

The set breaks on this night were pretty short, partially a function of the later start and partly due to Iron Will and Ravage backlining, which basically eliminated the need to change mic positions, let alone move gear around.  It was still enough, though, to pick up another beer and nab a short stack of Sonic Pulse promo cards to take over.

Ravage [5.5/7]
As is pretty much usual for Ravage, this was another good solid set, with yet another new rhythm section.  Dan and Rich held it down well, and this may have been the motivation for doing a fair amount of old stuff, as well as their Metal-Blade-era material -- even going so far as to resurrect "Wyvern", which not only pleased the old fans, but also neatly cut out my usual avenue of being "Play Old Shit!" Guy.  This in some ways was more solid of a set than I've seen from Ravage since they signed to Metal Blade, so hopefully the lineup sticks, and the label gives them another shot that doesn't involve their van simultaneously disintegrating.

Al gets out from behind the kit as Nick rips it up on "The Shredder".

On the subject of bands getting unexpectedly signed to major labels, congrats to Vattnet Viskar on getting picked up by Century Media -- and on getting their formerly in-joke-ridden metal-archives page fixed.  Like Pilgrim, this may end up being too much too soon, but the band does have the chops for it, and if they can kick merely Liturgy to fuck, it'll be a uniform upgrade.

Ben ripping it.

Black Trip [6/7]
After the last time here, I was quite skeptical about how Black Trip was going to do headlining this one.  Fortunately, though, they've used the intervening time well, and they put together a well-finished, well-rounded set that didn't overrun the set time or overdrive the sound system, both areas where they've had issues in the past.  This one, like the three-song EP they put out at this gig, was a little more power-metal-influenced than they've been in the past, but their former death metal crunch is still there and still firms up the sound.  Black Trip is not quite where they want to be yet, but they're moving in that direction, and the full-length that is scheduled to follow on from the current record, if they continue to improve, will get them a lot closer.

Avengers Assemble?

As on prior gigs with multiple north-of-Boston bands, this one saw another song added to the library of Manowar covers I've seen live, as Black Trip brought up Al and Tony from the openers to guest on "Thor (The Power Head)".  The crowd got into it, as did I -- if I want to hear "Guyana" or "Mountains" off that record, I'd have to have my own band, which is a long way of saying "not going to happen".

In time, though, Black Trip wrapped up, I dropped a couple bucks in the box of CDs while grouting out the record (free, at least on this gig, so there's no excuse not to pick it up), and I hit the road back, getting back in fine condition with minimal caffeine interference.  Not having to work in the mornings gets you that -- and then coming back to work with a vengeance makes stuff like this terminally late.

Scaphism with Ipsissimus, Ravage, and Nocuous [Ralph's, Worcester, 5/5/2011]

Having narrowly avoided getting stuck on a difficult production ticket, I got out of work in decent time to get out to Worcester, aided by the fact that the roads were empty and I was on the correct side of 93. Time saved, and gas saved too, especially since I'm going to be doing this again tonight; as tasty as Goreality + Composted looks, the onramps to 93 were already closed at the end of last night, making getting in to Boston, for the rest of the summer, an exercise in insanity and overloaded back roads.

That aside, I got in with plenty of time before the bands started; enough time to get some beer down, read up on the print version of the anniversary article, and check out the merch set up. Unfortunately, Ipsissimus' Metal Blade debut isn't out yet (and I've had Three Secrets... since buying it off Ryan opening for Watain with his leg in a cast), and Ravage didn't have their Metal Blade record with them; I eventually got a Ravage patch and missed on the new Ipsissimus shirt, leaving chagrined at not supporting bands.

Nocuous [6/7]
These guys have taken a significant step forward since December; their sound's now a lot more developed if still not super cleanly-fused, and the excellent venue sound -- consistent across bands, where this hasn't always been the case lately -- really helped them showcase this to the full extent. I wasn't able to pick up their demo, but strongly advise doing so for anyone who's better at cornering band members than I am; as soon as they grind and fill the joints in their sound smooth, this is music that Nuclear Blast will eat up like candy.

A really good indicator that a band's doing something at least really original is that nobody can decide who they mostly sound like. Other people noted Opeth or Carcass as main points of comparison, and I'm about to disagree with them and introduce a ridiculous influence stew below. Nocuous is basically a Witchery-type band, despite not really sounding anything like Witchery at all: they bolt together elements of thrash, black, and death metal and make it sound consistently cool. They do first-wave Swedish-death melodics and structures in the vein of late-'90s Hypocrisy, they drop in Slayer and Immortal breaks, and they do occasional breakdowns. It's not as finished as Witchery yet, but if you like that band's first two records and thought that what they were doing was a super awesome idea 10 years ago, Nocuous will have good results for you when they eventually put out a full-length and demonstrate that true full-fusion extreme metal is still a good idea in the present day.

Ravage [6/7]
While this was the "local" night of the five-year-anniversary show complex (tonight features multiple bands from over a thousand miles away), it still bears noting that half the bill was nationally signed. Ravage's had some difficulties since getting signed to Metal Blade (like getting stuck in Oregon when their van essentially fell apart like the cop cars in the intro to Castle of Cagliostro), but didn't show it in this performance, which was as good as they've done in a long while. Fitting in with the anniversary theme, they brought out some real old ones, as well as some off the new disc that they hadn't done live before -- and as usual they ignored the twit yelling about "Wyvern".

While tonight is pretty much all doom -- albeit different species of doom, to be sure, and that involves partially reclassifying Woods and maybe also Gwynbleidd -- this gig went fusionthrash->power->black->death, really showing off the diversity, not just the top-class performances, that have made this series great and contributed significantly to its success and popularity. Normal Metal Thursdays don't really sort out like this; you'll usually get "mostly thrash, but different kinds of thrash", "mostly death, but different kinds of death", or "black, but different kinds of black" nights, but what's important is that Chris never gets into a rut where it's, say, all death metal for three months straight. Part of it is a deliberate decision by the organizers to not book the same bands too often, but part of it is also the diversity in styles and sheer numbers of heavy local bands in New England that the series can range all over the map stylistically and still draw well two and three weeks a month.

Ipsissimus [6.5/7]
Because I missed the Black Anvil show this past weekend (due to a sudden attack of utter motivation deficit), it has been literally years (well, two of them) since I saw this band last. For context, here are some bands I saw at least twice in the intervening time: Psycroptic (Australia), Moonsorrow (Finland), Korpiklaani (also Finland), Kreator (Germany), Voivod (Canada), Vader (Poland), Exodus (California), Napalm Death (England), Woods of Ypres (boondocks Canada). Connecticut is apparently wicked far away. They more than made up for it, though, with a howling, hammering performance of jamming true black metal that, for those who have not participated in the mysteries and are waiting for Metal Blade to get off their duffs, approximates what FSBM (Former Soviet Black Metal, so I can lump Drudkh in with Old Wainds) might sound like if the lands between the Dneister and the Volga were more like Vermont. There was a high bar at this show due to every single band bringing their A-game, as the narrow range of large arbitrary numbers pasted after their names suggests, but Ipsissimus edged out the rest, and will, if Metal Blade sees fit to kit them out with a van not entirely composed of compressed rust despite their previous for same, likely be evolving similar satanisms in more places around the United States soon enough.

Whether Chris intended it or not, Crazy Dan was up on stage MCing the event (and why not, since he was on the flyer?), which provided nearly as many laughs as the bands and stage crew got the set changes going as he passed out critical collisions in the pit. In a night of many speeches, Chris' was probably the best considered and most complete, Adam's the most philosophical, trenchant, and suitable for rebroadcast (if someone actually videoed this, gies the youtube link so I can spam it), but Dan had probably the most minutes, and definitely the most lols per minute. Happy St. Pedro's Day!

Scaphism [6/7]
Scaphism also benefited from the thick, dense venue sound; it's either that, potentially changing guitarists, or just not seeing them in six months, but they've definitely taken it up a level and provided a class set of less complicated but absolutely slammerific death metal that saw, if not the first, at least one of the very few crowdsurfers I've seen at Ralph's, in addition to the absolute and total pit chaos that's pretty much expected for a mosh-friendly band at the end of a very good night. Via more new material, time taken for Chris's speech, and Exhumed's "Coffin Crusher", there was less in the set about rape than there's been in the past, and nobody got kicked in the balls. Of course, they may have misjudged their audience, vice Tony introducing "Slowly Digesting...": "It's a sad commentary on modern society that we get a more positive response for rape than for Star Wars." "Slowly Digesting..." of course, was absolutely pulverizing, and saw no worse response (if not better) than any of the other songs in a very good set; even if Scaphism is going from Oor Raep Band to Oor Crêpe Band (Composted may have something to say about that, though), they're going to continue to see this kind of good response as long as they continue with the top-class aural brutalization.

By the time things wrapped up, it was pushing 2 AM, and I still had to work in the morning. Futile half-assed attempts to pick up Nocuous' demo failed, and I got moving back onto the roads; hell of a night, and do it again the next day. I got into Metal Thursday long after it'd been established, but I've been about fairly consistently, modulo actually being in the state, for much of the last four years, and the experiences I've had have been thoroughly worth the valediction. Hails to Chris, Sam, Kate, Steve, the bar staff, and all the other ragers and bands who've made it so; part 2 comes tonight, or, if I end up locked out without a ticket, it'll go without me and I'll go up the long roads to Haverhill and try to catch Vattnet and Astronomer.

Ravage with Armory, Amadis, and Zero Point [Ralph's, Worcester, 4/16/2009]

Due to Metalfest and the way that this show played into that, I went on down to this gig directly from work, and got over, after unpacking all my crap at the hotel and getting some eats, shortly after Zero Point started.

Zero Point [4/7]
I saw about two-thirds of their set, which was strongly populated with covers and somewhat negatively affected by technical issues. They had some decent originals, which, from Maiden, Priest, and Dio Sabbath, provide a fair look-in at their original sound, but the band as a whole needs more finishing to take the next step up. They looked to be in general fairly young, so this is somewhat to be expected; they next time they come back here, they'll probably have taken that step.

Following this band, I got my first drink (Jack and coke, not beer, on the probably fallacious premise that it'd tear up my throat less) and also picked up Ravage's CD offerings; despite following the band since well before finding a review of it in Metal Hammer, I had somehow missed picking up Spectral Rider to date. No idea how that happened, but it's fixed now.

Amadis [5/7]
Not on the same guy, but this band featured Museum Replicas-style lapped leather armor as well as a top hat. Power metal, how we love ye. More relevantly, this band displayed the abilities as well as the trappings of American power metal, pounding out a high-quality set in the vein of Metal Blade's early lineup -- which also reminded me of Ravage a couple years ago. This bodes well for them, especially if they can continue to minimize the parts that were weak points in this set -- mainly prog elements that weren't as tightly integrated into the overall sound as they might have been -- and further develop the epic highs. They didn't have a CD out, as far as I could find, but eventually they'll be back, and hopefully have some recordings with them.

Armory [6/7]
Armory I did get a CD from (more on that later), and they certainly took the performance up a notch or two. Their more clearly Maiden-derived power metal sound was a bit of a change-up in this lineup, and definitely well-received; this is where the floor started moving, to a little consternation from people who may not have expected Metal-Thursday-style moshing at a power metal show. Though the band played through at a high level, they had a total PA dropout for about the last half of their last song, but adjusted to the extent that they could, and things barely slowed down in the audience as people got used to the muted, somewhat shifted sound. Good all around on the band's part; definitely looking forward to seeing them again.

For a long time one of Metal Thursday's big selling points, in addition to the killer atmosphere, was that they had consistently the best DIY-show sound in the area. This has been in doubt since O'Brien's finished their renovation, but it was a neck-and-neck thing; lately, it bears more mention when there's a MT where at least one band doesn't have major issues with the PA. The sound man is still good, but he needs to go through his setup with a multimeter and replace or rebuild what isn't working. The community will keep this show series rolling along, but the more transient crowd for other live band nights may not be as forgiving if the PA gives up on the music.

(Metal Blade Recording Artists) Ravage [6/7]
The first gig for these guys since linking up with Slagel's outfit, this was a worthy outing of the first major-label artist to appear on a Metal Thursday bill, and also a class headlining set. It wasn't the best set that I've seen out here, or the best show I've seen from Ravage, but Armory set the bar mighty high, and Ravage easily met if not topped their standard. They didn't do "Wyvern", despite some jerk yelling for it a lot, but they did do a lot of old-school stuff, which held up well in relation to the new material. The floor got proper turbulent for them; there was no crowdsurfing or people getting flipped, but a few people got helicoptered, and the floor ended up covered in beer as usual. Due to massive demand, they also managed to squeeze out an encore of a couple songs; Metal Blade may be thinking more of selling them to Europe and continuing to push deathcore here, but when their debut comes out later this year, they're going to move more than a few of them here in the Northeast.

Before heading back to try to get more not sick before Metalfest, I picked up a CD from Armory, then congratulated Pete (keys) on a great set; I guess I intimated that I hadn't seen them before, but already had a CD, which caused a little confusion as I'd picked up the disc about 45 seconds before he got over to the merch table. Either that, or one or both of us had our brains and/or ears turned off due to drinking, noise, and/or fluid imbalance. I'd bet on at least me being in that state, much more than anyone in the band.


Time for lunch, a last merch run, and Book of Black Earth; it's looking more like it'll take a while to get the Metalfest comments digested and processed. Some of that will go on before reentry closes tonight, but the writeups are probably going to go in no earlier than next week.

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.

Candy Striper Death Orgy with Graveheart, Ravage, and Legion of the Dying [Ralph's, Worcester, 6/7/2007]

The comment's been made before, but aside from being out in goddamned Worcester, Ralph's is an awesome, awesome venue, and with spectacularly few exceptions, Metal Thursdays there boast an awesome lineup. This time was certainly par for the course; kickass metal, Sam Adams under 4 bucks, The New Devil In Miss Jones and some kung fu movie starring a thalidomide-dude on the big screen, moshing, camaraderie, more cool records in Jeremy's boxes than I could afford....and then a long dark drive on roads filled with trucks moving at relativistic speeds back home while totally exhausted, and less than three hours of sleep before going in to work today. We've got to take over, like, River City Billiards in Haverhill or pick up one of those dead function-hall restaurants on 114 in Middleton so that people from the North Shore and the Seacoast can get cool shit like this without having to put up with all the bad parts.

As it is, though, even with the bad parts, for an experience like this, it's still worth it. I got in just about doors and had time to waste piling up new records -- partly because the Oak Knoll table always has cool stuff, and partly because the bands were not that great on getting merch set up. It sucks not supporting the bands directly, but if there isn't anything out where doods can check it out, it's kind of tough. All four bands on this bill have new records coming out shortly, though, so perhaps next time.

Eventually, I finished my beer and Legion of the Dying went on, with remarks to the effect that they had gotten a ride at least part of the way with the police. There's doubtless a story in that, but it's for them to tell, especially since I don't know it.

Legion of the Dying [4.5/7]
I think this was a small step up from last time, but they got kind of a raw deal from the sound, so I can't be certain. In contrast to the clear sound and proper balance that everyone else had, theirs was heavily trebled out to the point of obscuring what they were doing. This is unfortunate, but perhaps symptomatic of the band; they did some cool things, but didn't present a really cohesive idea of how it all fit together. The likeness to Bifrost is still strong, which may be a bad thing as well as good; Bifrost did create some great music, but the countervailing directions in their sound probably contributed strongly to why they never made another record after Mythistory. Legion of the Dying is being pulled in two directions by their heavy metal and extreme-metal elements, and it's somewhat disheartening to realize that they haven't really made much progress on harmonizing the two since January. The potential is definitely there, both to create a working fusion and to do something really cool with it, but the band (in the opinion of this goober, of course) needs to take another look at their arrangements and make sure that everything's really developing the way they want it to.

Ravage [6/7]
This set started out a little rough - Al's mic was apparently off or something - but Ravage quickly pulled it together and laid out another killer set that improved as it progressed. While they did a fair share of new material from DamnNation - which is allegedly going to be out soon, and hopefully available in this country as well as in Europe - there was also a lot of old stuff in the setlist. No "Wyvern", though, despite some goombah in a ridiculous jacket who was giving the band guff about it. :roll: In the middle of their last song, they took a bit of a break to crank through "Nightcrawler", one of my favorite Priest tunes and also one that more people ought to be more baffled as to why it isn't covered more often. On both the originals and the cover, the execution was top-notch, and though the mix could have brought Al's vocals a little further forward, there isn't that much better that could be asked for.

Unless my memory is totally deceiving me, Jay, the 'new' bass player, was previously in Ravage a couple years ago, which may explain why they did relatively more old stuff than new. Of course, I could also be completely wrong, which would not be a first.

Graveheart [6/7]
This is the band for Legion of the Dying to look to as they try to refine and balance the traditional and extreme elements in their sound. Graveheart's smashing blend of thrash and melodic death metal pulls in a lot of traditional HM elements, especially in their lead-swapping guitar pyrotechnics, but there wasn't ever any tension in the direction of the sound, just singleminded domination. Of course, this band has plenty of experience -- they cracked out an old tune from their Blistered Earth days, which was just absolutely razor-sharp -- and LotD is just starting out, so a similar flowering could well be in the cards. If I were to be really picky, I'd give this the edge as the best set of the night, but by a narrow margin. They closed up by bringing up Al Ravage to guest on two Priest songs -- well, more like one, but he did sing over "The Hellion" as well as on "Electric Eye" where there are actually lyrics. More cool times.

Candy Striper Death Orgy [6/7]
I have seldom been more sorry to be without knee braces than during this set; CSDO's Slayer-driven thrash creates the inevitable lust for destruction, but I couldn't go throwing myself around and running the risk of snapping one or both pegs. I did what I could to keep those who were moshing moving around, but it frustrates me to no end that I wasn't able to get things circled up and moving oldschool-style. While CSDO is not exactly the most original band in the world, they're rock-solid technically and compositionally, and use that perfect thrash lock-in to kick extreme amounts of ass; one has to wonder why they're only just now putting out their debut full-length; maybe they weren't this practiced back when Meliah Rage and Wargasm were the core of the scene, but thrash has been 'back' for a while now, and they gig enough that somebody should have noticed them. I'm currently slotted to see them opening for Testament in the middle of next month, and the kickass set they laid out here in Worcester definitely makes me more likely to drive down to friggin Southbridge and catch that one.


After CSDO closed up, there came the announcement that due to continuously outstanding turnouts -- due both to the venue's attractions and the awesomeness of the bills -- Metal Thursday is going to start going bi-monthly, with the first "second show" in two weeks. This is what happens when people support shows; more of them happen and we all see more bands, who have more opportunities to practice their craft and get better. Everyone benefits; hopefully, we'll be able to see those benefits in Boston and get some non-Sunday shows at the Skybar by patronizing the hell out of the Sunday gigs.

Next show is Doro (kickass) at Mark's (blech) on Saturday, then Skybar on Sunday. I'm trying to pull people along for these from the North Shore, but haven't had much luck so far...gotta try harder, both to get people in other regions into our native bands, and to try and overcome this damned blight.

Metal Church with Meliah Rage, Steel Assassin, Ravage, Red Right Hand, La Strega, Troll, and Legion of the Dying [Mark's, Bedford, 1/27/2007]

I got rolling a little later than anticipated, but still arrived with plenty of time, actually a couple minutes before doors. It's probably just that the back roads component winds around, and the part on 93 is such a huge pain in the ass, that it makes the drive feel longer than it is. On the way in, I got a ticket off Legion of the Dying; I already had one, but as discussed previously, getting tickets to a P2P show without going through the bands is like stabbing them in the back. There are equitable ways to do pay to play (maybe discussed in a later post), but requiring a band to front $400 to play at 6 PM to barely more people on the floor than on the stage is not one of them.

This settled, I got inside, got a beer, and started fielding questions and comments about my jacket almost immediately. This would be an ongoing theme of the night; there were a couple other guys in kuttes there, but mine as especially ridiculous seemed to draw consistent attention. I talked with the vocalist of La Strega initially -- he had a similar rig but out'grew' it -- and then one of Ravage's hangers-on later, before La Strega, who had a leather vest that patches kept falling off of. Folks, there are tailoring solutions to both these problems. If you get too rotund for your kutte, cut the seams out on the sides and shoulders, sew in a 3- or 4-inch spacer section of denim in all areas, then cover the spacing up with more patches so it looks more natural. And if you've got a leather vest, there are these things called leather needles that are sharp and strong enough to go through it. There's no way my jacket could survive the heavy use and abuse it gets if the patches were ironed rather than sewn on.

Enough with the metal homemaking tips already. On to the bands.

Legion of the Dying [4.5/7]
I was really going back and forth on this band, and ended up going with a split score, which I hate having to resort to. However, it turned out to be both necessary and accurate, because there are a fair number of hairs to be split on the first half of the bill. These guys did a decent job despite the fact that the audience never got up to even double the number of people on stage, working an odd but decent mix of power and black metal that probably doesn't owe as much to Bifrost as it sounded to me. It was a pretty good performance, though there's room for improvement in some of the material, and there's definitely a reason that this band was opening up this show rather than playing later. The other five metalheads who saw this set were probably equally entertained, but those who came in later did not miss much, either from this band or much of the first half of the bill.

Troll [4/7]
It probably goes without saying that this is not the Norwegian black metal Troll, but a hard rock combo of the same name from New England. Their set was better than might have been anticipated; the drummer did use all of his forest of cymbals, and though any number of very negative things might have been said about the band based on their average age, none of them would actually have been true. The music was strongly hard-rock based, the kind of attack that the guys at BNR usually call just "'80s metal", and mostly well-performed. In spots I got the impression that I was watching My Pet Demon through a window into fifteen years in the future; I'm sure that the band won't be crazy about hearing this as if they're going to be stuck playing mediocre bar shows forever and not really getting any traction, but the reasons are more positive: a band resolutely swimming against the current, playing the kind of music that drives them, no matter what the trends are. For this reason I really have to respect this band, even though I'm not crazy about their music, and a lot of the local bands on this bill that had several older members, for sticking it out, playing metal, and continuing to put up with the bullshit of underground gigging and promotion despite moving forward in their lives.

La Strega [4.5/7]
I picked both a good and a bad spot to see this band from. On the positive side, I got right up on the rail to get an earful of their guitar. On the negative side, the guitarist was playing through at least a full stack, maybe a double stack, and I could barely hear anything else, and the vocals more or less not at all. The performance was pretty good, built mainly on classic melodic metal, but there were warts on it as well. The guitarist definitely has chops, but I'm not nearly as sold on his musical sense; no matter how kickass a solo is technically, and there were some really good ones in their set, it'll still sound bad if it's not in the same key that the rest of the band is playing in. Even though this was defined by only a bassist last night, it still bears remembering.

Red Right Hand [5/7]
I was having trouble placing these guys until I talked with this other dude at the bar; he commented that they sounded a lot like Exodus, and the light immediately went on. Thet did sound a hell of a lot like Exodus, putting a little more melodics into an aggressive thrash sound and topping it off with a singer spitting vitriol. They were the only band to play a cover on this bill -- how "Highway Star" dropped out of Metal Church's set is a tale told later -- and they did ample justice in ripping through Slayer's "Black Magic". You don't see too many bands reaching back to do stuff off Show No Mercy at the local level, even a cut as well-known as this one. All in all it was a pretty killer set; I scored a CD off them as well, and in this case it was direct support of the band, not, as with the two Troll discs I got, because the other bands didn't have their fucking merch setups out. I'm looking at you, Steel Assassin and Ravage; when you kick ass on stage, make sure you've got some dood in the back with the box of CDs so you can take money from the people you just pumped up.

Ravage [6/7]
This was as good a set as I've seen from Ravage in a long time; Al seemed really on, and the sound guys had his vocals dialed in perfectly, which has not been the case in the recent past. Of course, the last time I saw Ravage was at a disco in Saugus, so there's definitely an explanation here. They did all new material -- off their two albums, no Curse of Heaven stuff -- and all of it sounded great. They did have a banner of the Spectral Rider guy, but it was draped over the front monitors rather than hung in the back (as it probably was on their Euro dates). This is probably just as well, because Steel Assassin had some problems with their banner, which are kind of to be expected when you're tying it to the ceiling rather than to a truss. The guy they got to fill in of Howie (who recently quit) on bass did a competent job, but stayed mostly at the back, probably indicating that he's just filling in on a temporary bassist, and the Ravage bassist search will continue.

Steel Assassin [6/7]
Several people commented that of the undercard, these guys stole the show. I don't necessarily agree with that -- the last three supporting acts were largely even, maybe incremental steps in advancing order, in my view -- but I can definitely see where that assessment would come from. They did a strong set of Maiden-inspired power/thrash metal, and really got the crowd churning up. Again, my position may have cost me some of the impact -- I was up front, but leaning on the stage left bass tubes -- but I was still seriously impressed, and hope to catch this band sometime else when they have merch.

Meliah Rage [6/7]
Finally, the touring bands came up, and the impact showed it to be worth the wait, even for those somewhat mental people who didn't enjoy a very good lineup of local openers. Meliah Rage played with a fire and intensity that seemed deliberately intended to belie certain assertions made about them being D-level generic thrash and unable to gain traction. The music itself was fairly typical, built heavily around ideas originally explored by Metallica, but the performance more than made up for the relative lack of originality in composition; there is nothing wrong with doing stuff that others have done before, as long as you kick ass at it and put on a good show, which was absolutely the case here. They played a good mix of old and new material, and always with a fanatic energy; the singer stagedived three times, and fortunately all three times was caught and returned. This is by no means a sure thing, as he's kind of a big dude, and Mark's has a no-mosh policy, so the first leap may have caught a few people by surprise. It was an awesome performance, but if it ran late (I wasn't watching the clocks), it might come out as a negative....for reasons to be documented a little further on.

Metal Church [7/7]
This is not solely a psycho fanboy reaction to finally hearing Blessing In Disguise stuff live. The key word in that one is 'solely'; hearing this lineup do "Fake Healer" is definitely one of the highlights of my year so far and will probably continue to be even after we get out of January. I don't know whether it's audience- or copyrights-driven, but this set, unlike their performances at Wacken, this set covered the band's whole career, though weighted early, if only because there's just so much awesome material on Metal Church and The Dark. They brought out a couple dancers from the strip club part of the building for "Fake Healer", and while there were a few dollars thrown on stage, I probably wouldn't've noticed even if they had, at any point, taken any of their (minimal) clothes off. Save the chicks for some other number if you want people to look at them, this is FAKE FUCKING HEALER! This set was debatably better than when I saw them on the Party Stage, but was unfortunately cut short before the encore -- "Highway Star" as mentioned earlier -- due to club curfew. The astonishing lameness of this is difficult to comprehend, but this of course isn't the band's fault; the problem lies with the club, and indirectly with the promoter for booking them here...and then via multiple indirection, with whoever booked their tour through New England Concerts rather than trying to get them into Boston. It was still an awesome set even without the encore -- and really, there would probably have been no complaints had they just gone on for another half hour, even with the snow and the condition of the roads outside.


I've now recovered all my hearing damage, and have the newly purchased Metal Church pin affixed to my jacket; next show's probably out in Worcester, Metal Thursday starting off Metal Winter Break, which has gotten a little more potential fill. I probably won't go up to Mark's again to pay Diecast to see Mortis Dev and Frozen on Friday, but I'm mulling over trying to get into this party Mark Fields of You're Fired is throwing Saturday. On the plus side, metal + party. On the minus side, I'm not sure that I could even survive partying out with Anal Cunt and assorted dudes, and it'd be a fucking shame to miss the rest of Metal Winter Break due to being dead or in jail or in the hospital or something. We'll see how this shakes out.

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.

Shelfcore Quest 2006: Step 3 [35] (repost)

Repost of album review snippets, plus a show review down at the bottom.

-----------------------------

Tankard - B-Day [4/7]
"Maybe Tankard doesn't know how to do anything but pitch it directly down the center. Maybe they just don't choose to."

Yattering - Human's Pain [4/7]
"If you want early Vader, this band isn't a bad place to look, but there's nothing here to particularly recommend them over Vader's own early material either."

Sentenced - Amok [6/7]
"...more than a transition record between the death-metal and post-death periods of this band."

Sentenced - Love & Death [5/7]
"...one of the strongest arguments out there that the change in singers did not in itself change the band. Sentenced was changing before Jarva left, and as this EP shows, the trajectory of that change was still producing good music."

Death - Individual Thought Patterns [7/7]
"The former assessment stands: some of the most perfect 40 sequential minutes ever recorded. Anyone who can handle the music should own this."

Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth [7/7]
"Among the actual songs, there's not one that's noticeably weak, and the guitar sound that comes off as tired and overdone on A Night At The Opera is still fresh and fairly ripping here."

Burzum - Det som engang var [7/7]
"Here, as practically everywhere, Varg is doing something absolutely unique, and fortunately, unlike his post-incarceration material, it's also stuff that people will want to listen to."

Elvenking - Heathenreel [5/7]
"The standard rap on Italian power metal bands is that they suck. This is usually true, but not for Elvenking. Their style here is a lot more muscular than customary..."

Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken [7/7]
"Metal is live music, meant to be played live, but it's very seldom that any live record actually pushes through the full punch of the band's abilities and captures a truly awesome set. Here, Pete et al come out roaring and absolutely don't let up, blasting through the full range of their material to this point, working death metal of varying vintages and conceptual viewpoints into a unified and irresistible whole."

In Extremo - Suender Ohne Zuegel [6/7]
"...a great, solid record, but also strongly metal, even in the way the archaic touches are used, presenting a height that they only barely got back to with the recent Mein Rasend Herz. It's a shame that this was the last of their albums to see wide American release...."

Carnal Forge - The More You Suffer [5/7]
"....sounds a lot less revolutionary and a lot more like the way that everyone else is mixing death, thrash, and hardcore. It's still good music, and if you want a crash course in NSWOTM, it's not a bad place to start, but it's not as earth-shaking as it may have appeared at first glance."

Dissection - Live Legacy [5/7]
"The quality isn't always the best, and the set is quite short, omitting a bunch of favorites in favor of a couple weaker tracks, but after a seven-year drought it came as a welcome sign that Dissection wasn't completely gone."

Nokturnal Mortum - To The Gates Of Blasphemous Fire [5/7]
"...one that's lost some of its luster in the light of Goat Horns and NeChrist.... This is still an excellent album, and probably essential for black metallers, but it's not quite the be-all, end-all that I may have initially considered it."

Bathory - Twilight of the Gods [6/7]
"....this still sounds vital and inspiring, and fifteen years ago it was absolutely like nothing else. I don't concentrate on the past in these, but in the case of something truly epochal it's not valid to just simply ignore it either..."

Heaven Shall Burn - Whatever It May Take [6/7]
"....the conviction that this band is pushing some of the strongest material metalcore has to offer remains."

Agalloch - The Mantle [7/7]
"It's not possible to tire of a true classic, or outgrow something with this much depth, this many twists and turns. I'm confident that not only do I feel this way at four years' distance, but that I will still react to this disc in much the same manner if I make it out another forty."

Enslaved - Eld [5/7]
"Apart from "793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)", this record is more solid than superlative, still tightly bound to black metal tropes and ideas."

Dismember - Hate Campaign [5/7]
"[Dismember's] not going to change the face of music, or probably ever make an album that surprises anyone, but even if all they ever do is release iteration after iteration of ripping death metal with just that right amount of melody, that's still plenty reason for anyone who loves metal as metal to get into them."

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [5/7]
"....there's a lot of good material on here, and nearly everything is single-worthy, but I prefer my Iron Maiden a little more chewy and complex than what's presented here."

At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul [7/7]
"It ... kicks an absolutely inordinate amount of ass, and the new-wave-of-whatever-metal contingent is still trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to recapture the bounce, groove, hookiness, and pure punch of this one."

Nevermore - Enemies of Reality [5/7]
"I'm still on the original production, which despite being pushed to the center, still sounds pretty decent. Nevermore does better with a fuller dynamic and positional range, but in the context of this record, the claustrophobic, boxed-in feel actually works."

In Extremo - Verehrt und Angespien [5/7]
"This is the disc that a lot of In Extremo's classics come from, but their own style, oddly enough, isn't very developed here yet.... Live, this rocks; on record, it's still good, but the punch of the later material and the flash of the visual (and tactile, given the amount of pyro they pump around) elements of the performance are both missing, and the effect is correspondingly less."

Borknagar - The Archaic Course [5/7]
"....the least black metal of Borknagar's works, but also not quite the most progressive, and the result is an in-between mix that fans (like me) will dig, but everyone else can safely skip."

Testament - The New Order [5/7]
"....a good Bay Area thrash record, though not as good as its predecessor, but one track on it is quite debatably the best thing the band ever recorded. .... If you're more easily swayed by emotion and like screaming along on "DON'T FOLLOW THE PREACHER!!", feel free to add another point or two."

Incantation - Diabolical Conquest [6/7]
"Lots of other bands try, but so far only Incantation has been able to summon the sounds of H.P. Lovecraft's Outside; here, without explicitly trying. And when brutality and chaos are the aims, it's difficult to think of a higher mark."

Bal-Sagoth - A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria [4/7]
"For fans of first-generation evolved black metal, though, this disc is a decent outing, and depending on how you feel about the band's later direction, might be proof that even Bal-Sagoth didn't always suck. "

Morbid Angel - Gateways to Annihilation [5/7]
....full of thick, dense, brutal death metal, with quite a few of the twists and technical tricks that the band is rightly famous for, but there's little that stands out from the pack. It's still a good record, but it's probably not essential for anyone but fans; they've done work that everyone, let alone all death metallers, should own, but here the feel is more average..."

Metal Church - Metal Church [6/7]
"....3 of the first 4 songs on this album are power/thrash classics, and the impulse for any metalhead exposed to them is to shout their praises from the rooftops. The recorded-in-analog-for-analog-playback production may make the total sound a little thin, but the power of "Beyond The Black", "Metal Church", and "Gods of Wrath" is undeniable...."

Testament - The Legacy [7/7]
"....more melodic than usual for Bay Area thrash, but that doesn't stop the progress of the music: there's not really a bad song on here, and a handful of true classics. Even all these years later, and with such significant changes to their sound, Testament hasn't really gotten back to the heights of this record...."

Emperor - Prometheus - The Discipline of Fire & Demise [6/7]
"....an uncompromising fireball of both trueness and progress, and notice served that the two need not be always separate. I favor Anthems… over this one as Emperor's best, but the argument really could go either way for a lot of people."

Emperor - Emperor/Wrath Of The Tyrant [6/7]
"....this is the true raw unapologetic black metal that touched off the Norwegian explosion and changed extreme music. Not everyone is even going to be able to listen to this, let alone appreciate it, but those who can won't have it any other way."

Emperor - Scattered Ashes - A Decade of Emperial Wrath [--]/[6/7]
"If you've obsessively collected everything Emperor's ever done, you don't need this. I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone who actually does, but like all collections it makes a convenient package for those too lazy to rip and burn their own favorites, and comes backed with a bunch of stuff that'll be cool for fans."

Borknagar - The Olden Domain [7/7]
"....nine years and four records after it was laid down, it's a legitimate pick as Borknagar's best work. It's neither afraid to blast, scream, chug, or lilt, and the mixture thereof is probably the reason why it's still so huge to me now as when I discovered it."

Anthrax - State of Euphoria [6/7]
"....there's a lot of really good music on here, even if you have to dig down through the for-analog mastering to get at it. Anthrax has done better performances, and more consistent ones, but I'm not sure they've got a record with more total quality of material than this."

Zyklon - World Ov Worms [5/7]
"While they've become more death metal and more original/separable lately, at this stage Zyklon:Emperor::The Haunted:At The Gates is still true."



Show review: My Pet Demon with Ravage and The Four Horsemen, Peabody Jam Rooms, 3/24/2006

This was a good show, and a fair time out for seven bucks, even though the puritanical attitudes of this country meant no beer was available. (All-ages show, and liquor licensing boards have giant logs up their rears...) That's all right, though; public transit also sucks here, so I had to drive and couldn't drink anyways.

The venue in question is pretty damn classic, built into an old factory building which now serves as rehearsal space. The outside's all tar paper and weathered plywood, and short of having to swing down into a venue through a hole in the floor, there's little better place for an underground club. Size-wise, it's roughly comparable with Sputnix, and for the current scene, that's about the size of club that can be supported. Headcount was about 30, maybe as high as 50.

As before, scores:

The Four Horsemen [3/7]: They went on first, and had the worst sound of the night, probably due to not doing a sound check -- they got better by their second song. They put on a decent performance, but on this bill they were simply overmatched; they've got some talent, but it's unevenly distributed and their original songs weren't particularly memorable. They covered "Walk" and "Five Minutes Alone" well, but they're going to need more time and development before they can move up in the world.

Ravage [4/7]: Ravage is ready for Europe, and Europe (if I read it right, they're playing their first German festival show in the fall) will be ready for them. The Spectral Rider material is stronger and deeper than Curse of Heaven, and the new song they debuted here, "Freedom Fighter" is better still. Their overall sound was better than The Four Horsemen, but with the complexity of what they do with two lead guitars, some stuff was still lost; if they get a dedicated sound dude who knows their material as well as they do, and when and how much to bring up which guitar in the PA mix, they should be golden. With Matt Barlow gone from the stage, Al is as good a replacement as the Continent is likely to desire, and the band has the punch to back up the soundalike nostalgia with the *current* conviction that this bunch is pretty kickass overall.

My Pet Demon [5/7]: The headliners, and the best sound of the night, which is normal, but was definitely aided by the fact that their style of thrash is pretty much purpose-bred for the sound systems of small clubs. A couple of Alex's solos were a little diminished, but the overall effect was pretty good. What really strikes me, at this point, is how much good material this band has, so that over a 45-minute set, they don't have to play nearly all of it. I can ofcourse remember back when all they had was the stuff from A New Found Evil, a couple covers, and the instrumental to "Revolution's Breath", and had to play every note to fill the time. Now, the only thing left in the setlist from that period is "Demons Are Forever" (which they're back to opening with), and the gigantic, largely gratuitous (but still awesome) breakdown in "What Would Jason Do" has taken the place of the lock-in bridge in "Self Destruct" (a song that they're glad to finally put to rest) for getting people to go fucking bananas. Their cover of "The Trooper", which they closed with, was about as good as I've heard from anyone not Iron Maiden -- or at least, what I could hear of it over 40 other psycho metalheads also rushing the stage and yelling along with every word.

On the whole, this was a pretty good gig; the scene is still strong around here, and The Four Horsemen prove that there's still new blood coming up, which is necessary to keep the scene from becoming overpopulated with old farts like me who can't mosh because we've got no ligaments left in out knees. The future is also looking promising for the bands in this bunch that are looking at larger stages; Spectral Rider got decent reviews in German metal mags, and when Ravage is able to take their thrashing power metal live, they'll probably drive enough sales to pick up a couple more festival slots next year, and such incremental steps are how you build your career as an underground band. MPD's new material ("Expiration Date") was pretty good as well, but they have enough strong songs that if they just re-recorded the best of their current two-and-a-half demos with improved production, they'd have a fair shot at a contract with someone, somewhere. Turning that deal into success is still the hard part, but right now they definitely sound committed enough to make it happen.

I got a shirt, though more to support the band than because the design was especially boss. MPD's logo looks better in that context, but still looks kind of like it was typeset using the Big Internet Box of Scary Fonts, and might potentially hold them back in the future. First impressions count a lot, sadly, even in the underground where we have maxims to support music over image. Kenny was talking about redesigning the logo based on a cow skull somewhere between the one on the Crime Pays cover and the Wacken symbol; if I get the time I might to try and scratch something up; criticizing stuff that you're able to do something about and not even trying to do something about it is never cool.

In about a month I'll be scratching up something similar for Metalfest...maybe sooner if I can get out for the Morbid Angel/Krisiun date next weekend. With reliable transport and disposable income, not getting out to show just isn't really an option any more.