Psycroptic, Cannabis Corpse and Gorod at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX, 5/1/2019

Tasmania.  Virginia.  France.  Three bands, three countries and all brought together on the same bill in the celebration of metal.

First on the bill was France’s Gorod.  France is not one of the European nations known for producing metal bands.  Sure, Gojira has shown a light on what the country can bring to the scene, but quantity-wise, France hasn’t produced in the way some of their European neighbors have done.  Gorod brings a highly technical death metal that focuses on intricate rhythms and an almost jazz-fusion type sound.  Their set was dominated by drummer Karol Diers’ fierce double-bass drum fury.  I spent their entire set just being pummeled by the concussive blasts coming from his kit.

Second up was Richmond motherfucking Virginia’s Cannabis Corpse.  I’ve kind of been on the fence with these guys up to this point because I’m not a big fan of the joke metal bands, i.e. Mac Sabbath and Galactic Empire.  Metal has enough trouble getting respect as a legitimate art form without having these kinds of gimmicky bands out there.  I don’t know.  Maybe I just need to lighten up.  Anyway, these guys are silly, but they did bring some pretty decent live chops.  At any rate, you’ve got Cannibal Corpse inspired death metal combined with lyrics celebrating the almighty bud.  Extra props for bring out a hype-man dressed in a pot bud costume who proceeded to jump off of the stage and start up a banging circle pit.

Headlining our death metal smorgasbord was Tasmania’s Psycroptic.  Another highly technical death metal band that combines it with a bit more groove a-la Lamb of God or Decapitated.  Their set was short and sweet, but provided a pretty good mix of older songs and ones of of their latest, As the Kingdom Drowns.

Gorod-Wolfsmond

Psycroptic-Cold

Allegaeon-Apoptosis

Wow!  Man, I have been waiting for an album to simply lay me out flat and it has finally arrived.  We’ve had some decent releases up to this point in 2019, but none have really come close to reaching to pinnacle of metal nirvana.

Allegaeon is one member of what I consider the Big 3 of technical death metal (the other two being Rivers of Nihil and Black Crown Initiate).  These three bands have been crucial in me not completely losing faith in technical death metal as a sub-genre.  All three bands can blow any other band off of the stage simply on pure technical ability alone.  However, all three bands manage to carefully balance that thin line between self-indulgent musical wankery and using their technical prowess to further the goal of creating memorable music.

Now, last year, we saw Rivers of Nihil go completely off the map in trying a completely new direction (Prog!) and new sounds (Saxophone!) in their attempt to stave off complacency and stagnation.  Allegaeon has not gone to such lengths on Apoptosis.  Apoptosis feels more like a regathering of strength and a distillation of everything that makes this band amazing.  I felt like their last album, Proponent For Sentience, had a little too much focus on the technical aspect of things and, as a result, the album had a very sanitized feel.  It was good, but it wasn’t as memorable as Elements of the Infinite.  Apoptosis almost feels like a step backwards in a way in that it reminds me of all of the good things about Elements, but it just expounds and expands on those concepts.  Greg Burgess and Michael Stancel continue to amaze as one of the great guitar tandems of the 2010s.  Vocalist Riley McShane seems to be more comfortable in his role as frontman in this his second album at the helm.  He showed his clean delivery on their earlier cover of Rush’s Subdivisions and he brings some of these clean vocals to some of Allegaeon’s original songs this time around.  It brings just another element of diversity to the band’s sound.

This one is a banger from beginning to end and will probably end up on a few year-end lists.  All Hail Science, indeed!

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Inter Arma-Sulphur English

Yeah, this one is a hellscape in every possible manner.  This is one of those instances where the album cover does complete justice to the contents contained therein.  This is a primordial soup of metal.  This is the kind of metal made by cave dwellers at the dawn of man.  This is the music you will hear upon descending into the bowels of hell; each track starker and bleaker than the previous until you reach the end in total and absolute darkness.  Alone.  Helpless.  All hope gone.

So, you know, perfect for the soundtrack for a summer day at the lake.

I don’t know where they recorded this thing and I’m not entirely sure I really want to know where it was created.  The sound on here is cavernous.  Vocals, riffs and drum beats just echoing into a blackened void.  Inter Arma has always been a very dark band with a very sludgy and thick sound, but they really managed to tap into something downright primal on this one.  In a way, I’m not even really sure how to describe it.  Or if I can actually say that this album is listenable.  I mean, obviously, I’m joking about pulling this one out at the lake or a pool party, but seriously, this isn’t one you aren’t going to be jonesing to pull out on a Friday after work and crank like the first Van Halen album.  But, there is something here.  Something that is beckoning in all this bleakness.  There is something of substance here that is going to take multiple listens to fully understand and embrace.  This album is not going to be for everyone.  Shit, it’s probably not for a good 95% of the population.  But, if you’re not afraid to peer into the void, this might be an album you might want to check out.

You might want to check back with me by the end of the year and ask me again at that point how I feel about this one.  I think it’s going to take some time for this one to fully melt into my mouth.

4 flip flops out of 5

Robin Trower at The Moody Theater at ACL Live, Austin, TX, 4/24/2019

There are times when I go to shows and I start to wonder if I’m getting a little too old for this shit.  Sometimes I’m the only haggard dude with grey hair in the pit and I have to wonder what the youngsters slamming into me must think of the feeble idiot in the flip flops.  And, then I think about the music I get to see performed live and how much joy I get out of it and I just say, “Fuck it.”  I could care less about how out of place I may seem.

And then there was Wednesday night.  I have to say that I felt out of place for an entirely different reason.  The crowd who came out to see Robin Trower do his thing made me feel downright spry and relevant.  Pressed khakis, Life Alert bracelets and portable oxygen tanks were the order of the day for these fogies.  No moshpits for this crowd.  Shit, the closest thing to a metal tour shirt I saw was a Roger Waters shirt.  So, once again, I felt like the oddball in my Nevermore shirt and flip flops.  I just can’t win.

Anyway, I’m not sure why there weren’t more old school metalheads in the crowd because Trower is fucking metal.  Maybe not in the traditional sense, but the series of albums he and his power trio put out in the 1970s are pure guitar magic.  He delivers a relaxed, laid-back version of metal, if you will.  His combination of blues with flavorings of Hendrix-inspired psychedelic shadings led to some of the underground gems of the classic era of 1970s rock.  This night’s setlist vacilitated between his classic material and some of his newer songs.  The newer stuff was fine, but the classic era stuff was just amazing to witness live.  At 74, Trower looks frail in person, but that sound!  Damn! There are certain notes and passages that he hit and they just crackled with life.  It’s always interesting to see how one person can put his or her’s stamp on an instrument and Trower has this ability to hit chords that just cut through the air with an intensity and purposefulness that most guitarists will never reach.  I’m really glad I got to finally witness this dude lay down his magic live.

Bridge of Sighs

Wormwitch-Heaven That Dwells Within

Medieval Myth & Magic from the Great Wight North.  This is the manner in which the band describes itself on their Facebook page.  I had to look Wormwitch up on the interwebs because I honestly didn’t know anything about these guys before hearing this album.  Fantasy nerds from Canada blasting out some blackened encrusted death metal.  I can get down with that.  This one is different in that Wormwitch really feels like a rock ‘n roll band at heart and they have just added the black and death metal elements as some extra spice to the cauldron.  They kind of remind me of another really underground band from England called Ancient Ascendant, who just recently called it quits as a band.  I think Wormwitch is going to help fill the void left by those guys.

4 flip flops out of 5

Exumer-Hostile Defiance

Every time I come across this band, in my mind I scream in my best Halford voice, “Stand by for Exumer!!”  I don’t know why.  It makes no sense.  But that’s where my brain goes for some reason.

Exumer is one of these thrash bands that had a really short run with a couple of albums in the mid-to-late 80s and then went away.  And then they magically reappeared with a new album in 2012.  I have no idea what went on during the long hiatus or what ultimately brought a couple of the original players back together to reignite the old band and proceed with their career.  We’re on album number three since their reunion and the band is just clicking on all cylinders.  Hostile Defiance is a tight, no-frills thrash record.  Riffs for days on this one.  This damn thing would have fit right in during the formative years of thrash when this band was first starting out.  I, for one, am happy that the metal blood never truly went out for these guys because a nice solid thrash album is always appreciated in this corner of the universe.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Yob, Voivod and Amenra at Barracuda, Austin, TX, 4/13/2019

Well, this was another of those well put together triple bills of different kinds of metal that just meshed really well in execution.  The only downside to this show was due to the fact that it was on the outside stage during an unseasonably windy and cold evening in Austin.  I was a veritable ice cube by the end of the show.  So, I hope you appreciate the effort I put in to bring you this report.

Ever since Yob came out with last year’s Our Raw Heart (#2 slot in the 2018 Best of Metal List), I’ve been itching to see them come through town to perform the new songs live.  In addition, due to head honcho Mike Scheidt’s health scare from a few years back, you don’t want to take any Yob show for granted.  Thankfully, it seems as though Scheidt is back to full health and he was downright frenetic and ferocious in his performance Saturday night in Austin.  This was a spirited set performed by one of doom’s preeminent bands and surprisingly, featured a setlist that only contained one track off of the new album.  I’ll be perfectly honest that I was a tad disappointed that the new album wasn’t more prominently featured in the songs presented, but the setlist did contain a wide range of songs from throughout Yob’s career.  It really felt as if Scheidt crafted the setlist with the most diehard Yob fan in mind.

Second on the bill for the evening was Canadian sci-fi prog thrash band Voivod.  Hard to believe, but Voivod has been toiling away in the metal trenches now for 35+ years and this is the very first time I’ve witnessed their live show.  Voivod brings a stage show that is equal parts frenetic thrash, goofy Canadian stage antics and rollicking crowd participation.  Frontman Snake Belanger is one of those singers who has so mastered the art of facial expressions that it becomes one of the infectious portions of their show.

Opening the show was post-metal band Amenra from Belgium.  This was my first experience with this band, but they come across very much in the Neurosis vein of sludgey post-metal.  Their sound alternates between almost spiritual-like atmospheric segments that blend into bombastic pounding sections.  Vocalist Colin van Eeckhout provides a plaintive type screeching vocal style that invokes someone in a great deal of emotional pain.  Their opening set honestly left me feeling a tad drained.  Not in a bad way, but the performance was just very brutal and raw.

Sadly, no video snippets are available from this show.  The lighting on the stage was minimal for all three bands and I just wasn’t able to capture any decent footage to share.

Vltimas-Something Wicked Marches In

Well, this is a nasty little record.  And one that kind of came out of nowhere.  Take three dudes from three legendary death metal acts and you’ve got a pretty formidable lineup on your hands.

Vltimas consists of ex-Morbid Angel vocalist/bassist David Vincent, ex-Mayhem guitarist Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen and Cryptopsy drummer Flo Mounier.  Vincent has been meandering all over the place since his latest departure from Morbid Angel and was last heard promoting his country-and-western project.  It’s nice to see him get back in the metal fold on this album and I think it may be his strongest performance since the early Morbid Angel albums.  All three dudes just seem energized on this album and the songs just crackle with life.  This is very much is the Behemoth sort of death/black metal vein.  It’s cool too in that this thing doesn’t really sound like any of the other bands these guys are associated with.  It is it’s own little entity.

Another plus, if you’re into this sort of thing, is the album artwork.  If your a purist and still purchase the hard copies of album, you’ll be rewarded with a full expanded poster of the artwork on this one.  For this reason, I’ll just never understand people who go digital only.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Fallujah-Undying Light

If you’ve read any of this blog in the past, you’ve probably seen me rail against certain bands in the technical death metal field that I feel let the technical side of things get a bit out of hand.  It’s not that what these bands do is not impressive.  It’s just that the focus seems to be more on how complicated the band can make the rhythms and techniques used in the songs rather than on creating a solid song.  Like the song itself becomes secondary to acting solely as a vehicle to showcase the players’ musical chops.  This sort of technical focus only carries so much weight with many as I get older.  Sure, I was blown away by the Yngwies and shit of the world when I was in junior high, but now, I just want something that fucking jams.  Or something that hits me in the emotional soft spot.  Tweedly leads and scales just don’t have any sort of staying power in my world anymore.

Now, I know I’m probably not in the majority in my viewpoint here, especially in the world of tech death fans.  Case in point is the band at hand, Fallujah.  Fallujah is a fairly new band and is one that has gotten quite a bit of favorable press amongst the metal journalist and metal fans alike.  They were a band on paper that I should enjoy.  However, I just never really warmed up to their sound.  I think a big part of it was that it seemed like their focus was right in line with my aforementioned thoughts:  too technical at the cost of the quality of the songs.  It’s one of those things that I can’t entirely put an exact finger on in trying to explain why their sound never quite gelled with me, but it just never clicked.

So, flash to 2019 and Fallujah has seen themselves go through some changes with the quitting of founding member and vocalist, Alex Hofmann.  As a result, it seems as though the band had a reevaluation of their sound and direction and this latest album sees a distinct shift.  And from the reaction online, it seems to have rubbed a lot of their hard core fans the wrong way.  The new album is less focused on the technical side of things and feels like a tighter presentation.  New vocalist Antonio Palermo has more of an organic growl to his delivery than did Hofmann and I honestly dig it.  He’s kind of reminicient of Tomas Lindberg of At The Gates.  I have a feeling that I’m in the minority in kind of digging the new direction.  It’s not groundbreaking in any real way, but it’s not a sellout direction either.  It’s not like they’ve gone hair metal or anything like that.  It’s still technical death metal at its core, but the focus on flash has been reigned in.  I just feel like this approach is going to have more staying power than their earlier sound.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

The Moth Gatherer-Esoteric Oppression

This was a shot in the ass.  It’s always good to get surprised by a band.  I first heard The Moth Gatherer in 2015 when they released their last album The Earth Is the Sky.  I thought it was s decent album, but it didn’t really leave any indelible impression on me.  It was kind of a darkly mellow post-metal sound.  It had some good moments, but the band just kind of fell into the rabble of new bands that I come across in my meanderings across the metal landscape.

Flash forward to 2019 and BAM!  I saw their name pop up on the release calendar and I was happy to see that the band was still around and producing new music, but honestly, I didn’t really expect to be blown away by this one.  Well, spank my ass and call me Nancy because this thing is just EPIC.  Here in your grimy little hands you hold a slab of post-metal that approaches the likes of Cult of Luna and Isis type material.  It is really that good.  It feels like the band has gone a bit heavier in their presentation.  The guitars sound thicker and the vocals lean more in the harsh area.  There are a lot of layers on this album and I have a feeling I’m going to be unpacking the full measure of this thing for quite some time.  I honestly feel a need to go back and re-visit their previous material because I really feel like I may have missed something on my first pass with these guys.  Job well done, lads.

4 flip flops out of 5