Plague Vendor and Drakulas at The Mohawk, Austin, TX 4/1/2019

Sometimes you see a band performing live and you realize that around 90% of the bands you see in a live setting are just mailing it in.  Plague Vendor.  Holy crapola.  This was one hell of a whirlwind of a performance.  I think it’s safe to say that if by the end of a show you have to ask yourself, “What the hell just happened?”, it’s probably a pretty damn good show.

Now, I have to give props out to the punk rock wife for me even being at this show.  We saw Plague Vendor the first time a few years ago when they opened up for Refused here in Austin.  We didn’t know who they were, but they seemed like an entertaining little punk band with some infectious energy.  I had honestly kind of forgotten about them since that point, but the wife kept track of them and asked if I wanted to go see them when they set this date. “Sure.  Why the hell not?” I thought.  And, goddamn.  I think I may have missed something that first time around.  This band exudes confidence.  The foundation of the band, guitarist Jay Rogers, bassist Michael Perez and drummer Luke Perine, all lay down a serious slab of impressive punk riffs and rumble.  Over top of all that solid musicianship is this weird force of nature of a front man named Brandon Blaine.  Take a combination of Dennis from Refused merged with the stylings of Mick Jagger and a dose of Iggy Pop’s menacing snarl and pair it with a bit of a Jack White sounding wail and it starts to explain what Blaine brings to the table.  This dude just transformed into a dervish of manic energy from the moment he hit the stage.  It’s just impressive to see a band come out and just buy-in 100% into the performance.  These dudes just left it all out there on the stage and it was just fucking magical.  So many bands just going through the motions in their live shows could really take some tips from Plague Vendor.

Now, I’m not saying these guys are going to be huge, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Plague Vendor ends up being the next big punk band going.  I just don’t understand how anyone could not see them pull off a show like they did last night (for probably around 50-60 people in the audience, no less) and not walk away a fan.  Thank you, Plague Vendor.  Your performance is the kind of thing that still keeps me going to live shows at my ripe old age.

I also have to give a shout out to local band Drakulas for opening the show.  Mike Wiebe is another one of these frontmen that just gives everything in his live performances.  He and his Drakulas co-horts have created this interesting punk project that seems a bit like a group of weird cult figures who have a strange obsession with porn and Beta Max tapes.  It’s weird and creepy and unique and fun.

Plague Vendor

Drakulas

Queensryche-The Verdict

How many original band members does a band need to lose before it should simply stop existing as a band?  It seems like this question came up a while back amongst a group of my friends.  Some leaned toward a fairly strict interpretation and felt that if certain key members of a group left or passed away that the group should simply end as an active entity ala Led Zeppelin when John Bonham died.  Others, and I include myself in this category, feel that as long as the remaining members of the band feel as though they still have something to say or create under the current moniker and feel as though their new material still epitomizes the spirit of the original band, then more power to you.  It’s your band.  Do what you gotta do.

I know there is still a significant portion of the metal populace that still can’t, or even refuse to, embrace Todd La Torre as the voice of Queensryche.  No one will ever replace Geoff Tate in these people’s eyes and nothing Mr. La Torre does will ever be considered good enough.  Well, that’s a damn shame in my opinion.  Yes, he is copping Tate’s vocal style and delivery.  But, even while he sounds damn close to Tate, he has a distinct personality and vibe that he has brought to Queensryche that differentiates his tenure from, say, that of Tim “Ripper” Owens when he replaced Rob Halford in Judas Priest.  Owens always felt like a placeholder.  La Torre feels like he has grown into the position and has made it his own.  And I dig it.  It’s Queensryche without the pomposity that Tate devolved into in his later years.

We’re on to album number three of the La Torre years of Queensryche and we’re down to only two original members at this point with lead guitarist Michael Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson still in the fold.  Original drummer Scott Rockenfeld has stepped away from the band for the time being for personal reasons and it is somewhat unclear whether he is done for good or will be coming back to the fold at some point.  At any rate, La Torre not only handles the vocals on the new album, but he went ahead and performed all of the drums on the new album as well.

I feel like this is the best album Queensryche has put out post-Tate.  This album has a focus and a tightness that didn’t quite come across on the first two La Torre albums.  The material harkens back to stuff off of The Warning with a bit of a modern spin.  The songs are punchy.  The riffs are crunchy.  The vocals soar.  If you’re hesitating about Queensryche minus Tate in the year of 2019, you should really let that shit go.  Give this thing a listen.

4 flip flops out of 5

Mark Morton-Anesthetic

Those of you that know me or follow this blog with any sort of regularity know that Lamb of God is a very big band in my world.  So, obviously, when one of their members ventures out and releases their first solo album, you’d expect that my interest would be piqued.

Mark Morton is the lead guitarist for Lamb of God and he has been responsible for writing some of the band’s more adventurous songs over the years.  Think Descending, Vigil, and Walk With Me in Hell.  It feels like he has acted as a force in the band that tries to keep pushing it into unfamiliar territories and generally it makes for some very interesting songs.  So, I was really interested to see where he would take things when not constrained by the structure of Lamb.  In interviews, he’s always stated that he prefers to listen to more blues based music and hip/hop to listening to metal when he is away from Lamb.  So, there was really no telling what type of music was ultimately going to be on this solo project.

It appears that the basic idea of this album was to flush out some riffs that he didn’t feel would fit in Lamb of God and try to picture a vocalist that would fit the riff and song.  He reached out to a wide variety of singers with different styles to perform on each song.  The album is getting quite a bit of press because Chester Bennington of Linkin Park provided vocals for the album opener, Cross Off, and this ended up being one of the last recorded performances prior to his death. You’ve got some straight up metal songs handled by Testament’s Chuck Billy and one duet by Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe and Arch Enemy’s Alyssa White-Gluz.  You’ve got some straight ahead rock songs featuring Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge/Slash, and Josh Todd of Buckcherry.  You’ve got a crusty bluesy number with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees.  The real surprise number on the album is a neat little smooth jazz/soulful tune with a heretofore unknown to me singer/songwriter Naeemah Maddox.

All in all the album is OK.  There’s nothing on here that is really all that groundbreaking.  And I think that’s why I feel this one is a bit disappointing.  I really expecting to hear a little more experimentation from Mr. Morton.  I also think that some of the chosen vocalists didn’t really help some of the songs.  The guitar work is fine overall, but mostly this one really makes me long for the next Lamb of God release.

3 flip flops out of 5

Rivers of Nihil at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX, 3/22/2019

Ooof.  I hope there is at least someone out there that appreciates the peril I put myself and my unguarded feet in to bring you tales from the pit.  Look, I’m old and somewhat fragile at this stage.  Luckily, I’ve managed to avoid any serious injuries during my travails in the sweaty and stinky clubs of Texas over the years.  This one, however, nearly took me down.

So, Rivers of Nihil has embarked on their first major Statewide trek promoting their latest ambitious album, Where Owls Know My Name.  I was a big fan of this album (#7 on the 2018 Best of Metal List) and of its attempt to break the formulaic mold of a lot of the technical death metal bands going these days.  It was a progressive break from their previous material and was notable for incorporating a saxophone player into the mix.  It was very different and it appears to have paid off for the band in cementing their reputation of being one of the forefront bands in the technical death metal scene.  I have seen these guys do their thing twice before, but it was only during 30 minute opening sets.  So, it was exciting to see how a full hour and fifteen minute set would play out.  The highlight of this tour was their full performance of their latest album complete with a touring saxophone player to bring the full impact.  And the band pulled it off perfectly.  You could tell that the crowd was really into the new material and especially lost their friggin’ minds every time the sax player came out.  The band finished up their set with a few older songs that were markedly different in their aggression compared to the new material.

As to my aforementioned peril.  So, if you’ve been to Come and Take It Live in Austin, you’ll understand that the main floor area if front of the stage isn’t that large.  Especially width-wise.  Well, as would have it, lead singer Jake Dieffenbach decided that it would be a good idea to have the crowd engage in a wall of death during one song.  If you aren’t familiar with this particular pit activity, it involves splitting the crowd in half and then at the pivotal moment of the song both halves of the crowd launch at each other Braveheart-style into a mass of flailing humanity.  So, my stupid old ass was by one wall and figured, “Huh, I’m kind of stuck here.  Well, there’s enough of a buffer of dudes that I should be OK.”  Nope.  The wall starts and dudes start flying around.  One unfortunate overweight soul lost his footing coming around in the ensuing circle pit and careens full weight right into my knee.  I really thought I was fucked and had blown out my knee at first.  However, after a couple of more songs, I was finally able to put some weight on it and I ended up escaping serious injury.  After some serious icing that night, everything seems to be OK.

I may be getting a little too old for this shit.  But them’s the price of admission if you’re going to rock ‘n roll.

The Silent Life

In Flames-I, The Mask

The story of In Flames is really the story of two distinct bands.  On the one hand, you have the early era In Flames who was one of the touchstones of the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound.  This band was heavily influenced by Iron Maiden and the remainder of the NWOBHM movement and used that building block sound of twin leads to craft a beloved sub-genre of death metal.  The traditionalists have never been able to move past the classic albums of this era of In Flames.  On the other hand, you have the modern era In Flames.  This In Flames is characterized by more of an New Wave of American Heavy Metal.  I guess at this point you can only marginally characterize In Flames as a purely death metal band as they have incorporated elements of deathcore and even some slightly alternative metal elements to their songs.  It seems as though people come down in one of the two camps and there isn’t much crossover amongst the fans of the two distinct eras of this band

I find myself kind of torn with this band because I was such a huge fan of their early period.  However, I do actually like quite a few of the latter era albums.  I think you really have to view them as a completely different band these days and just forget that they are the same band that created Subterranean and The Jester Race.  Taking their new material simply as it is without any reference to what came prior helps me judge the new material on its own merits.  And some of the new stuff is decent.  It’s still a little more in the alternative metal vein than I normally like, but it’s still metal.

The new album continues In Flames embracing their new sound.  Vocalist Anders Friden is still moving away more and more from his trademark scream and is singing the choruses of most of the songs in his normal singing voice.  I kind of hate this because he really has one of the best sounding death metal screams in the game.  I’m honestly not entirely sure why so many people get downright angry with In Flames’ new sound.  The new album still has plenty of very aggressive guitar work and it is still really heavy overall.  It’s just different.  That being said, the new album’s material is sub-par compared to a lot of the albums in their new era.  It feels like the first part of the album contains the strongest material and then the remainder of the album sort of limps to the finish line.  I really feel like this is one of those albums that would have benefited from the dropping of three or four of the songs from the final cut.  There is just too much filler on this album for it to be considered a really strong album.  It’s not bad, but it’s not good either.  Just kind of an average effort.

3 flip flops out of 5

The Claypool Lennon Delirium-South of Reality

Well, it seems as though this was the strange little album for which I have unwittingly been longing.  It seems like I remember hearing a while back that Les Claypool from Primus and Sean Lennon got together for a project, but I don’t remember ever hearing anything from the first album they put out.  After hearing this new slab, I’m fairly ticked off that I didn’t seek it out originally.  Because this thing is fan-damn-tastic.

This album really feels like a creation of two kindred spirits.  Les Claypool brings his signature bass sound and the weird Primus nafarious sort of deranged fairy tale flavored lyrics.  Lennon brings an equally strange psychedelic and hippy-ish multi-instrumental game to the proceedings.  Together, the album feels kind of like a more laid back version of Primus with trapping of 60s psychedelic rock and 70s prog/art rock.  It’s a lush sounding album and it just sounds really fresh for something that is obviously inspired by music from an older era.  Delirium is a perfect moniker.  This one is a fucking keeper.

4 flip flops out of 5

2019 SXSW Recap, Austin, TX

It’s just such a fucking shitshow.  So many times when I’m attending this thing I just keep asking myself: Why?  Why do I even bother braving this mass of humanity in the attempt of seeing a decent up-and-coming band or, at the very least, some sort of memorable random spectacle.  For a severely introverted person, it’s a struggle to force one’s self into this pit of debauchery.  It’s just such a jumble of shows and parties and weird promotional gigs all crammed into a week over countless number of dirty and grimy clubs.  It’s exhausting.  It’s draining.  It’s kooky.  It’s maddening.  It’s revelatory.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s…well…a shitshow.

At least on paper, the 2019 edition of SXSW was looked to be somewhat underwhelming on the metal front.  In past years, we’ve been treated to showcases sponsored by the heavy hitters in the metal blogging word (i.e. not the one you are currently reading) such as Metal Injection, Metalsucks and Invisible Oranges.  However, none of these entities had any events this year.  Austin’s own Terror Fest put on a couple of showcases that featured Goatwhore and Conan among others.  But, by and large, this was just a dry year for metal.

Since there wasn’t much on the schedule that I felt was “must see” fare, I was content to sit back and let my Punk Rock Bride plan out our schedule.  And, damn, if she didn’t find some really good gems buried amongst the rabble of bands that hit town last week.  First up was the annual Japan Day preview show.  This is usually one of the more interesting shows that happens every year during SXSW.  It’s a broad variety of bands that are showcased at this event with the only common thread running through it is that all of the bands are from Japan.  You’ll see techno, indie pop, doo-wop, metal, prog, punk and weird art rock all represented.  The highlight of this year’s show was Otoboke Beaver.  This was a four-piece all female noise punk band.  They are self-described as being a “Japanese girls knock out or pound cake band”.  Which is awesome.  They hit the stage all wearing brightly colored floral 60s era go-go dancer dresses and proceeded to destroy the stage at Elysium.  Full of rage, this was a very cathartic set.

The other main highlight of the fest was another band from Japan called Asterism.  They are a three piece instrumental group made up of a 16, 17 and 18 year-olds.  The chops on these kids is very impressive.  The lead guitarist sounds as if Joe Satriani passed away and was reincarnated as a 16 year-old girl from Japan.  Her playing has a good combination of both aggressive metal riffs and intricate leads.  Plus, she has already mastered some very infectious stage presence with some fearsome headbanging skills and metal poses.  The bassist and drummer are also both similarly skilled and provide a solid foundation for the band.  It will be interesting to see which direction these kids ultimately end up pursuing as their careers progress.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats and Graveyard at Gas Monkey Live!, Dallas, TX, 3/12/2019

I traveled up to one of my least favorite cities in America on Tuesday to check out a tasty double bill of retro-flavored metal bands.  This was the second awesome pairing of bands in a span of four days for your intrepid reporter.  So, life could be shittier at this point.

First up on tonight’s bill was Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats.  These guys were my main reason for traveling three hours both up and back to Dallas since this was my first time getting to see them live.  And they did not disappoint.  Even though they have a very retro feel to their sound, Uncle Acid is most definitely a prototypical metal band.  Their live sound is just filled with explosive metal riffs and leads.  Vocalist and lead guitarist Kevin Starrs has one of those interesting voices that sounds like it was created in the Mason-crazed late 60s.  I don’t know how he comes up with it, but it is just this weird nasally sort of whine of a vocal style that is just somehow perfect for the music that it fronts.  This is a serious force to be reckoned with in the metal world.

The bluesy, barroom rock of Graveyard finished out the evening.  These guys are really feel like a band that you would find in some hole-in-the-wall dingy dive bar.  Songs of loss, hard-livin’, hard women and the blue-collar struggle of life all delivered with a soulful croon and dirty distorted guitars.  These guys bring the soul to metal.  Seriously.  There is an absolute R&B influence to their songs.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-I See Through You

Graveyard-An Industry of Murder

Baroness, Deafheaven and Zeal & Ardor at Emo’s, Austin, TX, 3/9/2019

This was a really cool triple bill.  Most of the time it seems like promoters like to group bands on a touring package that are all in the same vein of metal.  This show was different in that the three bands brought a diversity of metal styles to the same show.  I think these kinds of shows keep the proceedings from getting stale or repetitive.

Baroness and Deafheaven have joined together for a co-headlining trek across the States.  At this particular show, we were treated to having Baroness as the headliner.  It has been a few years since we’ve seen Baroness on a proper tour and this one presented a couple of changes.  First off, we got to see new lead guitarist, Gina Gleason, in action.  She fits in perfectly with the band.  Not only did she absolutely nail all of former guitarist Peter Adams’ leads and backing vocals, but she also managed to capably cover all of Pete’s enthusiastic headbanging for the band.  Additionally, we got to hear one preview song off of the band’s upcoming album, Gold and Silver.  The song seemed to be in a similar vein to the band’s last album, Purple.  Overall, the set was a fairly good cross-section of the band’s full catalog.

Deafheaven hit the stage in the middle slot of the show and ripped through a fairly tight set.  Always in the mood to tweak the traditions of black metal, they came out with a very spacey/rainbow themed backdrop and white carnations adorning their amps.  Much like Baroness, Deafheaven is kind of in between albums and they had just recently dropped one new song which they played during their set.  Deafheaven is just a weird band and I get why they catch so much crap from the purists.  Lead singer George Clark seems to be gathering more and more confidence in his stage performance as the band ages and if he continues with his whip-hair style of headbanging he’s liable to end up with a neck as thick as Corpsegrinders.  Lead guitarist Kerry McCoy’s emo-style dance moves just don’t quite gel with some of the downright brutal riffs coming out of his guitar.  I don’t know.  People slag these guys, but I dig it.  It’s different and the music is solid.

Zeal & Ardor were the wild card of the evening.  Billed as a combination of traditional slave-era black spiritual music with black metal, this was a band that I was really intrigued to see live.  Given the disparity between the two musical styles, you’d think this would be a mess, but it honestly works really well.  Mastermind Maneul Gagneaux stated that the project answers the question as to what it would have sounded like if American slaves turned to Satan instead of Jesus.   After a little technical difficulty to start their set, the band came out to a fairly blackened stage set.  Gagneaux had two back-up singers with him to provide the full context of the songs.  These guys have created a very unique sound and I urge you to go see them perform.

Deafheaven-Black Brick

Baroness-Shock Me

Aenimus-Dreamcatcher

Um.  First off, this album cover.  No thank you.  Not appreciated by those of us creeped-out by spiders and shit.

Aenimus is a new band on the technical death metal scene.  I have a love/hate relationship with this sub-genre.  On the love side of things, I really dig dudes that can absolutely play the shit out of their instruments.  It’s impressive to hear someone absolutely own their guitar/bass/drums like it is an appendage.  It is honestly hard to believe that some of the things pulled off by musicians in this sub-genre are physically possible to perform.  On the hate side of things, there is a tendency to run into the problem of redundancy and formulaic song structures.  There are so many bands churning out this kind of metal that sound exactly the same.  The songs and the bands just all start to run together after a while and, as a result, nothing really ends up standing out except for the technical proficiency of the players.  And, if that’s all you got, your songs are going to suffer.

Aenimus has put together an album that kind of ends up in that grey area of being really impressive technically, but not really reaching any sort of lasting or emotional impact with their songs.  I can’t really pinpoint anything specifically bad about this album, but it just never really takes off or makes itself stand apart from the great rabble of technical death metal bands out there today.  Uniqueness.  I think that’s what is missing here.  The proficiency in the performance is there in spades.  I think I wish that there was a little more focus on creating a unique Aenimus identity that makes them stand apart.  Now, that being said, if would find yourself digging on something that sounds like it is the lovechild of Meshuggah and Scar Symmetry, then this album might be right up your alley.

3 flip flops out of 5