Wolves In The Throne Room and Tombs
Venue: The Troubadour : Location: West Hollywood, California. March
27, 2009 Review by Dave Schalek
The Troubadour is a legendary club in West Hollywood where numerous
acts across all genres of music have gotten their start over the
years. The small venue also happens to be one of the few concert
halls that I haven’t been to in the greater Los Angeles area over
the last few years, so I was looking forward to seeing the place for
the imminent appearance of Wolves In The Room. |
The bill was actually headlined by post-metal giants Pelican along
with Tombs hitting the stage first. Frankly, I was attending the
show only to see WITTR as Pelican are not really my thing, and I had
a very long week at work anyway. Tombs
opened up and I must say that I’m not familiar with them. The trio’s
music struck me as a mix of post-metal with the odd blackened touch
or two, with a few blasts mixed in with the post-metal soundscapes.
My reaction to Tombs was mixed as the band had a huge sound that
crushed the small space of the Troubadour, but post-metal is not
really my thing and it’s doubtful that I’ll seek out any of Tombs
releases (although I know that both Cosmo and Etan are highly
impressed with this band).
Wolves In The Throne Room were
up next after a short, 10-minute change over. Fresh off of the
recently concluded SXSW Festival, WITTR were in excellent form on a
darkened stage with fog effects. WITTR’s set consisted of just two
songs, “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among The Rocks And Roots” and
“Ahrimanic Trance”, spaced out over a 35-minute period. At the
conclusion, while distorted feedback is still present and the stage
remains darkened, the band starts dismantling their stage without
any sort of acknowledgment of the crowd and walks off. An excellent |
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performance from WITTR as the band is finding the right mix of
atmospheric touches for the live performance.
At this point, I bought my t-shirt and left.
You can see the usual crap at
http://metalrunsinmyveins.blogspot.com |
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Agalloch, Dornenreich, Mely, Fen
London The Underworld 26/3/2009 Review by James Young
An overwhelming torrent of enthusiasm for this gig had led to its
venue change from the Purple Turtle to the more sizable Underworld,
and the heaving masses of people hyping up the ‘next big thing’
surely couldn’t have been wrong tonight.
One of these ‘big things’ included opening act
Fen, who have set more than a few tongues wagging as
of late. Unfortunately, having such an early slot meant that more
than a couple of fans missed their half hour of depressive blackened
post rock, especially due to the rather slow moving and jam-packed
queue. Their new album The Malediction Fields is an incredibly bold
statement of despair, and tracks played tonight from it such as
‘Exiles Journey’ and ‘A Witness To The Passing Of Aeons’ showed the
atmospheric wonder of these guys. Black metal clashed heads with
ambient guitar echoes courtesy of frontman The Watcher, and although
the clean vocals may have raised a few eyebrows on record, live they
seem to make sense in their droning hypnotic style. The keyboards
are really striking aspect of Fen, creating a wonderfully spacey
post-rock sound, resembling the headlining band at times, and such a
choice for support was therefore appreciated gratefully by fans. |
Mely were next up, and I didn’t
really ‘get’ what they were trying to do musically. Their
post-grunge verged at times on post-nu-metal, and whilst there was
the odd memorable hook and sweet melodic harmony, this really wasn’t
my cup of tea at all, and the feeling seemed to be shared by the
rest of the audience, who seemed to be annoyed that Fen were first
and that the sets of the other bands were compromised due to this
set. Can’t say that the bill wasn’t diverse though!
Having never heard Dornenreich’s
material, and the same being the case for quite a few people in
attendance, it wasn’t really surprising that they weren’t headlining
as it had been billed. They put up an incredibly strong case for why
they should have been though, with an absolutely amazing set of
folk-y, black-y, weird-y, whatever-you-call-it-y metal. For a band
with only three members, with one only playing a violin, they were
surprisingly heavy, yet the bows that they took when entering the
stage showed a bit more class than the average band. Kicking off
with ‘Trauerbrandung’, the Austrians launched into forty-odd minutes
of off-the-wall musical excellence. The sound may not have been
their best friend, with Eviga’s vocals lagging a bit in the mix at
points, but there was no doubting the musical supremacy on display.
Although bassless, a number of tracks from last year’s |
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opus ‘In Luft Geritzt’ sounded as solid as a rock, and rather like
country mates Hollenthon had a quirky folk sensibility that made you
tap your foot and bang your head at the same time. They certainly
gained many a fan tonight, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they could
pull off a packed headliner in the near future.
Incense in the air and horns aloft, there was only one band left,
and it had to be one of the most talked about upcoming bands in the
extreme underground. Agalloch’s
fan base has grown at an alarming rate, and the packed Underworld
showed that their music has an all-round appeal to a diverse mix of
metallers from all areas of the spectrum. Songs such as ‘Dead Winter
Days’ and ‘As Embers Dress The Sky’ which reared their magnificent
heads tonight showed that the hype should be well and truly
believed, as the all-round power of the band was simply astounding
to watch. One may think that such grandiose arrangements and long
songs would not work in a live environment, but they really do, and
there was something mesmerising about he sheer force which beheld
the Underworld. The quality of the guitar work coming from John
Haughm and Don Anderson was so intricate and trance-inducing that
you had to let yourself fall headfirst into the band’s melodic yet
abrasive rhythms. Haughm appeared to be giving the performance of a
lifetime, owning the stage with his uniquely ambient growls, lending
an atmospheric extreme edge to the show in ‘Limbs’ and ‘Not Unlike
The Waves’. I’m sure nobody wanted the night to end, but an hour of
the most cracking post-rock / black metal came to a head with
’Bloodbirds’ and ’The Hawthorne Passage’, even though people would
probably rather have had ‘Falling Snow’ judging by the shouts from
the crowd. Regardless, this was an amazing performance, and most
people felt like Anderson by the end, who keeled over dramatically
onto his back whilst milking the last few drops of feedback from his
guitar.
With many a happy fan after tonight, Arcane had once again done a
wonderful job of bringing us the best of the underground, and left
us with many amazing memories. No doubt a contender for gig of the
year. |
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Destruction, Krisiun, and Mantic
Ritual
Venue: The Key Club, West Hollywood, California.
Date: March 24, 2009 Review and photos by Dave Schalek
The spring concert season in Los Angeles is starting to heat up. A
few weeks back, I let Deicide/ Vital Remains go by as that show
occurred on Oscar night, and there’s no way that I’m going to drive
into West Hollywood with all of that nonsense going on. So, I was
greatly anticipating the imminent return of giants Destruction and
Krisiun with a crushing tour to promote the masterful new releases
from both bands. Rounding out the bill are new retro-thrash upstarts
Mantic Ritual, with their debut full-length “Executioner” just
recently released.
I skipped over three local acts to open the evening, alternately
spending some time hitting the bar, browsing the merchandise, and
people watching outside on Sunset Boulevard.
Mantic Ritual were the first act of
the evening that I paid attention to, and I must admit that I just
recently panned the band’s debut full-length in a soon-to-be |
published review. Mantic
Ritual were much better live as the band’s obviously good-natured
enthusiasm for the genre shows with an overly gregarious front man
in Dan Wetmore. Mantic Ritual’s set included a cover of “Black
Metal”, which instantly won over the crowd, and was, ultimately, an
entertaining display of Bay Area-style thrash metal. I’m nowhere
near being sold on Mantic Ritual, but the band shows some promise.
Krisiun roared onto the stage next, delivering a
blistering set drawing heavily from the band’s last two full-length
masterpieces. Given that I’ve placed both “AssassiNation” and
“Southern Storm” at, or very near, the top of a couple of my recent
Top Ten lists, in my opinion, Krisiun are the best death metal band
on the |
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| planet at the
moment. The band can basically do no wrong in my book, but,
unfortunately, the first couple of songs were marred by a poorly
mixed guitar sound. Other than that, Krisiun delivered with a slew
of recent classics, including the almighty “Refusal”. I would add
that Krisiun absolutely deserve to headline their own tour in
support of “Southern Storm”. |
| After a long change over,
Destruction hit the stage with a
gigantic sound. After the first song or two, Schmier informs the
huge crowd that the show was being recorded for a live album.
Naturally, this encourages some of the morons to complement their
stage diving by jostling some of the microphones on stage, knocking
them out of commission. Needless to say, the irritation of both
Schmier and Mike was noticeable as I would now be very surprised if
this show actually makes it to an official release. Regardless of
how pissed the band members may have been, Destruction are serious
professionals and continue to deliver a gigantic set of over an hour
with a scattering of songs throughout the discography, including
songs from “D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.” |
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and “Release
From Agony”. The usual classics were present and, surprisingly,
“Bestial Invasion” was one of the first songs played. Finally, it
was all over and I limped home at about 1 AM in order to rest up for
Wolves In The Throne Room on Friday night at the legendary
Troubadour…
See the usual works of art at
http://metalrunsinmyveins.blogspot.com |
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Taake, Helheim, Vulture Industries,
Eastern Front London The Underworld 7/3/2009
Review by James Young
Today was a celebration of all things true and Norwegian; that was
apart from the opening band Eastern Front,
who were more than worthy of being on this bill. The world and its
corpse-painted mother seemed to be at this show, which couldn’t have
been far from a sell-out, so these English guys had a decent number
of eyes watching them this time around. Apart from the muddy (even
for black metal) sound at the start, the lads’ icy riffs and lit-up
grimaces really make for a good live show, and tracks such as ‘Blood
On Snow’ would make any Burzum or mid-era Darkthrone fan’s night.
Metzger’s chilling battle cries perfectly befit the agonising nature
of the genre, and the fast riffing of Holocaust and the terrifying
Krieg was a joy to behold, even though the set was over before you
could really start to enjoy it, and worst of all when the sound was
beginning to improve.
Next up in the pecking order were Vulture
Industries, and ‘weird’ was the word of the day here,
with suits, bare-footedness and general bedlam ensuing. Much akin to
the likes of the defunct Arcturus, with a carnival-esque sound and
all-round freaky factor, Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen is a great frontman,
not only for his off-key dynamic singing, but also his rather mad
stage presence. Shockingly enough, this band only has one album
behind them, and most of The Dystopia Journals was played, and most
notably the effervescent ‘Blood Don’t Flow Streamlined’. The fans
were probably polarised in whether or not they enjoyed this set, but
there’s no doubt that crazy compositions like ‘The Benevolent Pawn’
simultaneously turned and banged a few heads. Judging by these guys’
faces, they lapped up every second that they were on the stage, and
hopefully this won’t be the last time we see these avant-guardians
here. |
Helheim have been sighted on these shores before with the
previous band (Mr. Nilsen from Vulture Industries even popped up on
stage for some guest vocals during their set). These two bands make
for a great duo, the previous outfit for their quirkiness, and these
guys for their sheer intensity. Donned in chain mail and looking
very Viking-y indeed, with a video projector behind them, this show
rivalled Enslaved in its artsy extremism and sheer power. These guys
truly excel in their field, with their lengthy epics combining
hypnotic Norse rhythms with pure black metal intensity. Introduced
as a ballad was the savage ‘Jormundgand’, along with its wild
vocals, which was played to a great ovation. A memorable part of the
set was when vocalist H'grimnir leapt into the crowd during ‘Det
Norroene Alter’, guitar and all, and disappeared for a good long
while. Whether or not people had heard of Helheim before the show is
hard to say, but by the end of their set, the Vikings truly had the
crowd eating out of their ale-soaked hands. A brilliant show.
It has been two years since Taake
graced these shores, and they seem to have gained a lot of
popularity in that time, perhaps for the wrong reasons. Many
swastikas, racial slurs and band battles later, not to mention the
over-inflated (perhaps the wrong term to use) penis-protruding
incident, the number of fans had grown |
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significantly,
packing out the Underworld. Hoest is a great frontman, no matter
what your personal opinion of him may be - his vocals are pure
pained evilness which makes Norwegian black metal so shrill and
ironically inaccessible, whilst he is always moving on stage,
whether it be kicking or barking his trademark shout. Energy is a
must, especially with the new slightly more black’n’roll feel to
Taake’s material, which was exemplified in the opener ‘Voldtekt’.
Various parts of the albums Taake and Doedsvkad really got the crowd
moving, and guitarists Skagg and Skrubb reciprocated with a suitably
grim yet energetic stage presence. Taake’s music is sheer
misanthropic poetry, and although it’s almost wrong to hear it in a
live environment amongst fellow human beings, you could not help but
be swept away by the icy atmospheres. Unfortunately, due to the
curfew, the set was cut short by quite a few songs, and the
Norwegian flag-wielding frontman had to call his troops off stage
early.
Whilst the clubnight-induced curfew prevented this gig from turning
from excellent to really special, we had seen some amazing
performances tonight from some of the top bands in the genre. I
wouldn’t have called any of the bands ‘popular’ before tonight, but
there is no doubt many heads were turned by some outstanding metal,
and now the fanbases of each group have to be as strong as ever. |
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