Cynic – Lesser Key – The Reign of Kindo – Protean Collective: Live at the Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA


 

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Boston was ablaze with amazing epic geekyness for a Friday night, befitting of an evening with prog rock mastery. The music school nerds were out in force, and some death metal fans were in the crowd as Cynic made a rare appearance in Boston. They actually played this venue once a few years ago when it was called Harper’s Ferry, and on that night they played their classic Focus album in full. No one expects them to go too far down memory lane much anymore, but the band still has it’s ardent fans, many who were sporting merch from their recent album Kindly Bent To Free Us (Season of Mist). The bill was also stacked with a collection of awesome and unusual bands, but the crowd was definitely open-minded and ready for fun.

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Kicking things of was Protean Collective . Protean Collective are Boston’s answer to Dream Theater, and the comparison my friends is legit. Every member of the band is a virtuoso level talent, but they also know how to write a catchy, rocking tune or three. The early crowd was full and packed at the front, hanging on the bands’ every note. When they played ‘Caldera’ off of their recently released The Red and The Grey album, there was an audible recognition in the crowd, as if everyone all said “ah, they are playing my jam!”, all at once. The entire band was impressive, but as usual we were watching drummer Matt Zappa from the far side of the stage. He was just crushing on this night. If you love progressive metal, do not sleep on this band! Coming up next was Buffalo, New York’s The Reign of Kindo. Playing a spastic mix of jumbled styles from Jazz, to Afro-Cuban, to funk, to pop, to rock; these guys interchanged styles like you wouldn’t believe. They were really phenomenal singers too, everyone of them. Their ability to share the wealth musically was very impressive, but ultimately they were not really my thing. A little too much pop cuteness, but still, you have to give it up to them for the level of musicianship and fun they bring to the table.

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Everyone in the house seemed to be repping Lesser Key tonight, equally hard as Cynic in fact. This really surprised me, since I consider Lesser Key still somewhat of an underground band. I suppose it would be hard to keep secret a prog metal band with a founding member of Tool as their bassist, Paul D’Amour. While most of the press focuses on this factoid, the real story is their brilliant self-titled debut EP (Sumerian) and their dynamic stage show. It’s hard not to be transfixed by front man Andrew Zamudio, with his haunting voice and performance. He is what I would term “a singer’s singer”; capable of anything. The band plays their take on post-metal/prog-metal with dynamic swells and peaks, with droning licks followed by crunching riffage. The band put on a performance worthy of a headliner, not an easy feat on this night. I don’t believe the band has toured all that much either so the amount of people in the crowd singing a long was surprising to me. I’m just glad there weren’t idiots out there yelling at Paul to play Tool songs, like I imagined. I applaud him for carving his own path and leading this new project. I for one am looking forward to more new music from them soon.

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Earlier in the night hanging outside of the venue, I bumped into Sacha Dunable, the affable singer of Intronaut and a few other bands. Sacha was teching on this tour for Cynic and he agreed with me when I claimed it must be just an experience working with Paul Masvidal on any level. They guy has a pure spirit and he is genius guitar player as we were about to find see. Armed only with a cool video screen and some clever sound clips between songs, Cynic was here to play some prog rock tonight and blow some minds. They did just that! Opening with ‘True Hallucination Speak’ the place went wild at the atypical opening song. Cynic has become a band focused on the overall sonic picture, not just a little feature piece here and there. Master musicians and performers don’t have to fall prey to the trappings of the comfortable after all. The band is always excellent live, but now was buoyed by the presence and monster bass playing of Sean Malone. As a huge prog fan and bassist, I have waited my entire adult life to see Sean effortlessly express himself in a live setting. Damn, he was flawless! Naturally Paul’s playing and singing were exemplary. If you look clearly at Paul’s fret hand, I think there is an face-sucker from Alien trying to break out of his forearm muscles and kill someone! Max Phelps has also grown into a nice compliment to Paul too over the last few years, and chipped in some occasional growls, much to the delight of the long-hairs in the room

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The set list was beautifully constructed. I joked that after ‘Veil of Maya’ from Focus was performed, the death metal heads in the room could go home. Hopefully, people stuck around. Sean Reinert has never sounded better and he was just insanely tight on the older material, especially. He seems to be in about the best shape of his life too, as he never seem to tire. There were truly some magical numbers played tonight as ‘Carbon-Based Anatomy’, ‘Integral’, ‘This Space for This’, and ‘Gitanjali’ put a smile on a lot of faces. Keeping in fashion with their approach, they closed with two new songs that went over as big as anything else they did earlier. See, Cynic fans get it, and Cynic doesn’t need haters to play along if they choose not to. I’d surmise that you would be hard pressed to find a better collection of musicians, rocking out for as appreciative a crowd as I witnessed tonight.

 

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Cynic Set List:

True Hallucination Speak

Evolutionary Sleeper

Carbon-Based Anatomy

Moon Heart Sun Head

Veil of Maya

Integral

The Space for This

Gitanjali

Textures

The Lion’s Roar

Encore:

Kindly Bent to Free Us

 

Cynic on Facebook

Lesser Key on Facebook

The Reign of Kindo on Facebook

Protean Collective on Facebook

 

 

 

WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS BY MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY


Thrashers Ramming Speed Kick Off-Mini Tour, New Album Coming in 2015


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Ramming Speed hit the road starting tonight with fellow neo-thrashers Municipal Waste, New York Hardcore legends Madball and Suburban Scum. This week long mini-tour covers the North Eastern USA, and will give the band a break, as they have been locked away penning their next full length due in early 2015. This new album comes on the heels of relentless touring and promotion following the excellent and anthemic Doomed to Destroy, Destined to Die released from Prosthetic last year. The band is also planning to shoot their first ever video, in their old stomping grounds of Allston (Rock City) Massachusetts at The Monster Shop. For details how to be in the video, filming on August 12th, email the band RammingSpeedVideo@gmail.com for details!

 

We always like it when record labels quote our reviews about bands in press releases… check this out!

 

From Prosthetic Records

Since the release of “Doomed to Destroy, Destined To Die,” which was hailed as “a mixture of the party mentality of Andrew W.K. and the sickness of Slayer” (Ghost Cult Magazine), RAMMING SPEED have maintained a consistent tour schedule throughout the U.S. and Canada with the likes of Valient Thorr and Toxic Holocaust, as well as appearing at Metal Injection’s CMJ showcase (Black Anvil, Vattnet Viskar) and Fest 13. As of late, the band have spent most of their time writing for their sophomore label effort, which will be recorded this winter. Full details will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Drummer Jonah Livingston shared insight on what to expect from upcoming release: “The new songs sound like Thin Lizzy’s guitar section doing blow with Martyrdod at a house party while Jeff Hanneman’s ghost smashes concrete blocks in the backyard. There’s tons of guitar harmonies, D-beat and more brutal thrash and grind, but we’ve been working hard on the songwriting end of things — keeping the riffs punishing while paying attention to the memorability and catchiness.”

MadballPosterONLINE

Ramming Speed Tour Dates

8/5 Philadelphia, PA – Kungfu Necktie

8/6 Montclair, NJ – DLV Lounge

8/7 Albany, NY – Bogies #

8/8 Hamilton, ON – Club Absinthe #

8/10 Holyoke, MA – The Waterfront Tavern#

8/12 Allston, MA – Monster Shop (MUSIC VIDEO SHOOT)

8/13 Brooklyn, NY – The Acheron

# with Municipal Waste, Madball, Suburban Scum

Ramming Speed on Facebook

 


King Buzzo – Mary Halvorson: Live At Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA


 

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There are few true iconoclasts in heavy music like King Buzzo. Of course, if you tell him that personally, he scoffs at the notion, perhaps even poo-pooing the weight of his impact in nearly thirty years of exciting fans, confounding critics and the like with his music. Obviously Buzz Osborne is known for his masterworks with the many incarnations of The Melvins (which he will at least acknowledge begins and ends with him). Arriving at the venue early to interview Buzz, he was mellow and cool as hell. Really humble to the last. Also at the venue early was Tim Bugbee, a concert photo and music journalist I look up to very much. It was cool talking shop, chatting with him and his wife all night. Check out Tim’s work.

 

Since I got done with the interview early I headed to grab some grub and a brew or three at my local BBQ spot in the neighborhood. By the time I got back in the venue, it was starting to fill up, although that would take some time. Despite The Melvins popularity and cred, its kind of hard to predict how full the crowd would be for a show like this on a weekday. Sauntering over to the merch table I spotted Brian Walsby selling merch and his own hand drawn wares. For those not in the know from graphic novels, Brian is author of Manchild, has done artwork for The Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity among others, played some drums in a few punk bands and has a cute daughter to take care of these days. Brian is a phenomenal artist, and has a unique POV story telling-style, and has done a fair share of music journalism via his work too. Please check him out and buy his stuff, it’s killer!

 

 

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Showtime was upon us and opener was Boston native Mary Halvorson. Her amazing solo-guitar performance brought out her own fans on this night, including one rabid kid at the front who was basking in her twangy glory. She played it cool, and played a set of interesting covers, mostly Jazz and Americana type track from what I could tell. Using the guitar not just as an instrument, but as an emotional foil for the source material, she is a master. Her between song, self-effacing banter was hysterical. I stood for most of the performance next to her mom, who was totally stoked and entranced as the rest of us were. If you love outside of the box thinking, and great guitar work in general, please do yourself a favor and check Mary out!

 

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After Buzz’s tour manager set up the stage (an incognito Dave from Unsane), Buzzo hit the stage casually with the lights up. Got himself together and ready to play and scanned the audience. Stepping in to his familiar stage walk, a gait akin to how a monster stalks his prey, Buzz started the jam the familiar first notes of ‘Boris”. The crowd immediately picked up on this, let out a whoop, and sang a long. There was even some rigorous headbanging, but no moshing tonight. Lots of bro smiles in the front and confuzzled looking girlfriends. Is Buzz unplugged girlfriend metal? I hope not. Meanwhile the man was up on stage doing his usual thing, just quieter. His playing immaculate, the acoustic holding nothing back as he roamed the stage between verses. I am a massive Alice Cooper fan and so is he, so it was no surprise that ‘The Ballad of Dwight Fry’ was next. He would later joke that we all better have known what that song was, and it seemed like people in the house tonight were fans, and had a clue. Alternating between some Melvins gems from across his career and his new solo album ‘This Machine Kills Artists’ (Ipecac), he constructed a killer set, full of twists and turns.

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About a third of the way through the set Buzz took a break to tell a story and he joked with the audience about which story to tell. When he settled on a “Mike Patton” story, he then had to decide which one to tell, since he apparently has many. What followed next was one of the funniest tales I’ve ever heard. I’d relay it here, but I could never do the delivery justice. You will need to see Buzz on tour and maybe you’ll hear it.

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Settling back into the music newer tracks like ‘Drunken Baby’ and The Melvins ‘Evil New War God’ meshed well, and in general it was just killer to hear this presentation of these songs. During another break, he made jokes about himself, touring, and imitated his wife picking on him pre-tour about the pretentiousness of doing a solo-acoustic tour. Classic. Ending the night with a spirited closing set of Melvins tunes, ‘We Are Doomed‘,

Hooch‘,Revolve‘, Buzz closed it out in rousing fashion. It was a really fun time and an interesting look into the mind of a genius, in a way we never have before.

 

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King Buzzo Set List:

Boris (Melvins cover)

Ballad of Dwight Fry (Alice Cooper cover)

Suicide In Progress (Melvins cover)

Dark Brown Teeth

Rough Democracy

Laid Back Walking

Story break #1

Drunken Baby

Evil New War God (Melvins cover)

The Vulgar Joke

How I Became Offensive

Story break #2

We Are Doomed (Melvins cover)

Hooch (Melvins cover)

Revolve (Melvins cover)

King Buzzo on Facebook

Mary Halvorson on Facebook

 

 


Agalloch – Jex Thoth – Obsidian Tongue: Live at Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA


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You knew it was going to be a killer night when for the first time I can recall for any show, the line to get in stretched around the block, over an hour before doors at this venue. Agalloch always draws a big crowd in the Boston area, what with our love of black metal and emo-style self-hatred overflowing at all times. All jokes aside, Agalloch on their first tour supporting the excellent new album The Serpent and The Sphere (Profound Lore) was a can’t miss proposition for this summer of metal shows so far. The venue was well sold out with people walking up for tickets turned away. I bumped into many of my friends in the scene and my photographer for the night, the exceptionally cool Hillarie Jason outside while I waited to get in. I wonder if selling out the House of Blues is next for this band, since every time they visit our city, the sell out yet another venue.

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Growing local legends Obsidian Tongue opened tonight, following a brief, but successful mid-west run opening for this tour. Front man Brendan James Hayter has long had a relationship to Agalloch, written songs with them, and in general is in a mutual admiration society with them. All good, but playing in front of basically a sold-out hometown crowd had advantages too. Brendan, flanked by powerhouse drummer Greg Murphy just blew everyone in attendance away with their all too brief set. As always, their gut-wrenching, perfectly executed traditional USBM, captivates and kills. In addition to playing a brand new song that was nothing shot of epic at almost 14 minutes long, John Haughm himself joined the band for a closing rendition of “A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time”, of which Brendan remarked they will likely “never play this again.” One of the cooler moments of the night was meeting Brendan’s beaming parents, clad in their O.T. Shirts. Parents- you’re doing it right!

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The BM-centric crowd was a little less forgiving the doom of Jex Thoth. For her part Jex was awesome, and in her own little world. She was nonplussed by the few mumbles in the room about them and their placement on this bill. Nevertheless her tight band blessed with her namesake blasted through a lengthy set of good songs. Caught up in the ritual, Jex wailed like the chanteuse that she is, connecting with the audience, but she was also on her own trip too. As my pal Mike Vargus commented later, she brought the sexiness to doom. Transformed by the process of the ritual, lost in the magic, she milked every bit of soul out of each note that escaped her throat. Her band was no afterthought either, they were present in the moment, right with her musically, especially guitarist Jason Hartman. Playing songs mostly from their 2013 album Blood Moon Rise (I Hate). At one point Jex jumped off the stage and into the crowd to get up close and personal with everyone. She sang, and danced and played with fire, burning some sage for effect. Maybe the beers and shots I had were fully kicking in by this time, but I was totally in her spell. She said little when their set was done, but they certainly made an impact.

 

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There was a pretty fast change-over for Agalloch to come on. The sold-out crowd held their collective breath together while the band made their way to the stage. Not one note had played, but you felt something electric in the air. Everyone felt it actually, you could just tell. From the swell of the intro music, the wave just hit the eager crowd and a cheer went out. The opening notes of ‘The Astral Dialogue’ and the rollicking beat meant there would be no slow burn build up to start the show tonight. Nope, tonight had is moments of dynamic intensity, but Agalloch was full of hustle and power much more than in the past when I’ve seen them. It was an instant reminder that American black metal is the real deal now, and a band like this is the reason. Haughm’s economical playing style looks almost too easy, and his bleak vocals just crush. He is always note perfect and flawless live. I was immediately surprised by how much knuckle-headed moshing there was, more so than any show in memory for black metal in Boston. Perhaps it is a swell of new fans, but I was turned off by it, as was Haughm who joked about it later on.

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The new ‘Vales Beyond Dimension’ was more typical fare I was used to for these Pacific Northwest giants. The fans seems to chill out for a minute and soak it all in. Always impressive, Aesop Dekker almost stole the show on this night with his tireless blasting behind the kit. I have seen him live many times with different acts, and this night was a performance we’d never seen from him before. Epic in scope, ‘Limbs’ was another killer early set highlight. Oh, so heartfelt and deep, I almost felt like a hippie for a second. Almost. John finally addressed the crowd, dissed the moshers, and generally welcomed all to the tour. Picking back up with ‘Ghosts of the Midwinter’s Fires’, we fell into the emotional abyss again. This is what Agalloch does best: toying with your soul and mind with their songs. There was a lot of singing along to this one, which made me smile. Other standout songs were the newer ‘Dark Matter Gods’, ‘Celestial Effigy’ and the mighty ‘Into the Painted Grey’.

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Coming back on for an encore, Haughm thanked the openers, made more jokes about moshers and then just melted the place down with the stirring ‘Falling Snow’ and Plataeu of The Ages’. We were all left speechless and happy. What a great night!

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Agalloch Set List:

Intro(Serpens Caput)

The Astral Dialogue

Vales Beyond Dimension

Limbs

Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires

Dark Matter Gods

The Melancholy Spirit

Celestial Effigy

…and the Great Cold Death of the Earth

Into the Painted Grey

Encore:

Falling Snow

Plateau of the Ages

 

Agalloch on Facebook

Jex Thoth on Facebook

Obsidian Tongue on Facebook

 

 

WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON PHOTOGRAPHY

 

 


Tesseract – Intronaut – Cloudkicker – Aviations: Live at Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA


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Well another weekend and another show in Allston Rock City, as the denizens here have taken to calling it. Sure it has its share of faults like too many hipsters, huge rates, and a general nexus of drama that comes from being a hiccup from Boston and smack dab between two nicer neighborhoods. What Allston lacks in class, it has style up the rear end, and three of my favorite music venues within 7 blocks of each other. At Brighton Music Hall the band camp geek crowd of Boston was out to see some of prog/djent’s finest bands come to town.

 

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Local youngsters Aviations were first up tonight. I had heard a bit about them, but I wasn’t familiar with their music until now. They were really impressive, accomplished players doing their take on djent. They also had a huge crew of friends and fans there, as evident by how active they were singing along, moshing and in general, being hyped as if these guys were the headliners. It was infections because the rest of the crowd quickly caught on. As as band they are a lot of fun live, put on an energetic show and their singer Adam Benjamin even jumped into the pit to mosh a few times! They are opening up for Animals as Leaders soon, so big things are in store for them.

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A lot of folks in the house tonight were lured by the draw of Cloudkicker finally touring. Studio whiz Ben Sharp could finally strut his stuff, and with Intronaut as his backing band, it was going to be pretty exciting. They even had their own commemorative shirts that said Cloudtronaut… or was it IntroKicker? I can’t recall. Led by Sharp, the band cut through a string of flawless prog tunes such as ‘We’re Going In’, ‘You & Yours’, and ‘Dysphoria’. It was fairly amazeballs! Sharp’s guitar mastery is impeccable, as he pulled out a bevy of techniques. Techniques, mind you, not tricks. There is a difference. For their part, the Intronaut guys played great and helped bring these little masterpieces to life. Behind the band a video screen showed space satellite footage that added a little more juice to the scene. I for one hope this collaboration continues live, and perhaps even extending to the studio someday.

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Staying on stage with only a short break, Intronaut continues to remind me over and over why they are one of the preeminent heavy music bands of our time. At this point in their career they can go out on a lot of tours they want to take, or just tour by themselves if they want, but to hit the road on this kind of package says a lot about them. Tonight they were doing a shorter set, on top of double duty. Opening with ‘Killing Birds with Stones’ was great, and such a good indicator of where the band is headed. Each of the players in this band is stellar, but none more so than Danny Walker on the drums. The guy is a machine on the kit, but plays with a lot of passion too. The vocals of Sacha Dunable and Dave Timnick always get me right in the guts too. Tracks like ‘Venom’ and set closer ‘The Way Down’ just stay with you long after the final notes disappear. Typical of Boston area shows, some people left after Intronaut and didn’t stay to the end of the show, possibly because their girlfriends were bored or something.

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Tesseract took quite a while to go on, but everyone in the room was amped to see them. A rumor had gotten around the club before long that singer Ashe O’Hara was sick, and could not sing tonight. When the band hit the stage, there were still a lot of perplexed faces in the crowd as the band appeared to be down to a three-piece with no singer. The band played great and the crowd none the wiser enjoyed a few songs before Amos Williams addressed the crowd, confirming that doctors advised Ashe not to sing. However, the band planned to play their full set without him, apologized profusely over it. They ran through a mix of songs from their catalog, with the audience singing back at the singer-less band. It was actually awesome and a testament to the fan base of this band. From what I could tell, some people left early, disappointed. But those who stayed were rewarded for their patience, and the band played their asses off. It was one of the most mature and professional things I have seen in a long time, just how hard the band played and how humble they were the entire time. The situation was far from ideal, but isn’t that what live music is all about? Especially in a scene where everyone plays along to backing tracks and the like, it was great to see these guys were so unflappable. A special treat for the crowd was the closing number of the night ‘Concealing Fate: Part I Acceptance’ which was played to a lot of oohs and ahhs for those remaining in the room. Afterward the band went into the crowd for a long time, signing merch and taking pictures.

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TesseracT Set List:

Of Mind – Exile

Concealing Fate, Part 2: Deception

Concealing Fate, Part 3: The Impossible

April

Of Energy – Singularity

Of Mind – Nocturne
Encore:

Concealing Fate, Part 1: Acceptance

TesseracT on Facebook

Intronaut on Facebook

Cloudkicker on Facebook

Aviations on Facebook

 

Words: Keith (Keefy) Chachkes

Photos: Echoes In The Well