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Chimaira – iwrestledabearonce – Oceano: Live at The Palladium, Worcester MA

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Chimaira-tourCompared with last year when I had already started January off with five shows in three weeks, 2014 started rather quiet. These days as Ghost Cult’s chief editor, I simply don’t get out as much as I used to. So you know I wouldn’t brave the (over-hyped) Polar Vortex conditions and hazardous roads for just any show, but I did for Chimaira. It has been well documented that a lot of other bands would have quit in the face of adversity ten times over after what these guys have been through. Still, what keeps me interested as a journalist and earns my respect as a fan is their dedication to take every negative and turn it into a positive, and in the most hostile way conceivable musically. So with a planned set list “Celebrating the Chaos” of their career, and on the strength of another tour supporting the excellent Crown of Phantoms (eOne) release, I was all in for this.

With my buddy and photog for the night Chris Small in tow, we got the the Palladium early in time to get in and mingle with some of our local metal brethren. Beers and Happy New Year’s greetings out of the way and we were ready to get hopping. Starting things off was Reflections, who played a pretty typical bunch of screamy death-core. I was immediately shocked by how bored to tears they looked on this, the first night of the tour. Their emotionless faces, except for the front man James Foster, put me off in a big way. I just couldn’t figure out why. They have enough potential musically for me to say I will give them another shot down the road. Second openers Fit For An Autopsy could not be more different in how they set it off from their first notes. I have seen these guys grow steadily more and more impressive over time and they are definitely coming into their own. Straddling the tech-death/traditional death metal horse with an occasionally fierce breakdown, it was hard not to be amped up for every second of their set. See this is what an opening band should do, be a cool warmup act, and provide a hint of what is to come the rest of the night.

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Oceano is one of those bands for me, that it really depends on the day or the show how I feel about them. They have made some killer songs and there is no denying their ability to pump up a crowd and throw down in the death metal/deathcore style. You could also single out their fans in the house on this night by who looked like they were their to punch people, and not really there to watch the show. I’d feel bad about per-judging some of these pit ninjas, but for the most part, I was proven right by the end of their set when about 25% of the crowd left. On the plus side, Oceano is over that entire we’re quitting/we’re back phase and they are just out for blood right now. Front man Adam Warren was all over that tiny stage, imploring the crowd to get violent and trying to drum up their energy. Based on the crowd response during ‘Contagion’, that energy was high. Warren also had some compelling things to say about being a hungry band with a new record out, (Depths on Earache) that not a lot of people know about.

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Iwrestledabearonce is in a good place in the penultimate spot in the line-up on this tour. They confound and anger the battle-vest wearing set with their wry sense of humour and mashing-up of sub genres. Seeing all of the day glow shirts, booty shorts, and tons of core kids, outside opinion doesn’t matter tonight as the band came out and crushed it. Playing a short (for them) set of their hits plus a few recent tracks from Late For Nothing (Century Media), the band made the odd choice of having some of their typical production value from their headline set. Strobe lights and amp covers/banners seem a little out of place on the tiny stage when no one else had them, but it is part of their schtick I guess. Courtney LaPlant has really risen to the challenge of coming into a popular band and replacing a popular singer and she has killed it on every level, ever since. Her stage persona makes for the perfect master of ceremonies, and she slays all the material in case you still had doubts. Closing with ‘Tatses Like Kevin Bacon’ is a reminder why this band made it in the first place. These guys are still growing I think it will be exciting to see where they take it next.

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The front line gear was removed for a very simple set up as the remaining crowd filled in the front of the stage. I watched from a perch in the balcony, in relative safety, mindful of the the many brutal Chimaira mosh pits I have been tossed around in. The change over was quick as the fans were ready for the final music of the night to ring out. The band took the stage and immediately launched into ‘Cleansation’ and it was pure bedlam in the pit. The band was tight as usual, and as usual on the side of the pit was a group of Eli Werstler worshipers. Watching Eli shred and abuse his guitar is worth the price of admission alone, and he has absolutely carried the mantle of great guitar work in the band. Of course Mark Hunter is front and center in the midst of the chaos. He is always focused, connecting with the crowd and really seems to enjoy his job with an evil relish. The set list was carefully crafted showing the greatness of the bands history, as well as the recent albums too. Sean Z helps take the music to another level with his terrific backing vocals. People forget sometimes that Sean fronted his own, worthy band in Daath not too long ago.

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Like a well-oiled machine the band cut through the set list of hits and deep cuts. Mark smiled and cracked jokes between songs, and then menaced and scowled appropriately to the material such as ‘Crown of Phantoms’, ‘Pure Hatred’, and ‘Power Trip’. Simple, Brutal, and tight describes the relentless performance, more akin to a boxing champion than a metal band. ‘The Dehumanizing Process’ for years was a great choice as a set opener, but here towards the end of the night it proves the strength and talent of the band. I finally shed my fear and ran down to the floor to Eli’s side of the stage, of course, to finish out the night. Not quite an encore, but more like an extended ending ‘Resurrection’ would have been a fine choice to end the set. However, the band stayed on stage to play the song that is their new video, ‘Wrapped In Violence’. Proving how strong their last album as with this bruising cut, and hearing everyone left in the venue screaming their lungs out, was killer. What a way to start what promises to be a great year of concerts.

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Reflections on Facebook

Fit For An Autopsy on Facebook

Oceano on Facebook

iwrestledabearonce on Facebook

Chimaira on Facebook

Words: Keith (Keefy) Chachkes

Photos: By CWS Photography


EyeHateGod – Fistula – The Confrontatin: Live At The Presidents Rock Club, Quincy MA

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11172013I’ve only been to the President’s Rock Club thrice, and I can already say this venue has seen a lot of hilarious shit go down between patrons who are too drunk to care that they’re too crazy to be allowed outside. And Quincy is such a sketchy (read: down-to-earth) place that one could (and did) spark up a fat blunt in front of the door. I met with Rob Williams, (in)famous for his drum talents in foundational Weymouth fastcore crew Siege (83-85), and will forever remain in my mind the guy who was swinging like an enraged welterweight during Fistula.

 

 

 

Now may be a great time to mention that aside from The Confrontation, there was no other band that I had heard anything from that I IMG_9914had enjoyed. Fistula were surprisingly okay, but since local sludge bands aren’t normally my bag (sorry, Grief), I just had to make do and bear, and also avoid being moshed upon. They were kind enough, however, to follow Buzzov*en’s example and throw in some fast hardcore sections, so it was like a calming salve on a festering heroin needle wound.

 

 

 

So the main reason why I showed up was Eyehategod, and understandably, just about the entire audience was zooted in some way shape or form. It was painfully apparent who wasn’t by a complex equation factoring in how close they were standing to the band and how bored they still managed to look even though they were knee deep in ignorance. Mike IX Williams‘ first words to the crowd were, and I quote: “I’m fuckin’ loaded”.

 

IMG_0025A.A. isn’t for everyone, see. So after making it plain that he hated the fact that there was “football on the thing” (a crowd member said Eyehatesports, ha), the band revved up the trademark ear-piercing feedback that whines miserably with the genre, and instantly a pit formed. Several minutes of this passed, and though pictures fail to capture how Williams truly appeared before the crowd, it was highly evocative of the image of a voodoo swamp priest on the outskirts of their hometown of NOLA, mixing up a foul concoction, awash in his own filth and spilled vodka, preparing for a ritual of bloodletting, sexual deviancy, and foul language. Joey LaCaze (RIP) should have been here to witness this spectacle of brutality and scoffed in the face of sobriety with a building full of people who reconstituted liquor for blood.

Oh, how beautiful the words ‘White Nigger’ sounded on Williams’ foul tongue, and how frighteningly evil the guitars crunched and trudged through murky breakdowns and soggy blues-made-metal riffs, as the bass intros for ‘Shop Lift’, the ‘Sister Fucker’ duology, ‘Dixie Whiskey’, and a lot of other steaming, similarly fetid and feral creations for people who hate music with an ear for music sometimes. If The Melvins were Satanic instead of silly, this would be them. All that separates us from becoming animals is a thin veil of strong, cheap alcohol, recreational drugs, boredom, and ‘Six Pack’ by Black Flag.

 

Josh from Anal Cunt, however, has no such boundaries to keep himself from punching people in the head on slight provocation by a fellow degenerate (this being Mike IX himself), and I was (un)lucky enough to see this. From the creeping slums of Revere to the sickened wastes of Quincy, hang yourself. Eyehategod doesn’t care about your birthday.

EyeHateGod on Facebook

Fistula on Facebook

Livver on Facebook

The Confrontation on Facebook

Words by Sean Pierre-Antoine

Photos by Chris Small of CWS Photography

 

 


Obituary – Strong Intention – Soul Remnants – Floods: Live At The Presidents Rock Club, Quincy, MA

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IMG_9695“This is punk rock as ****”, Guitarist Trevor Peres said himself in a flash of genius, not including his work in the band he was to slay us all with mere minutes later. He said this having surveyed the small and dim wooden interior of the President’s Rock Club of Quincy. Indeed, seeing one of the most legendary Florida death metal acts on a level floor where coming into contact with them was not only possible, but unavoidable if you even wanted to get your money’s worth, is fucking punk. How else would one describe the ability to mic-share with John Tardy if they so wished, as though they were a dingy basement street punk band unloading and reloading decrepit u-Hauls from one rat’s nest to another in suburbs across America rather than the household name in dark and evil music that oft bellows warlike from the stage, an altar of outlets and grander designs befitting their fame? I’m not even a huge fan of Obituary (being a grateful appreciator is the least one should do if they consider themselves into heavy music), and I’d be damned if I didn’t walk out feeling like I had seen history.

 

An odd choice for an opener was local hardcore punishers Floods, whose riffs carry some of the death/doom/sludge punch that would make their opening forIMG_9368 Obituary not too unusual. But it still begs the question of why make it glaringly obvious where the genre lines begin and end with. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they put on a good set, and their Celtic Frost meets Weekend Nachos style is blisteringly heavy, but it’s just not the most captivating sound out there for a young band when Xibalba, The Acacia Strain, and New Lows, to mention just a few, are making the heavy metal-inflected hardcore sound a thing we can look at with some fondness. However, if they opened for Nails, it would be worlds more practical for their fan-base.

 

 

 

Next up were Soul Remnants, who played some trying-to-be-evil death/thrash/black metal that didn’t rub me well. They’re one of those local bands that lives in infamy in my mind only because they seem to open for almost every lacklustre extreme metal show that I have no plans of attending, and for good reason, I’ve now found.

 

 

IMG_9659Luckily Maryland’s Strong Intention blast(beat) that bad taste from my palette with their furious blend of grindcore, thrash, powerviolence, and sludge. There was virtually no pit during, which would have been sad had I not just been in total awe of Jesse, the drummer of this band’s capabilities. By Jove, if you’ve ever watched a drummer go as fast and precise as this man did, with fluid and seamless transitions between sections, betraying his humanity only through his beet-red countenance and profuse outpouring of perspiration, you would be similarly too transfixed to entertain the notion of moshery. It was like a moment at the symphony where you catch yourself eying the graceful and impassioned movements of a particular player, and are lost in daydreaming mists of their sheer technical ability. This guy was fucking good, and the rest of the band were no slobs either, if only a little stiff for the type of music they were playing, which I’m sure, if manifested into physical object, would easily exceed speeds upwards of 200 k/h. I realise my whole review has been about how this drummer was built to blast, essentially, and I have no regrets.

 

 

 

Obituary came almost without warning, as the grim reaper himself oft does, and set about their work in sonic canon-fire, leveling the pit with the classics IMG_9674‘Chopped In Half’, ‘Turned Inside Out’, ‘Infected’, ‘I’m In Pain’, and ‘The End Complete’ with no embellishments, only brutality. Donald (Tardy) pounded away dutifully as I tried not to be knocked into Lee Harrison’s pedal-board by the eldritch pit of swarming drunken horrors, and John Tardy looked on with visible glee as the crowd tore at itself with fervor unexpected, showing no dissatisfaction with the unorthodox cozy face-to-face setup that’s almost totally foreign outside of a DIY venue. There are few shows that could top the uniqueness of a dive bar on the south shore of Massachusetts being the chosen venue for one of the pioneers of that slow-churning, vomit inducing, ichorous sweet death metal that sickos like myself have come to love and millions of concerned parents and educators have come to hate. Perhaps nothing short of Pig Destroyer playing a gazebo in a park somewhere will reach this level of ‘I’m dreaming’.

 

 

 

Obituary, Strong Intention, Soul Remnants & Floods

Live At the Presidents Rock Club,

Quincy, MA USA

Words: Sean Pierre-Antoine

Photos: Chris Small/CWS Photography