On The Road… with Every Time I Die and The Used

Posted on May 4, 2015 by News Team

Every Time I Die is a touring machine. Year in and year out they make their bones playing big clubs, sold-out concerts and festivals. Anyone who has seen them multiple times knows they are great performers for their fans and remarkably consistent too! ETID released the special Salem EP (Epitaph) on Record Store Day. They just wrapped up a tour opening for The Used, themselves well-known road warriors. The tour also featured up and coming bands such as Marmozets and The Eeries making for a stacked bill of veteran bands and new blood. This photo set comes to Ghost Cult courtesy of Meg Loyal of Meg Loyal Photography, and we thank her for sharing these killer images!

The Eeries, by Meg Loyal Photography

Marmozets, by Meg Loyal Photography

Every Time I Die, by Meg Loyal Photography

The Used, by Meg Loyal Photography

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Crowbar – Revocation – Havok – Fit For an Autopsy -Armed For Apocalypse: The Worcester Palladium

Posted on October 3, 2014 by News Team

There have been a lot of killer tours of late, but few packed the variety and the punch of the bill accompanying Crowbar on their latest jaunt. Rather than take out a bunch of similar bands with an overlapping fanbase, the creators of this tour package took a bunch of cool bands that are all slightly different in genre and fandom make-up and sent them out to do something really unique. It definitely worked, because for a Tuesday night, the upstairs of the Palladium was fairly thick with heshers and heifers by the time my awesome photog for the night, Meg Loyal, and I rolled into the venue.

Armed For Apocalypse was already on when I got in, and they seemed to be going over well with the the early crowd. Apparently I also missed a slew of great local talent, which pissed me off. Promoters of shows: stop beginning before 7 PM on a weeknight (Tuesday) when most of your crowd is driving from 65 miles away or more during rush hour. Armed… meanwhile put on a killer show I wasn’t expecting this early. Their talents lay somewhere between a sludgy metal base with some grooves, death metal flair, and occasional flashes of technicality. They also had a gang-vocal-thing going on from most of their band that I liked too. We’ll be looking out for these guys again!

Fit For An Autopsy has been grinding it out live non-stop this year. They continue to pick up steam since adding Greg Wilburn to their ranks. The Palladium crowd also takes a fancy to this band they know very well from numerous shows and fests, and so the crowd was amped up and the pit was instantly activated. These guys always put on a killer performance and inspired the best, most violent pit action of the evening. There is just something about the way they carry themselves with confidence and the brutality of their style, I can really see them stepping up to the level of a Suicide Silence or a Whitechapel when their next album drops in 2015. You’ve been warned, don’t sleep on this band!

At the midway point of the night, I caught myself feeling very positive about the current scene, and that a tour like this can even happen and pass through our neck of the woods. Sentiment. I need to watch that! Meanwhile Havok came on and clearly had some of their own fanbase in the house, because their entire front of the stage was more or less a total circle pit for their set. A band that has hit the 10-year mark and also has a big following in our area, had a triumphant feeling hitting the stage and thrashing their balls off. Front man David Sanchez, like his entire band, has some sweet musical skills and has a shriek not unlike Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, who make a fair comparison for the band too. Special note goes to Marshall Wieczorek of Wretched, who was filling in for Pete Webber behind the kit did a great job. The band recently signed with Century Media and are also planning a new album for next year.

The Palladium, even the more intimate part of the venue upstairs, can be a clusterfuck on any given day. It was cool seeing a lot of my my local brethren of metal fans and friends at the show. It had been a very heavy week of shows in our surrounding area, with many national and local bands worth seeing. Still, I was impressed that by the time Revocation took the stage, the place was pretty full. Ans why not? Being a Boston band and playing this venue was practically a hometown show and many people in the house were sporting their Revocation shirts (a no-no to me, but good for the band I suppose). The anticipation was higher than usual, since the band has signed a new deal with Metal Blade and are on the cusp of dropping their new album Deathless. The band played a tight set with a mix of “hits” and new songs that left bodies sweaty on jaws on the floor. As usual, a lot of folks are just here for the guitar fireworks in the form of Dave Davidson and Dan Gargiulo. Their rhythm section was augmented tonight too, with Jon “The Charn” Rice (Scorpion Child, ex-Job For a Cowboy, The Red Chord) filling in for Phil DuBois (arm injury). Revocation is just one of those bands that wears many hats and pulls it off extremely well.

Heading back stage to interview Revocation, I was just wrapping up my chat when I heard the strains of the first few songs of Crowbar’s set. The went on pretty quick with little turnover apparently, but I didn’t miss much. The crowd was doing the “slow acknowledgment” head-bang to ‘Symmetry In White’ when I finally made it back downstairs. Kirk Windstein made a funny crack about turning all the lights off, then just relegating the rest of the night to a sparse spotlight, that was befitting of this workman-like band. As their set list shows Crowbar is as important to this genre as they relevant today, with a string of great songs and new material that holds up too. Kirk likes to slide to the side of the microphone when not singing, an unintentional but necessary move that puts him where he belongs, front and center. He has a solid group of guys behind him these days, but it makes him shine that much brighter.

About half-way through the set I realized this was about the best Crowbar show I’d ever seen. Kirk has raised his game up a few more levels than he was already at over the years and his laser focus on this band has definitely paid off. While a lot of people associate the band with ‘All I Had (I Gave)’, it was a song like ‘Planets Collide’ that really write the story of this band in granite. Kirk, his voice up to a mic and his hands around a guitar neck are a treasure to the metal community. I hope we get to enjoy them for a long time.

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Crowbar Set List:

Cemetary Angels

Walk With Knowledge Wisely

Symmetry in White

Self-Inflicted

Planets Collide

The Lasting Dose

Sever the Wicked Hand

Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth

Conquering

High Rate Extinction

New Dawn

All I Had (I Gave)

I Have Failed

Crowbar on Facebook

Revocation on Facebook

Fit For An Autopsy on Facebook

Armed For Apocalypse on Facebook

WORDS: KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS: MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY

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

Posted on August 19, 2014 by News Team

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.

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.

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.

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

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

EyeHateGod – Ringworm – Enabler- Phantom Glue: Live at Brighton Music Hall, Allston

Posted on June 24, 2014 by News Team

Sludge. The very name almost exudes a summer feeling about it. Just as black metal is clearly the music for frozen months of the year, great sludge and doom sounds like the music of the season for sun and sweat. This was evident by tonight’s show in Allston Rock City where we punished our ears and mangled our vertebrae in the name of metal for EyeHateGod. The band is enjoying a resurgence with an excellent new self-titled release, their first in 14 years. EyeHateGod is a band that everyone mentions as an influence, but certainly this generation is behind on their lessons in depraved southern metal violence. They are not a pretty band of well-manicured fake rockstars: these guys were born to the streets of disrepair, they are as real as it gets, and raw to the bone musically and mentally.

After chilling with my dude Bill Richards of Metal Wani before the show, we made our way up the block to the venue. Opening up the night are local favorites Phantom Glue and what a perfect band to open. A blend of weed-soaked grooves and crushing beats, if you are not familiar with their last album A War of Light Cones, stop reading this, go to their Bandcamp and buy it right now! We’ll wait a few minutes for you to come back and read the rest of this review. Anyway as usual, they were loud, raucous and crusty! The swelling local crowd filled up the room during their set, and headbanged lustily. If there was a list of bands that are going to the next big thing out Boston, a city with tons of quality underground bands right now, Phantom Glue would surely top the list or come close depending on whom you chat with. This was a good start to a fun night.

Enabler came on next, although it seemed like an eternity for them to hit the stage. I am used to seeing this band play small stages, and never with such a big professional set-up such as this. The first few minutes of the Enabler set, you almost felt like it was their own headline show they raged so much. On the strength of their new album La Fin Absolute Du Monde (Creator-Destructor/Earsplit Compound), this is a band on the rise. Jeff Lohber does unreal amounts of rocking out with his lanky frame shaking all over the stage. His economical guitar style enables him to touch all the bases from thrash, death beat to a punky-blackened crust and back again with ease. Bassist Amanda Daniels rocks it finger-style, at a time when many prefer the attack of a pick. Don’t let anyone tell you other-wise, plucking bassists are better than pickers, especially in metal. She is also backing up on vocals much more than I recall from their earlier tours. Not only did they play a killer set, they are awesome people to hang out with, as I did, chilling in the van with Jeff for an interview after the set, along with my pal Matt Darcy of Nefarious Realm.

Every time Ringworm plays Boston, it’s a freaking bloodbath. The fact is they can’t help their history as one of the early leaders of metally-hardcore (I refuse to call them metalcore, people) from the Cleveland scene. There are fans that specifically come out to hear those old songs and bash people in the pit, and that’s fine with me. What Ringworm has actually done is matured into a veteran sludge act, capable of much more as a band than when they started out. Human Furnace is an approachable, mellow guy off-stage, but with a mic in his hand he is like a prize-fighter: out for blood. The pit had the most action it was going to have all night, but of course. Songs like ‘Amputee’, ‘Birth is Pain’, and ‘Dollar Whore’ are mandatory pain-inducing hymns for the modern age. The entire band seemed to be energized by the love for them in the room and played their asses off too.

Earlier in the night I had seen Jimmy Bower outside of the club and and thanked him for my recent interview with him regarding Down. Back inside the tension was building to an unbearable level, although that could have been the beer and heat talking too. I had never seen this venue so filled up and body to body tight. There was a rare barricade tonight as well, as much for the band as it was there for the fans and you just knew what was coming. As the band hit the stage I again spied my man Bower, setting an entire six pack on his stack for drinking. I had to laugh! Mike IX Williams checked to see if the readiness was all, and then yowled into the microphone, “We’re EyeHateGod from New Orleans, Louisiana!” Just then an ear-drum wrecking wave of feedback came from the amps and just blew the top off this party. Even from my vantage point on the side of the stage it was perilously high volume. The impressive thing about the sound was it was loud without being too muddy, especially the guitars, which is a good thing. Mike dragged the mic stand around like a dead body while spitting his genius lyrics about pain, poverty, loneliness, and death at the crowd. If the band weren’t masters of all-mighty doom riffs, and were a coffee shop playing, acoustic jam band; I’d still come out to see Mike. He is one of the most compelling artists of the last 35 years, so whatever he is doing in your town, go see him whenever you can. True to form, it isn’t a Mike IX appearance in Boston without a “Where’s Seth? Is Seth here?” joke or two, in tribute to their late ally Seth Putnam (Anal Cunt).

EyeHateGod plays with about as much musical telepathy as you would imaging a band around this long has. The interplay between the members on stage is not telegraphed, but there definitely seems to be a presence shared by them. Led by Bower, his playing dominates as he mans the corner of the stage, always jamming with a lot of passion. Aaron Hill, now filling the drum throne for the departed skin smasher Joey LaCaze, did a great job all night. He is definitely the perfect guy to carry on with. Meanwhile Brian Patton and Gary Mader just groove so perfectly together along with Bower, you have to take notice. Smashing through song after song, you wonder how these guys can stand the volume and the weight of the music. People all around me, losing their minds, to match the guys on stage doing the same. Newer songs like ‘Robitussin and Rejection’ fit in with classics like ‘Sisterfucker’, ‘Medicine Noose’, and ‘$30 Bag’ really well. By the end of the night Jimmy’s six pack was empty, the band looked drained, and everyone in attendance was spent. Thank you and goodnight!

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EyeHateGod Set List:

New Orleans Is the New Vietnam

Sisterfucker (Part I)

Sisterfucker (Part II)

Robitussin and Rejection

Medicine Noose

Agitation! Propaganda!

Methamphetamine

Parish Motel Sickness

Dixie Whiskey

$30 Bag

Kill Your Boss

EyeHateGod on Facebook

Ringworm on Facebook

Enabler on Facebook

Phantom Glue on Facebook

WORDS: KEITH (KEEFY) CHACHKES

PHOTOS: MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Norma Jean – Vanna – Ken Mode – The Greenery: Live at TT The Bears

Posted on February 6, 2014 by News Team

The Greenery, hailing all the way from California, brought the Cali hardcore scene to Boston. With raw energy behind every song, Matt Lanners demanded everyone’s attention with every word he screamed. What a great way to start off a show with such a killer lineup. Following closely was the noise/sludge group KEN Mode, who have been well-respected on the strength of their recent releases. Having heard so much about this band, I was glad I was given the opportunity to review a show with them on it. The music was a bit slower than any of the other bands on the bill, but a great mix none the less. The drummer and bassist stole the show with not only being about to perform flawlessly, but the way they perform is entertaining in itself. Definitely a band worth checking out if they ever roll through your city!

Boston’s very own, Vanna took the stage with a sort of force to be reckoned with. The energy they have during the set from beginning to end never dropped and the crowd fed off every bit of it. Not one body was standing still. Vocalist Davey Muise was sharing the microphone with anyone who wanted to scream the lyrics with him. He jumped into the middle of the floor into the crowd and had everyone swarm around him while he spoke heart felt words to everyone in the room. They always put on a great show regardless if it’s a small intimate venue, or catering to thousands of kids every day at Warped Tour.

Ending this crazy night was Georgia’s Norma Jean. Ever since the release of Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, Norma Jean was one of those bands who perfected the metalcore genre. From the moment they took the stage to the end was a non-stop shit show. The crowd was screaming along to songs such as ‘Bastardizer’ and ‘Wrongdoers’. The venue went nuts , with people crawling on stage and jumping on top of each other to get a chance at the microphone during ‘Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste’. During the last song, vocalist Cory Brandan Putman was climbing on top of the side speakers, to jump off from, but was cut short due to the security not allowing such a move. Regardless, the show was what I expected it to be, not one disappointed face leaving the venue.

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Norma Jean on Facebook

Vanna on Facebook

KEN Mode on Facebook

The Greenery on Facebook

Words and Photos by Meg Loyal of Meg Loyal Photography

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Tag Archives: photos by Meg Loyal

On The Road… with Every Time I Die and The Used

Crowbar – Revocation – Havok – Fit For an Autopsy -Armed For Apocalypse: The Worcester Palladium

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

EyeHateGod – Ringworm – Enabler- Phantom Glue: Live at Brighton Music Hall, Allston

Norma Jean – Vanna – Ken Mode – The Greenery: Live at TT The Bears