. . .
I’m not a Philadelphia native, but I spent my high school and college years there. I retain a great deal of affection for the city.
Philly is affordable and approachable, by East Coast standards. Compared to New York, where I live now, it offers a number of advantages. The food and booze are cheaper. (I dearly miss its BYO restaurants.) The residents are less crazy, or at least less painfully fashionable. Its considerable grit helps preserve its personality.
But Philly’s charms do not include a profuse metal scene. Metal-Archives has only 176 entries for Philadelphia. (Boston, for instance, has 213, despite its smaller population.) Metal bands form and play shows there, to be sure, but rarely does a Philly group achieve broader acclaim. I have always found this perplexing; the city’s underdog toughness should lend itself to metal.
Ashencult play the kind of black metal that Philly should spit out more often. Like Philly, their self-released debut Black Flame Gnosis is steeped in history. It revels in ’90s-era Scandinavian trappings of the sort that I, with my prosaic inclinations, find slightly silly: corpsepaint, anonymity, lyrics about mystical stuff, the word “cult.” The music observes tradition, too, albeit the Swedish kind. Like Dissection or Dawn, the songs unwind into tangled skeins of speedpicking. Reverb abounds.
But these accoutrements feel more like means than ends. Beneath the grym surface lies a skewed, charming roughness. Ashencult do not shine with crystalline perfection, as Dawn does. The guitar harmonies don’t resolve tidily, but wander off into dissonance. Forceful punk downpicking appears out of nowhere. The performances hang loose by contemporary standards, but their effect is “hard-fought” rather than “sloppy.” Metal should strive, and Ashencult are striving.
It would do my heart good to see Ashencult reach a broader audience. I always smile when my adopted hometown gets one over on the rest of the world, but Philly bands have little luck in such affairs. I’m content to imagine Ashencult’s nameless members ripping through sweaty practices in the basement of a decrepit duplex, surrounded by greasy wrappers and empty bottles. I hope their racket keeps the neighbors up at night.
. . .
BUY BLACK FLAME GNOSIS
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STREAM BLACK FLAME GNOSIS
Black Flame Gnosis is a real banger. One of my favorite Black Metal albums of the year, and it’s free!
This is a huge find! Outshines a lot of BM coming out these days.
Fuckin’ a.
Way to out them! They’re gonna be all mobbed by reporters and screaming fans now.
Note: plz to ignore this erroneous comment.
That track kicked ass. I’m all over this.
This band is excellent. I love that a website like IO can totally blow up a band or album. I hope that happens with them!
Infernal Stronghold, Woe, Plague Dogs, Vektor, Casket, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Sadgiqacea, Hivelords, No Stayer, Infiltrator, Grass, Coffin Dust, Bubonic Bear, Serpent Throne, Occult 45, Decieverion, etc.
Philly’s metal scene is on top of its game right now. Don’t know what you’re talking about.
Don’t forget about Javelina.
Of those bands, I’d estimate that non-Philadelphians are likely to have heard of only Woe, Rumplestiltskin Grinder, and maybe Serpent Throne. Vektor are from Tempe originally, so they’re not really a product of that scene. And honestly, several of the others you named just aren’t terribly interesting.
If you don’t know Infernal Stronghold, you’re doing it wrong.
What US cities, other than New York and Chicago, have more notable, active bands? Richmond?
San Francisco/Oakland, Portland, and Seattle come to mind as cities that have produced as much good metal as Philly or more, despite their smaller sizes. (SF/Oakland is arguably larger than Philly if you look at it as a greater metropolitan area, but only if you include San Jose and the extensive suburbs that connect all three cities.) Of course, “notable” and “active” have variable definitions that depend on what you’re looking for.
Anyhow, my point was that Philly under-represents itself given its size and character, not that Philly doesn’t represent itself at all.
Austin is a small city with an active scene, considering that Chaos In Tejas is held there every year. Here in the midwest, Milwaukee and Indianapolis have small but surprisingly active scenes as well, considering that bands from those cities travel to play in Chicago almost all the time.
Forgot about the Bay Area. That is indeed an excellent scene. Don’t agree that Seattle or Portland, especially if you only count Woe/RSG/Serpent Throne level bands or imports. Imports really hurt Portland (Toxic Holocaust, Dark Castle, Nux Vomica).
Philadelphia’s metal scene has a DIY ethos to match the blue collar ethics of the city. I wouldn’t say the city’s scene is under-represented so much as under-appreciated by those outside of the Mid-Atlantic.
Chaos in Tejas doesn’t just draw from Austin. People come from all over for that, just like MDF.
I did not indicate anywhere in my previous comment that Chaos In Tejas only draws locals. I am very aware that it is a desination festival just like MDF. How do I know? I’ve been to both. In the same year, as a matter of fact. What I’m trying to convey is that Chaos In Tejas as a fest in co-relation to the active state of the metal scene in Austin.
absolutely fabulous! thanks! \m/\m/
Nice. Digging this.
maybe not the most prolific band, but aren’t Starkweather a Philly band?
Nobody should see you mug you through your basement. It’s ALL RIGHT. You can certainly be a digg star =)