Baroness live at Boston, MA’s Royale

[caption id="attachment_54642" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Words by Julia Neuman
Photos by Diana Lungu[/caption]

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This is the third part of our Roadburn 2017 coverage. Read part one here and part two here.

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Day 3 - Climax

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On the third day, we rose again – bleary eyed, but ready for what would end up being the best day by far. My friend checked her phone to find that Misþyrming were set to play a surprise gig at Cul de Sac at 3:30. Excitement ensued. She had recently professed newfound love for Icelandic black metal, so naturally I demanded she go see Misþyrming instead of Cobalt. We made the morning trek to nearby Cafe Stoffel for bloody marys and coffee, then headed over to the venue.

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To say that the Cul de Sac ‘press/photo area’ was close to the stage would be an understatement. It was basically 5th member status just behind the bass amp, a prime spot for watching the young Icelandic quartet play their furious brand of black metal. Wide-eyed frontman Dagur Gonzales barked lyrics with more ferocity than the tiny room could handle. A true personality, Gonzales possesses the je ne sais quoi that many black metal vocalists lack. Not to be mistaken for a warmup act, Misþyrming paralyzed Cul de Sac with bouts of icy riffs that stuck with us for the day ahead.

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Finnish psych black metallers Oranssi Pazuzu took the main stage to creeping fog and an ominous backlit stage. They’re not a shock and awe kind of band; instead, they reel you in like a hypnosis patient. Pazuzu conjured an atmosphere entirely their own, a consuming and abyssal vortex of textures and sounds commanded flawlessly by frontman Juho Vanhanen. About halfway through “Vasemman käden hierarkia”, as the guitar swelled and the main riff reprised into a slow, doomy climax, Vanhanen raised his arms slowly, and the sheer weight of the experience overwhelmed me. Tears welled up in my eyes. This is why I came to Roadburn – to witness a set like this, the kind that keeps you going weeks later simply because it happened.

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Next came a triple header of different types of doom (again – why I came to Roadburn). UK trad doom band Warning took the Main Stage to enthusiastic support from the crowd. Their sweeping, soul-crushing tunes coupled with quirks like tuning out loud in between songs warmed Roadburner hearts in droves. Slomatics, who dish out some of the heaviest single note riffs you’ll hear, wasted no time whipping the Green Room into line, opening with the inimitable “Electric Breath.”

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The Main Stage then took a turn towards the dark as My Dying Bride trekked through Turn Loose the Swans in its entirety. The crowd didn’t seem to notice how poor the mix was with one guitar much louder than the other, but in this case, hey, who cares? “Your River” live is everything. Over in the Green Room again, Aluk Todolo cast an omnipotent impression before they even began. The trio’s stage setup left plenty to our sleep deprived imaginations. With little more than an alluring drumkit, a rustic light bulb swinging from a long rope, and another flickering light – they launched into a trance-like set absent of actual riffs and clearly driven by drummer Antoine Hadjioannou, who sat behind towering cymbals. The band combines the musical spirit of dark ‘70s rock with a cavernous French black metal aesthetic, to great effect. Speaking of great effect: Shortly after, we all succumbed to Disfear and a no-frills trip into ‘90s Swedish d-beat heaven. The band’s fierce set reduced most of Het Patronaat’s crowd to pools of sweat and satisfied grins. By this point I was aching and ready for some kind of miracle performance to revive me. It really seemed like Mysticum would be the one. They came out of the gate with an impressive light show – apparently one that pushed the envelope of production at Roadburn. As it turns out, however, three men standing on pillars with flashing lights gets old after about three minutes. Roadburn performances frequently have a polarizing effect on people – Mysticum’s being the perfect example. Some loved it, some didn’t. It was Carpenter Brut who ultimately worked the magic of reviving my weary body. If we’re comparing French synthwave artists, I’ve always been more of a Perturbator fan on record – but Carpenter Brut’s live show was a huge surprise. This is what I wish Perturbator’s show was; live guitar, live drums, and dripping ‘80s goodness. While Perturbator has gone the more EDM/DJ route in a one-man show with emphasis on lights, Carpenter Brut allows his metal crossover to flourish. I couldn’t bring myself to leave even though I desperately needed to sit down somewhere and rest. Every time I thought of heading out, Carpenter Brut launched into another infectious beat. The expertly sequenced set, engaging live guitarist and cheeky ‘80s video montage made this a standout of the festival and a great segue into afterparty madness. And madness it was. The penultimate day on Planet Roadburn ended in a haze of smoke, dancing and bad ‘80s singalongs at the infamous Little Devil bar. Choice sets: Oranssi Pazuzu, Carpenter Brut

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All words by Julia Neuman. Photos by Diana Lungu. View her portfolio here and follow her on Instagram at @winterfelled.

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[caption id="attachment_54628" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Words by Julia Neuman
Photos by Diana Lungu[/caption]

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This is the second part of our Roadburn 2017 coverage. Read part two here.

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Day 2 – Identity crisis

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After the initial thrill of Day 1, Day 2’s offering felt a little more challenging. Quite a few of the performances weren’t home runs (but that’s not to say any of them were poor). Throughout the day, I caught a few black metal sets in Het Patronaat; Schammasch, Zhrine and Emptiness sound markedly different on recordings, but all evoked similar live atmospheres of solemnity and grandeur. Het Patronaat may have contributed to the homogenization of the riffs; it’s not the ideal place for black metal sets, even though we all want it to be. The long layout and small stage make it more suitable for hip hop, electronic, d-beat, and melodic doom – basically anything that doesn’t easily sound muddy.

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I’ve seen Chelsea Wolfe play an intimate guitar-driven set to a small crowd at the Echo in LA. I’ve also seen her floor an entire amphitheatre of people opening for Queens of the Stone Age. She’s since catapulted to success with several very different, increasingly experimental albums under her belt, so I was eager to see her perform at a more advanced point in her career, and in this particular setting. Wolfe has perfected her voice, which has become the most important element of her music; both haunting and soothing, it seems to radiate from dark recesses. That being said, I found this particular performance lacking the energy she’s capable of conveying. The heavy strobe and fog detracted instead of added. By the end, I still wondered, “Who is Chelsea Wolfe?”

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John Dyer Baizley, who curated this year’s edition, mentioned Amenra as the band topping his list of invitees. It’s easy to understand why; Amenra are quintessential Roadburn. We swayed in awe during their headlining set – a complete sensory experience from literal top to bottom (their video backdrop of grey landscapes was massive). Scott Kelly of Neurosis and John Dyer Baizley came and joined for several songs. At one point there were seven musicians onstage, lurching forward and backwards in unison with the wall of sound they created. Amenra ensure a complete sonic assault through all frequencies: the crushing low end, the melodic chord changes in the mids and piercing vocal highs. What better place to play your fourth show then in a completely packed church at Roadburn? Zeal & Ardor got to do just that, although the universe couldn’t let them get away with the whole cake just yet; they were forced to cut their set short after the PA went out about ⅔ of the way through. The band initially kept playing as they could still hear themselves in the monitors, so for a brief minute it was like watching a silent film. They sputtered on through crackling and popping, and after some moments of confusion, they accepted their fate and ended early – but not before engaging in a “Devil is Fine” acapella interplay with the audience. That moment, even more than their actual set, electrified the crowd. I’m looking forward to what Manuel Gagneux and co. will do next – it seems pretty certain they’ll be back at Roadburn next year to finish where they left off. A few hours and one PA repair job later, Perturbator converted the same location into a dance floor and closed out the night with a one-man synth show. Some of the French synthwave artist’s songs lend themselves well to this performance setup – as evidenced by the crowd’s movement even after a long day of standing – but ultimately, it’s missing that special something. A live band might be the answer. The afterparty raged on downstairs with a disco and then carried over to the streets. A group of us walked to Little Devil bar only to find that it was already closed for the night. The resourceful musicians in tow solved that problem quickly by cracking open the whiskey outside the bar’s front door. I ducked into a cab before the bottle reached half empty – maybe one of my smarter decisions that weekend. Choice set: Amenra

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All words by Julia Neuman. Photos by Diana Lungu. View her portfolio here and follow her on Instagram at @winterfelled.

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This month's’ Editor’s Choice comes late yet again and this time I have no excuse besides watching too many .gifs of Marine Le Pen balling her eyes out. I kid. I kid. It was just one .gif. In seriousness, I found beginning this post to be a bit difficult because I don’t want to talk about metal initially. Instead, I want to talk about food. I have a tremendous soft spot for television shows about exotic cooking. I’ve been a loyal adherent of Anthony Bourdain’s for some time. Bourdin is a rock fan, but not an extreme metal fan, which makes him relatable to me. Better, Bourdain uses the examination of food as a pretense for examining the environments and societies that produce the food that he eats. Bourdain’s various shows posit a world that is made up of a single indivisible cultural fabric. In many ways, I see the examination of music the same way. Here’s an example: Deathspell Omega and Gojira share few outright similarities beyond that both acts are French, and that both caught the ears of the global metal music at a similar point in time. Si Monumentum Requires Circumspice was released in 2004, and From Mars to Sirius was released, in France at least, in 2005. That’s relatively proximate, considering that I cannot think of a French band so acclaimed releasing a record before that time. Both acts also re-imagined relatively obvious and trite sounds (second wave black metal, 90’s metallic rock) and ideas (satanism, new wave mysticism) with new aesthetic and timbral ideas, and presented them in a way which rejuvenated both styles. It seems there was something in the water in France at that time, though without a metallic Bourdain reporting from street level around the time it’s impossible to speculate what exactly. Much music criticism does not endeavor to look at these kinds of connections. Food and music share enough similarities to warrant looking at the two art forms the same way. For one, each is prehistoric and tool-reliant. We first used urns to cook fish soup 15 thousand years ago. The first musical instruments were played more than 40 thousand years ago. Only painting dates back to this time frame. Poetry and storytelling draw from the infinite back of possibilities that vocabulary and language offer, and visual art is only limited by the artist’s skill, but cooking and music rely on technology and the instruments or ingredients available on hand. Music and cooking do not use language or images to communicate, at least for the most part. Even in the average pop song, the human voice takes up a quarter or less of the instrumentation, and much of the information conveyed by the voice is tonal or melodic, not linguistic. In extreme metal especially, the lyrics can have more intellectual value than they do impact on the overall experience. Music and food also share a morbid past muddled by our modern zeitgeist. The aforementioned early instruments were made from hollowed out bones. In those times no human being would go very long without killing an animal or plant in order to eat it. In modern times, the reality of agribusiness has separated many people from the experience of killing their own food. Likewise, the invention of the record player means people don’t need to know how to play music, or seek out a skilled musician in order to hear songs, even though personal experience leads me to believe that many metal enthusiasts know how to play instruments. What can reading food criticism, or watching people like Bourdain, teach us about appreciating music? Maybe to always consider its past and the context in which it was created, but also to see music as something both worth savoring and as something essential to life in the way food is. American cuisine especially, acts like food has an infinite supply but is mostly bland. YouTube posits that music is mostly the same, plentiful but lacking individual impact. People are beginning to understand that preserving the culture of cuisine, and sourcing what we eat, has value. Maybe it’s time to do the same with music. Treat these morsels as delicacies, not entertainment. Eat every meal like it could be your least. Hear every record like it could play at your funeral.

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We’ve covered Ottawa, Ontario’s The Sun Through a Telescope before, and while this year’s Black Hole Smile doesn't upend any of the patterns set on 2013’s I Die Smiling, it’s still a disruptive record. Sole musician Lee Neutron blends recognizable styles into a sophisticated, tough-to-pin-down whole. Oftentimes he plays with filthy noise and plodding rhythms. Other times, and very rarely, a melody will remind me of Husker Du. These kinds of extreme stylistic blends have made notable names out of European groups like Kvelertak, Tribulation and Oranssi Pazuzu, and Neutron has the same breadth as those artists albeit with wholly different aesthetics and ingredients.

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My gut says Scotland's Bitter Lake will divide listeners. Amateurish in the extreme, Distortions in Sombre presets itself as an audodidact’s bedroom black metal project with no aesthetic cohesion. In practice, though, the “atmosphere” and “black metal” parts take a back seat to massive distorted drums reminiscent of early Ministry as recreated via Fruity Loops. Blown out doesn’t begin to describe its percussive headache. Few “raw” black metal demos across my desk dare to be this aggressive.

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I’ve seen more people give the new Mastodon album, The Emperor of Sand, a pass than its predecessor, Once More Round the Sun. That’s what happens when a band wisely decides to let the cheerleaders sit on the bench for this game and hopefully forever. For my money, both records pack a few hits and a whole lotta misses. Arcadea packs more punch. The upcoming project featuring drummer Brann Dailor, Core Atoms of Gaylord, and Raheem Amlani of Withered and the always-underappreciated Scarab, doubles down on the pop and progressive elements that Mastodon began to really play with on Crack the Skye. It wont console anyone who wants a return to Remission but at least offers an inherent critique of post-prog Mastodon: if you cannot return to where you started from, then get as far away as you can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQ1U6FcKuc

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In contrast, Necrot remember exactly what made them great on their upcoming and long-gestating debut, Blood Offerings. Sharing members with Acephalix,Vastum and Rude, the Bay Area death metal power trios lots neatly into that region’s fertile death metal sound, primitive but always hooky. Their collected demos portray a band lovingly recreating first generation death metal both American and European, the kind that still had audible traces of NWOBHM and thrash in it. The opening riff to “Empty Hands”, the first song released from Blood Offerings, displays that same melodic sense, especially when it returns with octave harmony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTNas0q5exI&feature=youtu.be

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Further evidence of the Bay Area’s fertility, Ails features Christy Cather and Laurie Sue Shanaman, formerly of Ludicra. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you, dear reader, please refer to our extensive coverage of the band’s history. In their time Ludicra blended old school heavy metal, crust, prog and black metal into an indelible blend of sounds. They might have been the best black metal band in the US, period. That history and burden unfairly weighs on Ails, but just one demo into their discography Cather and Shanaman, with some help from guitarist Sam Abend (Desolation, Abrubt, Scurvy Dogs), drummer Colby Byrn (One In The Chamber, 2084, Aequorea) and bassist Jason Miller (Apocryphon, Cretaceous, Phantom Limbs), seem up to wearing that crown. “Dead Metaphors” maintains two central parts of the Ludicra sound. First, a delicate guitar flourish sensibility. Second, a knack for holding the listener's interest for nearly ten minutes. The queen is dead, long live the queen.

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Chicago’s Satan’s Hollow do nothing new, but the indicate a rising interest in classic, pre-extreme metal sounds. It’s tough to wear that crown and come from the same city as High Spirits, but the band’s self-titled debut is more than ready to box the regional champ. The ghost of Dio haunts the band, thanks in no small part to Mandy Martillo’s powerful voice and intricate lyrics.

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100 Years say on their Facebook that the band should appeal to fans of Celtic Frost, Voivod and Swans. Those comparisons imply a kind of progressive ambition. It’s present, but their debut record isn’t some kind of art piece. Instead, it’s a pretty ideal balance of post-metal meditation and crusty drive. In an alternate timeline Neurosis stumbled onto this formula if they listened more to their punk leanings and less to their atavistic sensibilities. I’m not sure I’ve heard another record quite like 100 Years.

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Last, a blast from the past courtesy of longtime reader Christian Dalton. The Black League has almost no music on most streaming channels. Spotify only carries their 2009 swansong, Ghost Brothel. Their debut, Ichor is better, but not because it sounds raw and sloppy. Founding singer Tanlei Jarva was a veteran performer from his time in Sentenced (not to mention a former bassist in Impaled Nazarene) when Ichor was written. His backing band were pretty much nobodies, but they played like headliners. Rotting Christ’s anthemic lurch met the Gothenburg sound before it became too quantized on this album. Some hints of 80’s Judas Priest show themselves as well. Dalton framed the band as a precursor to Tribulation and he’s right. I’m not surprised a few smart songwriters are trying to find this particular kind of black magic again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPmDoE_jAD8&feature=youtu.be

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Terri Rytkonen, wife of Bindrune Recordings (Panopticon, Falls of Rauros, Celestiial, etc) label head Marty Rytkonen, suffered a stroke yesterday which led to a car accident. Now paralyzed on her left side, Terri is in surgery to help alleviate the swelling in her brain. Those of us who have worked with or met Marty know him to be a class act and an impassioned, caring person. Ben "Ben Smasher" Smith recently started a GoFundMe campaign, featuring an emotional plea from Panopticon's Austin Lunn and Obsequiae's Tanner Anderson, to financially assist the Rytkonen family in their time of need. Please consider donating here. Not only is Marty an important figure in American black metal, but he is a caring family man and a selfless, kind person. We all hope for the best for Terri, Marty, and their son Parker.

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From the moraines of northern Germany emerges reclusive, miserable black metal duo Abkehr. Following in the footsteps of genre forebears Nyktalgia and Wigrid, Abkehr's ashen debut In Asche obscures their inner isolation with abrasive, outward aggression and a harsh blanket of hiss. Dismissing the more modern approach to atmosphere, this band eschews the crescendo-based, long-form composition style in favor of crafting a howling fog of minimal desperation. In Asche recalls an age when black metal's depression was a clear statement filtered through the second wave's rage. In Asche will be released on cassette via Sentient Ruin Laboratories on Friday, May 19th. You can pre-order the cassette now, and be sure to head below to listen to the album in entirety - bask in Abkehr's negativity.

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Follow Abkehr on Facebook and Bandcamp.

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In what is likely to be this year's heaviest split release, the midwest alliance of Michigan grind trio Cloud Rat and Chicago droning death/doom metal trio Disrotted finds solid footing in the subterranean, all-surrounding pressure of crushing, sludgy doom. Though Disrotted's explosive - I've been known to refer to their music as "explosion metal" - split closer "Dissipate" more closely resembles their signature band of Corrupted-inspired, hyper-minimalist low-frequency worship, Cloud Rat's lengthy opening statement "Holding the Picture" shows a new face to this already multi-faceted band. "Playing the long-game," Cloud Rat makes the jump and matches Disrotted's sub-funereal pace for a blackened eighteen-minute dirge. The lavish, triple-gatefold split LP between Cloud Rat and Disrotted will be jointly released between Halo of Flies Records (the label's 100th release!) and Dry Cough Records on June 2nd. Head below for a full stream of the album with commentary from each artist.

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From the artists:

After becoming bffs with Disrotted a few years back, we discussed doing a split together where both bands would do something a bit different from what we usually would, sonically and visually. As Cloud Rat had been toying around with the idea of writing a grind epic for a few years (Qliphoth started as one long song, actually, but the idea wasn't coherent enough so we scratched it), we decided to go that route for this release. With this song, we were unconcerned with genre tropes, tried to stretch our creative legs a bit and layered in a lot of different ideas, lots of keys, samples, noise, extra instrumentation, different vocal approaches, etc. Lyrically, Madison wrote a loose story about a woman in a future civilization on a distant planet, looking back upon our destroyed planet and the mistakes of earlier humans. Emotions are meaningless, great destroyers of the past. She transcends this reality to a higher plane of existence, and helps others to do the same. Voyage of the Acolyte was a big influence for this track, lol. Hopefully in the near future we can put together a lineup for a tour that can pull this off live. We'll need a couple extra pals along to do it justice. This will probably bore folks who only dig our really aggressive stuff, so skip it if you fall under that umbrella.

-Cloud Rat

We have been discussing doing a split with Cloud Rat for years, and we are thrilled that we are finally able to do it. Musically, this split showcases some of our slowest and most disturbing music yet. I think we are starting to really push ourselves to create some of the most bleak and textural doom today. Lyrics are influenced by themes such as interdimensional travel, nightmares, supernatural forces, and the coming age of forever darkness,

-Disrotted

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Follow Cloud Rat on Facebook and Bandcamp. Follow Disrotted on Facebook and Bandcamp.

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