Live Review, Video & Photos: Woe, Anicon, Skullshitter

February 4, 2013

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Thursday night (1/31), Philadelphia PA’s Woe invaded Saint Vitus and brought along two great New York bands to share in the mayhem. The crowd was small but appreciative, and all three of the groups gave performances deserving of a much larger audience. Shows like this remind me why I love live music and extreme metal. A full set of pictures and review follows.

The first band, Skullshitter, play a style of death metal infused grindcore that’s raw, energetic and pissed off. Really pissed off. They tore through their set like a pack of feral dogs, pausing only briefly between songs to impart useful tidbits of information to the audience – such as a buy-one-get-one Big Mac sale McDonald’s is running this week. Seeing as how I’m currently between jobs, I was thankful for this information as well as the face melting grindcore that Skullshitter blasted.

Skullshitter

Skullshitter – Brooklyn, Saint Vitus 31 Jan 2013 from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

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Next up was Anicon, a black metal band featuring members of Krallice and Trenchgrinder. I had the opportunity to see the band’s first public performance opening for Von in December (pictures here), and I was really excited about seeing them again for their second outing. If you haven’t heard them before, you need to remedy that immediately. Then go see them live. Anicon play straightforward black metal in the vein of early Immortal or Darkthrone but with the unmistakable sheen of USBM production – there are catchy melodic hooks aplenty, but the songs are also hypnotically repetitive. The music manages to sound simultaneously grim, vast, and epic which is an impressive accomplishment for a band utilizing a standard guitar, guitar, bass, drums setup. Seriously, go out of your way to see these guys live as soon as you can.

Anicon

Anicon

Anicon – Brooklyn, Saint Vitus 31 Jan 2013 from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

Photos/review/videos continue…

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Finally, Woe took to the stage and immediately set about pummeling the audience with an auditory blitzkrieg. On record, Woe play a style of black metal that’s fairly influenced by punk rock but still remains true to old school aesthetics. Live though, that punk influence became much more pronounced as the band played many of their songs at a noticeably faster tempo. The band members (who now included members of Infernal Stronghold and Disma amongst their ranks) were so energetic in their performance that, at times, it was easy to forget their lyrics are all about being depressed and miserable. Heads banged and fists pumped uncontrollably as the Philadelphians raged. There’s something inspiring about seeing bands (who you know have day jobs) deliver an amazing performance to a weeknight crowd that’s much smaller than it really should be.

Woe

Woe