The Green Mountain State Gets Heavy: A Vermont Metal Roundup

When compared with the fertile metal hotbeds of southern New England, most notably the Boston and Providence areas, Vermont does not appear to be a contender. Even New Hampshire and Western/Central Mass get more press. Part of this is exposure and isolation: Vermont is a state of less than a million inhabitants, and the nearest city that isn’t named Burlington is in Canada. However, isolation breeds innovation and dedication, and what the metal bands of Vermont lack in numbers and exposure they more than make up for in hutzpah. It’s only fitting: Vermont has long been a place where weirdos and freaks can claim their own patch of quiet farmland, and thus it was only a matter of time before metalheads began to crop up like blackened weeds amongst the corn and sugar maples.

Having lived in Vermont for three years this November, it took me a while to find and then integrate with the local scene. If you don’t reside in Burlington (which I never have) it can be hard to meet fellow hessians organically, and shows are usually on a monthly or weekly basis. However, a little tenacity and some social media para-sociality-turned-real-world-connection has resulted in me getting to know the scene around here more in the past year, and I have been sufficiently pleased with what’s going on that I felt it a prime time to do a scene write-up of Vermont metal as it stands in October 2023, focusing on nine of my favorite bands in the stack. It’s a growing scene, with a solid mix of new younger faces and experienced oldheads, and it’s my opinion that its well-deserved hour has come for some international recognition.

Note that this list has been limited to Vermont bands which fall distinctly on the side of “metal”: other “loud-alt” genres such as hardcore and punk are present in VT, represented by such bands as Commitment in Pain, Cooked, Torn, and Blossom, but these really deserve their own list.

Abaddon

Blackened Death Metal FFO: Goatwhore, The Black Dahlia Murder

There’s many different bands named after the lesser demon Abaddon, and why should Vermont be any different? However, this Abaddon is its own demon entirely. Lots of bands refer to themselves as “blackened death metal,” but Abaddon embody the term. Growls and rasps switch off like pinch hitters, and while blast beats anchor the sound, they don’t overwhelm it. Songs are intricate without being alienating, and the aesthetic is grim without being cartoonishly frostbitten. There’s a sort of muscularity to Abaddon’s sound that brings to mind late 90s death metal or hardcore, syncopation that doesn’t necessarily rely on groove. Personally, out of all the Abaddon’s I’ve heard in my years, this one is my favorite by far.

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Black Axe

Crust Sludge FFO: Dystopia, Sea of Deprivation

Black Axe have taken the crust/sludge formula pioneered by Dystopia and reduced it to its bare essence: guitars+bass+drums. It’s big and epic, but not flashy. There’s a reason that Amebix titled their second full-length Monolith, and that’s what Black Axe is aiming for here, a big, malicious monolith of stench and bass-end. However, this is not a caveman’s approach to simplicity, you’ll find few chug-a-lugs here; instead, be prepared for the sludgy thud to give way to plentiful d-beat boom dats, and maybe even a shredding solo or two. Think of Black Axe as taking the ascetic approach to crust: it’s not the grandiloquent sweep of neocrust but instead nothing but riff, crash, and pound. And lemme tell ya, the riffs speak for themselves. If you ever wanted to hear what Pentagram would sound like if Bobby Liebling hopped trains in his youth, Black Axe is here to open the portal to that universe.

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Fentanyl Surprise

Goregrind FFO: Archagathus, Bulma

Once you get past the hilarious band name, you should probably know what you’re in for with Fentanyl Surprise. It’s absolute mincing goregrind madness: hyperblastbeats, tunings low enough to give you diarrhea on an empty stomach, and pitch shifted vocals that sound like the toilet you just diarrhea’d into. They also prove worthy of the goregrind pantheon in their litany of splits, releases which arrive, sock you in the face, and leave before you can figure out you’re dead. It’s not a sound meant for everyone, or even for most, but I absolutely adore stuff like this, it just pushes the extremity of music to its absolute limit. Gross, crude, and fucking awesome.

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Melkor

Black Metal FFO: Immortal, Deathspell Omega

Melkor plays black metal of the most satisfying traditional kind. They lack the ethereal shoegaze of atmoblack, but also bear none of the cheese of Dimmu-style epic black or the face-first aggression of bestial/war metal. It’s “black metal sans adjectives”: just as Black Axe have taken the Amebix formula and ground it down to a single, massive spike, thus have Melkor stripped black metal to its basest elements: blast (hammer- or standard), tremolo, rasp. Every good metal scene has to have at least one orthodox black metal act, and Melkor delivers on this promise, even if they don’t wear corpsepaint live.

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Sachem

Sludge/Doom FFO: Come to Grief, Noothgrush

Sachem are kindred to Black Axe in their slow, uncomplicated approach to sludge. However, where Black Axe are absolutely on the crusty end, wafting out of your speakers like dumpster essence in July, Sachem opt for the more doom-derived approach, drawing as much influence from the Southern school as the Bay Area school. It’s slow, but not boring or repetitive like stoner doom. It’s angry, but not despondent or doomerist like sludge. It will make you nod your head forcefully, not in the dispassionate way. Put on your biggest flannel and your oldest jeans, crack open some cheap beers, and let Sachem squeeze your brain like a damn vice.

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Shitangel

Bestial Black Metal FFO: Sadomator, Bestial Warlust

With a name like Shitangel, you know that you’re gonna get something that is both incredibly filthy but also absolutely fucking awesome. This greasy VT crew titled their 2022 debut Shithead Metal, and lemme tell ya, it 100% delivers on that promise. Guitars don’t so much riff as whoosh by, the drums are essentially just a solid “BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM” for 10 straight tracks, and the song titles include such hits as “Golden Shower Baptism,” “S&M Satanas,” and “Overflow of Christian Vomit.” For acolytes of the impure, unholy, alcoholic, and blasphemous, no one else in the Green Mountain state does it any better, or worse as the intent may be. Highest possible recommendation!.

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Spaisekult

Stoner Metal FFO: Red Fang, later Mastodon

First of all, kudos to Spaisekult for not just calling their band “Space Cult,” as a generic stoner doom band would be wont to do. Furthermore, kudos to them for making stoner doom interesting: you’ll find less of the typical 3-5 slide endemic to the subgenre in this trio. As with their name, Spaisekult tweak the stoner metal formula into something novel. Vocals that are more Josh Homme than Al Cisneros and are often in chorus drift seductively atop licks that run up and down the frets, rather than just idling in place. Their drummer has also remembered how to make slow music interesting, with fills that grab you like “oh hey, wasn’t expecting that to happen.” It’s the kind of stoner doom that doesn’t require being stoned to appreciate, but is that much better if you are.

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Split in Half

Slam/Old School Deathcore FFO: Torn Within, Animosity

To the uninitiated, Split in Half may, by their name and aesthetic, seem on the surface to be yet another Cannibal Corpse clone, the usual gang of camo-panted punters playing competent but derivative brutal death metal with a “hell yeah brother” on the side. But the Split boys take a different tack entirely, belonging instead to a new cohort of retrofitted old-school deathcore. It’s like if Suicide Silence never released “The Bludgeoning,” or if Torn Within had not taken a twenty-year hiatus. Don’t expect a lot of “ooey-booey” pig squeals or hyper-slow breakdowns, but rather a whole lot of groove and vocals more reminiscent of classic Malevolent Creation. I’ve seen this band inspire spinkicks in a venue that was less than 20 feet wide, so if going outta pocket to crucial breakdowns is your game, you’d be remiss not to add them to your mosh rotation.

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Wolfhand

Sludge/Post-Metal FFO: later Earth, Across Tundras

Like many of y’all dear IO readers, I also remember the 2000s “NeurIsis” explosion. If you were too young to recall or were entrenched in different scenes, this was a whole glut of bands that sought to capture the “Post-Metal” sound that Neurosis and Isis pioneered, essentially marrying thick sludge tones and chuggy sludge riffs to post-rock/shoegaze reverby noodling. Wolfhand also play “Post-Metal,” but rather than boring you with crescendo and release instead have opted for the Western approach, as in Western movies. If you’ve ever heard Across Tundras or Earth’s material post-2005, you may have some idea of what you’re in for: epic music that takes metal riffs and drumming but replaces crunch with jangle and phases out vocals to let the atmosphere carry you away. For a band from New England, Wolfhand absolutely succeeds in conjuring up mental images right out of a Sergio Leone flick, so have yourself a seat and crank them up nice and loud while you re-read Blood Meridian for the third time.

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That’s all I have for 2023. Maybe I’ll make another one of these somewhere down the road, or maybe y’all can come on up to Vermont and see for yourselves (just not during leaf season, that’s when the Massholes and New Yorkists are here).