The band also had t-shirts available, though I ended up spending all of my extra loot at Dread Records, who had set up shop within the Borg for the evening. Personally I picked up Emetic Records re-release of Beherit's, 'The Oath of Black Blood' on Picture LP format (ltd 500 copies) and totally out of print, as well as Exordium's, 'In Wrath Principle,' and all for just $30 as well. So, if you're looking for some great releases for a fair price than definitely stop over at their site.
Anyway, getting back to the main point of this review. The event featured M. Jurek, Kathogah, The Cold Beyond, Sacrificial Massacre and Festerfuck VS Milorganaut. I arrived at the venue slightly late, because eating dinner and finishing my viewing of the movie, 'The People Under the Stairs' seemed more important, and as such I missed M.Jurek, which is one of the members of black metal band, Owlscry, doing ambient noise music. I should also point out that I missed the grind-off between grindcore bands, Festerfuck & Milorganaut, mainly because I generally loathe grind and also because by the time Sacrificial Massacre finished (a little after 11 PM) I was sort of burned out from only sleeping a few hours after work Friday night/morning (I do the grave shift thing, folks).
Kathogah:
As a result of my lateness the first band I caught was Kathogah, which is Jon Engman's solo sludge metal project. Jon's known for his work in Foetopsy, Liturgy, Brodequin, Screaming Afterbirth and his industrial/noise project, Custodian, and he was even a member of The Cold Beyond back in the late 90's as well. You might ask yourself how does one perform as a one-man sludge band? Well, that answer is sort of hard to explain, but all I know is that Jon was sitting down playing a live drum machine with his hands and had his feet on pedals of some sort for the guitar and he was also singing too. Talk about multitasking. Curiously it all sounded quite good and had I been somewhat intoxicated I probably would have started head banging to his five untitled songs. It was definitely weird crowding around someone and watching them play sludge without any real instruments, but without a doubt interesting and enjoyable too. I'm not sure if Jon plans to keep performing this way or to eventually form a normal line-up, but at least this performance was fascinating.
The Cold Beyond:
Although I had assumed they were going to play last as the headlining act of the night, The Cold Beyond ended up playing third for reasons beyond my knowing. The band played a somewhat short set at just about forty minutes and four songs in total, which were also all taken from the new EP. The band opened with, '...And Then The Darkness Came,' which instantly seemed to spread a sense of frigidness and looming gloom throughout the venue, until the song gathered in its pace and Sithicus Ravenlord (guitarist/vocalist) began to violently scream into the microphone for the next several minutes. During the speedier moments of this song and the ones to follow it was absolutely impressive watching the bands onstage passion, especially Sithicus who delivered the vocals in such a malign and bloodthirsty manner as well during some moments his hands were quivering in a murderous sort of motion, which you'd just have to have seen to believe. Also drummer JM Sundown was certainly impressive behind the drum kit, never missing a beat and in some cases just absolutely pummeling the drums. Needless to say, the mans a beast. I also enjoyed the fact that his drums seemed to be quite loud and it just made their style of black metal all the more abrasive and destructive.
Despite the shortness of their set I was overly impressed with their performance and the new songs, as well I hope to be able to catch at least one of the upcoming gigs in November.
Sacrificial Massacre:
Sacrificial Massacre has been active since 2010 and this two piece band of Joseph Aborter of the Divine Bastard Son (drums) and Alejandro Consumer of Divine Flesh (vocals/guitars) have released two demos since and are often known to play gigs, although this was my first time catching them live due to the fact that I almost always work Friday's and weekends. The band plays a sort of minimalist raw orthodoxy black metal with mid-paced short songs that are generally no more than 2-3 minutes each. Just like The Cold Beyond, Sac Mass played under the ominous blue lights, nearly cloaked in darkness as they raged through several of their songs. The band brought a foreboding sentiment to the venue through Alejandro's grim riffs and malevolent snarls, as well Joseph would occasional scream out in-between songs, and although I'm not exactly sure what he was saying it felt like some sort of incantation being cast upon us. Likewise the band displayed a similar sense of passion and proficiency through their performance that you just don't always see from underground unsigned bands. To put it lightly though, I was impressed.
As I mentioned earlier I didn't stay for the final act due to a lack of interest and tiredness, but I still had an overly enjoyable evening and I truly can't wait to catch these bands again!
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