Writing this review on the heels of the news that Archeron will cease to be as a venue, I may get a bit misty-eyed for this place before too long. I headed down to the cool Brooklyn venue/bar/eatery to see some excellent metal bands on a Friday. As I walked around the up and coming Williamsburg neighborhood before the show, I reflected on how cool it is that New York once again has all these cool venues for live music, especially so for metal right now. Just ten years removed from when a shitty former mayor shuttered classic venue after venue and outcries the fans of live heavy music as a “nuisance”, it seems to be alive and kicking it at night in The Big Apple.
Getting to the bar early it was prime people watching from the bar. While I drank a smooth Pale Ale from Bronx Brewing Company and took note of the nice selection on tap, the food at the bar and restaurant was reflective of the bill tonight, excellent.
Brooklyn’s Anicon’s thick sound blew up the small rectangular space early with their instrumental black metal. Progressive, yet classic sounding USBM, Anicon performs with no pretense beyond their music. They want you to feel it as much as they do, so all their songs are more like a journey than a song. Little chatting to the crowd with very little moving around; they just showed up, played beautifully, acted like old pros, and bounced. The way it should be. Their new album drops in early July from Gilead Media, so please be sure to support them.
Chicagoans Immortal Bird returned to NYC will a bag of new jams from their Empress/Abscess long player and a reconstituted lineup. Having followed this group from its inception, to the stunning début EP Akrasia, to now, this is the tightest and best lineup of the band they have had to date. Led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Rae Amitay (Thrawsunblat), the band ran through tracks both recent and old. The entire room was feeling it and having many “holy shit” moments, as was I. Coming into their own now and gelling with the new players, it is exciting to see the growth of an up and coming band mirror that of the greats of the scene. Once they get off the road later in the year, they’ll be writing a new album with this lineup in tow. Big things are coming from this camp in the future, so don’t sleep!
False, man. False. I am tempted to just leave it at that, because words will likely fail to do justice to the six-piece crew from Minneapolis. OK, I will try to take you there with me after all. False is not a band, but a force. Seemingly put together by some cosmic chess-master selecting all the members exactly to compliment each other seamlessly, they hit your heart and mind simultaneously. Avant-garde, progressive or whathaveyou, False simply rules. One thing you notice right away about the band is their fantastic sonic mix live, perhaps better than on record. Even in a tiny room, they sounded immaculate from several vantage points I had. They wring every emotion out of their music and themselves, and ultimately you too. This was my second time seeing them, and honestly I am sad for that reason alone.
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Theories frontman Rick made a vow to the crowd about crushing your enemies and enjoying their downfall early in the night during their set. That pretty much sums up the tenor of their well-crafted, but savage grindcore anthems. If you want to slam, spill your beer, and exorcise your demons, Theories has the elixir for what ails your soul. Just in your face, well-played grind that has no fatty parts, just streamlined sickness. There were a few people right at the front of the pit, spilling their beers and exorcising said demons, but really the drama was all in the speakers to me. They were having a lot of fun on stage, which some bands in the scene seem to forget about these days. They were so powerful and provocative, that the fierceness is smarter than other bands in the genre. Theories is thinking people’s’ angry music, which is one of the best compliments I can give to a band.
KEITH CHACHKES
Uncompromising, crushing doom metal. World Keeps Sinking (Gilead Media) is probably going to end up as one of the heaviest releases of 2013. Northless have always been heavy, Clandestine Abuse was a good album, but they have undeniably surpassed it here, for a number of reasons.
Barely having had time to recover from the chilling 2012 full length Cold of Ages, Californians Ash Borer are back with another EP of monstrous proportions – two tracks that clock in at over 15 minutes apiece, this EP would rival most studio albums.