Scalpel Archives - Ghost Cult MagazineGhost Cult Magazine

Spearheading the events were practiced local (body) openers, Scalpel, who are honestly one of the few forever-local-band-syndrome Death Metal bands that I can enjoy seeing repeatedly. They’ve done the honours of opening ceremonies for Aborted, Morbid Angel, and Gorguts, just to name the recent ones that stick out. It’s nasty, brutal, primitive, and hairy, technically proficient when appropriate, and inciting brainless pit violence the next. By “brainless pit violence”, I kinda mean a few guys tossed each other around and bumped shoulders like so many rams, but clearly the music is working the way it should. For fans of Brutal Death Metal, as you may have guessed.

California’s Exmortus (not to be confused with Tampa old school death metal) embraces antiquity without shunning modernity. With influences equal parts scorching NWOBHM licks, Black Thrash barbarity, and classical sensibility to taste. A welcome contrast to Scalpel, awash in gore, Exmortus’ rousing, anthemic approach is the meeting ground between Holy Grail -represented by the bassist’s choice of shirt- and that bygone Baroque swagger of early Children of Bodom, sans keyboards, plus signature ESP models. Melodic, but not too much so, there were hints of power metal scattered throughout, but never in danger of erupting into an inflatable swordfight.

As much as I wish I could sing praise to Allegaeon for their brand of admittedly decent Melodic Tech-Death, I found this Colorado crew to be ultimately uninspired. Though vocalist Ezra does have an animated stage presence and the band is certainly competent, I’ve heard so many similar acts that I can scarcely feel as impressed as others seem to be. I think of Sylosis, who play a very similar style; Scar Symmetry, who have, in my mind, captured a distinctive take on the Melo-Death sound; and Dark Tranquillity, whom we may ‘blame’ for this strain of Gothenburg mysticism. Their breakdowns seem obligatory rather than energetic, and the solos, while thankfully, not long-winded, don’t seem constructed to the best of their ability. If this is their best, then it’s just not my cup of tea. Or maybe it’s a cup of tea I’ve had too many times.

Technical Death Metal poets laureate in Virginia’s Arsis have once again given us a sermon in the obscure day to day sorrows of humanity. Their title pays homage to a poetry term running counter to thesis; it is the unaccented beat in a work of verse, and/or the unaccented part of a measure. Indeed, Arsis’ particular style meshes the ‘Elegant and Perverse’, a mournful take on death metal that incorporates both the twisted brutality and the flowing melody it is capable of, with equal portent.

Conducting the proceedings with a symphonic grandeur was of utmost importance, this year marking the 10th anniversary of the band’s landmark album, A Celebration of Guilt (Willowtip), an album whose corrupting influence has blackened many a heart with its majestic hooks, its malicious, sharp-edged sheen respected by both Technical and Melodic camps; opening, as expected, with out favourite love song, ‘The Face of My Innocence’, to exposing the folly of falsity in ‘The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters’, and the chronicles of bestial nightmare itself through the venomously sweet ‘Wholly Night’. It was like a walk-through of essential Arsis, with ‘We Are The Nightmare’ and the abbreviated, but no less brilliant, version of ‘A Diamond For Disease’ making much appreciated appearances. Breaking the pattern of ‘Maddening Disdain’ (I tried), we were treated to an amusing cover of ‘Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)’ by W.A.S.P., which James Malone says they learned mainly to get laid. I suppose the fact that they play it now means either it works, or it has yet to. I’ll stick to their originals, myself, and would have preferred to hear ‘The Cold Resistance’ in its place, but a rare talent like Arsis deserves to succumb to their baser instincts between composing some of the more brilliant Death Metal this side of Keats. The video for ‘Forced To Rock’ will be all the evidence I need, I’m sure.

Arsis on Facebook

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Exmortus on Facebook

Scalpel on Facebook

SEAN PIERRE-ANTOINE

So what should you do to entertain yourself on a pre Veteran’s Day Sunday night? If you live in New England, and you are smart (sorry… “smaahht”), you go to see Morbid Angel play the album Covenant in it’s entirety at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. Since this show was held at a venue with a maximum capacity of something like 575, it was not surprising that it sold out. If you were one of the anxious people shivering outside in line just to to be turned away, well, what did you expect? Mid-sized venue + Sunday + Morbid Angel + Covenant = buy your ticket ahead of time. In all fairness I had my own boneheaded, “What did I expect?,’moment that night as well. I’ll get to that later.

When I saw the announcement of the tour, a three things came to my mind. One, it’s been 20 years since Covenant came out already, wow. Two, there was no question I was going to be there, and three, what a smart move by the band to tour based on the album’s anniversary after all the rumblings in the metal community over Morbid Angels’ most recent release, Illud Divinum Insanus. We metal music fans can be, well, major pains in the asses when it comes to the bands that we hold dearest. When a band makes an album that is a departure from what we expect, we take it as a personal affront to our sensibilities and can be very unforgiving. I am not a fan of the last album but it didn’t change my opinion about what Morbid Angel is and has been. To me they are the best death metal band to date, period. Their first 4 albums are still untouchable in my eyes and I just can’t get behind “fans’that write off a band based on one album. I mean it’s one freaking album, get over it. All the hubbub over it made me think about the fine art world and what it would be like if some of our greatest painters never tried anything new. For every great painting, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of what might be considered less than stellar ones and some that you might think downright suck. It happens, you try things and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way and they can be pretty vocal about it. This is why it was great for Morbid Angel to go on this tour. To remind everyone how insanely great the band really is.

So anyway, I make the trek to Cambridge and get there in good time, park the car and walk over to the venue. Doors opened at seven and I figured the first band went on at 7:30. Unfortunately, I forgot about the line to get in. As is the case with most smaller to mid-sized venues, there is one line at the single entrance where you go to get or give your ticket as well as enter the venue. This makes for slow entry and with a sold out show there is guaranteed to be a line around the block. I planned on getting there just before the first band started, as I normally would for this venue. What was I thinking? Obviously I wasn’t. Took me a bit to get in then I went to the side ramp area where I would photograph most of the show from. Yes I missed the first band, native musical smut mongers, Sexcrement. Having seen them a number of times before, I am familiar with the stage show they have. There are usually one or more female dancers in various states of undress, sometimes in bondage attire, romping around the stage and getting the crowd into a bit of a frenzy. I asked one of my fellow photographer friends that was there, lets call him The Dude, how their set was to which he replied that it was “awesome.’I asked if they had the dancers and he said, “yeah they had a few but none of them had dicks.’Alrighty then.

After a few minutes of banter with some friends, it’s time for Abnormality, a local technical death metal outfit about to do a stint of shows in Colombia including a headlining spot on the Bogota Grind Death Fest XII on November 16th. As usual the band punished the crowd with it’s super technical and no less punishing riffage while singer Mallika belted out her soul reaping growls. Yes, she is a small statured female whose vocals could shred the larynx of most men twice her size but the band is not about some front woman novelty. The band delivers on all fronts. From the insanely complex bass and dual guitar stylings to the pummeling drum beats and fills, this five piece needs no crappy gimmick or girlie points to prove its worth. They played a number of songs off their newest release, Contaminating the Hive Mind which sounded great. As expected pits broke out and hair was flying in the crowd. After they played the last song of the set there were numerous cries for more.

A little break and then the local four piece formed in 2008, Scalpel, was up at bat. They are sort of a grind/death mix. They played a good set and the crowd was into it. I had a hard time hearing one of the two vocalists from my vantage point but other than that they sounded on point. Most of the stage presence came from the bassist and the faces one of the vocalists was making. Their songs were hard for me to get into as they lean at times more towards grind and I am very particular with anything remotely grind so my opinion on their music must be taken with a grain of salt. Like I said they sounded tight and the crowd dug it. Maybe it’s just not my thing but I felt like there was just so much going on that it gave me audio overload. They also have a recent release out called Sorrow and Skin and if your into later Suffocation, this may be for you. They aren’t trying to re-invent the wheel or anything, and yeah, it may be pretty derivative, but if you are into that style, you’d like them and they are seemingly solid live.

So then there was VadimVon, the only non-local band on the bill and the band that’s on the touring package with Morbid Angel, at least for the Dark Funeral, Grave and Morbid Angel last year at The Palladium in Worcester and I know they did a local show at a Metal Thursday event at Ralph’s in Worcester not too long ago but I guess at that time they didn’t have a drummer and played to tracked beats. This time they had a real live drummer and although they would no longer play to recorded tracks for drums, they still had a track playing with synth’s and the like. The three piece hailing from South Carolina started playing to a somewhat bewildered crowd most likely because they weren’t very familiar with them. As the set progressed there were more than a few that were won over by the band and yet still others that stood and stared. I thought the set was played well.

Ok so by now the show was running just a tad late. Not by a lot but just enough for me to wonder if Morbid Angel would be able to play everything on the set list. Because this show was the fourth on the tour, the set list was not a secret and I knew it had songs from albums David Vincent didn’t even sing on, which I thought pretty cool. There aren’t a lot of bands, or vocalists, that will want to play songs that they didn’t record. I mean I have never seen Anthrax play John Bush songs when they are touring with Joey Belladonna. Yeah, maybe that’s not the best example but you get my point I hope. Back to the show. The lights go out, after a few seconds Morbid Angel walks on stage. Some blue lights come up and David Vincent greets the crowd. Before a single note was played, incredibly, a pit started. Before a single note! I just laughed. To be so excited about the prospect of it that you feel the need to start a pit in the middle of this packed place before you even hear them play anything. Well, they had reason to be pumped for this. They blistered the crowd without flinching, keeping the between song banter to extreme minimum. Thank you for that. How many times can you hear someone say, “How are you Boston?,”or “What a crowd you guys are,’or whatever crap they have to fill time with. They plowed through the entire album and it was plain awesome. Everything, the sound, the experience, the crowd, all of it. So then I assumed there would be a break before the encore but no, they went right from ‘God of Emptiness’ only taking a few seconds seemingly, and then right into ‘Where the Slime Live.’There was to be no break and no respite. The rest of the set was delivered with just as much force as the beginning. “Fall From Grace,’would mark the end of the set and was absolutely great. They waved and walked off. That was it. Fans just stood there looking at the stage in awe, sweaty, some out of breath, and probably hoping there would maybe be one more. Slowly, they moved their way about the place looking dazed from the show, the heat, and the crushing crowd but all the same glad for the experience.

What a great show. I only wish it was in a bigger venue with a bigger stage. Other than that, what more could you really ask for?