Skepticism : "Ordeal"

Of course I am always on the hunt for more doom, funereal doom being my favorite form of the genre. The vocals have a weird monotone gurgle that sound like Cookie monster trying to sing rather than just the coookkkiiiieee growl, that most metal  vocalists do. Though the guitar melody reach a beautiful place of melancholy I am not able immerse myself in it as the vocals keep spoiling their music for me."The departure " has more of a funereal drone to it. The guitar lines that come out from behid the keyboards  are cool , but could stand to have a place in the mix that provides More punch. They ebb down on "March Incomplete" the minimalist drumming and hesitancy found in the guitar playing are the most characteristic elements of funereal doom. They are as oppressive in their sound as most other funereal doom bands.


Any issues with the mix have to be seen in the light of rather than going into  the studio  and tracking everything this album is recorded live in front of an audience, who you hear in-between songs. Things pick up on "The Road" the droning chaos in the attack bring older Burzum to mind. The zone it creates at one point put me to sleep with my finger on the keyboard. "Closing Music" touches on some really lush sounds that if coupled with something more oppressive might draw me in more. They begin to head in this direction with "Pouring" that finds the annoying element in the vocals either not as prominent or I got use to it and tuned it out.

"The March and the Stream" touching on the more despairing sonics that I want from this genre. The organ sound is dramatically creepy. There is a riff that sounds like it is building towards a chorus that is never going to come. Once I got over the vocals the album improved for me and lulled me into a trance. Once in this trance I could listen to the album rather effortlessly and for this reason I will round it up to a 6, the reason it's not higher is because the album could stand to pack more of a punch , since it's metal.
4.5

Agalloch @ the Earl 6/24/2014

I had high hopes for this show. The Portland based band was pretty impressive when I caught them a few years back when they were touring to support "Marrow of the Spirit". While excited to catch Agalloch again, I also have developed a keen sense for missing openers, so made it to the Earl a little after ten. This is proably survival skill set in motion by my subconscious in hopes of conserving my hearing. So Vex was just a rumble coming from the other room while my girl friend ordered food. The crowd was a good size for the venue , on par with what Agalloch drew the last time I caught them at the same venue.

They took the stage with  lead growler Jon Haughm carrying a bowl of incense to create a ritualistic feel, though this was not done with the same dark occultic intensity as what say Watain or Atriarch do. I think it was more for the bands benefit to get them into the head space to preform. The bulk of their set was from the newest album. Bringing the front man to joke they were going to play something that no one wanted to hear from the new album. However they respectfully gave the fans what they wanted with a few tunes off "Ashes Against the Grain" and "Marrow of the Spirit", leaving "Pale Folklore largely neglected.

 "So this is the future home of the zombie apocalypse" Jon quipped in his first interaction with the crowd." At least you guys get a cool show. We get Porlandia, which is almost a documentary." He later asked if we wanted to hear something from the Mantle. This brought a decent roar of approval. Jon then stated that they had never played "I am the Death of the Earth" in Atlanta before, though that fact wouldn't matter to people catching them for the first time. This song was also the only moment in the show where he attempted clean vocals. On the newer songs which have more layered growls, the other guitarist Don Anderson stepped up to the mic and lent his throat.

 Playing for almost two hours, the band kept their energy level steady. The only dips were in the more ambient portions of songs which sprawled out into the more post-rock like middle sections. Drummer Aesop Dekker, who also drums for such acts as Vhol and Ludicra played a large part in the propulsion of the songs. His preformance really stood out. The veteran drummer had his signiture precision, but tirelessly handled double bass and blast beats. He made what he did look easy , despite the thunderous sound he created.

 I have always felt lead guitarist Don Anderson is one of modern metal's most under rated guitar heroes. He once again, show cased the dexterous chops that he employs so tastefully into the context of what Agalloch does and works well with Haughm. They intertwined the sonic layers perfectlly. One reason for this also seemed to be a smart stage volume. They were loud, but also very clean tonally. Many metal bands make the mistake of cranking up their stage volume until the by product is a muddy swamp of distortion and no discernable notes. This was not the case with Agalloch, who made each guitar melody count. Anderson also took the lead when it came to the band's  stage prescene goes. He worked the stage in a manner most metal bands of their ilk would not have half the charisma to execute, without coming off as trying to hard. He seemed very natural. This left John snarling at the mic center stage. Both he and the bass player did not shy from the obligated headbanging when the dynamics called for it.

Overall they met might high expectations and continued to defy description, even with the reduction of clean vocals , the guitars compensated well when it came to melody. I would go see them again if they rolled through town next week. Though they tend to make summer jaunts due to some of the band's work schedules, so next summer it is. With that in mind make sure to catch these guys live when they roll through your town and it will embed your fandom if you have been on the fence with them in the past.

Iced Earth @ the Masquerade

The gravity pulling against to me to attend week night shows played into my favor , as I narrowly avoided the openers, as like Kamelot, Iced Earth are one of the rare bands in a genre normally heavy on cheese I like .So taking that into consideration, Sabaton would have been too much for me in terms of the level of dungeons and dragons like pageantry.  I heard they went over well with the crowd , that was more of a white trash meets the geeks of progpower sort of affair. The size of the crowd surprised me ,but aside from Dragon-Con and Prog Power, the band hasn't really been through Atlanta much.

Stu Block was in the hot seat in my book. He had the most to prove.  Having to fill Matt Barlow's shoes, is no easy feat, not that Barlow is in my top ten metal vocalists, but he has some pipes and more than that a distinct sound. Sure he can nail the metal yodel, but he does it not in the Star Search or Journey manner many progressive metal singers do , but with some balls.

I notice Block's, upper register is pretty piercing in falsetto, but he goes from chest register right into it and doesn't go into the more Paul Stanley sounding rock strained rock tenor that Barlow bridges his head voice into.He was able to fire off piercing highs on command with a lot of power and his voice did not wane as the set progressed.

It made me happy to hear Vengence is Mine from Dark Saga, which is my favorite Iced Earth album as it defines what sets them aside from other power metal bands in that they are also firmly rooted in thrash. There was a pretty decent pit , though small compared to say Morbid Angel, but better than any moshing that would not erupt at a Hammerfall show.

The only drop in energy was the power ballad off the new album which came way earlier in the set than I would have expected., The gritty baritone approach Block went with on this one made it seem to much like Shinedown for my taste buds, aside from that the set was largely in your face. John Schaffer has preserved his trademark crunch, not feeling the need to pull out Orange amps or detune as trends over the years have shifted.

So this performance won me over to accept the current incarnation of the band as it carries on their legacy. If straight up metal with no apologies is your thing it is highly reccomended that you give te current line up a shot.These guys recapture the feel of Preist and Maiden era classic metal in a way thats their own and are all the more authentic in doing so.

KMFDM @ The Variety Playhouse

It was a younger crowd up front than I expected. The venue seemed a little odd the only other band of a heavy nature I had seen at the Variety was Anvil and the Swans. Anvil was during the promotion of their documentary and the Swans are heavy of a more sonic nature rather than metal. I liked what I caught of Chant's set and Legion Within seemed like they should have been playing Dragon-con instead. The song writing seemed to be the biggest point of contention as they did an alright job with their cover of Bowie's "Hello Space Boy". The vocals were the glaring weak spot as their front man was energetic enough and had a very dramatic prescience, his imitation of Peter Murphy was hampered by his lack of range in the upper register. However he did a pretty decent job handling Tim Skold's vocal parts on the song Anarchy when he came out toward the end of KMFDM's set.

KMFDM came on with a bang and never really let up. Their songs lend themselves to maintaining a high energy set. I noticed going back the next day to listen to the studio recording how much fuller the songs sound live, which is rare for an electronic act which are more notorious for sounding like karaoke to backing tracks. The live drums factored heavily into this as well as the dual guitar attack. The crowd's reaction was interesting to watch as the range of what the band does draws in every one from the headbangers who got the mosh pit going toward the end to the Black Number One set of girls who were just their to dance. There were a couple of screaming queens which ran with wrists flailing when the pit broke out , I mean what other crowd still has that kind of diversity ? The last time I saw Nine Inch Nails most of the crowd was drunken ex-frat boys. Granted the fact the we're playing with Jane's Addiction might have attributed to that and KMFDM had more songs in the clubs than on the radio waves most of their careers.

I do tend to forget at the Variety the monitor mix is rather low upfront so you are getting hit by stage volume alone when standing close to the stage making the vocals a little thinner than if i had been standing at the outer edge of the pit. Still I could hear the vocals when it mattered. They pumped out the new stuff I was curious to hear live like "Quake", "Kunst", "Ave Maria" and "Animal Out" as well as their solid older material such as "WWIII","Son of a Gun", "D.I.Y", "A Drug Against War","Hau Rock" and "Megalomaniac". I did think it was odd "Juke Joint Jezabel" was not played since it was a hit of sorts for them, but I don't have any emotional connection to it as most of the drugs I did to them back in the day were to the "Angst" album. The first time I ever free based heroin I was listening to it. But now with those days behind me the music stands on its own and I have less romantic drug attachments associated with it than I do say Skinny Puppy's "Last Rights" album. I think where KMFDM has the edge over a lot of their peers is hooky songwriting , where the fans appeared to have more of a connection to the songs than simply being lost in dancing or moshing.



Their light show was much different than the tempest of strobes and blanket of smoke. This time the neon lit glow of the midis work stations both used as pulpits of sorts. But they didn't rely on too many bells and whistles. The Female singer Lucria exuded the most show stealing charisma of the night. She prowled the stage with the intensity of a dominatrix but could shift into a flirtatious siren or cyborg go-go dancer. She could also add almost a metal like quality to her voice to match Sasha's more aggressive delivery.

If you are a fan of the band or just industrial strength Edm then you owe it to yourself to catch these guys live when they roll through your town. The tickets were very mid-priced and Chant sounded like they would have been worth the effort to have gotten their a little earlier. The band is also offering a chance to grab some of their more vintage merch from previous tours if you wanna roll up into goth night looking a little more legit, so bring an extra twenty bucks.

Chelsea Wolfe : Live @ the earl 2013

First off for a Weds night the turn out was way better than expected as the last time I saw here was last year when she opened for Russian Circles yes there's a review for that show as well on here. I walked in as Woman's Work was playing , an indie rock band that I felt combined alt-country with punch to more modern indie rock though a reoccurring nineties vibe kept popping up as I got both Cowboy Junkies and Portishead from them at times, their bass player was in it to win it and when the singer pulled out her violin during the last song the sonic build was what they need to capitalize on in future song writing as it was the highlight, where the Hank Williams cover they did just drifted past me like back ground noise, they were well received and I wouldn't mind catching them again or booking a show with them myself.

Next up was Featureless Ghost who I had already checked out when doing a preview write up for Hiplanta, so I knew what the deal was going to be and it was a mixed bag of dicks being sucked here, sometimes in a hefty sometimes in a ziplock.They manned two tables of key boards and effects and to their credit the sound was fuller than what I had heard, so this was a hummer in a positive light the I'm bobbing my head after doing a bump in the bathroom at the club and the music is thumping into to the lips making some head way. The hefty bad came out in the irony drenched performance of the duos male half who at one point when we started a game to count how many notes would be sung in key only hit three. Like any time of pornographic display of fellatio there are elements I can appreciate , so the eighties throw back Black Celebration era Depeche mode meets new order moment ok...get it girl, but overall it came across like I was hearing weird B-52s remixes in a pseudo witch house style

Chelsea set up her Lear to her lyric sheets, lit some candle and left the stage to let some ritualistic music ply before she emerged with her keyboardist and Violinist in tow. The proceeded to create a very womb like cocoon of bleak beauty. the lights of this being " Boyfriend" from the new albums, and while you would think since she was taking a more stripped approach it would be in order to recreate the feel of the album, she still managed to put a darker more desolate spin on these , this one her vocals really stood out with more resonance than the studio version. Later in the set and I'm jumping around here , when she took over the piano for " Sunstorm " the vocals were delivered from more of singular point do view rather than the layer approach, which she could have done if she wanted as they violinist and keyboardist at times both sang harmonies.

"Flatlands" was met with surpassing applause when she went into it ,so I didn't realize the new album had garnered this much popularity, it was a compelling rendition , I like how she put more emphasis on the word fuck. So the more subdued approach was in no way her trying to be more accessible as I think her audience is broadening by nature of her talent. The weird backwards effect were not replicated on that one but her vocal performance made up for it as it had a more personal quality.

I liked how the older songs translated in this stripped down format live, "Moses" really let her voice shin in this context and it seemed she was in better for this go around and seemed to go into a soaring ghost wail Thea I don't remember her going into last time. Impressively she end the song performing accapella by using a looped delay on her vocals . While I would have liked to have heard more older sons , I think the taste I was give sufficed , the only ohhh I wish she played moment...was the fact I have had "Cousins of the Antichrist" stuck in my head for a few days now and it was absent. When she said after coming out for her encore that she didn't know what to play and asked us what we wanted to hear I yelled for the Burzum cover which was scoffs out and as the chorus of shhhh spread over the crowd before the last song she said its like grade school which I was amused at.

Someone commented that they wished she had been more animated and felt her despaired sulk with which she took the stage with was more of an act as she blew kisses and smiled to the audience when she left the stage before her encore and it didn't feel genuine . If I hadn't had the conversation after midnight I might have brought up what I felt was the most genuine moment energetically and dispelled any notion it was an act, it was later in the set and the exact song I don't recall but she was playing guitar and singing by her self on stage and the red flash of camera caught her stare and it was eerie but not frightening , and I was to under the influence of any drugs and dead serious when I say this, though it must preface this sense by saying due to my occult involvement I might be more sensitive to this type of energy that muffles might not be privy to ...but I saw so something in behind her eyes like she wasn't there , they seem beadier and not human and funny enough "Demons" just came on as I am typing this but it was similar to how possession was depicted in movie the" last exorcism " it wasn't the look of somebody call a Preist her heads about to spin crazy but that there was a very personal catharsis of her inner demons That came to the surface, you see it on stage in the majickal moments where the artist loses themselves and let's the act slip . Perhaps this it where it slipped l perhaps it layers of ego and the id, the music she writes comes for this place originally best she takes on an impersonation of herself in order to present her self to the public, to push past stage fight , to be. Vulnerable but in control. The little I know bout her personal, like how she won't do interview but in email or Message form tell there are layers there. Sure everyone has them but being an artist and not one who hides behind the band they are more open. Perhaps whatever that peeked out for behind her only managed to do so Becuase she was more exposed than the last time she came though with a full band. The shadow that into the light could be literal inner demons, as I know there is a mutual interest in the occult that she keeps personal , addiction , though she has always had water onstage or some other part of her subconscious she keeps at bay, whatever it was getting a glimpse or but her music in a different perspective, she is less of just a pretty goth siren singing doom laced folk but an artist who has grown into their demons ,letting the, out for fresh air only in the delicate sub space of her staged ritual.

Dead Can Dance: Live Review

Dead Can Dance has been one of my favorite bands for some time , in the musical spectrum I have viewed them as the Yin to Swans yang, dark but uplifting to the more sonic pound of Gira and friends. I attempted to see them 16 years ago but my drug intake that evening had other plans , so this was the second chance I was certain I wouldn't get, so the ticket price was of no consequence.

I was Asked for a play by play and this is what they got...

8:36 never seen as many tattooed house wives in one place

8:38: opening act done

8:46 they haven't started playing yet but their equipment is in place

8:48 there are definitely a lot of carry overs from dragon con here

8:49 they tested the smoke machine

9:00 they are goin on

9:16 in the third song and already this shit is awesome

9:57: Lisa is wearing a gold cape

10:27 left the stage waiting for their encore

10:44 they are doing a weird cover of song to the siren

The Cobb Energy Center which is an arts complex now home to both the Atlanta Opera and Ballet was a surreal experience which located in the very conservative suburbs out side of Atlanta was spitting distance from a strip mall. Inside the venue which is around five years old still retains the new car smell. The crowd made it seem as if the Tardis had transported me to an art gallery circa 1995, as it was goths carrying the torch as well as suburban grey hairs and affluent gays. I came across a grey haired man wearing a Feilds of the Nephillim shirt and found it so odd I had to strike up a conversation with him. The state of suburban goth girls grown up was a sad one as most consigned themselves to being arm candy to beer bellied I.t guys, i guess when your dreams of being whisked away to Robert Smith's castle in the sky vanishes settle for whatever eharmony throws your way.

They too the stage with little fanfare despite Lisa Gerrad's regal prescene. I think she has eclipsed Siouxsie as goth royalty and having seen the Banshees twice it is safe to say Siouxsie can't hold a candle to Lisa's power . The solid drumming on the operner allowed me to key in on the slight "tomorrow never knows" cadance to "children of the sun" Lisa stood up front and played the yanqin a Chinese hammer dulcimer and took the back ground to key synth on some of Perry's songs, during the trade offs Perry would play a mandolin for the majority of the show he did pick up a guitar for a song.

So almost two hours of entrancement,the only thing keeping this from being the best show ever was the set list was primarily new songs, not that I don't like the new album but for 80.00 dollars there are others songs I would have preferred to have heard and they haven't played them in Sixteen years so they can't very well be burned out on them. "the Umbiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" was the shows high point for me and overall all Brendan Perry's performance almost stole the show, though when Gerrad did open her mouth the sing her voice held a timbre that invoked Majick. When I first started listening to Dead Can Dance I would fast forward past Perry's songs because his voice reminded me of Neil Diamond...and yes the albums I had were on tape that's how long I've been listening to them. I grew into his songs and now they are among my favorites in fact I wished they would have preformed " the Carnival is over" as that is my post dragon-con theme song.


Any excuses you make regarding your favorite singer not quite nailing it due to their age are now null and void after this performance as Gerrad cut through with a power the albums just don't convey. While live several I note similarities to Sade, who smooth studio work isn't the clearest indication of her true capabilities . Also the very sensual nature of what they do is tangible but with a coat of melancholy Sade of course does not possess.

It was interesting hearing brendon perry cover Tim Buckley's "song to a siren" as the Elizabeth Frasier sung version which overshadowed the original is on the same This Mortal Coil album that Dead Can Dance is on. It proved to be a fitting tribute to the ands reverent relationship with their fans. How many shows do you hear the singer say " this next song is 800 years old" , which I think says volumes about what they do and the lasting power their music will have as it was clear even though the came from the 80s goth scene, they transcend that where other bands become weighed down by the restrictions of genres and trends they rode in on . I doubt there will be another chance to see them since it took sixteen years for this to happen , so I can accept this as their swan song though if presented again with another opportunity to see them what would pay whatever the ticket price.