since the last thread was getting pretty long, i figured i'd start a new one...
Saturday, February 26
Warehouse Next Door 1021 7th St NW
Washington DC
doors at 8:30, show at 9
$7, all ages
Earthride (Southern Lord, ex-Spirit Caravan, MD doom)
Unearthly Trance (The Music Cartel/Rise Above, from NYC)
VOG (northern VA doom)
The PB Army (Ohio stoner-punk)
Peasant (Baltimore sludge/doom)
Earthride Earthride are another incredible band from the Doom Capitol/Maryland, the fertile breeding ground that has spawned Pentagram, Internal Void, Wretched, Iron Man, Unorthodox, and of course Spirit Caravan. In fact, there's connections to some of these bands: drummer Eric Little was in Internal Void, and singer Dave Sherman was in Wretched and also played bass in Spirit Caravan (along with sharing vocal duties with guitar god, Wino). The band's first offering was a self-produced, self-titled 4-song EP/CD on their own label, Earth Brain records (2000). This recording coupled with their relentless live shows quickly proved Earthride was more than just "Sherm's side project." The Earthride sound is a brutal combination of Sherm's whiskey-burned, Lemmy-esque vokills trainwrecked into a punishing mountain of doom. One listen to the mammoth wall of guitar that Kyle (sonic titan) Van Steinburg blankets over the concrete rythym section and its obvious that Earthride holds their own. "Taming of the Demons" is the band's first official full-length recording and was recorded by acclaimed producer Chris Koslowski (Pentagram, Spirit Caravan, Internal Void, the Obsessed) in their homestate of Maryland. The band's adopted phrase, "PURE MARYLAND DOOM FOR THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUSIC", sufficiently sums up that the strength of this band lies in their unified dedication to produce hard, no-frills, heavy music! So loud, so alive. All heavy, the Earthride!!!
Unearthly Trance "The march of Templar Knights at twilight. Ritualistic subterranean drift. The decay of cathedrals over eons. Unearthly Trance, formed in 2000 and comprised of members Darren Verni, Rion Lipynsky, and Jay Newman, unleash a frostbitten, apocalyptic vision with their brand of grim hypnotic doom. Blackened sound waves, lethargic riffs, and dire proclamations drone from the void."
"I'm having a tough time putting the Unearthly Trance experience to words. Honestly, I've been thinking about this for at least a week before first spinning Season of Trance, Science of Silence and don't quite know how to translate music so innately visceral into a formation of words that can adequately describe this recording.
I'll give it a shot. There are words - just single words - that come to mind: Black; evil; occult;oppressive; rites and ritual; suffocating; sickness; crushing; prolific; hopeless; cold.
Unearthly Trance treads in the outer fringes of doom metal, territory held within the death grip of the most extreme: Khanate; Hlidolf; Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch; Runemagick and a few chosen others. Melody is forsaken for a pure, blackened visceral aura; gut-churning bass frequencies and beyond-the-grave vocals. Guitarist/vocalist Rion Lipynsky writes some incredibly captivating lyrics - part dark prose, part arcane ritual. For added dark art credentials, famed occultist Aliester Crowley gets credit for both band inspiration and for the lyrics to "Mass of the Phoenix". Lipynsky and Jimmy Page should get together and go bowling.
Underground artist/musician/doom hero Stephen O'Malley (Lotus Eaters, Sunn0))), Khanate, etc) gets credit for the mix and co-production of Season of.... A wise choice. I'm a firm believer that everything O'Malley touches turns to quality, and Season of... is no exception. The sound here is exceptional, the guitar and percussion crushing, the low-end set on suffocation. Lipynsky's vocals alternate between blackened dissonance and what sound like cries from a dark, desolate canyon. The latter effect, which sets lipynsky's voice farther back in the mix, is particularly chilling giving the whole thing a palpable supernatural vibe. Frighteningly supernatural.
Given the amount of time and effort this band has put into it's craft, I couldn't be happier with the result of their first full length. To say it's impressive is a big understatement. I'm no psychic but I'm betting Season of... will join the ranks of underground extreme doom classics like Burning Witch's Crippled Lucifer, The Teeth of the Lions Rule the Divine's Rampton and the first Khanate album. Congrats. You just etched your name in the hallowed pantheon of the unholy. A sure bet for cult status." (Hellride Music)
The PB Army "PB Army's Keith Bergman likes to describe "Inebriates, Equivocators and Mockers of the Devil Himself" as "stoner-pop-metal." Some might take that to mean that they're fusing stoner rock and pop-metal -- perhaps Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin, Goatsnake and Eyehategod by way of Warrant, Poison and Bon Jovi. That's an intriguing idea, certainly, but it isn't what PB Army is going for on this promising debut album. Rather, singer/drummer Bergman seems to mean pop as in highly melodic pop -- as in having a sense of craftsmanship and operating from the premise that headbangers don't have to govern by brute force alone. This 2002 session has most of the familiar stoner rock ingredients: a definite Black Sabbath influence, fuzzy guitars and an appreciation of Seattle's late â??80s/early â??90s grunge. But PB Army has a cleaner sound than most stoner bands, and they obviously appreciate the fact that a lot of â??70s metal bands -- including Sabbath -- were highly musical. They realize that Ozzy Osbourne and his colleagues had more than riffs and amplifiers -- they had songs. Sabbath had a commitment to melody -- a fact that wasn't lost on the Cardigans when they provided dream pop/shoegazer interpretations of "Iron Man" and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" in the â??90s -- and so did Budgie and Blue Oyster Cult, two other â??70s combos that have influenced PB Army. In fact, just about every band that has affected PB in some way -- a list that ranges from those â??70s headbangers to Alice in Chains, Queens of the Stone Age, Voivod and Nirvana -- realized that loudness and musicality aren't mutually exclusive. For all its forcefulness and aggression, this CD isn't brutal -- invigorating and intense, but not hammer-to-the-skull brutal the way a metalcore outfit like Brick Bath is brutal. PB Army's debut falls short of groundbreaking; regardless, this is among the more memorable stoner recordings of 2002." (All Music Guide)
VOG Formed in the peak of the summer of 2004, VOG had itâ??s first jam in a basement in Oakton, Virginia. VOG came to fruition based on an intent to play music with other members who were serious enough to commit to playing on a regular basis. Riffs written out of pipe dreams flowed through the aura of dirge that released the steam of sour days.
VOG is the hawaiian term for a wretched gas/smoke present when volcanoes erupt that makes all that come in contact with it nauseous.
