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Iron Lung, Bastard Noise, Suppression, Intensive Care, Listless @ Strange Matter

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Power violence. I know a lot of you out there might be turned off by the term–sounds creepy and dangerous, right? But if you like seeing the sounds of metal, hardcore, punk, and even random offshoots like free jazz and experimental noise all pushed to their absolute limit at the same time by the same bands, then chances are you already know that power violence is the genre for you. Originally innovated by bands like Infest and Crossed Out, power violence incorporates the ridiculous speeds of grindcore, the brutal slowness of the sludgiest doom metal, and the freakout craziness of noise into a harsh conglomeration of atonal madness. If you need danceability and sweet melodic hooks from your music, well, I get that, but this may not be the night for you. However, if you can appreciate people pushing the limit of just how fast, heavy, and hectic music can get, you need to order your ticket now.

Iron Lung may not have been there at power violence’s dawn in the early 90s, but they’ve been the leaders of the genre for quite a while now, at least since the release of their 2004 debut, Life. Iron Lung. Death. This bassless two-piece tosses out killer riffs at hyperspeed, blending them with crushing breakdowns and tortured screams, along with a heaping helping of flat-out noise. The combination was refined to perfection on their third album, White Glove Test, but the four years since its release have seen almost no releases of new material–other than a lathe-cut limited edition EP earlier this year, which was limited to 100 and sold only at shows. Hopefully they’ll bring us a real new album soon, but until then, you’ll have to settle for getting your head knocked off at this show.

Bastard Noise actually were there at the early 90s dawn of power violence–indeed, leader Eric Wood coined the term. Originally known as Man Is The Bastard, the group had some lineup changes and moved in a more noise-weirdness direction after Y2K, at which time they adopted the Bastard Noise moniker. However, recent years have seen their original drummer rejoin the group, and things move back towards the sort of jazz-grind-sludge the band excelled at in its early years, so this show may more closely resemble Man Is The Bastard’s 1996 performance at the same venue than one might initially expect. This lineup is jam packed with additional entertainment, from legendary RVA power violence duo Suppression–who date back almost as long as Bastard Noise in their own right–to Canadian bass-drum sludge combo Intensive Care, who feature former members of mid-2000s power violence torchbearers Endless Blockade. Local queercore/blackened screamo upstarts Listless kick things off with righteous fury, so show up on time and be ready for some serious ear damage.

GWAR returns to melt your faces with new video for ‘Fuck This Place’

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We are a little late in posting this, but hopefully, Intergalactic Overlords, musicians of mayhem and everything that is metal will spare our heads from the bloodbath for not posting their latest video sooner. Bohabs, metalheads and fans of all that is dark, dirty, bloody, violent and evil, I give to you the newest GWAR video, “Fuck This Place”.

The song is the first single off the band’s new album, The Blood of Gods, set for release Oct. 20 via Metal Blade Records. The 12-track record was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Ronan Chris “Lord God” Murphy and will be GWAR’s first release without former lead singer Oderus Urungus, (Dave Brockie) who passed away in 2014.

Full of live concert footage, blood and other mysterious liquids spewing into the crowd, and all the face melting guitar shredding you can handle, GWAR delivers yet again with “Fuck This Place”.

Current lead singer Berserker Blothar had this to say on the album: 

“The Blood of Gods is nothing less than a sacred text chronicling the rise of humanity against their makers, and the massive battle between GWAR and the forces of all that is uptight and wrong with the world. Along the way, the band challenges the sins of their great mistake, from politics, pollution, and organized religion, to fast food, and factory farming.  Humans are shown as what they are; a parasitic disease that must be eradicated before they suck the planet dry.”

After dropping their fall album, GWAR is set to head out on tour for the rest of the year through Dec. 10. The band will perform at Chicago’s Riot Fest and the first show of the tour they will perform for us mere mortals on Oct. 20 at The National. Check out all the dates for The Blood of Gods Tour here.

The “Fuck This Place” chant is tempting on a Monday morning back at work, but try to contain yourselves.

Municipal Waste drummer and girlfriend roll out vegan food truck, Go Go Vegan Go

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When you think of the dudes that make up RVA thrash metal band Municipal Waste, dabbling in the culinary arts may not necessarily be the first thought that pops into your mind. But that’s exactly what drummer Dave Witte is pursuing while simultaneously being on tour.

With his girlfriend April Viar at the helm, the two will roll out vegan food truck, Go Go Vegan Go this weekend at The Vegetarian Festival.

All of the recipes are Viar’s, who has been a vegetarian for the last 30 years, and Witte will be helping out in the kitchen.

“That’s where the magic is with her and her food,” Witte said. “She’s a great home cook, she’s always cooked for me and we figured you know, let’s do this. I’ve always wanted to do a food truck, the timing was right, we wanted to be mobile, we didn’t want to have a brick and mortar so we thought a food truck was the way to go.”

Although the food truck is a new venture for them, the two are no strangers to the Richmond restaurant scene. Viar ran the front of the house at Edo’s Squid for 12 years and for the last two years, both have worked front of the house at Commercial Taphouse.

The couple started seriously looking into the venture last year and about a month and a half ago they bought the big yellow truck in Maryland.

“It’s always been in place thought-wise, but last year we started looking for trucks, life gets in the way sometimes, you have to wait for the right opportunity so we were weighing are options, looking around and this one just really spoke to us and we just hustled and got everything together and went up there and got it,” Witte said. “It proved to be the best choice we’ve made so far.”

Go Go Vegan Go’s entire menu is vegan and includes cashew cheese, cheese paninis, vegetable paninis, chimichangas smothered in cheese sauce, tacos, grilled cheese, a burger, chocolate mousse, coffee chocolate balls, and chocolate covered cookie dough all crafted by Viar. Witte said a big highlight on the menu is the “Not So Pad Thai Fries.”

”They’re super delicious. Right before we ended our term at the {Commercial} taphouse, April brought those on the menu and they did extremely well,” he said. “People still ask about them so it’s pretty exciting. It’s pretty much Pad Thai with French fries instead of noodles.”

As for Witte, well he isn’t vegan or vegetarian just yet, but he said he’s starting to lean more and more in that direction.

“I eat less and less meat as I age, and to get down to it, vegan cuisine is far from what it used to be it’s not a microwaved Morning Star, there’s so many options,” he said. “I eat vegan a lot of the time especially when I’m out on the road.”

To get the ball rolling on their business, Viar and Witte decided to test the waters in the local food truck game by entering Richmond’s first Vegan Macdown competition in February, a challenge to see who could make the best vegan mac and cheese. And as if a sign from the metal gods or foodie gods (whichever you choose to believe), they took home first place in both categories, “People’s Choice” and “Judge’s Choice.”

“It was a nice confidence booster,” Witte said of the competition.

Go Go Vegan Go had their first event at the Cask Café a few weeks ago which Witte said was a great success.

“We had a very limited menu, we took over their kitchen and we ended up selling everything out and had a tremendous response,” he said.

The two plan to take the truck to breweries and other spots all over town.

“The list is growing, a lot of people are getting in touch so we’re working on that right now,” he said. “We’ll be at Ardent a lot, I’m sure well be at Hardywood, The Veil has invited us. There are some other places that aren’t brewery-related that we’re working on as well.”

Viar will be wheeling around town without Witte just for the summer while he is on tour with Municipal Waste, who have booked a stint on Warper Tour which just kicked off last week and runs through August.

You can catch Go Go Vegan Go at the Richmond Vegetarian Festival this Sat. June 24 (Rain date 7/8) and at the following locations below and follow the truck’s adventures on their Facebook here.

June

Fri 30th The Veil 4-9pm

July

Sat 1st Vinyl Conflict

Wed 5th Vegan Pop Up at Hardywood

Sun 9th Ardent Craft Ales

Thurs 20th Ardent Craft Ales

Sun 23rd Ardent Craft Ales

August

Wed 2nd Vegan Pop Up at Hardywood

Sun 13th Ardent Craft Ales

Thurs 17th The Veil

Sun 20th Ardent Craft Ales

For bookings: [email protected].

Photos by Go Go Vegan Go

 

Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher talks basement shows, videos, and old tracks becoming new on ‘Empire of Sand’

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After an almost three year dry-spell, Mastodon returns with a deeply personal new record in Empire of the Sand.

Formed in the late 90s, Mastodon made waves with a pair of concept records in the early 00s –
2002’s Remission and 2004’s Leviathan, the later of which garnered massive praise from metal mags nationwide. 2006’s Blood Mountain continued to highlight the band’s chops as both musicians and song writers with singles like “Colony of Birchmen” and “Crystal Skull/Capillarian Crest.” It also garnered a grammy nom for best metal performance.

Personally, it was the prog-masterpiece in 2009’s Crack the Sky that helped cement my love for the band.

From there, Mastodon continued to drop records, but between the explosion of digital releases and the growing demand for less technical metal, the band faded some.

That doesn’t mean their sound wasn’t up to snuff – The Hunter offered some incredible sounds in tracks like “Curl of the Burl.” But by the time Once More ‘Round the Sun dropped in 2015 the band had all but fallen off my radar.

But Empire of Sand sees a return the band’s roots and should offer plenty for fans who long for a return to that proggy, technical metal sound. It also should include some riffs and bits that hardcore fans are familiar with.

“‘Sultan’s Curse,’ the first track on the album, I had that song almost completely finished like about five years ago,” said guitarist and band-founder Bill Kelliher in an recent interview with RVA Mag. He said riffs that are put on the “backburner” will often be brought back when he or the band find that it fits into a song.

And while most of the record harkens back to that technical sound, “Show Yourself,” the first single and video to drop from the record, offers a more accessable sound – something fans have pounced on Kelliher for.

“I read these comments on the internet of people saying we sold out by playing songs like ‘Show Yourself’. Who the fuck are you? What do you mean we sold out?” he told Blabbermouth. I’ll play whatever music I want to play! I’ll put out a goddamn pop record if I want to. I don’t have to answer to anybody but my bandmates — and my wife.”

And while the band’s vocals may have transitioned from classic heavy metal roars and tones to more vocalized melodies and harmonies on this most recent release, fans needn’t feel discouraged: the in-your-face rock vibe still persists throughout, complete with heavy drum hits and fills, wailing guitar solos, and face-melting bass lines. This creates an overall sick and brutal sound, especially tracks like “Andromeda,” “Ancient Kingdom,” and “Jaguar God.”

And No matter your opinion of “Show Yourself,” the video for the song returns to Mastodon’s legacy as a metal band that’s self aware in the face of their genre.

“You know, in this day and age, you can’t just put out four dudes playing in a dark basement video like you used to and just look tough,” said Kelliher. There’s nothing like the Grim Reaper competing for kills of band members for a new hearse, set to the soundtrack of a punchy metal song. “Playing songs is all very serious, so we need to have an outlet for the goofy Mastodon.”

Empire also saw the band return to Atlanta to record after getting the last two LPs together in Nashville or LA.

“It’s always fun to record where you can go back home at night and sleep in your own bed.” He said noting that having accessibility to his house allowed him to write songs and use equipment and instruments that were readily available.

The band is just a few weeks away from embarking on a European tour, but a few US dates exist later in the year. If they do end up coming to RVA, Kelliher promises a show that remains true to what fans hear on the release.

“We try to keep it as close to the album as possible,” he said. “But there’s definitely things that kind of grow. Obviously we’ve been playing the same songs for 17 years. It’s not going to sound exactly the same, especially the drums.”

Additionally, their early days of basement shows, packed to the gills with sweaty bearded Georgians, seem to have come to an end. I asked if they’d still be down to play an underground show and Kelliher laughed.

“Those were a young man’s game. I don’t think we could really do that anymore,” he said. However, he still appreciates the energy that comes from basement shows, with fans right there just feet away, sweating and jamming along.

The overarching theme of Emperor of Sand, much like their past album theme’s, aims to tell a story. In this release, a sultan of sorts hands down a death sentence and a damned man must travel through the desert, accepting his fate. While this sounds like a heavy theme, it actually is somewhat lighter than the arcs on past albums. Even the album cover gives a clear, colorful image of the sentence-wielding sultan, a hollow star behind a skull mask standing before a landscape of dry, red earth and fire.

In truth, the record’s metaphors point to a darker, more realistic narrative. As Rolling Stone reported, Bassist Troy Sanders’ wife was diagnosed with breast cancer; drummer Brann Dailor’s mother battled through chemotherapy, the latest chapter in a 40-year illness; and Kelliher’s mother died after suffering a brain tumor – this record aims to share their struggle through a unique story any metal head can understand:

“It makes me think of my mom passing away and all the things I’d witnessed with her going through,” [Kelliher] tells Rolling Stone. “She was just withering away in hospice, and I was just sitting next to her, watching. There’s the evil voice in [“Roots Remain”], which is reality coming to you – all your body withering away. Ugh, it gives me goosebumps when I hear it. Those are the things that are real and emotional, and people are gonna fucking cling to.”

Needless to say, Emperor of Sand will not disappoint Mastodon fans. The same patterns still persist, just with a more melodic vibe to it. You can check out the band’s new album on their website here.

Fresh from Moogfest, Wolf Eyes, Pharmakon and more take over Strange Matter tonight

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I spent the weekend in Durham, NC, at a festival devoted to the synthesizer and some of the best acts from the show are stopping in RVA tonight. It’s also gonna help if you like terrifying noise music.

I’m gonna run down Moogfest in the next week or so (as I am still recovering) but one of the stand out acts, NYC’s Pharamakon (top image), should 100 percent be on your list of shows to see this year and tonight is your chance.

At the ripe age of 27, Margaret Chardiet (AKA Pharmakon) has created a fascinating and horrifying soundscape that has garnered praise from publications large and small. While it’s not something I find myself causally listening to, her latest record, Contact, was released a few months back and finds connections to some of the deepest, darkest industrial sounds imaginable.

This noisy mess of rage and terror was hard for me to imagine live; I figured she’d be latched to a series of pedals and synths occasionally screaming into a mic. Sure enough, I wasn’t far off base, but the production and clarity of sound helped cultivate a truly unique expereince and she also found time to mill about the crowd, check out a short clip from her Moogfest show below:

#pharmakon live at #moogfest2017

A post shared by Brad Kutner (@patioweather_rva) on

Up next on the bill is a band that needs no introduction for long-time fans of noise or experimental music: Wolf Eyes (image below), the seminal Detroit-based project featuring Nate Young, John Olson, and Jim Baljo, has been rattling spines and ear drums since the mid-90s. Their sound has changed, but the mission seems to have stayed the same – horrify and confuse.

And their live shows similarly run the gambit of high energy off-tune beats and fuzz to more mellow tributes to noise-scapes as an art form. If and when you want to talk about noise music, being abel to say your “saw Wolf Eyes once” is certainly a notch in your belt.

They’ve been to RVA in the past year or so, and that show was solid, though a bit too mellow for my tastes. Meanwhile, their Moogfest show this weekend offered a more upbeat (?) rendition of their sound. Check out a short, noisy clip below:

#wolfeyes live at #moogfest2017

A post shared by Brad Kutner (@patioweather_rva) on

Other acts on the bill include Providence, RI, Container, and RVA’s own Coteries, both of whom I’ve caught before and have enjoyed – but all of this requires and ear for the terrifying so if you’re up to start your week on a rough, atonal note, snag tickets here and head to Smatter tonight.

Photos via Marcus Roberts

Animals As Leaders’ Javier Reyes talks avoiding politics and embracing the 8-string ahead of 5/23 Broadberry show

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If you’re new to the world of instrumental metal music, you may not have heard of DC’s Animals As Leaders, a reference to Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael. And if you’re new and near a device like most people are, you might soon find yourself, jaw dropped, seeing this trio of progressive musicians with advanced playing techniques unfurled, slicing through fast tempo and augmented tonality alike. Extended-range guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes together blow minds alongside drummer Matt Gartska, and something could easily be said about how primary the concept of progressiveness seems to be with the band, fronted by two 8-string guitars.

And if your words come up short, and you’d like some, I’ve amassed a passionate few on the subject here.

In anticipation of the upcoming show at The Broadberry, RVAMag recently had the pleasure of talking to Javier, and we spoke a bit about touring and, because it’s inescapable in the current climate, the effects of politics.

Their instrumental M.O. – a strictly vocal-less/lyricless approach – winds up being a favourable buffer from the sometimes-inescapably grim nature of news at this place in America’s history, both from the side of the band’s creative focus and from their audiences as well. Aside from the occasional conversation abroad with Asian Fan X or Australian Concertgoer Y inquiring as to the state of things back at home for the band, Javier tells me that by-and-large, the political element of life manages to stay away.

Obviously as a band without lyrics or a singer, the state of US affairs can barely if at all be evidently impactful to their music. But as an artist myself, who has been recently struggling with the potential of a seemingly spreading futility in artistic necessity, during these recently unsettled and increasingly dire times, I asked Javier if this sort of thing worried him.

“As far as traveling to certain countries, I would say so,” Reyes admits. “A couple years ago, when there was that shooting in France, we were on a tour of Europe so we were like ‘Okay, it was at a metal show, so anything can happen.’ But like anything at home, at some point it doesn’t stop you from what you still have to be doing. You try to be cautious, you try to make smart decisions, but at the end of the day, you can only do so much.”

And although he does enjoy touring, particularly to the countries that they’ve only just begun to play such as China and Japan, he’s observed that fans feel the same. “It’s the first time they get to see us, so it’s pretty exciting for them. The shows are a lot smaller there than they are at home, so I think the dynamic of the show is pretty different”,

Like many musicians, Reyes prefers the arena of studio work and the writing process to the rigors of being on the road.

“[Touring] can definitely be taxing,” he said. “I just like writing; working on new material.”

In a hugely welcome addition to available AAL merchandise for guitar-playing fans of the band, there will soon be a guitar songbook for their stellar latest album, The Madness of Many. As a fan of their music and as an 8-string guitar player myself, I couldn’t help but ask about why there hadn’t been tablature songbooks done for the older three albums.

“Actually, we started on The Joy of Motion right around the same time that we started working on The Madness of Many album,” he said. “So we were shifting focus to TMOM, let’s get this book done and then we’re going to backtrack one album at a time.”

For those of us who want to get to know their compositions inside and out, not only so that we might have the fun of replicating their music ourselves, but to get a technical depiction of their writing style, reading is essential to get to know them as artists. It is expected, more or less, that through exploring their writing, fans can glean fragments of or even whole personality, elements directly or indirectly. The level and manner of the evincing are what draws us to them through their art.

Transparent sincerity becomes a cornerstone in art’s myriad forms, which is reflected in how Reyes sees their process.

“For us, as we expand as musicians, I think that’s what’s happening to us, as people and players, so I think it’s natural for it to go through, into the music. And at the same time, considering that we are instrumental, we never really try to repeat ourselves too much. We know we have a sound, and there’s some retaining that we have to do, but at the end of the day we like experimenting, and we like our music to be a product of who we are at that moment. And if it means we write more clean guitars, or more acoustic guitars or put more electronics [in], that’s what will happen at that time…we just like writing what we are at that point.”

When asked which currently performing musical groups would be on his dream bill alongside Animals As Leaders – as either openers or following acts- Reyes didn’t hesitate. “I’d love to go on tour with Dream Theater at some point. Somebody like Slipknot would be pretty rad. Snarky Puppy, Tigran Hamasyan, The Bad Plus…kinda weird, but yeah. Thundercat.”

The mention of Tigran, who is astoundingly fresh is my opinion, makes sense in terms of musical style rather than in new-to-the-scene-ness. Tosin’s Instagram account has featured Tigran Hamasyan with several videos of him playing over Hamasyan. The logical next question concerned what Reyes had on heavy rotation recently.

“I’ve been listening to the new Dirty Projectors, which is quite different than their previous stuff, but I love it. Pretty creative and unique group. I also discovered a gospel group called The Red Hand. It’s pretty much gospel, but I just like the heavy R&B influence on it. As well as Anderson .Paak,” he admits, chuckling. “A lot of Anderson .Paak.”

I can’t be the only music fan who appreciates hearing about who my favorite artists like, and Reyes’ disclosure leaves me with some welcome listening homework. What I find in exploring these people’s preferences can sometimes surprise me, but always enlighten. The thing to remember is that they pull creativity and influence from somewhere too, and it is a small world. Finding overlap in your own path with theirs is inspirational and satisfying

How else to get to know a band’s personalities? In the case of honest enough artists such as AAL, by seeing them live. And given the stresses of today’s social climate, perhaps we could do with a break from it all. It’s Reyes’ experience and observation that fans leave the weight of pessimism at home and come simply to enjoy their shows.

“Most fans are just there to see guitar,” he’s the first to acknowledge. There’s a fantastically simple beauty in that statement.

Local music lovers will be in for a treat should they choose to welcome Reyes with Animals As Leaders, alongside contemporaries Veil of Maya and Alluvium, to The Broadberry, May 23rd, once again for a dazzling display of just that. You can snag tickets here!