Apr 282012
 

Last Tuesday night, April 24, a group of friends rendezvoused at Studio Seven in Seattle to get pummeled by some hard metal and watch our man Connor make his public debut as a growler, thanks to those most excellent dudes in Bermuda. The occasion for this outing was the Seattle stop of The Young Bloods Tour, co-headlined by Bermuda and Creations and featuring support from Float Face Down and Adaliah (and with local support at this show from Everett, Washington’s Prepare the Bride).

It’s been a while since I attempted to document a show with photos because I’m such a shitty, untrained photographer and it takes me so long to get the images in half-way decent shape for posting at NCS. But I gave it a try on this night and decided to go black and white for a change. The results were better than I expected, though one of these days I really need to get some actual learning about how to use my camera. Anyway, following a few words about the show, you’ll see a batch of pics for each band who took the stage.

The music began fairly early and ended fairly early, even for a weeknight at Studio Seven. Unfortunately, the show was sparsely attended, but fortunately that didn’t stop the bands from giving a bunch of high-energy performances. The music was mainly flavors of -core metal, ranging from straight-up deathcore to Bermuda’s increasingly progressive/Meshuggah-influenced brand of metalicized hardcore mixed with elements of death metal. This meant that I was the oldest dude on the scene, unless you include the security guys and the lone bartender, who didn’t exactly have a lot of customers upstairs in the age-restricted balcony bar where I perched for most of the night to get a good camera angle on the stage below.

Here are just a few scattered notes about the performances: Continue reading »

Feb 182012
 

The roar is down there. Time to stop staring and thinking and just take the fuckin’ plunge. Could be a catastrophic finish after a long fall, or a real rush, but in either case I felt the irresistible pull of the . . . breakdowns.

What am I jumping into?  New music from Point Below Zero, BermudaFloat Face Down, and Blood of the Broken. Not what we usually cover around here, which is why I stood and stared into the abyss for a while before launching into this swan dive. Kvltists and kvrmvdgeons may want to go back to their knitting (bags made of human skin, of course) rather than taking this plunge. Those who like to get a breakdown fix every now and then, with some decent music surrounding the bass-drop detonations, prepare to get wet.

I listened to one song from each band, and what follows are some reactions.  This is not exactly a MISCELLANY post, because I already knew something about the middle two bands, though I haven’t listened to what they’re doing in a while. But the first and last bands were going to be surprises.  After I heard their music, I decided they would fit with the other two in this post.

POINT BELOW ZERO

I found out about this band through an enthusiastic status by a Facebook friend. I don’t always stop and check out enthusiastic status updates from Facebook friends, but the cover art on this album caught my eye, so I jumped. Continue reading »