Since when is Black Metal with naked, fat old ladies in corpsepaint not a good time?

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I really dig Carpathian Forest.

This is what every craft-oriented, Doom Metal chick should be wearing:

Impress your friends! Be the coolest and creepiest chick on the scene!
Buy one today!

Here’s a set of photos from the Sourvein concert at The Knitting Factory last Sunday. It was really dark in the club and I couldn’t really take photos the way I normally do (without a flash), but I was twisted enough to actually bump the singer on stage, in between songs and ask permission to use one, which he very graciously gave.

Wretched, drunken and loud Doom Metal. I had a great time, although I did get way too smashed, somehow ending up at the Staten Island Ferry and nearly falling down twice in the various subway stations I stumbled through till I finally found my way home.

Seeing High On Fire play live for my first time this past Sunday was absolutely epic. There was literally no room except to stand in the club and I managed to to get right up close to the stage and marvel, mouth agape like a halfwit at the epic output of Matt Pike. I have never seen a person so charged and possessed by the music they’re playing. The dude is a Metal juggernaut. I was amazed and fully fucking entertained.

I’d eaten a rather pricey ticket to another concert that I’d purchased prior to finding out about the High On Fire gig. It was a totally worthy loss. I had a great time and I nailed a pretty sweet t-shirt. Next time, I’m pulling some strings to get backstage.

Anyway, I took photos. Arguably, a retarded amount of them, but hey, I fucking love High On Fire. You can find the complete set of the night here.

I’m seeing High On Fire, live in Brooklyn this Sunday. I’ve never seen them play before. I’m getting apeshit excited. My camera will be charged and my blood/alcohol content will be high. High On Fire is an awesome band. Matt Pike wakes up in the morning and after a bowl of Cheerios, just starts shitting Stoner riffs all over the place. The man is a fucking Metal machine. Their last three albums are some of the best recordings I own. I’m cannot fucking wait. It better not get canceled at the last second or any such bullshit.

A few nights ago, I went to see Mastodon and Neurosis at a Masonic Temple (of all places). The concert was okay, nothing special as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a link to a set of photos of the show, mostly of Mastodon since Neurosis played under far too dark lighting conditions.

Anyway, there I was with a number of drinks in me. I started thinking to myself, “When the hell am I going to get another chance to be in a Masonic Temple?” So, armed with my trusty camera, I started exploring the building, leaving the performance area and heading up to unoccupied floors. Aside from the stairwells and landings, the floors were unlit. I started heading down dark hallways, using my camera flash to navigate.

Next thing I know, I’m in this big room where I’m guessing the ceremonies take place. There was a funky altar/podium and all these large, ornate chairs. There was even a throne-like one set at the head, on a raised platform. The whole room was very church-like and fumbling around in the dark as I was, kinda creepy. I took a bunch of photos and on my way out, completely blind, I snapped a photo so could see where the exit was and lo and behold, I’m standing in front of a coffin, propped against the wall.

Anyway, here’s a set of the photos I took (minus most of the random shit ones I took just to see where I was going) of my exploration of the temple. Pretty neat, I think.

Here’s a set of photos I took last night of 3 Inches Of Blood and The Black Dahlia Murder, playing live at BB Kings in Manhattan. Another band Hate Eternal was supposed to perform as well, but didn’t show until I was practically out the door, my stamina and good will at being patient for them to set up at an end. Still I had a pretty good time. I was really impressed with 3 Inches. They don’t sound like much from their recordings and I’ve never been one for the high pitched, Judas Priest-like screeching, but damn, they are one awesome band live.

Overall it was one of the more rowdy of concerts I’ve been to at what is normally a pretty locked down club with really intense security guards. I saw one teenage kid get thrown over the barrier, smacking face-first against the edge of the stage, hard enough to bounce his head and fuck him up, which pretty much served him well for being a crowd-surfing idiot. Another guy who was standing next to me caught an elbow to the face and ended up breaking two of his lower teeth. Understandably, he was pretty pissed, but it was an accident and I don’t think anyone even knew who had hit him in the first place.

I got into a one-sided shoving match with some long-hair, biker jacket-wearing wannabe, which in retrospect was stupid of me, but he did shove me out of the way first and I had some beers talking in me which sparked the uber-aggressive politeness nazi in me. I really hate it when people can’t traverse a crowd politely, thinking that being physically rude is an acceptable pseudo-alpha posture, just because they have their friends with them and their pumped from the Metal. Of course, with about five beers in me, I have all the invisible friends I think I need. Someday, I’ll probably get a good ass-beating, considering the way I get up in people’s business sometimes. But hey, I did make him apologize, so it’s a win.

I love last.fm. If ever you want to completely geek out on your music statistics, that’s the site to use. Since it’s the new year, I was looking at some of my listening habits have been and whatnot and noted that in the past year, I’ve attended twenty-three live shows. I like drinking; loud Metal madness and taking photos of bands. It’s my thing. I dig it.

For this new year, I think it’s safe to say I intend and will be able to double that amount.

Hell-fucking-yes!

These dudes are awesome! My favorite part is at the halfway point where they suddenly break for lunch. These dudes are hard-fucking-core.

Here’s a link to plenty of photos I took of Death Metal bands, Vader and Malevolent Creation at the Death By Decibels tour at The Blender Theater, here in New York. Malevolent Creation were good, but not anything I’d bother seeing again. They put on a good show, but they didn’t really raise my blood pressure. Vader is a damn tight-sounding band live. I was really impressed at how solid and together their sound and all-around performance was. I’d definitely check them out again, but daaaaaamn…do they ever need fashion tips. They were all wearing retarded, Hot Topic, gothic club-baby pants, complete with too many zippers and the dangly string thingies. Think these pants having babies with these ones. Frightening. Guys, you’re a European Death Metal band…black leather pants! In a pinch, camouflage or olive-drab cargos. WTF?

I still think the Blender Theater is a complete and total shithole, comparable to spelunking in an old lady’s colon. The only thing they have going for them is that so far, to my knowledge, no one’s sued the shit out of the place after getting hurt. Their security sucks. I saw two fights, granted they were minor, but security was nowhere. There were a few assholes, getting off on dive-bombing random people, knocking a girl next to me to the floor without so much as an apology or a lift upright. As far as I’m concerned, if the person you hit is not participating in being a psuedo-macho hormonal douchebag with you, than that’s assault and that’s a fucking liability for the club. Accidents happen, but that place lets some rude, bitter, professional dishwashers and reprobates get away with way too much shit. Blender fucking blows.