On Saturday, I managed to survive two concerts back to back. Starting at four, I went to ABC No Rio for Coffins. Never will I go back there. The place is a tiny, cramped shithole, with no bathroom, alcohol or ventilation. It was disgustingly hot. I lasted fifteen minutes in there before common sense and a bit of chew-my-own-leg-off animal frenzy drove me out to an Australian bar across the street to down beers with other like-minded Australian metalheads. I would have liked to catch the opening bands, but fuck that oppressive shit, I just checked back every couple of beers till Coffins went on.

The band was great, although I had trouble seeing them. A stage to elevate things would have been much better. Coffins was loud enough that flecks of the ceiling were dislodged by sonic vibration, raining down on the people in front of me. They played a good set and I enjoyed seeing them live for the first time, but fuck that venue.

Here’s a few photos of Coffins live.

After leaving that hellhole, I shared a cab with some Australians to Williamsburg (they were going to see the next Coffins show of the evening, at a proper venue) and rushed my ass to the Music Hall of Williamsburg for The Sword. I hung out downstairs in the bar, getting fairly buzzed at this point, skipping the first opening band and a bit of Stinking Lizaveta. Eventually I headed up to the hall and hooked up with a buddy of mine.

Stinking Lizaveta was pretty good, though I can’t say I was really into them that much. Still, they were far from sucky. Torche was entertaining. I’d nabbed one of their albums a few weeks prior, just to check them out and really wasn’t into them at all. Live was a different story, though. They were pretty solid. Good enough that I later revisited the album I had and can definitely appreciate it more. Often, seeing a band live makes you a fan far more than an album will (or vice versa).

Finally, The Sword. Those Texas fuckers tore the goddamn roof off. They were even better than the first time I saw them live. It was one of those “Holy shit, this rocks” moments. My neck is still quite sore from headbanging. Of course, at this point, I was pretty much thoroughly shitfaced, lost and at sea in stupid drunk land, rambling and weaving. At one point I recall chucking a plastic cup with the dregs of my beer out over the heads of the audience, something that horrifies me, because it would have really pissed me off if I were on the receiving end. Oops. Sorry. It was, the booze not me. Swear it.

Here’s a bunch of photos from that show.

It’s a late Saturday morning for me (past noon, for you other people who get up early on the weekends). This normally consists of camping on my couch with some coffee, a laptop and a shitload of RSS feeds to go through. During this time, I like to listen to a little music. It’s nice, you should try it. Anyway, I just finished listening to the first album by the Norwegian Psychedelic Stoner Doom band, Sahg for the first time and it’s so fucking good, I’m compelled to write a blog post about it.

Sahg combines strong influences from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and a host of other awesome 70’s bands, bringing it all together into an original, modern sound. They kill. Sahg is one of those Norwegian super-bands, comprising members of well known bands, covering several genres (the bassist from the Black Metal band, Gorgoroth is a member, for example). Their sound is tight and the production is very high quality. All together, they make you want to grow your hair long, take a few bong hits, knock back a bunch of beers (possibly with a tab of acid), bang your head, nail some groupies and worship Satan.

Trust me, it’s good. Get it.

[Official Sahg website]

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.

Here is a set of photos I shot of The Sword and Black Cobra, live at the Bowery Ballroom last night. The Sword was awesome from start to finish. I had a great time, although I got far more drunk that I should have or had intended to. At one point, while in the crowd, two guys came crashing to the ground in front of me and I reflexively started to control the guy on top, like I used to do in Aikido, with one hand on his neck and the other displacing his hips, thinking there was about to be a big fight. Two seconds later, it dawns on me that these guys were moshing, lost their balance, fell and if I don’t let go now, I’m probably going to get my drunk and delusional ass deservedly gang-beat. Luckily, the guy I was manhandling seemed a bit drunk as well and more focused on whether he hurt the guy he fell on top of, likely thinking I had been trying to help him up, if he even noticed me at all. Oops.

Lately, I’ve been going apeshit-overkill with concerts. I blame the internet—it makes buying tickets a little too easy and before you know it, you’ve booked yourself for three shows in one week, which is where I’m at. As I wrote in my previous post, earlier this week, I had a horrible night seeing Kataklysm live at the Blender Theater at Gramercy, a club that I will likely never return to unless it’s something I have to go to. That place fucking blows.

However, the next evening I was at the Knitting Factory, seeing post-Sleep, Stoner Doom miracles, OM with Grails opening and it entirely redeemed the condition of my week. Grails was totally psychedelic good shit. I liked them enough that I bought two of their albums off of eMusic the next morning. OM was magnificent. It was the first time I’ve ever seen them and I had no idea that a man could wring such a thunderingly full sound out of a bass guitar. I was highly impressed and inspired. I tried to buy one of everything at their merchandise table, to the point that I had two guys scrambling through boxes looking for shirts my size. I loved it. I had passed up an earlier concert of theirs in Brooklyn, a couple days ago, figuring I’d rather just see them in Manhattan where it’s easier for me to navigate home, but in hindsight, I should have gone to both shows. It was that good.

I also really liked the Knitting Factory. the sound was great, the alcohol was comparatively reasonable in price and the place is fucking HUGE. I’d never been there before and it was a good experience for a first time. Here’s a bunch of photos of the evening, if you’d like to check them out.

Tonight, it’s Behemoth at Irving Plaza. I’m tempted to bail on it, as I’m not an especially big fan, but I did already buy tickets. I’m old though. I think two concerts, at least two days apart is looking like my limit is these geriatric times that I find myself in.

I saw Unearthly Trance, Earth and Pelican at Luna Lounge in Williamsburg last night.

Unearthly Trance was annoying. I like their album, “In the Red“…not so much “The Trident“. Anyway, nice guys, but they took forever to hit the stage, preferring to hit the bar up for drinks and they only played a few songs. I just wanted more bang for my buck.

Earth was awesome. Mesmerizing, loud and droning. Worth the price of the ticket.

Pelican…whatever. I’m not into that kind of jam-band stuff. I gave them two songs and walked out.

Luna Lounge kind of sucks. First and foremost, by virtue of being in Williamsburg. I used to live there, but I can’t stand it anymore (or recognize it, for that matter). It’s like “Busch Gardens - Brooklyn” for trust-fund, up-and-coming douchebags. Secondly, the club has a kind of shit sound system.

Since I’m kind of all over the map on what I like to listen to, for this post I’m going to stick specifically to the Doom Metal genre of albums that I’ve picked up from eMusic that I find praiseworthy.

There’s only one full album that Warhorse ever put out and it’s balls-out awesome Doom. As Heaven Turns to Ash has some of the heaviest, slowest and lowest bass lines I’ve heard. The style leans on the psychedelic side with the main tracks interspersed with light and at times folk-like short instrumentals. It sounds weird as I try to describe it, but it works. Heavily inspired by Black Sabbath and L.S.D., Warhorse ranks right up there with Electric Wizard as one of my favorite Doom bands. If you’re not into Doom Metal, this album will change that. This is really good shit.
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Since I’m still loving eMusic and have been racking new albums every month, I thought I’d list some of the better to best shit I’ve accrued lately.

Electric Wizard is by far one the dopest, heaviest bands around. Their Ozzy-era Black Sabbath-inspired, Stoner/Sludge Doom Metal style is straight-up 70’s era evil psychedelia. It’s loud, chunking and very slow. I have all of their albums and my latest addition, “Come My Fanatics“, is by far their best work and definitely one of the best albums I’ve ever owned in my life. It’s low, slow, evil-hippy vibe makes me want to start wearing denim jackets, grow a fu-manchu, contact Satan and start living out a van (complete with air-brushing). I highly recommend this album.

Boris is a Japanese experimental band who are difficult to place in a genre. Though I only have one of their albums, I’ve read they bounce all over the place with different styles of noise/music. “Absolutego” is one 65-minute long track of ambient noise/Drone Doom filled will slowly plodding bass, buzzing guitars, lotsa feedback and heavy usage of the e-bow. There’s no riffs, melodies or anything. Just ambient guitar noise for over an hour and it’s great. Truly creepy, bad acid trip shit. This is a soundtrack to accompany corpses crawling out of graves. I’m definitely going to check out their other albums.

Similar in style and direction is the band Sunn 0)) (pronounced “Sun” and named after the amplifiers they use). Extremely slow and heavy, using droning, heavily-distorted guitars and sound effects to create a dark, malevolent soundscape, Sunn 0)) are prime examples of Drone Doom. The album “Flight of the Behemoth” is five really long tracks of ambient doom, despair and inscrutable evil. I love these guys. To top it all off, the duo that makes up this band wear evil monk robes whenever they perform live! Could it be cooler?

In fact, I love them so much, I bought another one of their albums, called “The Grimm Robe Demos“. It’s exactly the same kind of shit, which is perfect. Evil, weird, down-tuned and long. Lacking any discernible form or structure, it is music for alien landscapes. That said it’s not for everyone. If you’re not into evil, ambient noise then this music is either going to scare you or give you a headache (or quite possibly both), but if you dig the heavy, creepy shit, you’ll love Sunn 0))) and these two albums.