Last night I decided to make the trek out to Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, CA where three unfathomably extreme bands would be performing and offering up decimating ear shattering riffs to all those metal maniacs in attendance. Funeral Chant, Disimperium and Abstracter are three very insidious sounding acts that exemplifying the decimating dark spirit of extreme music.
Before the show I will admit that driving through the part of Oakland where Eli’s Mile High Club is located can be a very surreal and sobering experience when pertaining to the state of society. As much as the bands performing are “extreme” and the fans in attendance can put on the tough image, nothing compares to the harsh and abysmal reality of the area around the venue where you see people strung out on drugs and living in torn up tents. Actually, getting to hear live music while being around people who share the same passionate of extreme metal is sort of the perfect escape from that chaotic world outside. Also, I was also really excited to meet up my friend from Canada who came out to the Bay Area, because he too has the same enthusiastic mindset for metal music as I do, which made attend this show really enjoyable.
Upon arriving at the venue, the first band Funeral Chant just launched into their set right as I walked through the door and into the dimly light venue. Funeral Chant is a local black metal band that has a purely sinister sound that reminds me a bit of groups like Marduk, Blasphemy and Beherit. Being that they are a local band I could tell the audience was extremely supportive of the group throughout the entire set. I thought the band’s singer/guitarist had great stage presence as he unleashed his agonizing cries over the hellish chord progressions. The band for the most part sounded solid and I think that they were a good choice to open the show, because the crowd seemed to very responsive from the start of their set until the very end.
After Funeral Chant cleared the stage, the second band Disimperium began setting up for their set. This destructive four-piece band from Portland, OR caught my attention a couple years back with the release of their debut EP, "Malefic Obliteration.” They combine sickening black metal with tormenting death metal to offer up one sadistic overall sound. Recently, they released an album called, “Grand Insurgence Upon Despotic Altars,” so I was looking forwarded to hearing the new material live. Right away, I could tell that this band had a profoundly brutal live sound as both guitarist seemed to play with this unexplainable savage synergy. The band’s technical riffs capture that gruesome old school death metal sound, while the slower sections convey a more malevolent and raw blackened death metal quality. Also, the drumming was insanely intense and I could tell that the drummer was expending a ton of energy from behind the kit.
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| Disimperium |
Once Disimperium finished their extreme sounding onslaught, it was then time for the night’s headliner to take the stage. Abstracter is a Bay Area band that I have followed for many years, but unfortunately never had yet seen perform live. I was highly anticipating their performance, so as the band took to the stage with their instruments looking unleash their ferocious brand of apocalyptic blackened death/doom, I quickly made my way to the front. From the very first riff I was completely taken back by how tight and in sync they seemed to be while performing with all this smoke swirling around them. They sounded exactly the same as they do on their albums, if not even louder and more vicious live! The band’s singer is a tremendously talented frontman and he delivered the lyrics with such unapologetic attitude which really complimented the soul crushing arrangements. Getting to hear material from one of my favorite albums, "Abominion," was probably my favorite part of the whole night, as the songs from that album are insanely brutal.
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| Abstracter |
As the smoke cleared and the noise from Abstracter’s amps faded away until everything went silent, the audience roared with appreciation for the band one last time before everyone started to make their way out of the venue. I must commend each of the three band’s for giving every once of energy to put on such a cataclysmic show. This show was a testament to how underground extreme music continues to thrive due to the hard work from the truly creative musicians and the loyal support from all those diehard metal fanatics. I highly recommend checking out all three of these bands, and I hope to see them continue to record/perform as this world needs something to get us through all the insanity of where society seems to be headed...trust me, when you have to watch out for dog crap and human crap when walking down the street...things are not looking good.
Abstracter Bandcamp:
https://abstracter.bandcamp.com/
Disimperium Bandcamp:
https://disimperium.bandcamp.com/album/grand-insurgence-upon-despotic-altars
Funeral Chant:
Great review Robby.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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