The Body and Mountain Man @ Flywheel Arts Collective

The Body played a show booked last minute at Flywheel in Easthampton that was 100% worth the hour and a half drive. With Support from Worcester's Mountain Man, and noise artists Noise Nomads and Muslin, the art gallery was blaring with sound making your vision distorted. I'm not used to reviewing noise artists but I'll do my best, but Merzbow will be a default FFO.

Muslin
Genre: Electronic/Noise/Chillwave FFO: Merzbow, Teen Daze

When I saw a sound board set up, I was honestly dreading it based on the last noise artist I've seen and didn't enjoy at all, however, Muslin put his own creative spin on the genre. from what I could see on the sound board he had all his switches and dials, but also had what looked like his phone plugged in to act as a keyboard. while still using raw distortion and feedback, he created beautiful melodies with the keyboard and synthesizer being played over movie samples and oddly enough, dolphin noises. With all the lights out except for a light on his soundboard, the performance was very enjoyable, and I apologize for misjudging the music to begin with.

Noise Nomads
Genre: Noise/Sludge FFO: Merzbow, ?????
Noise Nomads put on a performance that I have never seen before and probably will never see again. Despite the name, Noise Nomads is a project put on by one person and the room was so dark I couldn't even see who it was. The setup was a bunch of different pedals on the ground that were plugged into what looked like a big metal Christmas tree with candles lit on the ends and two rocks holding down two ends of the "stump" while the rest of the tree is left to sway around, and a bass guitar that lay flat on the ground. The "christmas tree" is very hard to describe but if you've seen my snapchat (Feel free: coonxtang) you know what I am talking about. Anyway, what this artist did was cycle through different pedals to produce different noises which channeled through both the bass and the christmas tree. They basically played sounds through the tree by twirling it, flicking it, pushing it back and forth, or banging the rocks against it on the bottom. The sounds were as eerie as the performance was unique. eventually they picked up the bass and begin to strum very heavy muddy and distorted notes to the poit where you could almost see the sound. Overall this performance changed my view of noise music completely based on the fact that Noise Nomads combined the sound with a visual and made their own form of art that speaks for itself.

Mountain Man
Genre: Post-Metal/Sludge/Noise Metal FFO: Russian Circles, Downfall of Gaia, Devil Sold His Soul
Now if you know Mountain Man, you're probably looking at the genre right now thinking "what is he talking about?" well believe me I was shocked at the sound they have now. Unknowingly to me, Mountain Man recently released an album with a more post-metal sound than their usual chaotic hardcore. The band also unknowingly to me had a cello and two, yes thats right, two drummers. Mountain Man began with the cello playing a beautiful melody over a movie sample, which lasted for a while but really made you focus. Eventually the rest of the band joined in and played this beautiful post-metal sound that I never knew they had, my jaw dropped at how incredible it was.As for the two drummers, I couldn't really tell who was playing what until I heard one and didn't see the other but eventually I could actually distinguish the two and then I could understand why they had them both.

https://mountainmanhc.bandcamp.com/

The Body
Genre: Experimental/Electronic/Noise/Sludge Doom/Drone FFO: Sunn O))), Thou, Old Man Gloom
If You've seen The Body, you know what to expect. This was my second time seeing them. The Body set up their gratuitous amounts of speakers paired up with their two sound boards. during the check, they pointed out that it wasn't coming out of one of the speakers and I just thought "it already sounds super loud and clear as day, what difference would it make?" as soon as the speaker turned on I regretted saying these words. The Body began with their raw sound making everything rumble, so loud your vision would distort and no lights on except one green light very dimmed in the center. One thing I remembered from last time was how far away the vocalist would scream into the mic but you could still hear him perfectly fine. This time you could hear him so well that I feel like he didn't even need a mic. The sound was absolutely terrifying between the distortion and samples and the vocals everything could be heard perfectly. I feel like people walking by were thinking there were people in Flywheel suffering from being tortured. The Body is an audio assault that is not to be missed. You only get the full experience live.

https://thebody.bandcamp.com/

Pageninetynine and Majority Rule at Great Scott

....I'm still speechless. Well, grab your black skinny jeans and hold back those tears because we're going back to the late 90's/early 2000's for some skramz. The entire show was as flawless as it was unbelievable. Both Pageninetynine and Majority Rule reunited for the first time in over ten years, (excluding the on off reunion of Pg.99 in 2011) for a short tour to benefit MIRA, a charity for refugees and Immigrants and every show sold out. TAKE THAT DONNIE TRUMP! Feel free to learn more about MIRA and do your part to help the cause.

http://www.miracoalition.org/

Majority Rule
Genre: Chaotic Hardcore/Screamo FFO: Loma Prieta, Kodan Armada, Deadguy

Majority Rule began with their vicious style of screamo immediately roping in everyone's attention. If you've heard their recordings, while the style is incredibly unique, the production and quality is not as good as you would hear today (not a bad thing), however, when played live you hear the full force of the instruments and see the chaotic rage through the body movements of the band. on thing Majority Rule does often is play riffs that can be off time, and each riff that was played was flawless and not a single beat was skipped giving Meshuggah a run for their money. The endless energy coming from the crowd made the experience even more memorable. I'm sure everyone had the same mindset: "This is a once in a lifetime event, I will never see this again" the entire crowd was just as chaotic as the band and screamed every word. At times, the vocalist/guitarist would randomly start playing drums. Majority Rule played a very long set for a hardcore band (over an hour) I looked at my watch and it was already 11:30, and Pg. 99 was just setting up.

Pageninetynine
Genre: Screamo/powerviolence/grindcore FFO: Raein, Orchid, Enemy Soil

I'm still speechless. In order to keep from repeating myself, recording production, and whatever that I said about Majority Rule also applies to Pg.99. That being said, from the very beginning of the first song my only reaction to this set was: "Holy fuck! I'm seeing Pg.99! This is fucking incredible!". The sound was loud and blaring to the point where it hurt (and I was wearing ear plugs) but the sound was so perfect I heard riffs I didn't even know were in half the recordings. The crowd was just a tidal wave of kids going for the mic, even doing back flips off stage, occasionally both vocalists would even join in. It was so energetic that after the second song they band said "We're all here to have fun but keep in mind we are in a small space so please be careful and don't get hurt" Ironically enough I don't think anyone even got hurt throughout the whole show. Pg.99 played probably just as long if not longer than Majority Rule and even got an encore to play two more songs. The set ended almost at 1am which did seem rather appropriate for skramz, then again I am too young to be a skramz kid so what do I know. Tons of energy from everyone in the venue I would put this in the top 3 of the year ( will be posted in December).