Primitive Man, Spectral Voice, Scaphism, & Mourned @ the Middle East Downstairs

    This show straight up weighed 5000lbs. Primitive Man and Spectral Voice made the earth shake with local support from Scaphism, who I haven't seen in years, and of course Mourned, everyone's favorite. Sound quality was definitely at its best all night for each band.

Mourned

Genre: Death Metal FFO: Dying Fetus, Behemoth, Napalm Death

    I've lost count how many times I've seen these guys play. For the longest time Mourned have been recognized more among the hardcore crowd, despite being a death metal band, but more and more I see them get added to some awesome metal shows and getting a great reaction every time. This show is definitely a highlight for them. 

    I recall a man known as "Legs" telling me " wait till you hear Dave's drums, I could compare it to The Cleansing by Suicide Silence". These words were not lies. The drums were pounding like it was your new heart beat. Those guitar solos were clear as day and metal as fuck. As for Billy's vocals, disgusting and demonic.

    The pause in Ravenous torment caused motion among the crowd to the point where I thought there would be a few fights. Heavy riffs and shredding solos all throughout the set gave off a ton of energy from the crowd. I swear Mourned get better and better each time I review them but this is gonna be a tough one to top, especially since they were getting praise from Primitive Man.

Scaphism

Genre: Death/Thrash/Grind FFO: Abominable Putridity, Haemorrhage

     I haven't seen Scaphism in probably five or six years and not much has changed. If I searched my parents house I could probably find the threeway split between them, Composted, and Boarcorpse. Scaphism still retain that awesome and gross death metal sound chock full of blast beats with a few slams sneaked in. Granted all I really heard from these guys recording wise was on that split but hearing some of the songs they had to offer last night definitely brought me back. 

      Scaphism sounded just as professional as Mourned. The drums were thundering, the riffs were heavy and evil, and the vocals sounded like he would puke any second. I can't say too much about the crowd reaction as I was far in the back just enjoying the music.If you enjoy death metal I would recommend these guys for your next family gathering.

Spectral Voice

Genre: Death/Doom Metal FFO: Undergang, Inverloch, Hooded Menace

    Woah. All I can say. Number one set of the night hands down. Let me set the scene for you, the vocalist/drummer demanded that every light in the venue be shut off leaving only candle light. You have now entered the eroded corridor of unbeing.

    Spectral Voice were destructively heavy, high on my list next to Conan for heaviest live band. You could almost see the vibrations in the air. The vocals were incredibly echoed to the point where it sounded like you were in a cave. Each song more evil than the last, the whole set was very esoteric, you could use a ouiji board and probably re-enact the movie Veronica. 

     Punches were thrown during the slow heavy parts and more ruckus was summoned from the blast beats. People were flying back and forth. There are absolutely no other bands I could compare this performance to. Incredible just incredible. I can still hear those vocals ringing in my head.

Primitive Man

Genre: Sludge/Doom/Drone/Noise FFO: Indian, Lord Mantis, Thou

    This is gonna be a short one. If you know Primitive Man, you know two things: heavy and loud. Thats what you paid for and thats what you get. Everything I said about heaviness with Spectral Voice can also be applied to PM. Primitive Man was definitely 10x louder. You could feel your entire body vibrate like an oldschool gamecube controller. This is tough to give a write up for simply because most songs sounded similar and PM's gimmick is just being really loud. Definitely an interesting experience and worth seeing, just hard to write detail.

Fuck Paul Cronin

Norma Jean, Gideon, & Greyhaven @ The Middle East downstairs

     The time finally came for Norma Jean to play my personal favorite album of theirs in its entirety. Redeemer was a daily album I would listen to in 2006-2007 and had a heavy influence on my music taste later as most of you could probably tell. I will start this by saying Toothgrinder dropped and I missed Chuggernaut. 

Greyhaven

Genre: Mathcore/Southern Rock FFO: Every Time I Die, Maylene and The Sons of Disaster, Heavy Heavy Low Low

Greyhaven are probably the only reason I'm not only writing a review about Norma Jean. I heard one song of there's prior to the show and thought, 'these guys are worth checking out' but hearing more of their stuff live, I was very impressed. half the songs had that classic HHLL breath catching vocals followed by spastic screaming with chaotic ETID style riffs mixed with southern smoky bbq riffs reminiscent of He is Legend and Maylene. The vocalist asked who's heard them before and four people responded. "Four people huh? I think thats the most so far on the tour you guys are the best." Greyhaven is definitely a good blast into the past and an escape from 2018, brought to you by Myspace.

Gideon

Genre: I don't care FFO: I don't know

Around the time Gideon started I wasn't about it, so I went back to my car to play the game I've been binging for about a month, Fire Emblem: Warriors™ for the Switch. I thought that a level 50 recruitment mission in history mode would provide enough time to kill until Norma Jean would go on. With the map having the rival army consist of mostly dragons and archers, I considered using Lyn, Chrom, and Marth for their dragonslaying weapons along with my powerhouses Corrin and Navarre for good measure, and Frederick and Lissa as unplayable characters. I primarily used Lyn to takeover the forts with dragon captains and ordered chrom to do the same and sent the rest out to take out the archers, while keeping Lissa at the allied base. Darios appeared and began recruiting rival Commanders. I quickly switched to Navarre who was close by to Darios to escort him and defeat the reinforcements who were after him. Getting to the first commander, which was another dragon, went well until reinforcements came and begun an assault on my base, so I sent Lissa to heal the fort captain and quickly switched to Marth and used his warrior special to clear out any threat. Darios was on the move again to continue recruiting so I switched to Lyn who was the closest to him and we successfully recruited Elise and Anna. Word of advice, Lyn's speed matched up with her sixth strong attack makes for a great way to fill your warrior gauge quickly to make your battle a breeze. The enemies base opened reveal the commander to be defeated, Robin. Nothing Lyn's warrior special couldn't handle. Just one Warrior special depleted half of Robin's health. While dodging Robin's magic attacks, I was able to used Lyn's speedy strikes to kill enough of Robin's army and fill up my wrrior gauge once more and take him out. Victory was achieved with Lyn as the MVP. As soon as I got back to the middle east, Gideon ended and Norma Jean was just setting up.

Norma Jean

Genre: Mathcore/Metalcore FFO: Zao, Botch, Symphony in Peril

    Norma Jean's setup was similar to when I saw The Dillinger Escape Plan's last Boston show. They had the same style stage light setup along the amps flashing chaoticly with the music. Aside from that, there were two blinding lights that were basically like the type a carpenter would use but brighter. Anyway, the carpenter lights were the only lights in the room shining bright when The Almighty Norma Jean triumphantly walked out, and without hesitation presented the crowd with A Grand Scene for A Color Film. the crowd jolted forward screaming along, myself included. The pit was a combination of hardcore dancing and old school 2005 circle pits. Immediately after they began Blueprints for Future Homes, I made it my mission to get in Cory Brandan face and scream "you're killing me, just bury me" most of my friends know that when I plan this, it happens and surely enough it did.

     Cory stated that he was excited to be doing Redeemer and said it gives him the chance to actually talk about what the songs are about. For example, A Small Spark vs. A Great Forest is basically about how a disagreement can escalate to drastic proportions, or Cemetery Like a Stage is about how Cory was at home cleaning his house only to find out his father had been killed. Many more of them were mentioned and I apologize for not remembering them all. 

    Sometime between The End of all Things Will be Televised and Songs Sound Much Sadder, I believe, Norma Jean decided to throw in two songs from their newest album, Polar Similar. Personally I had yet to hear the album but hearing the song, I, the Planet, all I can say is: HEAVY. The other song was Synthetic Sun, which definitely impressed me as well.

    One thing I can't help but point out, certain parts of the songs, Cory would make his voice sound like its cutting in and out through a vocal effect, but he was actually doing it himself, very odd but he could pull it off.

    Surely enough Redeemer was played in full, from A Grand Scene to No Passenger, No Parasite. Each song had endless energy coming from the crowd, enough for Cory to state that Boston stage dives more than New York and we were just wild (Thanks Cory!). Norma Jean walked off stage in the dark with feedback playing over the speaker. The crowd was cheering "ONE MORE SONG" "NORMA JEAN" MEMPHIS". A few moments later....

    The band came back out. Cory stated Norma Jean is a collective and the fans are heavily involved. Cory finally said "This song, is the foundation of Norma Jean. Bless the Martyr...Kiss the Child. MEMPHIS WILL BE LAID TO WASTE!" For a christian band, Norma jean spawned more chaos than any band I've ever seen play the Middle East. A mountain of fans went for the mic. Eventually Cory said "If you know the words..." the feedback stayed in the atmosphere but the music was paused. Cory was holding on to a pipe overhead, a second vocalist appeared, kids were jumping on top of each other  and NOTHING EVEN HAPPENED YET. momemts and moments and moments later....NOW YOUR DOING THE WALTZ WITH YOUR MURDERER! the Kid doing Aaron from mewithoutyou's part crowd surfed while screaming in everyone's face as did everyone else for basically the entire song. Tons of energy you would think the earth was shaking. Norma Jean ended with a nice big " God bless you, God bless you all!" and the show ended.

    This was incredible. A very important show for me by one of my favorite bads playing my favorite album, I couldn't be happier.

Conan w/ The Ditch & the Delta, and Churchburn @ the Middle East Upstairs

     Absolute sonic destruction wielded by UK heavyweights, Conan, crushed the Middle East into oblivion. I've seen some heavy bands but this was something else. Joining them was The Ditch & The Delta, a band I believe most were unfamiliar with including myself, and Rhode Island doom devils Churchburn. This show was so heavy and loud you could probably hear it from miles away.

Churchburn

Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal FFO: Noothgrush, Grief, Brainoil

   Despite being from Providence, Churchburn are no strangers to the Boston metal crowd. A great beginning to the show. Churchburn played their evil sludge metal sound just as you would expect others to, long 5-7 minute songs, each heavier than the last, but with a few riffs that somewhat remind me of something Death would write hammered into the music adding an occult flow into the atmosphere. I can't help but point out how muddy that bass sounded. I definitely mean that in a positive way. The bass paired up exceptionally well with the drums making you think that a nearby church was probably well....burning. Churchburn played a few new songs that that keep their natural sound in check. 

The Ditch and the Delta

Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal FFO: High on Fire, DoomRiders, Khemmis

    I have asked multiple people I knew at the show if they heard these guys and every single one said no. After they played, everyone was amazed. I want to say these guys were like early Mastodon, but I would be off. Like the other bands playing, these guys were heavy. Heads up, you're gonna see the word "heavy" a lot in this post if you haven't figured it out. When the band got on stage, my first thought was "these guys look like they're naturally always drunk and aren't affected by alcohol". When they played, It was like Doomriders decided to play slower and open a blackhole on stage. Definitely impressive. Just about everyone enjoyed the band just as much as I did. Fun Fact: According to The Ditch and the Delta, "Utah" is actually pronounced "Yu-tahr". Very interesting.

Conan

Genre: Stoner/Doom FFO: Monolord, YOB, Cough

     If I were to name they heaviest bands I've heard live, I would say: Windhand, Suffocation, Full of Hell, Deftones, Neurosis, The Body, Saint Vitus, and maybe Cloakroom. I think after last night, Conan might be the number one contender. They played so loud I could feel my entire body vibrate to the point where I was starting to get sick and feel like I was gonna puke. Conan live up to their label "caveman doom" in more ways than one. The guitarist's Ozzy sounding vocals sounded even more powerful than they do on record and the bassist's low warcry was echoing like the venue was a cave. You would think they were leading an actual army to war. The crowd reflected the sound and created a battleground of neanderthals fighting over who gets to eat the mammoth steak. Absolutely wild. The drums were thunder, the guitar and bass were hammers, the vocals were savagery. You would think you were watching a viking documentary. Welcome to 10000 BC where everyday is a battle, you must kill to survive!