Black metal returns to the Great Scott and with such a lineup! Each band a great balance of atmosphere and darkness. Obsidian Tongue has yet to disappoint, and Pillorian and Falls I have been wanting to see since I first heard both.
Obsidian Tongue
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal FFO: Krallice, Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues
Opening the night was the two piece powerhouse, Obsidian Tongue. Let me first say these guys are easily my personal favorite for Massachusetts black metal. Only two members and so much talent between them, they deserve your attention.
Now then, Obsidian Tongue, though only played a few songs, blew me away once more and get better and better each performance. The passion of the blackened shrieks, the melody of the clean singing, the intense concentration between the riffs and drums, it all grasps your attention like no other. Each song was long like, 6-10 minutes therefore they only played about three or four songs. Incredible all around, the only thing I would change is the lighting effects as there were none.
Falls of Rauros
Genre: Black/Folk Metal FFO: Panopticon, Agalloch, Ash Borer
A band from Maine isn't something you hear of everyday, however a black metal band as talented as Falls coming from Maine is even more rare. I was honestly expecting a visual from them to add to the performance but they weren't dressed up or anything, Nonetheless, Falls still delivered. The other thing I thought about was if they were gonna sample the folk instruments, which they did.
This time I counted, 3 songs for the set with each song over 10 minutes long. I know some of you might think, "10 minute long songs sound like they would drag and be really boring" but let me tell you that black metal bands like these keep you paying attention and change the sound multiple times within the songs. Each song had beautiful fingerpicked melodies and watching the guitarist play them ever so gently and then breaking into the atmospheric blackened riffs is amazing. Each song makes you feel like you're scaling a mountain in Skyrim.
As soon as they finished I thought "set of the night" but Pillorian did make it on my top albums last year so I couldn't wait to see how they would follow.
Pillorian
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal FFO: Agalloch, Wiegedood, Wolves in the Throne Room
Pillorian are basically a supergroup of musicians from all star bands (see flyer above), most notably for me is John Haughm formally of Agalloch. As you could probably guess, Pillorian takes influence from each of the members former bands.
Once again no lighting effects for some reason, they only dimmed the lights. Once the band began, the darkness engulfed my soul. I heard riffs I didn't even know existed on the record, and at certain times I could faintly hear an orchestral instrument, it was so faint that I thought it was in my head but when it played again, it was louder and clear as day as if someone was on stage playing it (it was sampled). The one thing that stuck out the most was that drummer. A huge drum kit circled around him, I tried to count how many pieces but I kept losing count, but take my word for it, it was huge. Watching him play it was wild, Animal would be jealous and Neil Peart would be proud.
Pillorian was definitely the darkest band of the night, in more ways than one, and once again played a few songs but each with very long duration. Fantastic, definitely lived up to my expectations.
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