Goreshack!

Goreshack hails from Fresno, California. Unlike the majority of The Central Valley, Goreshack does not suck, nor constitute of any forms of meth. They self describe themselves as Gore Surf Metal, dawned with zombie makeup/hawaiian shirts/and suntan lotion, these guys embody it nicely. Their live rituals are few and far between, it's something special when you get see these guys perform, not just musically but for the experience. How many shows have you gone to where Giant Inflatable Sharks were ridden around by the crowd, and the majority of the crowd dresses up in their favourite Corpse Ridden Hawaiian get up. It's quite the experience to say the least.


We haven't even begun to get to the best part of it all. Behind the mystique, these guys are playing some very fucking competent death metal. It's everything you want in death metal, something to fucking rage to and have good times with. If you dont consider zombies dancing at a beach party inside your local venue awesome and totally fun, you suck. The music is voluptuous and ripe with brutality. This record is dense and heavy grooving as fuck. Thor, frontman of Goreshack, delivers a disgusting arsenal of clever and humorous content with supreme delivery. The Guitars are narrating the tales of a thrash explosion. The low-end on this album is heavyyyy. This is definitely a band for fans of Carcass, Ghoul, Lord Gore and Splatterhouse.

Ride the Goreshack wave!(click)

Burning Witch

Fucking Incredible. The most definitive American Doom metal band. Imagine the sound of pain manipulated through hypnotic hymns of pure fucking heaviness. It is some grotesque shit man. Pretty much Burning Witch wrapped up in a philly.

I love this band. They are one of the sole reasons for my interest in Heavy sound. They came around in this bleak period of time in the 90's and completely changed the way doom was played and quickly fizzled out and started new projects(((SUNNO))) of greater success, but none have been as important or felt as real as the fucked up entity of it's predecessor. Burning Witch should be mandatory listening for any fans of the genre. Sorry Thrash fans but i'd take Burning Witch, Sleep, Graves at Sea, and Electric Wizard over your top 4, anyday. All of the aforementioned bands deserve ample recognition, and within the Underground Community, they are rightfully held on a pedestal.

Rumor has it that Burning Witch may see the light of day again. The long awaited quadruple gatefold lp may also be seeing it's massive release come this fall. Fingers crossed for a complete reunion as that would be really special.

Here's one of my favourite songs and live performance videos, it was filmed on some public access stations in Washington:


(Dude, im out of my fuckingggggggggg mind)

Below is Burning Witch's complete discography. including the Towers Ep, the Rift.Canyon. Dreams Ep, and the Asva and Goatsnake split.
Towers Ep & Rift. Canyon. Dreams Ep
Asva and Goatsnake splits

Enjoy Burning Witch, they need to be in your collection, not just as a money thing, but you should know them and familiarize yourself with them as they are absolutely essential. Listen to the tracks and if you ever get the chance to come across burning witch vinyl, buy it.


One last thing:
The Poisoned Glass surfaced about a year and a half ago on myspace, it's a new project featuring Edgy 59 and George from Burning Witch. The track rules, you can hear it by following this link The Poisoned Glass myspace.

Alaric/Atriarch

An Introduction to Alaric and Atriarch.
Tonight's show took place at The First Church of The Buzzard with(Alaric/Atriarch/Swann Danger/Hazzard's Cure/Crucifixion). Alaric has become my favourite bay area band of late and tonight was certainly a clear indication of why. Their performance tonight was everything you could hope for as it was mesmerizing and aurally spectacular! Their crowd interaction and reaction was incredible. There was a literal moving dance pit amongst the crowd tonight! The raucously-quick-hipped-and-footed crowd tonight added a great sense of fun and invigoration, in otherwise Gloomy hearts. Just a great solid performance by an absolutely incredible band. They are extremely catchy, extremely talented and are just an all around incredible band serving up a new twist on the current Death Rock and Goth movement that is exploding within the upper echelon of bands in the Underground music scene. Such good things are in the works for these folks!

Another band tonight was Atriarch.

Phew, Atriarch are amazing. If you haven't heard of them yet, here's a chance to check them out Atriarch Band Camp. They hail from Portland, Oregon and They are taking the genre of Doom to a whole new level and transforming it into a new amalgamation of sheer intensity, blurring the lines between Death Rock and Doom and doing it very fucking well. I have been following these guys online even before their first tour, and watching them develop over the years has been quite rewarding as a fan. It's rare to find bands these days that you can have an emotional connection with, but this band is one that I certainly do so with, at least moreso than other bands as I was and am a really big fan of their previous bands(Graves at Sea & Trees). Infact, Graves at Sea are a big reason as to why I even play heavy music. So I perhaps may judge this band more than others but only because I know the complete potential that they are capable of and want to definitely see them accomplish it. They are right on the cusp of something really really profound and otherworldly. I cant wait to keep seeing what these guys are going to do next.

Going back to their first show in SF with my friends Blessure Grave(12/29/09), they blew me away that night. Over the past year and a half they have been honing their sound and developing into a band that has surpassed their predecessors in maturity and musicianship completely. They've ditched there predilection for Black Metal and stuck with what they do best, play heavy shrieking and crushing/intense well thought out hypnotizing Death-Rock-centric-Doom. Fucking so good.

Both of thee aforementioned bands will get their own blog post shortly! Tonight i foolishly forgot to pick up the Atriarch Cd on Seventh Rule Recordings, but I heard they were pressing it on vinyl as well as doing a split with Alaric in the near future, which undoubtedly is going to fucking rule and going to be added to my collection. And yeah, I broke my rule of not buying metal Vinyl but the Atriarch recording along with tonight's purchase of Graves at Sea "Documents of Grief" are just essential and are gonna look great next to that copy of "Sounds of Perseverance" when i finally get it.

Here's the flyer:

">

I will post vids of tonight's show when I find them, until then-here's a few links:
Atriarch Official Facebook
Atriarch Bandcamp
Alaric Official Facebook

Check these bands out