Smoldering Forge: Smiling Moose

Polish Hill - Punx Haus

Shadows

It was great to see Shadows performing again. They get a little better each time I see them, and tonight they were roaring and soaring. Highly energetic with darkness undertones, the group is built solid with members from Submachine, Plastered Bastards, and Barren Scepter.

Spectres

The blue lighting was fitting for the Vancouver band, while somber but upbeat songs danced across the basement room. Spectres’ vocalist flowed with rhythm, while entrancing the audience with vocals that soothed and cried out to the night. I found myself getting lost in the bass lines, which ripened the group’s sound.

Crimson Scarlet

Oakland, California’s Crimson Scarlet followed up as the second stellar touring act. The lack of a physical drummer worked out well and as the band played along. I honestly forgot the drummer was evening missing since I became so fixated on the echoing guitars and the darkened cooing of their vocalist. Crimson Scarlet continued to glide through their set as a panther would through a dense forest. Hopefully Crimson Scarlet and Spectres will make another trip out to the east coast sometime soon.

South Side - Smiling Moose

Wolvhammer

Wolvhammer were an interesting batch of black metalers from the city of Chicago. Performing modern black metal that was ritualistic and corroding. Would like to see more from these guys, they give a distinct black metal sound to the Midwest.

Krieg

Krieg felt like they didn’t give a shit about the black metal scene. They kicked it hard with an American black metal meeting 80s anarcho-punk. The most amusing part of their set was when Krieg’s vocalist mentioned the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd and then offered up a cover of Amebix’s “Winter.” Fuck yes.

Feed The Fire

Spectres - Facebook

Crimson Scarlet - Bandcamp

Wolvhammer - Facebook

Krieg - Facebook

I realized that I had attended six concerts in six consecutive days. So here are six deranged paragraphs to describe each of those six days!

WEDNESDAY 7/25
East meets west in a battle to see who plays the fastest. Our home opener for the event was Anthophobic, one of the few grindcore bands in the area, but truer to their roots than most. Seattle’s grindest, Totes Brute and Exogorth, crushed to every degree and gave a faster quickie than that $2 blinkin’ hooker on 16^th and East Carson. Grudges from Brooklyn took it upon themselves (or at least the vocalist did) to remind everyone that grindcore should be more about politics than having fun (ironically, they were fun). Then there was d-beat female fronted Death First from Brooklyn, who were all crazy-cool until their equipment cut their set shorter than the grindcore bands.

Totes Brute

Exogorth

THURSDAY 7/26

Free black metal concert? Free black metal concert! But barely anyone came out (last minute, Thursday night shows can do that to you sometimes). Vulkodlak crawled their asses from Birmingham, Alabama for a tour with Pennsylvania’s Neldoreth. The Alabama duo dug in with Bathory riffs that would perk the ears up on any 80’s black metal fan. While it was entertaining to see Vulkodlak’s drummer hammer out blast beats, Neldoreth’s drummer was completely computerized. A bit of a let down, but hopefully they’ll find someone special to fill in for the robot. Then there was Sathanas. It was my first time seeing these guys perform live and they conquered all with catchy 80s black metal speed and finesse. Their covers of Bathory and Celtic Frost would make any demon squeal with delight.

Vulkodlak

Neldoreth

Sathanas
"Morbid Tales" by Sathanas - Live Performance

FRIDAY 7/27

Allure of the Earth threw themselves a birthday party for their founder and invited some metal bands and friends to enjoy invisible pizza and cake. The lineup of bands ranged from blackened death metal to experimental metal, the kind of music that a metal snob would enjoy. Vitandus were the youngest; Microwaves the oddest; Complete Failure the moshiest; Liquified Guts the funniest; and Moths the longest. Indeed it was a crazy night, like witnessing the mass exodus of the South Side on a Saturday night, though highly entertaining in the right mindset. Pittsburgh ought to be blessed by these psychotic metalheads.

SATURDAY 7/28

I organized a concert at Kopec’s Korner on this date, which turned out to be kickin’ sweet. It was the third concert I’ve put together myself. I’m not going to go much detail into it, since it would be highly self-serving for me to do so on my own blog. But I will say that I was exceptionally pleased with crust metal band, Tombstalker, who headlined the evening. Special thanks to Iron Crown, Squatch Kill, and Wrought Iron for the local support!

SUNDAY 7/29
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! POST-PUNK MADNESS MADNESS MADNESS! Shows at Gooski’s are always one certain thing: fucking loud. Anyway, Deathcamp and Squatch Kill were the odd bands out. Deathcamp provided a hardcore punk backdrop for the Olympics on television and made women’s gymnastics infinitely better. The dudes in Squatch Kill have members from the Del Rios and Doomwatch. So if you think of the two together, you’ve got a raging son of a bitch. Post punk and female-fronted is pretty much all you have to say in order for me to be in first inline. Dekoder and Icon Gallery could both serenade me until the end of time without uncertainty. The Montreal trio, Dekoder, embodied the broody nature I enjoy most in the sub-genre as well as deepening the thrill with well-rounded instrumentals that continuously begged for attention. I will be honest, I didn’t stick around to see Icon Gallery because I had to start my new job in the morning, though they deserve every damn bit of praise they get. Best female-fronted punk band in Pittsburgh for sure.

MONDAY (FUCK!) 7/30

Pissed off and angry, Monday it was back to Kopec’s Korner. Blood Red opened up for two of the meanest hardcore punk bands Pittsburgh has seen this month. Blood Red has been growing on me (sick bass lines, by the way), but their nasally vocalist still takes some getting used. Raw Nerves, hailing from Portland, came across as being as bitter and tough as Tragedy. Stripmines did their best to try and get some crowd participation going while tearing away any sort of joy (in a good way). Ending the six-day sprint was Mower. Fast, loud, and being two insufferable bastards are how heavy the Simpson brothers’ tackle and ride their roaring rhythms.