The ride to New London wasn’t bad. No real traffic or anything, but my stomach was tense with GPS jitters, riding up what seemed to me like the nether regions of I-95 in the state, deciduous trees hanging like a claustrophobic ceiling over the roadway. It was the first time I’d made the trip. I didn’t want to get lost, I didn’t want to delay. I expect by the time this weekend is out, I’ll be much more familiar with the route.

My soundtrack on the way there was the self-titled release from Ice Dragon side-project Tentacle, which was fitting, because like that band, everyone who played the opening night of SHoD XII tonight was from Massachusetts. Six bands. I’d have to check my official rulebook on the matter, but I think that might constitute a “takeover.” Fortunately, our Sox-worshiping overlords were benevolent and generous of riff.

On that subject, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show in Connecticut that someone didn’t ask from the stage whether the audience were Yankees fans or Red Sox fans. As I stood and watched Rozamov‘s guitarist do so tonight, it dawned on me just how badly this state needs its own team. It wouldn’t be a problem anymore, though it was interesting to hear a few shouts of “Pirates!” from the back of the El ‘n’ Gee club, over in the bar area.

Well, that’s as good a segue as I’ve got, so let’s get to it. Here’s how it all went down:

Rozamov

In the end, I had no choice but to buy Boston rockers Rozamov‘s CD, because I couldn’t get it straight whether they were Rozamov (rhymes with “hose ’em off”) or Romazov (as in, “Rome is off, we’re not going”). Principally, they were young. Their first song had no shortage of post-High on Fire gallop, and the two-guitar four-piece only got more complex from there, adding some post-metal and sludge to the mix before rounding out with a song that, well, if it wasn’t “Blood From Zion,” it was darn close. The drummer looked bored, and yeah, they did inquire as to the crowd’s baseball allegiance, but they were young and figuring out what they want to do as a band, so I’m not about to rip into them for not being Sleep. They’re figuring it out. And their CDs were five bucks, so they were doing something right for sure.

Birch Hill Dam

Fact of the matter is I can’t even see this band’s name without thinking of the old Birch Hill nightclub in Jersey, which is bittersweet for all the shitty metal I watched there over the years. Speaking of metal, Birch Hill Dam‘s bassist (above) was most certainly that, with a Bonded by Blood shirt and five-string bass with those red strings that I keep hearing the kids talk about. To contrast, their guitarist wore a classic Unida shirt. I used to have the same one about 100 years and 100 pounds ago. His attire was more in line with the band’s sound for sure than the Exodus duds — nothing against the Bay Area thrashers. Birch Hill Dam released their slickly-produced Colossus album last year (video here), but live they sounded so much like Kyuss that I literally stood there and said, “Damn this sounds like Kyuss.” I’ll give them points for honesty in covering “Green Machine,” paying homage to the deserts of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Whatever dude, I’ll take it, and singer Mike Nygard had his John Garcia working in full force. They had one false start, but were a pro job otherwise, complete with their album cover airbrushed onto screens in front of their amps. You know a band means business when they start in with that stuff.

Raw Radar War

I got to meet vocalist Jonah Jenkins before his band played and told him I vaguely remembered seeing Milligram at Solace guitarist Tommy Southard‘s wedding. He was as gracious about that as Raw Radar War was intense in their set, bringing out the kind of unfriendly, this-isn’t-a-joke-to-us pissed off fuckall that is a mark of their generation of hardcore and all but forgotten among the proverbial “kids these days.” Owning the stage in the process, Jenkins (who’s a bit of a New England legend) moved fluidly between cleaner shouts and Obituary-esque screams and the band behind him turned on a dime from D-beat sub-grind to chugging doom, but honestly, even the slow parts sounded fast, as intensely as they were played. Three bands and three Cottrell beers (a local ale the high alcohol content of which I was duly warned) in, I was feeling good about the prospects for the weekend. I didn’t drink any more than the three, but with three more bands still to go on the night, SHoD felt like it was really getting going, and Raw Radar War were a wake-up call of the kind of anger that dares you to match it, which of course, you can’t. I make no secret of the fact that I’m not a big hardcore guy, but I hadn’t heard Raw Radar War since their split with Deer Creek, and I was glad to encounter them again. Some shit just sounds mean.

Ichabod

The only other time I’d ever been to the El ‘n’ Gee was a show on a weekender tour with these Bostonian doomers. That was three years ago now, almost to the day. Ichabod were heralding the release of their still underrated 2012 full-length (review here), and the actual 2012 finds them a different band entirely, with second guitarist Jason Adam joining alongside founding six-stringer Dave Iverson and new vocalist John Fadden starting off the set with a quiet tension that soon paid off in a barrage of face-melting screams. Fadden, who had a persona to match his throat, cracked jokes from the stage, but Ichabod was deadly serious as they ran through material from their upcoming album, Dreamscapes from Dead Space.  “Huckleberry,” if I’ve got the title correct, was a highlight. They’ve always straddled various genre lines — stoner, doom, post-hardcore, post-metal — but as tight as they were, categories hardly figured into it as much as the crunch of tone and righteousness of riff. Bassist Greg Dellaria boasted the night’s only flying-V bass, and early into their set, one of the guitarists from Raw Radar War made his way to the front of the stage with five tallboy beers, because whatever else you can say about the city, Boston takes care of its own. That said, hopefully Ichabod get to do a few shows out of town once the new record drops. They deserve to be seen by as many people as possible.

Black Thai

Black Thai need to put an album out. The four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jim Healey (We’re all Gonna Die), guitarist Scott O’Dowd (Cortez), intense bassist Cory Cocomazzi and drummer Jeremy Hemond (Roadsaw, Cortez) are too tight and too solid a band not to do it. So, uh, get on it, I guess. Hemond was the only drummer of the night to play on his own kit, setting up his Vistalites and high cymbals before they went on. Might as well, I guess, if you’re closing out the night in the last two bands and it’s not like anyone’s going on after you. I had a hard time believing it had been more than a year and a half since I saw Black Thai at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn, but the numbers don’t lie. On a stage roughly five times the size of that at Hank’s, the riff metal foursome tore through three of the songs from their Blood from on High EP (review here) and left room for a couple new songs as well, culminating in a progressively building churn of distorted crunch that made for a perfect ending to their set. Healey‘s vocals were a little rough — reportedly he was under the weather — but Black Thai is in Philly tonight and Boston tomorrow with Borracho, One Inch Giant and Fire Faithful. If you can see them at any point, it’s worth taking advantage of the opportunity. They’re even more in command of their sound now than they were when last our paths crossed, and with just Roadsaw to go, it seemed like the first night of SHoD was a success.

Roadsaw

So this is the part where the roof caves in and the crowd, sparse though it was by the end of the night, is crushed to death, myself included? Nah. Things ended no less smoothly than they’d ran all night. Thinking of prior shows, the last time I ran into the dudes from Roadsaw was at Desertfest in London. The El ‘n’ Gee wasn’t nearly so crowded as the Underworld had been, but the four-piece made the best of it anyway, Hemond making Popeye faces as he rounded out his double-duty on drums, Tim Catz holding together even the most ranging of jams which were surprise inclusions later into the set, guitarist Ian Ross leading those jams with both class and improvisational prowess, and vocalist Craig Riggs whirling his duct-taped microphone around him and running from one side of the stage to the other in his usual madman’s form. “Long in the Tooth,” “Thinking of Me” and “Weight in Gold” from the self-titled were highlights, but it was the later jams that really made it, as it’s not something you’d necessarily expect from Roadsaw at this point, who are so bolstered by the strength of their choruses and of their songwriting in general. Maybe they were just fucking around, but it was still cool. Ross killed it, and they showed by they’re the band to call if you’re looking for someone to close out a night of Massachusetts heavy. Riggs had forgotten the merch, so they didn’t have anything to sell (they laughed about it on stage), but whatever. It was good times anyway and Roadsaw did right by the fest closing out night one. It was apparently also the first time they’d ever played Connecticut in their 19 years as a band. Another notch in their belt.

It was nigh on one in the morning by the time I got back to where I’m staying, and I had a headlight out, so I was making the trip half-blind, which only made me gladder I’d limited my beer intake. Let’s see: Holiday weekend, out of state plates, one headlight. Uh, sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to step out of the car. No thanks. Today I’ll get that headlight replaced and I’ve got some work and other running around to do before I head back to the El ‘n’ Gee, but Stoner Hands of Doom XII is off to a cool start, and with When the Deadbolt Breaks, Wizard Eye, John Wilkes Booth, Faces of Bayon, Lord Fowl, Revelation and Pilgrim to come tonight, things are only going to get louder from here. I’ll take it.

Entries were closed as of Friday, and just a few minutes ago, I printed up the names and addresses, cut them out individually, crumpled them up and stuck them in the plastic cup as you can see above. Then I went around my office and had five winners chosen by my coworkers. Thanks again to everyone who entered (50 people on the dot), and congrats to the following:

Luca in Italy
Dan in California
Mikko in Finland
Erik in Colorado
Eric in Michigan

There you have it. I need to pick up some bigger envelopes and do it up with bubble-wrap and whatnot (can’t take any chances with vinyl, quality pressing though it is), and I should be able to get these out in the next day or two, so if you see your name above — there were a couple Californian Dans, but I don’t want to give out anyone’s last name, so I’ll drop an email — keep an eye out. They should be there shortly.

Thanks again to Play the Assassin Records (Facebook here, Bandcamp here) for donating the picture discs to the cause, and to Moth Eater and Black Thai for putting together a killer split. Congratulations again to the winners and hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this kind of thing in the future, so stay tuned.

Play the Assassin Records was kind enough a while back to give me five copies of the Lowering the Doom split between Long Island metallers Moth Eater and Boston‘s Black Thai. All you have to do to win one is enter with your name, email and address below. That’s it. You send that over, I email to let you know you’ve won and send you a killer, free, limited edition 10″ vinyl with demo tracks from two awesome bands, and everyone goes home happy. Pretty simple stuff. Enter here:

[NOTE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

Contest runs until the end of this week. All are welcome to enter. Please note that I have neither interest in sharing your personal information with anyone, nor anyone to share it with if I did, nor the know-how to go about actually doing so. If you trust in nothing else, trust in my utter incompetence and suckdom-at-life. Either way, your privacy is your privacy. Special thanks to Play the Assassin (‘Like’ them on Thee Facebooks here) for the support. The original release info goes a little like this:

Finally, Boston and New York can agree on something.

Black Thai, from Massachusetts, released a split with New York’s doomly rockers Moth Eater on April 26, 2011, via Play the Assassin Records. Moth Eater, which features members of Dirty Rig (Escapi Music) and Scar Culture (Century Media), included two tracks from their devastatingly heavy Thunder God of Monster Island EP, and Black Thai, whose lineup boasts members of Roadsaw, Cortez and We’re all Gonna Die, answered back with two cuts from their Blood From on High EP, released late last year.

The split is limited to 250 copies and pressed onto a 10” picture disc vinyl with a free download card included. Six additional bonus tracks not on the record will appear in the download. Full songs are available for streaming and download now at playtheassassin.bandcamp.com. The vinyl can be ordered at playtheassassin.com.

Lowering the Doom vinyl track list:
1. Moth Eater, “Aftermath”
2. Moth Eater, “Our Time”
3. Black Thai, “Blood Dust”
4. Black Thai, “Satan’s Toolshed”
(digital only bonus tracks 5-10)
5. Moth Eater, “When Bruises Leave Scars”
6. Moth Eater, “Rocking is my Business”
7. Moth Eater, “Smashing Saturns”
8. Moth Eater, “Moths @ the Round Table”
9. Black Thai, “The Ladder”
10. Black Thai, “333”

As a fan of both these bands and both the releases from which these tracks were culled, I’m all the more excited to be posting the news about this vinyl split between Moth Eater and Black Thai. It’s a limited vinyl picture disc and it looks fantastic and is a great way for people to get introduced to either act, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s definitely worth a look. I’m hoping to have a giveaway for a couple copies up shortly, but in the meantime, it’s available for listening and purchasing through Play the Assassin Records.

This came in on the PR wire:

Finally, Boston and New York can agree on something.

Black Thai, from Massachusetts, released a split with New York’s doomly rockers Moth Eater on April 26, 2011, via Play the Assassin Records. Moth Eater, which features members of Dirty Rig (Escapi Music) and Scar Culture (Century Media), included two tracks from their devastatingly heavy Thunder God of Monster Island EP, and Black Thai, whose lineup boasts members of Roadsaw, Cortez and We’re all Gonna Die, answered back with two cuts from their Blood From on High EP, released late last year.

The split is limited to 250 copies and pressed onto a 10” picture disc vinyl with a free download card included. Six additional bonus tracks not on the record will appear in the download. Full songs are available for streaming and download now at playtheassassin.bandcamp.com. The vinyl can be ordered at playtheassassin.com.

Lowering the Doom vinyl track list:
1.Moth Eater, “Aftermath”
2. Moth Eater, “Our Time”
3. Black Thai, “Blood Dust”
4. Black Thai, “Satan’s Toolshed”
(digital only bonus tracks 5-10)
5. Moth Eater, “When Bruises Leave Scars”
6. Moth Eater, “Rocking is my Business”
7. Moth Eater, “Smashing Saturns”
8. Moth Eater, “Moths @ the Round Table”
9. Black Thai, “The Ladder”
10. Black Thai, “333”

Play the Assassin is giving away a bonus CD with every order at playtheassassin.com/store.html.

Go figure.

I was thinking of catching Richmond Southern specialists The Might Could at Acheron in Brooklyn on Saturday, where they’re playing with two bands I’ve never heard of and thus care very little about. Tooling around the internets today and what do I see but that the very next night, they’re sharing the stage in Allston, Massachusetts, with Black Thai, Gozu and Riff Cannon — which, if you need me to spell it out, is a fucking awesome lineup.

Because I’m jealous, here’s the flier. Dig its informative minimalism:

Experience and association were bound to play into my assessment of Black Thai’s Blood From on High EP (Megavox Recordings). The first time I heard their two-song demo was earlier this year, and I sat with my laptop headphones on in a hotel lounge in London, some BBC awfulness on the television, silently bobbing my head to the grooves of “The Ladder” and “Satan’s Toolshed,” both of which also show up on this five-song effort. So yeah, if my opinions are colored by that – and they might be – please take them and this review with an appropriately-sized grain of salt. For what it’s worth, I probably would have enjoyed that demo if I’d heard it on the moon, and likewise for Blood From on High, the significant underlying groove of which is palpably riff-based without being stoner or doom cliché. Black Thai are heavy rock more than they’re anything else, with shades of Soundgarden showing up in the vocals of Jim Healey (We’re all Gonna Die) and some more commercially-minded leanings in a song like “Sinking Ships” than one might expect.

The 29-minute release – an EP for its sampler qualities – makes an opening salvo of its preceding demo cuts, “The Ladder” and “Satan’s Toolshed” working as well together here as they did in their demo forms; though the recordings feel new and the guitar work of Healey and Scott O’Dowd (Cortez) more expansive, the solo work six minutes into the latter track serving as an appropriate example. Likewise, Cory Cocomazzi’s bass and the drums of Kyle Rasmussen (filling in for Jeremy Hemond of Roadsaw and also Cortez) come across fuller, and though I still might divide Blood From on High into two sections – the two demo tracks and three non-demo tracks – I have a hard time telling if that’s because of my prior familiarity with them or any actual changes in sound, style or approach on the part of the band. Third cut “Saturation Point” is less definitively riff-based than “Satan’s Toolshed,” which takes a Kyuss-style guitar progression to a place altogether darker, but Healey’s vocals in the chorus make it a highlight, and there’s still plenty of six-string groove to dig into. It’s just a sad song, rather than an aggressive one, and it sets up Black Thai as more than just a head-down, power-through riff-rock unit. If the purpose of Blood From on High is to give a quick sampling of what Black Thai can do, “Saturation Point” serves as a solid example of the subtle diversity in their attack.

Read more »

It was a Sunday night in Brooklyn and Crowbar was at the recently-busted Santos Party House, so I thought I’d skip out on the Boardwalk Empire season finale (DVR’ed it) and check out the live set from Allston heavy rockers Black Thai at Hank’s Saloon. Between all these factors and the fact that it was cold as fuck out, I didn’t anticipate much of a crowd at Hank’s for Black Thai or Thinning the Herd, who opened — all the better to go. Fewer people means fewer assholes. Woody from Mighty High was there, and a few others, but Hank’s is a small room anyway, so it worked out.

This was the second or third time I’ve seen Thinning the Herd, and of all the bands kicking around New York right now, I just get the feeling these guys are on the right track. Especially in the work of guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman, they’ve got tremendous potential, and if they got hooked up with the right recording engineer, who understands their kind of music — riffing and aggressive, but still aware of melody — they could come out with something really killer. They weren’t as tight at Hank’s as when I saw them last at The Trash Bar, but a little looser worked great for the Sunday night and the laid back atmosphere of the show.

Black Thai killed. They barely fit on the stage, the four of them, but even in tight quarters, they rocked hard and heavy, drummer Jeremy Hemond (Roadsaw, Cortez) reaching high to nail his cymbals time and again, and guitarist Scotty Fuse (also Cortez) and guitarist/vocalist Jim Healy (ex-We’re all Gonna Die) emitting riffs and solos with charisma and energy while bassist Cory Cocomazzi filled out the low end and added a moodier feel to the material. They’d played the release show for their Blood from on High EP (review coming soon) the night before in their native Massachusetts, and some of that energy clearly carried over to Brooklyn. It was a welcome addition to the evening.

It wasn’t the highest profile show happening in New York Sunday night — for that matter, neither was Crowbar — but both Black Thai and Thinning the Herd delivered big, making it well worth the drive from Jersey on my end. It was great to see Black Thai for the first time live after listening to the two tracks from their demo (with which they opened the set) and to get to know Thinning the Herd better as a live act. The night wrapped at about midnight and I headed back through Manhattan and the Holland Tunnel feeling better than I’ve felt coming back from Brooklyn in a long time.

If you’re in Massachusetts this weekend, the place to be is Saturday Black Thai‘s CD release show with Black Pyramid, Riff Cannon and Livver. With it, the band kick off a week-long tour in support of their new EP, the soon-to-be-reviewed Blood From on High, and prove that the Massachusetts riff scene is as strong as ever.

I’d go myself, but that’s a long way away, and I’m hoping to see Black Thai the next night in Brooklyn with Thinning the Herd. Wherever you find yourself in relation to Black Thai, they’re definitely worth checking out. Here are the updated dates for their tour:

12/04 Great Scott – Allston, MA CD Release show w/Black Pyramid, Riff Cannon, Livver
12/05 Hank’s – Brooklyn, NY w/Thinning the Herd
12/06 The M Room – Philadelphia, PA w/Backwoods Payback, Boss 302
12/07 TBA
12/08 Mojo 13 – Wilmington, DE w/Hoodless, Agent Mofo, Lydia Can’t Breathe
12/09 Velvet Lounge – Washington DC w/Borracho, El Grande
12/10 DIVEbar – Raleigh, NC w/Righteous Fool (Mike and Reed from C.O.C. – Free show)
12/11 37th and Zen – Norfolk, VA w/The Crimson Electric, Fire Faithful